Jesus was praying. He would soon be captured to be crucified, and He prayed. “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” He prayed for a glory unlike any other.

Now, it’s nothing new, this world’s idea of glory. Those who are highly esteemed are said to have the glory of men. They have medals and ribbons pinned on them. They are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medallions. They are presented with trophies. People will pay $10 each to spend an hour and a half to watch them on a 30-foot high screen, and upwards of thousands of dollars to sit with thousands of others to watch them play a game. Fame, fortune, and beauty (and maybe valor) are the defining characteristics of glory to the world.

But Jesus was praying for a glory unlike the world understands. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself,” He once said. (John 12:32) Glory does draw people.

Jesus prayed, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” He prayed for a glory unlike any other.

It’s still nothing new, this world’s idea of glory. One who is glorified is able to rest on their laurels. Glory means being able to receive service. Along with many accolades comes adoration and praise. With fame, fortune, and beauty (and maybe valor) comes the gift of being waited on hand and foot. Whatever the glorified person wants, that person gets. Being served is a defining perk of glory to this world.

But Jesus was praying for a glory unlike the world understands. Here is God-in-the-flesh who took up the trade of carpentry, making things for other people. He is the One through whom all things were made who had stooped down to wash His creatures’ feet and then served them a meal. (cf. John 13) He has come, as He has said, to serve, not to be served. (cf. Matthew 20:28)

Jesus prayed,

He prayed for a glory unlike any other.

And, once again, it’s still nothing new, this world’s idea of glory. One who is glorified is idolized. They can say no wrong. People hang on their every word; people want to hear what a glorified person has to say, hoping for something new and wonderful and amazing (as the world defines those), and incorporate what it is they have said into their lives. And make no mistake, these are their words—they are not “merely” giving words from another. Being listened to and heeded is another defining perk of glory to this world.

But Jesus was praying for a glory unlike the world understands. He could have come and stood on the mountains and shouted commands to the rocks, winds, and waves, and they would have obeyed. He could have, with a word, changed the ways things work. But this is God-in-the-flesh who speaks to His people the same words of Law and Gospel that God has been speaking from the beginning.

Jesus prayed,

He prayed for a glory unlike any other.

Yeah, you know, it’s nothing new, this world’s idea of glory. Glory means not belonging to another, but maybe even having followers. It’s being set apart as different and better than others, not one with others. Or, I could go the other route, too. The world’s idea of glory is pretending to be one with others when no true unity exists. They keep themselves together. They keep themselves apart. They keep themselves above others. Haughtiness is also a defining characteristic of glory to this world.

But Jesus was praying for a glory unlike the world understands. He prayed that those who have been created through Him and heeded the word of God be given something: unity with each other as the Father and Son are one. He prayed that this unity be kept through His name, and later, by the Word of God, when He prays, “Sanctify them”—make and keep them holy, set apart—“in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Yes, Jesus prayed for glory, and the glory He prayed for goes to the cross. It is His glory to serve, to do the work He was given to do (which He has been doing since His incarnation). In His life and teaching and work, He has fulfilled all that has been written about the Son of God in the Law and the prophets. He has been righteous—sinless—in all that He has done. And, He went to the cross with that perfect life to die for the world, to be lifted up and draw all to Himself, to credit all with His righteousness. There is no greater glory—there is no other glory.

What a fitting end this is to the season of Easter. At a time when an empty cross and empty tomb are celebrated, you are brought back to the one act of righteousness by which God is glorified: the death of His Son on the cross for the redemption of the world, the forgiveness of sins, the victory over death, the gift of eternal life.

You have God’s Word on that. This is the word that Jesus gave to His disciples, which in turn has been preached and taught to the ends of the world, beginning in Jerusalem. His Word is His promise, His guarantee. It is signed, sealed, and delivered in God’s holy name. It’s the name into which you have been Baptized, meaning that you have God’s name placed on you—you are claimed, dear Baptized, owned by the One who created heaven and earth and everything in them. It is the seal upon your forehead and heart that mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. It is the name to call upon in every trouble, pray to, praise, and give thanks to (cf. Psalm 50:14-15, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)—the name by which you can call upon God as Abba, Father, Daddy…as His dear children.

It’s a wonderful connection, God’s Word and His name. For it is as you have been taught: God’s name is kept holy “[w]hen the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead a holy life according to it. This grant us, dear Father in heaven.” Furthermore, God’s kingdom comes “[w]hen our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life, here in time and hereafter in eternity.”

And as far as God’s name and Word are connected, it’s no coincidence that the Second Commandment—You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God—is followed by the Third Commandment—Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What is this? “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.” “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

So then, when God’s kingdom comes, when His Word is kept pure and undefiled, kept sacred, there true unity exists—where the people of God are being sanctified by His truth which is His Word, the whole, undefiled counsel of God. Such is what is confessed when pastors and teachers and congregations subscribe to the Augsburg Confession which states, “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.” (AC VII, Triglotta) That is to say, true unity in the Church comes by the Word of Her Head, Christ the Lord, who is the very Word of God, in His name, and not by any other means; again, where His Word is purely taught, there His name is kept holy. But, you don’t need to take my word on that, for you have the very Word of God: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one…Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Where God’s name is, there His Word is at work to accomplish that for which Jesus prayed.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus eyes were squarely fixed on His cross. He was in Jerusalem to die for you and for all, in order that you might be rescued from this vale of tears and its errant ideas of glory, with all its fame and fortune and beauty. But this is the glory of God: that He sent His Son to die for you, that you and all for whom He died may be perfectly one with each other and with Him. He was lifted up on the tree of the cross as the perfect Sacrifice, the flawless Substitute, the propitiation for your sins—for the sins of the world. (cf. Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10) This is the glory of God, that He sent His Son to die for you, and so you are forgiven you for all your sins.

“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.”

After going before His disciples into Galilee (cf. Matthew 26:32; 28:7), and appearing to many, many people, giving them many infallible proofs of His resurrection (cf. Acts 1:3), Jesus led His disciples through Jerusalem to Bethany to be received into heaven there before them. Christ’s ascension did not happen in Galilee, which served as something of their home base during His three-year ministry, but just outside of Jerusalem. They had been there a mere 40 days previous where they had witnessed His passion, suffering, and death, and where He had risen from the dead.

In fact, to get through Jerusalem to Bethany, they had to pass through the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. So, there they all were again, the place of Jesus’ capture and torture and death on their behalf, and it is at this place where Jesus, as He had said so many times before, would be taken from them.

Being there served as a visual reminder of what the Father had sent the Son to do. God suffered and died on their behalf, fulfilling His Law, keeping every statute and fulfilling the punishment it demands for their failure to do so—and you, dear hearers—and the place where they stood and witnessed His ascension was where His bloody, sweaty agony had started.

And as if to nail home this reality, pun intended, Jesus blessed them. There were typically two ways to confer a blessing. Individually, you touched the person you were blessing, usually on the head, as you receive from your pastor when receiving individual absolution. When blessing a group, you raise your arms over your head and pronounce the blessing with palms facing the crowd. Jesus had brought His disciples to the place where He shed blood and sweat for them, then showed them His nail-pierced hands in blessing before being taken from them into heaven. The content of the blessing is unknown—it is not know what Jesus said—but what greater blessing can there than one that includes being shown the wounds and stripes by which they were healed?

From there, “He…ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4:10) Have you ever given any thought as to why Jesus ascended?

For one thing, He said that He must leave in order to send the Holy Spirit. You heard accounts of Jesus telling His disciples this very thing the past couple of Sundays. Furthermore, Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high, as He had previously told them. (cf. Acts 1:4-5, 8) At that time, 10 days later, the Holy Spirit descended upon them, and they began to proclaim Christ crucified gathered for the nations gathered in the city for the Feast of Booths. The Holy Spirit took from what is from Jesus and made it clear to them, and they made it clear to those gathered in Jerusalem.

For another thing, Jesus ascended so that the Church could operate on faith and not on sight. Think of it this way, had Jesus remained on earth like in the days following the resurrection, it would have been a great thing. People could see Him, talk to Him, know Him, and know the things He had done for them. His death on their behalf would have been confirmed by being over 2000 years old and still bearing the stripes that brought salvation and healing to mankind. It would be marvelous for the church, and potentially give no excuse for anyone to believe in anything else or in nothing at all. But, let’s say that Jesus remained in Jerusalem or Galilee; could you say that He would be here tonight because two or three or more are gathered here in His name? He said that would happen, so it would behoove you to trust that He would be, but He certainly would not be here like He is there in Jerusalem or Galilee, where you could see His nail-pierced hands as He blessed you.

He is filling that space in Jerusalem or Galilee locally. His presence is visually verifiable. Here, you only have His Word on it, and that should be enough, but His presence there could cause doubt here and anywhere else where He would not be visually present. Therefore, He ascended far above the heavens to fill all things. How does He fill all things? The Spirit takes from what is His and makes it known to you. You know of Jesus by the means He has left for you—the Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is at work through these means to fill you with Jesus, so that you who are Baptized into Christ have put Him on, and that it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. (cf. Galatians 2:20; 3:27)

And He has ascended far above the heavens to prepare a place for you, that where He is you may be, too. (cf. John 14:3) Make no mistake about it, eternity is not some ethereal plane of existence where you one day will ascend spiritually. There is an actual place being prepared for you, you will have an actual seat at the banquet feast of the Lamb in His kingdom that has no end in His eternal presence. Jesus ascended bodily to heaven. He who descended down here below and took on flesh and bone and blood like yours, now has taken that flesh and bone and blood to the right hand of the throne of God.

“And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead…” On that last day, Jesus will return in the same way the disciples saw Him depart: on the clouds, in the flesh. Then, you will be like Him and in the place where He is, glorified, perfected, and ultimately restored. The Son is glorified in His death, resurrection, and ascension for you, and you are glorified with Him by way of your Baptism into His death, resurrection, and ascension. By way of this Baptism, you have put on Christ, and you are called children of God. Now, on the last day, when Jesus returns bodily to judge the living and the dead, you will be judged living, because you are the glory of the Son.

There sits Jesus, ascended to the throne on high, filling all things, and there for you, your Prophet, Priest, and King. He intercedes for you, His brothers, before His Father (and your Father) in heaven. Yet another amazing thing to ponder. God intercedes with Himself on your behalf, but not merely as God, but as God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ. Let no one ever say that God does not or cannot fully comprehend the suffering of mankind. The Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, sits at the right hand of the throne of God, the place that is rightfully His by way of being God Himself. And if you have difficulty coming to grasp with that idea, see Him at Bethany, blessing the disciples, His hands raised in blessing, showing them once again the nail prints, as He is taken from their sight on the clouds to heaven.

For now, Jesus acts as your Prophet by sending messengers to you to bless in like fashion, perhaps not with nail prints in their raised hands, but with words which express the truth of which those nail prints have won for you, as well as the thorn-pricked brow, flagellated back, and pierced side: [raise hands in blessing] you are forgiven for all of your sins.

I would guess that many of you have seen or heard complaints against Christians and Christianity that speak to, or speak against, the exclusivity of the faith. That is to say, those who complain are displeased with the fact that only those who believe in Jesus Christ and trust in Him for forgiveness and righteousness will be saved. They confess it to be unfathomable that a loving God would send those who deny faith in Christ to hell, or even allow it to happen. They also likely believe all people are generally good.

Unfortunately, this a world that wants to believe anything and everything, at least those things thought to be encouraging and uplifting, and especially those things which confirms deeply held biases. Seemingly contradictorily, the world is quick to accept everybody’s opinion as that person’s own truth, though that truth better not extend beyond that person’s personal space. Anything or anyone who teaches against these two ideals is denounced as intolerant and elitist. This is a society that values situational ethics and relativism over absolutes, that wants to shift blame and not accept responsibility. It’s a world that refuses to know The Way.

What feels like ages ago, I spent a summer at the University of South Florida in Tampa where I took a class on world religions. The instructor professed to be Wiccan; though it seemed as if she tried to hide her bias against Christianity, every once in a while she let it slip through that she was an adherent to the philosophy that good people will enjoy an afterlife in paradise, regardless of faith or confession.

Near the end of the semester, she gave the class an assignment to interview a faith-leader of a different religion. I set up an appointment to interview a Jewish Rabbi at a synagogue not far from my grandparent’s house. His branch of Reformed Judaism denied the coming of a Messiah, which he qualified by saying that there was to be no person who would be a Messiah. However, he did confess that there would be a coming messianic age, that the Jews were to initiate it somehow, and in this messianic age, all people, regardless of confession or religion or faith would be saved. To him and his congregation, being Jewish was not so much about being right, being on the right side when judgment came, or worshiping the right god, but about being the ones through whom (and it sounded like by whom) this messianic age was to start.

Before I go any further, I don’t want you to think that the philosophy of universal salvation regardless of faith and general goodness of mankind is endemic only of non-Christians. Christians, or those who claim to be, are not immune to this thought. I once read a quote by a pastor of a Church of the Brethren congregation, an anti-creedal group from among the Anabaptist movement, in which he confessed adherence to relative truth. He said,

This idea is so common, you often hear of it referred to as “all roads lead to God,” or as I once heard it referred to, it’s a belief in the Oprah Jesus. It also goes by the fancy theological term syncretism.

Hearing this, thinking of syncretism, I recall an image used to combat syncretism from a Bible study during my vicarage, which also feels like ages ago. It went something like this: Imagine a ship filled with passengers crossing the Atlantic. The ship suffers an accident and is slowly sinking. Some of the passengers do not know about the lifeboats; these passengers are lost, and their deaths cannot be laid at the feet of the lifeboat manufacturer. Some of the passengers believe they can be saved by clinging to the smoke stacks or other items on the ship; however, these items do not float, so these passengers are lost as well, and their deaths cannot be laid at the feet of the lifeboat manufacturer. Still other passengers believe the lifeboats can save them; they use the lifeboats and are saved, not because they believed really hard that the boats can float, but because the boats float as they were designed.

That’s how the world is. There are some who do not know the Savior, Jesus Christ. Should they remain that way, they are lost. Some believe their savior is Allah or Krishna or the Oprah Jesus or some other false god. They, too, are lost, should they continue to follow the doctrines of these false religions. Others know and believe in Jesus Christ, and they are saved. They are saved, not because they believed really hard in Jesus Christ, but because Jesus saves, as He was sent to do.

And that’s the truth! Jesus saves. Only Jesus saves. He said it himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is no other way to be saved. Ignorance is not bliss, even if it is not the person’s fault. Allah does not save, nor does Krishna, nor does the Oprah Jesus; these are false religions set up by the Great Deceiver. So, to answer the Church of the Brethren pastor, who asked, “Isn’t it presumptuous to imagine that the Holy One has revealed all wisdom to only one group?” “No, Christians don’t presume anything when making that claim; it is simply repeating what the Holy One Himself said: that He is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life. It is His claim; why argue with the Creator and Savior of the world?”

Still, the Truth is so readily ignored. When it comes to “ordinary” life, that is, life outside of or apart from religion, truth is readily accepted. In fact, truth is expected, even demanded. When gassing up cars, you demand that when the meter reads one gallon, then you have filled your tank with one gallon of fuel, not three quarts. When you were in school learning math, your parents demanded a teacher who taught that 2 + 2 is 4, not maybe 5, 10, or 2000. When you go to the super market and ask for a pound of meat, you demand that when the scale reads one pound, there is actually one pound of meat on it, not 14 ounces. But when it comes to religious life, truth is rejected. There exists an attitude of “whatever works for you” when it comes to faith, spirituality, and salvation; an idea that each person’s truth is as valid as the next person’s—the denial of absolute truth is almost always done under the guise of tolerance, the ultimate truth in this philosophy. This turns the focus of a person’s faith or spirituality onto themselves and inevitably leads to works righteousness and the idea that a generally good person will live in Heaven.

I don’t understand why when an engineer says, “This bridge will hold,” it is readily accepted and never questioned, but when a theologian says, “Only Jesus saves,” it is readily doubted and always questioned. I can explain why, but that explanation is a theological one and would also be readily doubted and questioned: Sin, which has corrupted human nature, has turned humanity against the Creator and Redeemer; therefore, only God-given faith accepts the Truth. As St. Paul wrote,

So, when it comes to religion, spirituality, faith, or whatever they may call it, may people think they know the way. But if they don’t have the mind of Christ, they believe that they don’t need any help, that they will attain salvation on their own. This way leads to death however, just as clinging to the smokestacks on a sinking ship will.

Still, God wants all to be saved; St. Paul wrote as much in his first letter to St. Timothy: “God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) What is truth? That’s the question Pilate asked of Jesus. (cf. John 18:38) It is what you have been taught by every faithful parent, preacher, and teacher for as long as you have been kept in the safety of the Holy Ark of Christendom: that God sent His Son to save sinners—that whoever believes in Him and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins will have eternal life. Or, as the Son stated, He is the Way…the only Way. While this is exclusive, it is not difficult. While it may seem elitist, it is far from it.

Yes, the true way to salvation is exclusive, insofar as there is only one. St. Peter confesses, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The world complains that there is only one Way, and perhaps Christians are guilty of often using this as a hammer against the myriad ways that the sinful world comes up with. However, the fact that Jesus is the Way is good news, and the good news is this: There is a way to the Father, and He is it!

The way of the world, the way of works, is no way at all. It is the way to death. The good news is that Jesus is the Way, and His was the work. He has accomplished every single last bit of it, just as He said near His death on the cross: “It is finished!” (cf. John 19:30) Jesus Christ is the Way, and His way was to death, too: His death for you in your place on the cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Upon the cross, Christ shed his blood to cleanse the world of its sins; He won the merits of salvation there for everyone.

But it didn’t end there; His way was to resurrection, too. His death and your faith would be in vain had He not risen on the third day. From His resurrection, He had another important and joyful task to see to. He mentioned it in the first part of today’s Gospel lesson: He is going and preparing a place for His disciples in His Father’s house, that where He is, they too may be. You also see in this statement that it is not any of your work: Jesus is going to prepare the place, He is coming back to take you with Him, that where He is you may be.

The last thing Jesus says in this “I am” is that He is the Life. He is eternal life. This is the life He won for you by His death on the cross and in His resurrection from the grave. This is the life that is given to you in your Baptism. Salvation is for all, because God wants all to be saved, and salvation is given individually in Baptism.

Still, it’s disturbing; a majority of people believe that a person who is generally good will earn a place in Heaven—they deny that Jesus is the Way. The Way is not elitist; the merits won by Christ were won for all, and they are offered freely to all. It’s disturbing; a majority of people hold to the idea that every personal truth, no matter if they conflict, is valid, but they deny that Jesus is the Truth. The Truth is for all people; God wants all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. It’s disturbing; a majority of people these days will die apart from knowledge of the Truth, denying that Jesus is the Way—they deny that Jesus is the Life. Death is not natural, but it is the wages of sin; Jesus has come that all may have life, and have it to the fullest. (cf. John 10:10)

And, in order that you may have that fullest life, He has taken your sin into His own flesh and received the payment for it; then, to seal you into that life, He rose again from the dead. That is what you have been Baptized into, as St. Paul declared:

Dear Baptized, that’s you! You have been Baptized into the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Therefore, being dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, you come here where you hear Jesus proclaim to you once again and all the time that He is the Way, that He is the Truth, that He is the Life. He does this out of His inestimable grace and mercy. He comes here, yes He is here in this place to give these to you all—to set you straight in Him, the Way; to erase all doubt and error through Him, the Truth, to rescue you from death and the devil by Him, the Life. That is to say, He is come—He is here—and has forgiven you for all of your sins.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who reveals the merciful heart of the Lord. That’s why, in the One Year Lectionary, this day (though it would actually fall on the Third Sunday of Easter—last week) is called Misericordias Domini, Latin for The Merciful Heart of the Lord. It takes a merciful heart to be a shepherd, and so to call this day Misericordias Domini makes for a perfect image for Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus as the Good Shepherd portrays God’s mercy in the flesh, the heart that God has for His creation that He should become man and gather His people to Himself in His own death. And He does that so that you might have life to the fullest.

But, what a shepherd does—how he tends sheep—is very likely a foreign concept to many, unless you’re from or driving through a certain community up north. What a shepherd in biblical times did is likely even more a foreign concept. The most your average modern person can say about shepherds is also the simplest: they tend sheep.

Sheep, on the other hand, you are probably more familiar with, because pastors like to wax poetic about sheep: stubborn animals that require a lot of care, are prone to straying, eating poisonous weeds, drinking from polluted puddles, butting head with others in the herd, and being downright disagreeable at times. And even with all of that being the case, they are practically defenseless against predators. They’re cute when their little, but an absolute handful when they grow up. That’s not a very flattering picture, but it’s pretty much the way it is with man before God.

That’s what you are being compared to when Jesus calls Himself the Door of the Sheep and the Good Shepherd. That’s the image that you claim for yourself when you recite Psalm 23, the Psalm appointed for today: “The Lord is my shepherd…” To call Jesus your shepherd is to call yourself His sheep. “I am Jesus’ little lamb,” you will sing to close the service today…same thing! And you also know this passage from Isaiah, as it was read just over three weeks ago as part of the Good Friday Chief Service: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6ab) You are like a sheep: stubborn, straying, requiring a lot of care, downright disagreeable at times. It’s one thing to call Jesus the Good Shepherd; that’s likable. The flip-side implication is not as likable: you are a sheep…but you’re His sheep!

It can be said another way: Jesus is the Savior—more precisely, Jesus is my Savior. Again, that’s likable, but that means that I am a poor miserable sinner. You just confessed as much moments ago! So, if you are a poor miserable sinner, then Jesus is your Savior, because, as St. Paul wrote, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” (1 Timothy 1:15) So, if Jesus is your Good Shepherd and you are His sheep, then it can also be said that if Jesus is your Savior, then you are His sinner.

You confess with King David your sheepiness and being in the flock of the Good Shepherd when you pray Psalm 23. The Psalm starts out as a brag about the goodness of the Good Shepherd: His sheep lack nothing, are made to lie down in the greenest of pastures and drink from still (that is, not polluted) waters. This Good Shepherd even restores their souls and leads them in paths of righteousness for His own name’s sake. For this, the soul of the sheep makes its boast in the Lord (cf. Psalm 34:2): “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

This is how the soul redeemed by God in Christ responds to that redemption. The sheep has confidence in confessing Jesus as the Good Shepherd; the sinner has confidence in confessing Jesus as the Savior. Where does that confidence come from? Again, it is confessed in Psalm 23, even as a sheep, even as a sinner, despite being surrounded by death and decay and evil all around, the Lord is with you!

Look at this, dear hearers: death and decay and evil are all around, beyond these walls and doors. Sometimes they creep their way in here. Nonetheless, up here, the Good Shepherd spreads a table before you where He feeds you with His own body and blood, you who have been anointed in the unpolluted, living waters at the font to be a son of God. Dear saints, because Jesus is your Good Shepherd who is with you always, He anoints you and feeds you, your cup overflows!

And because Jesus your Good Shepherd and Savior is with you always, goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life. No, I’m sorry, that translation is woefully insufficient. The Hebrew word there is better understood as chase. Goodness and mercy shall chase after you all the days of your life, because you have a Good Shepherd—the best of shepherds—who will not let anything snatch you out of His hand and from His care. Because of that, you shall dwell in the house of YHWH forever. “O YHWH, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” (Psalm 26:8)

Jesus is YHWH in the flesh, I AM as He repeats in today’s Gospel, the same God who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush and to David as His Lord throughout the Psalms. Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. (cf. John 8:56) These all looked forward the Christ, the Messiah, whom you now confess to be Jesus. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd of John 10, and since those are both the case, then He is the Good Shepherd of the world, whether acknowledged to be or not. “All we like sheep” from Isaiah 53 is universal. “All have sinned” from Romans 3 is universal. The Good Shepherd is also a universal lamb: The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf. John 1:29)—the fulfillment of all of those temple sacrificial lambs.

Jesus is at one and the same time the Good Shepherd and Lamb of God, and He is both in the same way.

In today’s portion of John 10, Jesus uses the image of the sheep pen to make this point. This pen in ancient days was a completely walled off enclosure, likely built against a building or some other structure, with one narrow opening, likely a tight squeeze for an average sheep. There was no other way into our out of this pen. The shepherd would tend his sheep into the pen every night. The gatekeeper guards the entrance to the pen; he knows the shepherd and grants him access. Only the true shepherd enters through the narrow opening; those who try to steal the sheep don’t have access to the narrow opening. The Pharisees who heard Jesus use this figure of speech didn’t understand what He was saying.

In short, here’s what Jesus was saying: He is the true shepherd, the gatekeeper is the Father, and the narrow door is Jesus’ own death and resurrection. This is how it works: The True Shepherd has come to lay down His life in the doorway of the world so that by His dying and rising again He would gather His flock to Himself; the Gatekeeper recognizes no other death than the death of Jesus, so He grants access to no one else except the Good Shepherd and those for whom He gave His life as sacrificed the Lamb of God, who are covered and washed in His blood.

The True Shepherd comes by way of the narrow door of death and resurrection. Death and resurrection mark the True Shepherd. He lays down His life like a sacrificial lamb for the sheep. That’s what shepherds do, too: they put themselves squarely in the narrow gate in order to give their life (if necessary) to guard the sheep at night. As I said, death and resurrection mark the True Shepherd.

Any other way is really no way at all. A savior without death and resurrection is no savior but a thief and robber, a false savior created by the father of lies, the devil. Jesus was referring to the Pharisees specifically, teachers of the Law who were supposed to be teaching the people about sin and forgiveness, but were doing anything but. Instead of pointing to the death and resurrection of the Suffering Servant (cf. Isaiah 52-53), they tried to steal the sheep with legalism and moralism.

Remember what I said about the characteristics of sheep? They will eat on poisonous weeds and drink from polluted waters. That’s what Pharisaism—legalism and moralism—are. Sheep will bite on it because it looks so good, just like the forbidden fruit, you might recall. (cf. Genesis 3:6) Sheep will take a sip because, well, they gotta drink. If you look at all of the religions and philosophies out there outside of Christianity—and real Christianity at that—all they offer is the poisonous weed and polluted water of legalism and moralism; they all show you yourself as the means to work your way to god, heaven, nirvana, paradise, or whatever you might want to call it. They all tell you to look within and follow your heart to find the truth. What did Jesus have to say about that? “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23) St. Paul wrote, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” (Romans 7:18a)

The only way into the sheep pen of salvation, to the greenest of pastures of everlasting life, is the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He said as much in another of His I AMs: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) The way to destruction is broad, but the way to ever lasting life is narrow and exclusive: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. That’s what saves you and the world from sin and death; no amount of legalism or moralism will work. Isaiah wrote, “[A]ll our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:6b)

The good news is that the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for you and taken it back up again. In His death and resurrection He has drawn you to Himself. He has given you faith by His Word, even as in the still (that is, unpolluted) waters of Holy Baptism, faith which apprehends the benefits of His death and resurrection and make them yours. He spreads His table before you whereat He is both host and feast, feeding you with His body as bread and blood as wine, and giving you thereby the forgiveness of all of your sins, life, and salvation.

Now, you as a sheep of the Good Shepherd recognize His voice. You hear Him in His Word proclaimed by His under-shepherd and your fellow sheep who proclaim to you the death and resurrection of the Savior. That under-shepherd in particular speaks certain words at the command and in the stead of the Good Shepherd. His voice becomes for you a soothing, comforting, and strong voice of the One who created you and redeemed you. It’s the voice of Holy Absolution won for you in the death and resurrection of the Good Shepherd, who claimed you in Holy Baptism, who feeds you in Holy Communion. The voices all sound different, but they come from the same Man who is YHWH, the Great I AM, the Good Shepherd, the Door of the Sheep.

Hear His voice, for He has laid Himself down in the narrow gate and gave His life for you, only to take it up again and give you the victory. “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” There is but one way to heaven, one way to the Father, one path to life, and that is the death of the Good Shepherd, who by His own authority laid Himself down in your death to save you.

He went ahead of you, through death to eternal life. Jesus went ahead of you, through the suffering and death of the cross to resurrection and life. He’s done what no one else had ever done. He died and rose again. As His sheep, you hear His voice and by God-given faith, you follow where He leads. He leads you through life to death and back to life again, everlasting life for His name’s sake. As His sheep you hear His voice proclaim to you that for His sake and by His work alone, you are forgiven for all of your sins.

That we may obtain this faith [by which is received justification], the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. (AC V, Triglotta)

Also [our churches] teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. (AC VII, Triglotta)

Although the Church properly is the congregation of saints and true believers, nevertheless, since in this life many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled therewith, it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, etc. Matt. 23, 2. Both the Sacraments and Word are effectual by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, notwithstanding they be administered by evil men. (AC VIII, Triglotta)

These are three articles from the Augsburg Confession—specifically, the fifth, seventh, and eighth. Do you not also find it amazing that the Confession—indeed, the entire Book of Concord—teaches the Scriptures so faithfully and beautifully. After all of these years—over two decades in the ministry—having studied the Book so much, gone through it so many times, I am still amazed how “in agreement” it is with the Scriptures. The church of the Lutheran Reformation really did get it right.

So, the Lutheran Church believes, teaches, and confesses what is called the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar—that is, that Christ gives His body and blood with the bread and wine in Holy Communion. So, when you receive the Lord’s Supper, you receive both body and bread to eat and both blood and wine to drink. This is what is taught in the Lutheran Confessions…

…And the Scriptures. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his first letter, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation [or communion] in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation [or communion] in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the cup—and by that he was referring to the contents, the wine—is a participation or communion in the blood of Christ; the bread, likewise, is a participation or communion in the body of Christ. Inspired by God to write of the Lord’s Supper in terms that we would say is Real Presence. Christ’s blood is really present in the wine, and His body is really present in the bread.

Therefore, Philip Melanchthon wrote in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, “[I]t would follow, if the Lord’s body were not truly present, that the bread is not a communion of the body, but only of the spirit of Christ.” The same can be said, then of the cup: if the Lord’s blood were not truly present, that the wine is not a communion of the bloody, but only the spirit of Christ. Not that the spirit of Christ wouldn’t be enough, but that’s not what God taught through the pen of St. Paul. This is what it means to call the Lord’s Supper Holy Communion, that there is a communion between body with bread and blood with wine. However, there are Christians out there who subscribe only to a spiritual presence when they take Communion.

That said, today’s Gospel lesson also serves as proof of another key doctrine of Lutheranism: God does His work to you and in you through His instituted means, which in short are referred to as Word and Sacrament. You have just heard three articles of the Augsburg Confession which clearly articulate this teaching, so now to examine today’s Gospel.

Two of Jesus’ followers were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus in the late afternoon on the day of the Resurrection. They were recounting the events of the week, and especially that day; how things went from joyous and triumphant to a grisly death and burial. There were reports of a resurrection—angels and an empty grave—but not a word of where Jesus was; not a word of having seen Jesus except from a hysterical Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. It all seemed so unbelievable to them, that had someone else told them that they had seen Jesus, their response might have been similar to that of Thomas as you heard last week: “We won’t believe unless we see Jesus.” They had, after all, lost hope, as they said, “[W]e had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

It is into the middle of this conversation that Jesus joined them. However, “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” You must note here that these two were not simply blinded by sin that they were unable to recognize Jesus. Like Mary Magdalene in the garden of the tomb (John 20:11-18), they were prevented from recognizing Him at first; Jesus was concealing His identity from them.

“What are you talking about?” this third man asked the two disciples. You might well imagine the bewildered look on the two disciples’ faces: “This man is walking from Jerusalem and doesn’t know what we’re talking about? Where has he been? What cave has he been hiding in?” Cleopas spoke up: “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” He asked.

Now, this must almost seems sadistic, but think about it this way: How often have any of you thought that you’d like to be a fly on the wall, to hear what others say about you when you’re not there. Here’s Jesus doing that very thing; He’s hearing from these two exactly what they believe about Him:

“But him they did not see.” That’s the dagger in the heart of hope for these two.

That’s when this “clueless” man started teaching them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” It is as if He asked them, “Didn’t Jesus say this was going to happen?” Then, beginning with Moses and the Prophets, He expounded to them all that was written about Him, still not revealing who He really was to them.

And as He spoke to them, their hearts burned within them. It was all making sense. Connections were being made between what had been written and what had happened over the past week, and especially that day, two days after Jesus’ death and burial—the third day. It is as St. Paul wrote, “Faith comes by hearing.” (cf. Romans 10:17) In the hearing of the Word of God, as Jesus expounded it for them, faith in Christ was produced and renewed and strengthened.

At that point, they still didn’t recognize that it was Jesus walking with them and teaching them, but they believed in Him on account of the Word. Faith is still created, renewed, and strengthened the same way: by hearing the Word of God, they Holy Spirit working through this means. That is, Jesus still comes and walks among His people, not recognized or even recognizable in His person, but as His Word is faithfully expounded, giving the Holy Spirit who works faith when and where God pleases in those who hear the Gospel, as Article V of the Augsburg Confession states.

The daylight was almost gone, and Jesus, still incognito, insisted that He had further to travel. “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” Jesus obliged. He went into their house and shared a meal with them. How did He do it? It seems that He took it over, becoming host at the meal; for He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to those around Him to eat. At that very moment, the two disciples who had their eyes restrained, as it could be translated, have them opened, and recognized Jesus, and at that instant, He disappeared from their view. Him they no longer saw.

Things were then different with those two. No longer were their hopes dashed. They had faith. They didn’t need to see Jesus for they now knew where to look for Him: in His Word and Sacrament. They heard Him in His Word and saw Him revealed, with eyes of faith, in the Sacrament. And so it has been done for centuries since then. As already proclaimed, the church of the Lutheran Reformation really did get it right—Word and Sacrament.

From there, armed with Word and Sacrament, the two disciples returned to Jerusalem. It didn’t matter that the daylight was gone or nearly gone. They had to return to the disciples and talk to them. By that time, the ten were locked in the upper room and see Jesus themselves. When the two get back to Jerusalem, it’s possible that the eleven might have been reunited and telling Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” and others are with them. And they recounted everything that had happened to them. The Word of God has some amazing effects on the heart made faithful.

It wasn’t some cruel game that Jesus was playing on these two followers. He was teaching them that they didn’t need to see Jesus as Thomas wanted to (and a week later would), for following His ascension, no one would see Him again until His return to earth in order to judge it. But, as He has promised, He would be with them and all who believe in Him always, to the very end of the age (cf. Matthew 28:20), speaking to the faithful (and giving faith) in His Word and revealing Himself in the Sacrament.

Still, many Christians don’t get it. They are like the two disciples as they walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. For instance, there was a certain LCMS congregation in a certain city in a certain state where the certain former pastor loved to use a particular song in his created service in place of the Agnus Dei. These all shall remain nameless, except the song, whose words are: “Open our eyes Lord / We want to see Jesus, / To reach out and touch Him / And say that we love Him.” While it is certainly salutary to ask of God for a right faith in order to hear Jesus in His Word and to see Him in His Sacrament, and to pray for the return of Christ, the words of this song express a faulty understanding of today’s text—yet a sentiment held by many in Christendom.

These still seek a Jesus-experience as Thomas wanted. These still have hearts like the two disciples as they walked to Emmaus—hopes dashed because Jesus was not seen, as reliably as they would have liked, at that moment following His resurrection. These, to put it quite bluntly, refuse to hear Christ in His Word, where He walks with His people in lives assaulted by the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. And many of these refuse to recognize the Savior in His Supper, where He feeds with His own body and blood. Instead, many look for visions in toast, cheese curls, reflections in windows, and the shape of the clouds. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Jesus, now, with your own eyes of flesh, before He comes again and reveals Himself to all flesh as He has promised to do? It seems that’s what many of those like these want.

Despite what people like these want, they need to hear the constant preaching of the Gospel. For, as has been mentioned, faith comes by hearing, and “through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel.” This is what Jesus gave the two followers on the way to Emmaus, revealing Himself to them through Word and Sacrament. Jesus does does the same to you when doubts have their way with you, coming to you through Word and Sacrament to forgive your sins and strengthen your faith. “Go, and do likewise…” (cf. Luke 10:37)

So, dear Baptized, you have been gathered here by the Holy Spirit, who was given to you in Word and Sacrament. You have been beaten and bloodied by the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh, and so you are gathered here by grace and mercy to receive your Lord who comes to you in His Word and body and blood hidden in bread and wine. These you believe and receive by God-given faith. These are effective for the simple reason that they are the very means that Jesus used as He walked and spoke in His own flesh and blood to His disciples, as He instituted and commanded—His word which endures forever (cf. Matthew 24:35, 1 Peter 1:25), and He did say, “Take and eat, this is My body…Take and drink, this is My blood.”

This is the truth confessed in the Lutheran Confessions and taught in the Scriptures: wherever two or more are gathered in Christ’s name, where the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered, there is Christ present. And you can rejoice like the two followers on the way to Emmaus, that the same thing that happened to them happens here, God help me: The Scriptures concerning Jesus are interpreted to you, and as that happens, and His Sacrament is given to you, He is truly present with you here and now to give you His life and salvation and the forgiveness of all of your sins.

The open tomb, the empty bench, the unoccupied grave cloths, the folded handkerchief—these are all negative evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. They don’t necessarily prove that Jesus rose from the dead. They merely prove that Jesus is not in the grave.

One can assume that Jesus rose, given the negative evidence, but there needs to be more to make such an assumption. You can add to the negative evidence all the times that Jesus predicted His Passion. “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matthew 16:21) Jesus predicted His Passion three times. Thereafter, Jesus suffered many things: He was rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes; He was killed. Furthermore, He was buried in a tomb and a large stone was rolled in front of it.

All of that stuff happened, as Jesus said. He also said that He would be raised on the third day. Adding Jesus’ predictions to the empty tomb, you now have circumstantial evidence.

Early on the first day of the week, the women made their way to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away and an angel sitting in there telling them that Jesus had risen, just as He said. The angel told the women to tell the disciples, and Peter, that Jesus was going before them into Galilee. At first, the women ran away in fear. For some reason, the evidence just didn’t add up for them. Even though Jesus had said all of this would happen, and even though they found an empty tomb, and even though the angel told them that Jesus had risen, they just didn’t get it.

Eventually, the women do find Peter and John and tell them. These two run to the tomb to see for themselves. They look in; they go in; they see the negative, circumstantial evidence. John wrote that when he went in and saw, he finally believed, “[F]or as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” (John 20:9) Once again, even though Jesus had said all of this would happen, and even though they found an empty tomb, and even though the women relayed the angel’s message, as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.

So, the disciples were in the upper room, and the doors were locked. They were afraid. They were afraid for the lives, in fear of the Jews, that they would storm down their doors and accuse them of grave robbery. They were afraid that Jesus wasn’t really raised from the dead.

But into this room Jesus came to them, despite the locked doors. He spoke to them, “Peace be with you.” He showed them His hands and side. Here is some positive evidence! Jesus was standing among them, flesh and blood. He breathed on them, something only a real person would do. Jesus has risen, just as He said.

A week later, He did the same thing, this time with Thomas present. The disciple had remarked that He would not believe unless He had some real, tangible, positive evidence. I guess he was only asking for the same things that the others got, but maybe it’s the way he said it—maybe there was a hint of defiance when he said, “Unless I see…I will never believe.” “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.” I like to imagine a stunned Thomas as Jesus was talking to him. The defiant doubter stood before Jesus in all of his resurrected glory, frozen as the Lord bids him to touch His hand and side. I like to talk about the Caravaggio painting because it depicts what I like to imagine: the incredulous, frozen Thomas having his hand thrust into Jesus’ side by the Man Himself; He didn’t just bid Thomas to touch His wound, but did the work for him. This is an image which fits in nicely with the Lutheran doctrine of grace alone, but it is purely speculation on my part…and Caravaggio’s, I assume. Nevertheless, with grace-only-filled words, Jesus bids Thomas, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

“My Lord and my God!”

The women and disciples had seen the negative evidence. They rejoiced to see the positive evidence. Hallelujah! Jesus is risen, just as He said!

The question might as well be asked now. What is it that John (and perhaps Peter) didn’t at first believe? What is it that Thomas refused to believe unless he touched Jesus’ wounds? If you are of the mind that they didn’t believe in the resurrection, or perhaps better put as a resurrection, remember that these men all witness Lazarus being called out of the tomb. (cf John 11:38-44) It seems that John gave the answer. After he went into the tomb, John saw the burial cloths but no body and believed, because to that point, they didn’t understand the Scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead. (cf. John 20:8-9) The concept of resurrection is fine, but that Jesus had to rise was, for some reason, unbelievable to them.

Maybe they were just coming to terms with the fact that Jesus is God or still wrestling with calling Him a prophet mighty in deed and word who then died. Perhaps the same thought was going their minds as went through the minds of the men on the road to Emmaus who unknowingly said to Jesus that they had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. Jesus called them foolish and slow of heart to believe, reminding them that it was necessary for Him to suffer these things and enter into His glory, that is, rise again. (cf. Luke 24: 19b-27)

So, seeing the empty tomb and remembering His words, hearing Jesus open their minds to the Scriptures concerning Himself, finally seeing and touching Jesus’ wounds, they finally believed that Jesus HAD to rise from the dead—just as He said.

So, He asked Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The resurrected Jesus appeared to many more who believed. In addition to the Emmaus disciples, He appeared to seven of the disciples once again as they fished along the Sea of Tiberias. (cf. John 21:1-14) He appeared to Saul on the Damascus road. (cf. Acts 9:3-8; Galatians 1:15-17) He even appeared to over 500 disciples at once. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:6) These all were granted positive evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. These all spoke to others and declared, in one way or another, “We have seen the Lord!” And their testimony is recorded for your benefit.

You do not have the positive evidence of the Lord’s resurrection. The tomb still exists, and it is still empty, so you may have the negative evidence, but after all this time, such evidence cannot be trusted, except that you also have the words of Jesus Himself, that He had to suffer, die, and rise again. The tomb is empty because Jesus rose on the third day. You also have the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples, and they declare to you that they have seen the Lord! Therefore, you can also believe that Jesus HAD to suffer, die, and rise again, and that He did so for you.

Still, you do have other evidence, though it is unseen. Jesus appears before you, even today, to do just as He had done that evening on the first day of the week, and the night the week after. He comes to you, here, and gives Himself to you. He breathes on you and gives you the Holy Spirit. He gives you His own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. And all of this He does for your benefit, that you have have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

These He earned for you by His life of perfect obedience, both as He kept the Law perfectly in every single precept, but also as He fulfilled it for you in His sacrificial death on the cross in your place. He rose from the grave, as He said, to seal these to you, and that you would have victory over death and the grave. You have His word on it. You have heard the evidence, both positive and negative, through the eyewitness accounts. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. In fact, you could say that He MUST come again.

In the meantime, He gives you His Word and Sacrament.

It is the Word that declares to you that when the Word of God is combined with water, it is for you a life-given flood, full of grace, and a washing of regeneration in which you have been given the Holy Spirit. In Holy Baptism, you have been washed, made clean and pure, and claimed as a son of God, co-heir with the One who has given His life for you on the cross and rose again. In Holy Baptism, you have died and were buried with Christ, so that on the last day, you will rise in a resurrection like His. You have His Word on it!

It is the Word that declares to you that when the Word of God is spoken over you by the one placed in your midst by God, He speaks in the stead and by the command of Jesus. In His stead, this man declares to you that you are either forgiven or that your sin is bound to you, and in both cases it is as valid and certain as if Christ your dear Lord had dealt with you Himself. This man is under orders to forgive the sins of the penitent, and withhold forgiveness from those who see no need nor have any desire for forgiveness; he does not forgive or withhold forgiveness on a whim. This man’s forgiveness is God’s forgiveness, won for you on the tree of the cross, and apprehended for you by the faith and Holy Spirit that you have been given in Holy Baptism. You have His Word on it!

It is the Word that declares to you that when the Word of God is spoken over some bread and wine, they are for you the very body and blood of Christ given and shed for you on the tree of the cross. You take and eat and drink the very wounds of Jesus, which He showed to the disciples, and into which He shoved the hand of Thomas. In them, you receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. You have His Word on it!

Jesus Christ reaches out to you with His Word, entrusted to men to proclaim and speak into your ears. He reaches out to you, grabs you, and places you into Himself. He gives you Himself in Word and Sacrament, placing Himself in you! You have been gathered here, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, receiving Him. You have His Word on it!

You have His Word on it: those most sacred Scriptures. Of them, St. Paul declared: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) When he wrote, “…in accordance with the Scriptures…,” he’s telling you that Jesus does as He must, that He keeps His Word. His Word declares to you that He must return, and that He will do so for you, members of His Bride, the Church. Do you believe this?

Peter, James, John, and even Paul, among many others, believed because they saw. Blessed are you who have not seen and yet believe. You believe because they saw—because they heard and saw. They heard that Jesus had to suffer, die, and rise again. They saw Him suffer, die, and rise again. He also said that He will come again. They heard Him say that. They reported to you that He said that, just as they reported that He suffered, died, and rose again, just as He said, in accordance with the Scriptures. The question is, do you believe this?

Jesus Christ has died, risen, and ascended, for you. You have His Word on it! Though you do not see, as Thomas and the others saw, you believe, because the Word of God declares it to you, and by grace you believe it. The Word of God also declares this truth to you: you are forgiven for all of your sins. Therefore, by grace and the indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit, you can confess and believe the three-fold truth: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Having gone through another Holy Week, you have witnessed again the Lord’s Passion. He rode into Jerusalem as a king, to His coronation of thorns and to take His place on the throne that is His cross, upon which He died. He rode in knowing full well what would happen to Him.

He knew He would be captured. He often gave glimpses of His hidden majesty when He avoided capture walking right through the midst of His enemies, but this time, He went into Jerusalem for the very purpose of being captured. He knew He would be beaten and flogged and spit upon. Again, there were many times when the Jews wanted to cast stones at Him or throw Him over a cliff, and He, quite divinely, passed right through the midst of them without a scratch, but this time, He went into Jerusalem for the very purpose of being abused and killed.

And His death was quite the injustice, at least from a worldly perspective. His only crime was to teach the people how God really was over and against the law-oriented religion of the Pharisees. He sought no earthly power—in fact, He turned down as much when Satan offered it to Him. (cf. Matthew 4:8-10) He sought no insurrection against the Roman occupying force—in fact, He commended paying taxes to Rome (something that is probably difficult to hear at this time of year)! (Matthew 22:17-21) Yet all kinds of false accusations were leveled against Him, even in the face of contrary and true evidence. He was innocent, and on top of that, He was sinless.

Still, His death was quite the blow that Justice demanded—Divine Justice. Inasmuch as He knew what He was riding into Jerusalem to accomplish, He also knew why. For the supper He would celebrate, the false accusations He would endure, the beatings He would suffer, and that inglorious death He would die were all for you. As St. Paul declared, and I have repeated over these past few weeks, “[God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) So what one could say, then, is that the worst sinner died on the cross, receiving the blow that Justice demanded, as commanded through the prophet Ezekiel: “The soul who sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4d) And this, as learned from the rest of Scripture, is eternal Death (with a capital d)—an eternal separation from God and His blissful glory.

So, as you look back at this past week, recalling what your ears have witnessed, you should see His Passion for you in everything that Jesus endured. More than that, you should see in His suffering and death the full wrath of God, every single last bit of it, leveled against one Man for the sin of the world. When Jesus hears those false accusations leveled against Him without saying a word back, He is receiving the condemnation due you, for those accusations are true of you. When Jesus receives the blows from the temple guards, as representing the heavenly kingdom, and from the Roman soldiers, as representing the earthly kingdom, those are the blows rightly due you for your sins against God and your crimes against the state (no matter how big or small). When Jesus was nailed to the cross and there was forsaken by God and died, He died forsaken for you, died the death you rightly deserve for having forsaken God and ignoring His Law and statutes, as it is written, “The soul who sins shall die.”

Where does that leave you? In a word: forgiven. If Jesus took the sin of the world away, then the world is left with no sin, and that includes you. It is removed from you as far as the east is from the west. In another word: alive—sort of. If Jesus died your Death for sin—for which He was sealed in a grave—and since you have no sin left for which to Die, then Death no longer has dominion over you. Oh, you will still experience death—a bodily death in this Vale of Tears—so long as Christ does not return first, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

And, to seal that to you, He is raised from the grave. The work of your salvation was completed in the death of God on the cross, and your eternal life in Christ was sealed to you in His resurrection from the dead. Death and resurrection—you can’t have one without the other, and without the other, the one is meaningless and pointless—that’s why here was celebrated the whole of it in one event the past three days, as the Body of Christ, His Church, has done for many generations. That’s why to this point, I have reiterated the Lord’s Passion and death on this day, the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

And so, it is as was heard, the angel rolled the stone away from the mouth of Jesus’ tomb, revealing an empty grave. And, he sat on it—no one was going to roll the stone back over the tomb and cover up what is the greatest blow to Pharisaism and Roman rule—indeed the greatest blow to the ways of all men. Death, the greatest enemy of man, for which no man is a match, is itself no match for God, who in the person of His Son defeated Death by His own death and resurrection. He makes of death a captive enemy.

For, as I said, until the Christ returns in glory, all men will die. But, for those who have true faith in God, who trust solely in the Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins and their own bodily resurrection, death is nothing to be feared. Quite the contrary, you can meet death willingly, whenever God pleases, knowing full well that on the day the Christ returns to judge the earth, you will be raised to everlasting life. You can say with St. Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), as taken up by a poet anonymously:

Or even as was sung just two nights ago:

Now, God uses that captive enemy to bring you from this mortal body and into His glorious presence, transformed in a twinkling of an eye; a flawless body to go with a flawless—that is sinless—person.

Jesus said, as you will recall from two weeks ago,

By a God-given faith, you do believe this, for that God-given faith, as mentioned, trusts solely in the Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and resurrection from the dead. He who dies in the faith dies well!

However, there are some who refuse to believe this, some who reject God’s grace. These still try to cling to their sins, refusing to believe that Jesus died for them, either because they believe that they can atone for them themselves (that “I’m a good person” statement is indicative of one such as these) or because they deny that Jesus’ death was for the forgiveness of sins (believing Jesus was simply a good teacher is indicative of one such as these). Either way, they cling to sin, for which they cannot atone, which kills them. Oh, to be sure, Jesus’ resurrection also means that they will be raised from the dead, should they die before His return, but they will be raised to eternal Death—that eternal separation from God and His blissful glory, because they want nothing to do with God and His grace. Oh, they may claim to believe in Jesus, but the Jesus they believe in is a false god erected in their own image—one that does their bidding.

But not you, dear hearers. For you are here on this Resurrection morning by the grace of God, to receive the strengthening of your faith by Word and Sacrament. To you, as to Mary, the Word of the Lord as from the angel is this: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified…He is risen, as He said…he has risen…you will see him.” Then, as you heard from very lips of the risen Christ, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers…they will see me.” That message is also for you, for you too, by faith will see Him. You, too, can rejoice, for the Lord is pleased to call you brothers—despite the sins and crimes you have committed, despite the wrongs you have done—because He has taken these things from you and destroyed them, and because you have received faith and by the waters of Holy Baptism, you have been made a son of God, and if a son, a brother of Christ and co-heir with Him of eternal life.

So, yes, you will see Him. Today, you see Him with your eyes of faith as the Word of God is proclaimed into your ears by His called minister, forgiving your sins as certainly as Christ Himself were standing here in His own resurrected and glorified body and speaking these things to you. Today, you will see Him with your eyes of faith as He comes to you in His body and blood, though hidden in, with, and under bread and wine; for in that most sacred meal, you feed upon the resurrected body and blood of Christ, and you receive His life.

Yes, you will see Him, because one day He will return and raise all the dead to judgment. Those who have believed on His name—that’s you, dear Baptized—will be raised to eternal life. There, will be fulfilled in you the words of Job, who said, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27) “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

You will see Him, because He is no longer dead; He is risen as He said. So, “Hallelujah! Christ is risen!” [leave time for congregation to respond] “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” By God-given faith, your answer is, “Yes”; and so, you, too, will live eternally and see Him, though you may die, because you will die well, in the faith, because you are forgiven for all of your sins.

The nails are gone. The crown of thorns removed. The body of God is wrapped in linens and spiced, and laid in a new, rock-hewn tomb.

He descends into hell and proclaims victory over all of your foes. St. Peter wrote, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” (1 Peter 3:18-20) How long did this take? Well, I doubt He spent an entire day telling the imprisoned spirits, “It is ended; I won,” but did so before the end of that day. So, there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (cf. Genesis 1:31)—a very Good Friday.

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” As you heard last night, “It is finished,” τέτελεσται. (John 19:30) So, on this seventh day, the Sabbath, He rests. God the Father looks back on all the Son had done, culminating on Friday, and says, “It is good”…Good Friday.

He rests, dear hearers, for you. Oh, I know how much you like to get some rest in. A vacation is always desired. A day off is appreciated. But there’s still this proclivity to be busy-bodies. That is to say, you get antsy when you are idle for too long. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” the saying goes. Not long into vacations, you look forward to getting back to work. A day off is often spent doing something—tasks that need attending around the house or errands that need to be run. And none of this counts those who work endless 7-day weeks. Rest is an unknown commodity; relaxation an unfamiliar friend—perhaps even an enemy; peace, simple peace for one’s life, is unrecognized!

So, Jesus rests in His tomb…for you! What comfort, even in your hectic busy-ness: the Third Commandment is ultimately and completely fulfilled for you, even in the death and especially burial of your Savior. There was evening and and there was morning, the seventh day—your Sabbath Rest in Christ!

Now, a new day dawns. It’s the first day of the new creation. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. It’s the Eighth Day, dear hearers—the day of eternal peace and rest: peace with God because the death of Jesus Christ makes satisfaction for the sin of the world—for your sin—and rest because it is finished—there is no work to do to save yourself!

It is the Eighth Day, a fact that is celebrated on this evening when the Church take the earliest opportunity celebrate the Lord’s resurrection. As She does so, on this evening, Her members have baptisms in mind; at least, you should have been reminded of yours—you rehearsed the Rite of Baptism this evening, dear hearers, in order to remind you of your own baptisms. St. Peter continued after relating Jesus’ proclamation of victory to the spirits in prison that in the ark built by Noah, a few, eight souls in all, were saved by water: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” (1 Peter 3:21-22) So dear hearers, direct your eyes to the font. In this or one similar you were likely baptized. There, by water and the word, you have put on Christ and the Holy Spirit has worked faith in you as He has pleased. There, you first died to your sin and, just as Jesus rose from the grave, a new man arose from the water to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

It is no coincidence that the font here, and many the world over, are eight-sided. The eight sides hearken you back to two biblical truths. First, as baptism is the New Testament sign of the covenant corresponding to Old Testament circumcision, as that took place on the newborn’s eight day, the font is eight sided. Second, in addition to all of the stuff you are taught regarding baptism in the Small Catechism, a right and true exposition of Holy Scripture, at the font, when you were Baptized according to the institution of Jesus Christ, you were granted entrance into the Eighth Day of creation—the first day of the new creation. In your baptism, you are made a part of the new creation. Two eighth days bound up in the symbolism of an eight-sided font, and both of those eighth days so very much related: a covenant which promised eternal salvation.

But, as concerns the Eighth Day of creation, the eternal day in which you now reside but not yet realize, you are a new creation, created in Christ Jesus’ image by water and the Word, given the benefits of His passion, death, and resurrection. No longer do sin and death have dominion over you, because Jesus died for your sin and rose again for your life. This, He proclaimed to you as you were baptized, clothed with a robe washed white in His blood, when He called you by your name, and the Father called you His son. You are made a co-heir with Jesus Christ of His heavenly things. Salvation is yours! Redemption is yours! Freedom from sin and death is yours! You are baptized! You have been placed into God’s covenant of salvation.

At the font is given to you the self-giving love exemplified in Jesus’ foot washing and finished at the cross. There is declared of you, as Jesus said on the night when He was betrayed, that you are clean. (cf. John 13:10) Jesus called out τέτελεσται and won for you, in full, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. This is Jesus’ self-giving love, that He lived and died for you, and grafted you to Himself by way of your being baptized into His death and resurrection.

Therefore, His peace and rest are yours. Jesus Christ won these for you by His death for your sin. You are made right with God through the satisfactory death of the Son, and this is given to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. Peace with God is yours! You can rest secure in the knowledge that you are saved because the Christ died, rested in the grave, and rose again in victory for you. These are yours by way of your baptism, and they all are summed up in one, small sentence: You are forgiven for all of your sins.

Jesus told a parable of man who owned a vineyard. He had a hired vinedresser. In his vineyard was a fig tree. Over the course of three years, day after day, in season, the man went to the tree looking for fruit. He never found any. He told his man to cut it down; “Why should it use up the ground?”

To the man, this tree was a waste of space and resources. He let it live and grow for three years, hoping that it would produce fruit—that it would do what it is supposed to do. It never did. Why should this tree continue to take the time and land away from some other tree or plant that would actually produce fruit? Why should the man bear with it any longer waiting for this fig tree to do the thing for which it was planted.

But the vinedresser had another idea. Give it another year. He would dig a trench around it and fill it with fertilizer. He would pay it some extra special attention, give it some extra care. And if, at the end of that year of more and better care it still did not produce fruit, cut it down. The vinedresser told his master, “Let it alone this year also.”

Now, this seems like an odd text to bring up when you’ve just heard of the Passion of Jesus according to St. John. As you know, however, Jesus spoke seven times from the cross before He died. John gives three of those words. The other four come from Matthew and Luke. The parable of the fig tree is related to the first word: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Now, I could go into how characters are related. On the outset, the man who owned the vineyard would be the Father and the vinedresser would be the Son. That connection can be made, despite Jesus at one time referring to the Father as the Vinedresser because when He did so, He called Himself the vine, so for the sake of this parable, the characters are different than in that I AM from St. John’s Gospel. (cf. John 15:1ff) In the parable of the fig tree, the man in righteous wrath wants to cut down the tree, but the vinedresser pleads the case for the tree. That would mean that the tree is representative of those for whom Jesus prayed on the cross.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the parable and it’s relation to the first of Jesus’ seven last words is that when the vinedresser said, “Let it alone,” he used the same word in Greek as Jesus did from the cross when He begged, “Forgive them.” The plea for mercy is the same in both cases.

So, when the vinedresser pled for mercy, he sought to stay the wrath of the owner of the vineyard. Likewise, when Jesus pled for mercy, he sought to stay the wrath of the Father against those who were crucifying Him.

It’s an odd request, if you really think about it. First, that Jesus would beg the Father’s forgiveness for those who are crucifying Him, putting to death an innocent man, convicted in a sham trial—this punishment only had the appearance of being proper and righteous. Such an act would most certainly draw the ire of God the Father. Yet, it had to be done. That God would use such an evil act—a murder—is a mystery, apart from the need for shedding of blood toward the remission of sins. (cf. Hebrews 9:22)

Did Jesus’ executioners know what they were doing? I would say not. Jesus said as much. I’m sure they had no idea that they were playing a part in their own salvation, and that of the world. I suppose, however, that Jesus’ words meant more than they didn’t know that they were pawns in the execution of an innocent man, even including those who knew that His trial was a sham. Jesus once told his opponents that they were children of the devil, and they would not hear it. (cf. John 8:44) These knew that they were doing that which was evil, but I’m of the mind that they believed they were doing it for some greater good, even if they only had to convince themselves that what they were doing was right, even if it involved an evil act. In short, they were deceived, so they didn’t know what they were doing, and Jesus pled for mercy.

And Jesus shed His blood and gave His life in order that they would receive mercy. Who knows, maybe some of them repented and received that which was spoken before Pilate: “His blood be on us and on our children.” (Matthew 27:25) Leave it alone, the vinedresser begged. Perhaps in a year the tree will bear fruit. Who knows about Jesus’ executioners, right? But this I do know, had any of them repented and confessed the faith, the angels and the whole company of heaven rejoiced over him. (cf. Luke 15:7, 10)

Doesn’t it seem like it would be a good thing if Jesus’ prayer as He hung on the cross could be extended to you? After all, you do find yourself afflicted by times of doing things that, in hindsight, you know you ought not to have done, sometimes even things which you didn’t even think evil or sinful in the moment—you did not know what you were doing You know that God, in His holiness and righteousness, ought to exact His wrath against you. So, the desire for mercy makes sense.

The good news, dear hearers, is that Jesus Christ is your shield, your sure defense. In giving His life on the cross, Jesus received all the wrath due you, because He placed Himself between you and the wrath of the Father. Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many, including your ransom.

So, He has pled on your behalf. He implores the Father for you, as the vinedresser did the owner of the vineyard, to have mercy on you because you are one for whom He has died. “Father, forgive them, let them be…” And you are—you are forgiven for all of your sins.

On this night on which the Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed, on which He instituted the Supper of His body and blood, it would do well to review Lutheran doctrine as it regards the Lord’s Supper.

I’ll begin simply with what the Sacrament of the Altar is. As just said and heard, in fewer words, “it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.” What Luther taught here is confirmed in the words of Christ Himself. Again, these are words you have been taught, the primary text of the Sacrament, and which you hear every Sunday:

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When you eat and drink the Sacrament of the Altar, you are eating and drinking Christ’s true body and blood. But these are still bread and wine, and this St. Paul teaches: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) The cup—the contents thereof—is a participation or communion in the blood of Christ and the bread of the body. The bread and body of Christ are united in a way incomprehensible to fallen man—participation or communion St. Paul called it—likewise the wine and blood of Christ, so that when you receive the Lord’s Supper, you are eating bread and body in one bite and drinking wine and blood in one sip. This is exactly why another name for the Sacrament is Holy Communion.

Why eat and drink Christ’s body and blood? Because there is life there, the life of God, eternal life. Jesus Christ gave His body to death and shed His blood as a propitiation for sins—the wages of which is death (cf. Romans 6:23)—so that men would not perish, but have eternal life. (cf. John 3:16) His body He gives you to eat and His blood to drink that you would remember Him, and, as St. Paul put it and you’ve been repeating all Lent, to proclaim His death till He comes again (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:26), and that you may have the forgiveness of your sins. Taste and see that the Lord is good (cf. Psalm 34:8); He gives you His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. These words, “for the remission of sins,” St. Matthew recorded Jesus saying as He instituted His Supper. (cf. Matthew 26:28) So, you eat and drink the Sacrament, recalling and proclaiming the sacrifice of Jesus for your forgiveness, and you eat and drink the forgiveness of your sins. “And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”

Those words from Matthew, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes them, and why doubt them since Jesus said them, has exactly what they say: the forgiveness of their sins.

Now, there are those who want to make the Sacrament compulsory. The intention is well-and-good, but doing so turns the Gospel into the Law. Jesus gives His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and commands and invites you to receive Him in His Supper. His command and invitation should be enough; there is no need for the church to add anything to that. Furthermore, when Jesus says, “Do this,” there is no “or else,” attached to it, much as there almost is with Holy Baptism. Therefore, there is no place for His Church on earth to compel the members of Christ’s Bride to receive the Sacrament.

As my old professor often liked to quip, “The opposite of an error is an error in the opposite direction.” As much as the church cannot force members to receive the Sacrament, it cannot force them not to take it, except in cases of manifest, unrepentant sin, or where the proclamation of the Lord’s death differs between person and congregation. This is the error in the opposite direction of compulsion, and it is exactly what happens in those places which reduce the number of times the Sacrament is offered to once a quarter, certain Sundays, or every other week. In essence, this practice tells the communicant, “You may earnestly desire Jesus today in His Sacrament, but you will not receive it.”

So, what is the church to do? Teach the Sacrament in all of it’s purity. Jesus invites you to eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of sins. Teach the people how much they need Jesus, and the forgiveness that He won on the cross and gives in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. And offer the Sacrament often, “every Lord’s Day,” as the saying goes, and even on other occasions—often.

What Luther preached regarding the Sacrament of the Altar, as recorded in the Large Catechism, speaks volumes in this regard:

“If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.” The Sacrament is defense and antidote against these knives, darts, and arrows. There, Jesus gives you Himself, who overcame the assaults of the devil and conquered him who would throw these knives, darts, and arrows at you. So, then, if Jesus gives Himself to you and has overcome and conquered the devil, then you can be assured of this: you are forgiven for all of your sins—that is the “you” you put yourself into.