I can’t help but think of a wedding sermon with today’s text. After all, Mark recorded the words of Jesus thus: “’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.” A man and a woman are being given to each other—they are a gift to each other—and they are being joined together. While there is mutual consent on the part of the man and the woman, it is interesting to note that they are each more recipient than giver. Let me explain: The woman gives herself to the man, but so does her Father, as does God; therefore, a man ought to see his wife as a gift from her, her father, and especially God, and the same is said of a woman with regard to her husband.

Scripture uses this image of husband and wife to describe how things are between Himself and His Church. St. Paul illustrated this beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians:

So, while texts describing weddings and marriage are properly understood as referring to a man and his wife, in light of marriage as described by St. Paul, marriage texts should also be understood as that between Christ and His Bride, the Church, and you, Her members.

Also, for the third week in a row, you heard Jesus say, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (or something like it). So, once again, I’ll repeat: little children are completely givable to. They can only receive and have nothing to offer toward their livelihood. They receive—and so they exemplify faith. I guess another quality of children that exemplifies faith, especially one that has been put into practice here these past few weeks, is that they often need to have things repeated to them.

There is an idea of wholeness the resonates in all of this. A man gives himself wholly to his wife and vice versa. Parents put the whole of their being and effort into being a parent—everything they do is for the sake of parenting. It’s like you put the whole of your being into being someone else’s someone. Think about it, when you are asked who you are, a big part of your answer is, “I am her husband,” or, “I am his father,” or the like.

At the same time being a husband or wife is a bigger thing that being a parent. Much bigger. Children leave their parents to join to their spouse. Furthermore, it’s like a new life begins with marriage. Two become one flesh. A Roman Catholic priest at a wedding I attended once described it this way: you no longer just think of one of these two or the other; now that they’re married, whenever you think of one of them, you automatically always think of the other. That’s what marriage does; that’s how the wholeness of this one flesh union finds an expression in the rest of the world.

So also should you think of the marriage between Christ and His Bride. Yes, Jesus is the enfleshed Second Person of the Holy Trinity, but by His life, death, and resurrection, He created for Himself His Church, fulfilling the narrative of God and His Chosen People. And, as St. Paul put it, He presented to Himself His Bride. Now, you ought not think of only Jesus alone, but Jesus and His Church.

And you, being a part of the Church, began a new life when you were made a part of the Bride. You were joined to Christ and made a child of God, the Father. Your wholeness is in Jesus, your Bridegroom and you are totally givable to by the Father of all mercies. St. Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.“ (Galatians 2:20) Does that not sound like marriage to you?

Well, here’s a beautiful illustration to help that along. Two of Jesus’ last words from the cross help to paint the crucifixion as a wedding scene. Seeing John and His mother standing near the foot of the cross, He leaves His mother with the words, “Woman, behold, your son! Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26-27) Then, He left His Father crying out, “’Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” He is joined to His Bride in His Death for Her, as He gave Himself to Her in order that He would present Her to Himself spotless and without blemish.

Now, all of this ought to be understood in the context of the frailty of this human flesh. Yes, husband and wife ought love each other and give wholly of themselves to each other, but does it always work that way? No, it absolutely never does. Individual expectations aren’t met, blame is cast, and the relationship is harmed as a result. Pride and personal desire often get in the way of wholly given oneself to another. Loyalties are tested and pitted against each other. The result is imperfect and broken marriages and damaged children. The sickness of sin infects all, and propagates itself in these destructive cycles and tendencies.

It plays out, even more terrifyingly, in your life as a member of the Bride of Christ. Divided loyalties, pride, and personal desire lead to eternal destruction. Brought to their destructive end, when the Bridegroom returns to take His Bride to be with Him in eternity, the word from the Master is, “I do not know you.” (cf. Matthew 25:12) No more frightening words can be uttered from the mouth of God at the End of Days. Deny your givable-to-ness, your reliance on Christ for your redemption and salvation, and at the Last, He will deny you. “[W]hoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)

So, how do you guard against that? Better, I say, it is to acknowledge that it exists in you, confess it, and be absolved of it. Nothing brings greater joy to the Bridegroom and His angels than that you repent of your sins and receive the forgiveness for which He gave Himself over to death. Jesus is most Bridegroom to you when He gives Himself to you and you receive Him for your forgiveness, life, and salvation—here in these words, in the words of Holy Absolution, in the waters of Holy Baptism, and in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

Where your love as a member of the Bride of Christ for Him wavers and fails, His love for you as your Bridegroom never does. He has given Himself wholly for you, that you would be wholly His. And as you are now wholly reliant on His grace, you receive that grace in order that you would be wholly His in eternity. For that day, by His mercy and grace, you wholly wait and hope, knowing that He has promised wholly to bring you through it to Himself. Dear Bride of Christ, rejoice! Your Bridegroom has come and is coming for you! He now gives Himself wholly for you, and you are forgiven for all of your sins.

Jesus said,

How dear to God are these little ones! Jesus says that their angels always see the Face of His Father. There are angels assigned to His little ones, and they are always before the throne of God. These angels, messengers of God, are much more than part of God’s creation that merely gaze upon the Face of the Father. St. John wrote that under the leadership of Michael the archangel, the angels of God cast the dragon and those angels who followed him from the Face of God. The dragon is the devil and Satan, that serpent of old. (cf. Revelation 12:7-9) The prophet Daniel also wrote of Michael, the great prince who watches over the sons of the children of Israel, who on the last day will come at the time of great conflict, but that the people of God would be delivered through it. (cf. Daniel 12:1-2) It is these warrior-messengers of God that keep watch over the little ones, and they are always before the Face of the Father.

It all begs the question; who are “these little ones?” Well, you’d certainly be right in calling them children, but “these little ones” are more than children.

Today’s text picks up in St. Matthew’s Gospel what you heard last week from St. Mark’s Gospel: the disciples arguing about who among them is the greatest and the example of divine humility that Jesus gives is to stoop down to receive a little child—a little, inncocent child. So, it is often said of children that they have guardian angels because of their so-called innocence, which is properly understood as naiveté, blissful ignorance, and utter dependence on others for their livelihood. It is said that their guardian angels are often very busy keeping their little ones safe due to the constant danger they put themselves in and often come out of seemingly unscathed. Because of this “innocence,” it could be said that children need some sort of guardian angel.

However, like I said, “these little ones” means something more than children—more, even, than believing children—they are the ones, young and old, who have been given faith in YHWH, the only true God, and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, for their salvation. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Those who are to enter the kingdom of heaven—that is, those who have been given faith—are described to be as little children. It is that same innocence mentioned before that Jesus is referring to. You who believe and trust in Jesus Christ have been turned, or converted. This is the work of the Holy Spirit when and when He pleases to convert people, as is confessed in the Augsburg Confession (cf. ACV), and having been converted, you become like little children—naive, blissfully ignorant, and utterly dependent on another for your livelihood. Like a little child, a Christian is completely givable to, and without this grace from God, a person would be utterly lost, in this life and for the next.

Therefore, dear Baptized, you have an angel who always sees the face of the Father in heaven. This should be of great comfort to you. Your Father in heaven, in Jesus Christ, has assigned one of his warrior-messengers to you. And this angel of yours is always before the face of the Father who is Jesus Christ, whom the Scriptures describe as the glory of the Father. (cf. John 1:14) It would not be out of line to imagine that your angel is before the face of God in your stead, and certainly for you, holding the place that is yours in glory, as they are there now continually beholding Him as their glory and worshiping Him in eternity.

“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” (Psalm 91:11 KJV) The first verse of today’s Gradual would suggest that in addition to being ever before the face of God that your guardian angel keeps you in all your ways, that they are always keeping watch over you. How these warrior-messengers are always before the face of the Father and watching over you is a divine mystery, but here they are, keeping a guarding eye on you while reporting to your Father in heaven what you are doing and what you are needing.

And as that little, humble child, you are completely givable to. God gives to you to supply all of your needs. He sends the sun and the rain upon you. He sends messengers who are men to proclaim to you the Word of God—Law to kill you and Gospel to raise you to newness of life. And “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” for, you could say, they see their charges receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for their sins and given forgiveness, life, and salvation.

As stated, the disciples were arguing to begin today’s lesson was over who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The idea of being great causes swollen heads and broad shoulders which prevent entrance through narrow gate of Jesus Christ into eternity. (cf. Matthew 7:13-14) This hubristic idea of greatness is sin. Therefore, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

“[W]hoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea,” Jesus said. So, what would cause one of these little ones to sin? What would cause a person to have an inflated ego and the desire for greatness? If it is a hand or a foot or an eye, it would be better that one enter into eternity without this member. (cf. Matthew 5:29-30) But it isn’t a hand or a foot or an eye that causes sin. How about a teacher or leader or someone that is looked up to? Certainly these could lead one into sin; persuasive false teaching, erroneous charisma, ego-stroking sayings—any of these uttered by someone in a position of authority do and have led many a person into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Many would be better off if these false teachers had a millstone hung around their necks and were tossed into the sea, but these teachers do not cause sin. What causes sin? Jesus answered,

It is from your heart that evil comes. It is from within. It is your old, evil nature that causes you to sin. From there comes ideas of greatness and the jockeying for position that creates big heads and broad shoulders.

The heart is a vile organ, you could say. The prophet Jeremiah certainly does: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Not a hand, nor foot, nor eye, nor false teacher will cause you to sin. “The devil made me do it” is a faulty assertion. You sin by your fault, by your own fault, by your own most grievous fault. Any idea of greatness that you may have of yourself, that you are good and right and powerful, is your sin, and it comes from within you.

These ideas of greatness always lead to the idea that you can make it on your own. Parents can attest to seeing it in their children, who develop the idea that they are able to do that thing which you know they cannot do without your assistance or that you must do for them. Yet, they are insistent that they have to do it on their own. They are exploring their greatness; “If I can do this without mommy or daddy, then I don’t need them. I am great enough on my own.” Sin does the same with you before your Father in heaven. It teaches you that you don’t need your guardian angel. It teaches you, even more treacherously, that you don’t need the Savior, Jesus Christ, because you are great enough to save yourself.

But there is only one way to greatness. And that is to be totally given to by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, as a little child must be given to. It is to be humbled to realize that you are totally incapable of saving yourself and to see your need for a Savior. Thanks be to God that Jesus is always there, that your angel is always before Him, and that He is your Savior to forgive you.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m preaching all of the same kind of stuff that you heard last week, aside from the fact that a lot of it was read again in today’s lesson. Well, if you’re anything like the man in the pulpit, you did alright with this topic coming away from last week’s sermon for the first little while, maybe a day and a half. But, as Old Adam always does, he wars against the goodness of the Word of God, especially that bit which you have most recently heard and read. So, come today, you probably needed to hear it all again. But then, generally speaking, that’s why you always hear the Law every week to drown and kill the Old Man and the Gospel—especially the Absolution—to renew and bring the New Man to life. Week-in and week-out, it’s always the same thing.

It’s no wonder then, that everyone who believes in the Father and trusts in His Son is given a guardian angel, because they daily need God’s help and providence. So, by God’s grace, Luther has provided daily prayers asking for just that, and for the help of His holy angels. At night, you can pray:

And, in the morning when you get up:

In both prayers, you commend yourself into the Father’s gracious keeping, humbly acknowledging that you are lost apart from His grace. Both times, you ask for His holy angel to be with you, to guard you against the wicked Foe, just as that warrior Michael cast him out of the presence of the Father. And God grants it because you are His dear little one.

How dear? For you, the Son took on human flesh, descending a little lower than the angels (cf. Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:9) and shed His blood on the cross for your forgiveness. For you He died and rose again that you would be turned to Him by His grace and forgiven for your sins. For you, He sends an angel to guard you and keep you in all your ways, and who always sees your heavenly Father’s face. You are His dear little one, saved by grace through faith, given to in Jesus Christ, your Savior, forgiven for all of your sins, made to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, you laud and magnify His glorious name here on earth as you look forward to doing so with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in eternity, evermore praising Him and singing that song that they sing: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8)

For now, you rejoice that you are His dear little one for whom He has assigned an angel who stands before His face. He sees your need and graciously supplies for your need. For now, you sing the songs with the angels while still on earth, as you are daily prepared to be with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. This is yours for the sake of Jesus Christ, because you are forgiven for all of your sins.

Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John up to the top of a mountain. While they were there, the rest of the disciples were approached by a man whose son was possessed. So violent was this spirit, that it would throw down the man’s son into convulsions, including foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and becoming rigid. Many times, this spirit caused the son to convulse into water or fire. Today, this mute spirit might be mistaken for epilepsy.

The man had hoped that Jesus’ disciples would be able to exorcise his son. The disciples must have thought that they could, too. They had done the same before. Several chapters before today’s text, Jesus had “appointed twelve…so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.” (Mark 3:14-15) A little while after that, Jesus sent them out to two-by-two into the surrounding towns and villages where they “proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” (Mark 6:12-13) “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.” (Mark 6:30) Casting out demons was something that Jesus’ disciples were used to doing, certainly something that they had done before; surely they would be able to cast out the demon from this man’s son, or so they thought.

They were not able to. Now, you know how things often go when you try to do something and fail. There are those around who will point and laugh, mocking you in the process. There are your opponents who will use any failure as evidence against you in one cause or another, whether or not their point is valid. It’s the kind of thing you see in political attack ad after political attack ad; one candidate’s failures are given as proof that they should not be elected to the office they are running for, and his or her opponent responds in kind. It’s the kind of thing you probably saw and heard in the recent presidential and debate (I wouldn’t know as I didn’t watch it). And, it’s exactly what the scribes and the nine disciples were doing when Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain.

Jesus asked what was going on, though He certainly knew. The man came forward and answers Him curiously:

He says to Jesus, “I brought my son to you.” Notice what he didn’t say. “I knew these men who follow you have great power to cast out demons, so I brought my son to them.” No, “I brought my son to you.” It’s almost as if the man sought Jesus through His disciples, confirming, at least in this man, what Jesus would later tell His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20), words similar to what He must have told them when He sent them out two-by-two.

Still, the man’s son is possessed. The nine disciples were unable to exorcise his son. The scribes thought the disciples utterly powerless, and this likely confirmed their bias against Jesus. And the disciples were confused, wondering why this time they could not cast out a demon when they had done it before, probably rebutting the scribes by proclaiming to them and the crowds, “We’ve done it before.”

Jesus responded, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”

There’s a clue in that and the man’s earlier response to Jesus to what is going on. The scribes and nine disciples, and most likely the crowds who came to watch the dispute, all thought the power to exorcise the demons rested in them. “O faithless generation,” Jesus called them.

It’s a clever trap set for humanity by the devil, the world, and your sinful nature. It started all the way back in Genesis when the crafty serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…? You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (cf. Genes 3:1, 4-5) Eve took some of the fruit, ate it, and gave some to her silent husband and he, too, ate. Ever since then, man’s eyes have been closed to what is truly good and what is truly evil. Ever since then, man has thought himself to be like God; that he was the only one responsible for his gains and successes (yet, it is always someone else’s fault when he fails).

It’s what the scribes and Pharisees thought of their knowledge and religion, puffed up with a sense of superiority over the common man—“Look how learned and righteous I am”—even at times proclaiming as much before God in the synagogue, in a way that only seems grateful, even if only in parables: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” (Luke 18:11-12) They probably wasted no time in asserting their superior knowledge into their dispute with the nine disciples as to why they failed to cast out the son’s demon and how to do it right.

It’s even what the nine disciples were dealing with. They most likely thought themselves experts in exorcising because they had done it before. They falsely believed the authority they had been given from Jesus to cast out demons to be some self-given power. (cf. Mark 3:15) They thought themselves like God, knowing good and evil, and having the power to cast out demons.

It’s a trap demonstrated in the book of Judges, which shows that a period of prosperity is followed by a time of apostasy as part of an ongoing cycle. The Israelites lived in God-given splendor and peace, and after a time, they believed they were the cause and source of the splendor and peace they enjoyed. They no longer recognized God as the giver of the peace and blessings they enjoyed. An oppressor rose up and over the Israelites, proclaiming to them the law of God in a very overbearing and often deadly manner. In time, the Israelites cried out in despair, and God would send a deliverer—a judge—to rid them of the oppressor. Then they would again live in a period of prosperity and peace. Lather, rinse, repeat…

I called it an ongoing cycle. This cycle continued well past the book of Judges; it continues even to this day. In the lives of many individual believers, prosperity often leads to some degree of apostasy which leads to oppression of some sort. People will have good times for which they begin to thank themselves, and the Law of God is proclaimed which knocks them down a notch. At times, this same cycle will manifest itself in a group of people, as could be deemed to have happened at the time of the Reformation with the church of the Papacy, the Lutheran reformers, and the ever encroaching Turks from the east.

Hearing of this cycle, you should be able to recognize it in yourself. From time to time, you get up on your high horse. You may even proclaim for all to hear, “I did this.” “I built this.” “I earned this.” …or something similar. You start to trust in yourself for all that you need. You may even begin to trust in yourself for your salvation. Before you know it, you begin to sound like that Pharisee: “I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, etc.” The next thing you know, you are knocked off your horse by one little word—you fall to one little indiscretion, one simple mistake, one gross failure…one sin. It is inevitable, for all sin and fall short of the glory of God. (cf. Romans 3:23)

Your trust in yourself leads only to your doom. Trusting in yourself for your salvation and denying that your salvation is God’s work is sin. You simply cannot measure up to God’s glory; there is nothing you can do in order to be like God. Like the scribes and Pharisees and the nine disciples in today’s text, you have no self-gained power to avert your doom.

Jesus might as well have been speaking to you: “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” But, Jesus also says, “[A]ll things are possible for one who believes.”

“I believe; help my unbelief!” The man’s cry becomes your own cry for mercy when you are confronted with God’s Law. You see, the faith that you have is God-given—“I believe”—and it is constantly up against your Old Adam which seeks to draw you away from God and to trust only in yourself, so in faith you cry out for that mercy: “Help my unbelief!”

This faith has for it’s object Jesus Christ. And this only is saving faith, and none other, which faith has for it’s object the only true God and His Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, even as He once said to Nicodemus, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18)

You see, while you can never measure up to God’s glory, Jesus Christ, the Son of God did, and He did it for you. The Word of God took on human flesh and was born of the virgin Mary to be your substitute. He perfectly kept the Law of God, fulfilling every part of it for you, and ultimately, He was the sacrifice for sin that the Law demanded—He was and is the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, the once-for-all deliverer from the oppressor that is sin, death, and the devil. Dear hearers, He has taken your sin from you and died on the cross with it—you died with Christ; now, it is no longer you who live but Jesus the Christ lives in you. The life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, who loves you and gave His life for you. (cf. Galatians 2:20) You live by faith in the Son of God—“I believe; help my unbelief!”

When you pray that, you are asking that you would die to yourself and live to Jesus Christ alone. You acknowledge that your faith is weak on account of your sinful nature, that you believe not as a result of any work you have done, that you can, therefore, do nothing to remain faithful or strengthen your faith, and that trust in yourself for anything is utter and deadly foolishness. It is a cry to God out of sheer helplessness, futility, humility, and emptiness. And, quite importantly, It is a God-given plea for His mercy and grace.

As a friend of mine once wrote:

That is the Christian life—dying to yourself, martyring this puffed-up Saint Me, as it was put—and rising again daily to newness of life in Christ Jesus. By God’s grace, you do not trust in yourself, but in God’s Son, Jesus your Savior, because He has done everything you could not do to save you, and God gives it to you freely, without any worthiness or merit in you, solely out of His Fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.

“I believe; help my unbelief,” the man cried out. Jesus, who is the man’s Savior and his son’s Savior, drove the spirit from the boy. No longer did this spirit seize him. The Kingdom of God had come to the boy. (cf. Matthew 12:28) You might like to think that Jesus said to the man and the boy what He had often said to people He healed: “Your faith has saved you.” (cf. Mark 5:34; 10:52, at least in the Greek)

There is a beautiful passage in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which speaks to this:

God has reigned from the wood. The Son of God shed His blood and died on the cross, his throne of grace, whence flows to you and to all His grace and mercy. God’s kingdom has come to you and is come to you. You have been exorcised of sin and death and continue to be by the grace and mercy of God. He comes to you today in Word and Sacrament to drown again your Old Adam, drive from you the devil and all evil, and give to you anew faith to believe and trust in Him for your salvation—Jesus helps your unbelief! He has done for you what you could not do for yourself in order to save you, and gives you faith to believe it and trust in Him solely for your salvation. Therefore, your God-given faith has saved you; you are forgiven for all of your sins.

The former director of the Seminary Chorus once told of a time in his past where he was on a plane reading a book on homiletics. The passenger in the seat next to him asked what he was reading, and he told them. They asked him, “What’s homiletics?” So, he went on to explain that homiletics is the study of preaching—what to preach, how to preach, why to preach, etc. As he was explaining this, a look of confusion developed on the passenger’s face, and when the director finished his explanation, they asked, “Why don’t you preach from the heart?” “Because I know what’s in there, and it’s not good,” he replied.

Jesus said,

I can identify with Rev. Gerike on many things, and especially the point he made to his neighbor that day. Preaching to you from my heart would do you no good because of the evil therein. You would not receive Jesus, except as a new law-bringer and an example to attempt to live up to. You would not hear about the forgiveness of your sins, but receive some lesson on self-justification and self-preservation. You would not receive life and salvation but a way which inevitably leads to death and damnation. I would be sharing my guilt with you, covering you with my guilt, and taking you all to hell right along with me.

I’ve borne my heart to you, generally speaking, and you should be able to identify with me. After all, the law of God is this, “[Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” It is not only my heart which issues these things, but the heart of all men. As St. Paul wrote, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Why have all sinned? Because from all human hearts “come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness;” from all human hearts proceed sin. “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

It can be a wonder then, that there are Christians who like to use the phrase, “I gave my heart to Jesus.” Hearing that, and knowing what Jesus said in today’s Gospel, one wonders why He would want such a despicable thing. Human hearts are vile and grotesque, full of all kinds of evil, full of all kinds of sins. What is Jesus supposed to do with it?

Given what Jesus said in today’s text, if you come at the phrase, “Gave my heart to Jesus,” as some sort of decision theology, it’s a wonder that anyone, let alone a Christian, might say anything like that. It’s foolishness to proclaim that one has made the choice to follow Jesus, to be His disciple, to become a son of God. Maybe they mean something else by that…

Which is a reason why I would warn you against walking up to one such as these and calling them a fool. Dear hearers, another reason is because thinking like that is also an evil thought. Do not think too highly of yourselves, for your hearts are as dark and vile as your fellow Christians who “gave their hearts to Jesus.” And you, too, can and will, from time to time, speak of your being a Christian as having something to do with you—whether that be your believing in Jesus, your confession of sins, or your confession of the faith. After all, this is all stuff you “believe with your heart and confess with your mouth.” (cf. Romans 10:9)

Don’t think for a minute that your faith or confession is supposed to come from you, with your vile, grotesque, dark, sin-filled heart! “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 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.” It follows that if what comes out of a man defiles him, then nothing that comes out of him purifies him or shows him to be pure. In other words, there is nothing that you do, from your heart, which draws you closer to Jesus, makes you one with Jesus…saves you. So, what does St. Paul mean?

“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him…whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled…” The thinking may be that if what comes out of a man defiles him then there must be something that he can put into himself which works the opposite. That’s just as wrong, as Jesus here said. What you put into yourself does not enter your heart, but your stomach; eventually this is eliminated. At the risk of adding to Jesus’ words, what you put into yourselves enters the lungs and is quickly eliminated before the next breath.

These things do not reach the heart, where the vileness of man resides. And even if they could, they have no power to purify that place from which proceeds “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” Let me put it another way: you cannot place anything into you that makes its way to your vile heart in order to purify it. What you place there only further proves its insatiable appetite for sin.

So, while it’s correct to think of any flavor of decision theology as false theology, and any statement to the effect of asking Jesus into one’s heart as a poor expression of faith, at best, so you ought also be warned that all of the evil thoughts you have of them do more to condemn you than help them. Now, I don’t mean to give credence to the false doctrine that is decision theology, but I do mean to say that your hearts are just as vile, dark, and grotesque as the hearts of those who “invited Jesus” to be there.

So, again, it must be asked, what did St. Paul mean?

Let me put it to you this way. Nothing you place into yourselves purifies your hearts. This is what Jesus is saying: it’s not about you, it’s about Him. So it is that St. Paul was inspired to write to the Romans,

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach).” “Faith comes by hearing,” he also wrote, “and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) It’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. You didn’t give your heart to Jesus, you didn’t invite Jesus into your heart; on the contrary, Jesus took the defilement from your heart, from the hearts of all men, and died with that defilement, that sin, on the cross. That’s why Paul said, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) That is the goal of all preaching: that the Word of God be proclaimed to you in all purity, that you would come to know, again and again, Jesus Christ crucified for you!

So again, I tell you, Jesus took what was in your heart, in the hearts of all men dead, alive, and to be born—all “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness”—becoming the most defiled person creation has ever known and sacrificed Himself on the altar of Golgotha upon which His cross was planted. Nailed to the cross, Jesus shed His blood and died as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. (cf. 1 John 2:2) Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men…

…And especially of them that believe. Yes, dear hearers, Jesus Christ is your Savior. He was crucified and died for you, and shed His blood for the propitiation of your sins, even as His side was pierced after He died, from which wound flowed water and blood—those signs which mark the purification and recreation of your vile, grotesque, dark, dead hearts He has taken the vileness and sin from you; He has taken your vile, grotesque, and dark hearts from you and was crucified with them, and given you a new heart, even as the Psalmist sings (cf. Psalm 51:10), and you repeat in the Offertory—created a new heart in which He is now present, crucified and risen. The Word of God is near you…in your heart. He creates a new heart and places Himself there and in your fellow Christians by means: as He is combined with water that is poured over your heads or into which you where dunked, as the Word is proclaimed into your ears (this very Word of God as well as the words of Holy Absolution), and as He gives to you his very body and blood shed in the forms of bread and wine for your consumption. Jesus is present in these means in order that He would be present in your hearts.

“But, wait a minute, pastor,” you might be thinking. “Didn’t you just say we can’t put anything into ourselves to purify ourselves?” Yes, I did, exactly. So, how does that line up with the Lord’s Supper? Well, the Lutheran Church believes, teaches, and confesses the Sacraments to be works of God. So, when the pastor Baptizes you, God is at work in the hands of that pastor, in the water, by the Word, to forgive that person and give them New Life. Likewise, while the pastor speaks the Words of Institution over the bread and the wine, and you take the bread and wine and eat it and drink it, God is at work in those means to give Himself, body and blood to you, for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Therefore, by the presence of the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in your mouths and in your hearts, you confess Him and believe that God raised Him from the dead, believing unto righteousness from a risen, cleansed, new heart, confessing unto salvation with lips made clean by the Gospel of Christ as if by coals from a fire. (cf. Isaiah 6:6-7) That is the way it works with the hearts of men unto salvation—they die and rise with Christ.

Dear hearers, by baptism into Christ Jesus, you have died and risen with Him. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you; the life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God who loves you and gave Himself for you. (cf. Galatians 2:20) It’s not about you, what you do, but it is about you, what was done for you. Oh, you still have darkness and vileness in your hearts—there is a war that wages in you between your old man and the new—but you live by God-given faith, in the sure and certain knowledge that Christ Jesus is in your heart, He has placed Himself there, that you have died and risen with Him; therefore, you are a new creation, and you are forgiven for all of your sins.

Dear Bev, Crystal, and Stacia; Ken and Adam; Bryson and Branson; and everyone assembled in this place: grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Father of all mercies who raised Him from the dead. Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” St. Paul laid out plainly in his roadmap that is chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 of his epistle to the church at Rome why exactly those who are in Christ are now not condemned. Perhaps, he heard or read an early draft of St. John’s Gospel, especially the portion read earlier, or more likely, heard from the other Apostles what it is that Jesus had said (and John would later record): “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned…”

That plain explanation is this: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The Father sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin in His flesh. Elsewhere, the Apostle put it this way: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8) This is a quick synopsis of the incarnation, life, and death of Jesus Christ.

In other words, in order to take on the sin of man, God had to take on the flesh of man, and did so in the person of His Son. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, lived a perfectly obedient life, keeping every law and precept of God, then, as the Law demanded blood for sin, Jesus shed His blood for the sins of all men of all times and of all places, carrying in His flesh the sin and sins of all mankind—past, present, and future. Though He Himself had committed no sin, He took all sin and sins into His holy flesh, and gave His life over to the penalty for all sin, suffering the full wrath of God in the place of all men. Jesus is your Lord and Savior because He stands between you and the wrath of God, sparing you by taking your penalty, having taken your sin and your place in judgment. That’s what it means to say that Christ is the world’s Redeemer, what it means to call Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, which means that Christ is YOUR Redeemer and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of YOU!

So, if Jesus is YOUR Redeemer who took away the sins of YOU, then if you are in Christ Jesus, then there is therefore now no condemnation for YOU. That Jesus was conceived, born, died, and rose again is well and good. In fact, it is the greatest of all miracles with the best of all consequences. Yet, even that is useless for those who are not in Christ; yet for those who are in Christ, no condemnation means forgiveness, life, and salvation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God does not desire to condemn the world, and in fact did not send His Son to that end, but as He desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4), He sent His Son to save the world which could not and cannot save itself, you included…Mike included.

Sin is bondage. It is death, and dead men cannot will themselves alive. Ever since the fall, man has been in bondage to sin, dead because of sin. But if God saves you, He gives you Life, for in His Son, He brought life and immortality to light: “[D]o not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord…who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…” (2 Timothy 1:8-10) Life and immortality—gifts which Mike now possesses, though his body is dead, and for which you and I press forward, only by faith in the Son of God who died and rose again.

For you see, being in Christ comes only through faith—that you believe in Him whom the Father sent as your propiation, trusting solely in His merits for your redemption and justification. “For by grace you have been saved through faith…” (Ephesians 2:8) That faith is given to you by grace from the mouth of God to you by means; specifically, God saves you, as St. Peter declared, by Baptism. (cf. 1 Peter 3:21) St. Paul also declared,

Being Baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ is to live and die with Him, to be placed in Christ. And if you are in Christ, then there is now no condemnation for you, for you are a new creation; the old has passed away and the new has come. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17)

This faith is all so very simple, yet so many foolishly reject it. These, as St. Paul declared, live by the flesh and not in the Spirit, for they have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, as St. Peter preached (cf. Acts 2:38), or rejected Him if they had. Those who walk according to the flesh would, in this setting, grieve without hope. They would have no resurrection to life everlasting to look forward to, no joyful reunion with those who have gone before.

But that is not you, dear saints of God, who loved Mike as a dear brother in Christ. He believed in and confessed Jesus Christ as His Savior, having been baptized into His death and resurrection, and now attained to the consummation of that Baptism. He trusted the Word of God here recorded in St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

And for you who believe and confess the same, there is hope. This is not some simple wishful thinking, but a real expectation that the promises of God will be fulfilled. In this case, it is that on the Last Day, the Father will send the Son once again, not humble and meek like an infant wrapped in swaddling cloths, but as the glorious King of kings and Lord of lords, as the Righteous Judge of all the earth. On that great and dreadful day, Mike will have been raised from the dead, without spot or blemish, without illness and disease, perfect as His God is perfect. And He will hear from the lips of Jesus the King, as a Shepherd to His sheep, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) He will say the same to you who believe and confess Jesus as the Christ, who will join with Mike and all the saints around the throne of God to sing…

…because you are forgiven for all of your sins. Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

Note: the YouTube video is of the entire service, taken from the back of the nave.

Note: This sermons was written and preached while dealing with the grief over a dying member.

The prophet Isaiah recorded these words from God: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…” (Isaiah 29:13) Today, you heard Jesus quote from Isaiah, these words which are full of Him, these words which He is: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

The words of Isaiah were fulfilled in the hearing of the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, though they were most certainly true throughout the history of Judah and Israel, and even into today. It centers around the word “tradition,” and all the baggage that it carries.

Tradition is not an evil word. Tradition is a good and noble concept, a gift of God like many others that would fall under the First Article. It’s what people do with tradition or view tradition that is evil, as is typically done with First Article gifts. Tradition is simply the things handed down from one generation to the next; it’s the things held onto that connect one to the past, to their past, a way in which to honor and give respect to those who have gone before.

It is traditional to enjoy a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving as a means to connect to a first group of settlers in New England and their meal of thanks. It is traditional to exchange gifts on Christmas in honor of the gift of Life that is come to earth in the incarnate Son of God and in remembrance of the gifts given to Him by the astrologers from the east.

Tradition is an important tool that God has given. If it were not for tradition, there wouldn’t remain many ancient works of literature from some of the greatest authors of history, such as Homer, Euripides, Plato, and Socrates, whose works in some cases weren’t written until centuries after they had died. Yet, you can read their works simply for the fact that they were passed down, word-for-word, from one generation to the next until they were inscribed. In that sense, then, you also have the Word of God—the Bible—handed down as a tradition. While many of the authors recorded their words or had them recorded, the Scriptures are given to one generation of Christians and the next, from age to age. It would follow, then, that the practices derived from the Scripture are traditions, too—such as the liturgy, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, the Lord’s Supper—handed down, through the generations, from God Himself, even as He has commanded, “As you are going,” and, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (cf. Matthew 28:19, Luke 22:19)

So, what is done in this gathering together to hear the Word of God and receive the Sacrament, is very traditional. It connects you with the church of all times and all places—dear listeners, the Word of God, the liturgy, the Sacraments, and even this hymnody, makes you a part of the church catholic (little-c)! That is the actual meaning of the word catholic: “according to the whole,” or “of all times and all places.” This is all very good. This traditional liturgy, the reverence given the Sacraments, even sacred hymnody, all make is so that you, as it has often been described, sing the same song as the ancient church.

But, there is a danger you can easily run into, and one which you have likely heard or even uttered. When a tradition is run for the tradition’s sake, it is always done because, “We’ve always done it that way.” Tradition in this sense does barely connects you to anything, spare a sense that this is the way your ancestors have done things. “It worked for them, it must work for us.” While that may be said, it never seeks to know why they did things one way or another. Tradition then becomes a thoughtless or mindless ritual. There is no value to tradition when it is run for tradition’s sake.

Into this mindset can be slipped any practice or ideal. “The elders always washed their hands, utensils, and couches before eating, and so do we.” Then, attached with this tradition is attached the piety which believes that it is the keeping of the tradition that pleases God. That’s why the Pharisees complained to Jesus when His disciples ate without washing their hands. And let me be clear here: the disciples weren’t merely eating their bread with dirty hands, they did not go through the ritual before-dinner washing, which carried a spiritual or religious significance for them over and above any hygienic reality. Therefore, to the Pharisees, not washing before eating was anti-traditional taboo. Jesus’ disciples ate bread with defiled hands, and this, in turn, defiled them in the sight of the Pharisees, and, so they believed, defiled them in the sight of God.

How does Jesus respond?

The Pharisees had taken the tradition of the elders, the ritual washing they used to practice, and elevated it to part of their religion. Now, it’s hard to say that the elders’ ritual was started to achieve some sort of godly cleanliness, that it started as a practice in order to please God. Perhaps it was; maybe it wasn’t. Maybe as part of this ritual was the recitation of a Psalm or prayer or the singing of some spiritual song, almost making it seem like it’s bordering on worship (I mean, be honest, who hasn’t at one time or another prayed or sang part of hymn when washing the dishes?). The point of today’s text, though, is that it had become a type or worship by the time Jesus was walking among the Pharisees, who did many such things, teaching as doctrines the traditions of men. All of these traditions had been employed without any evidence from the Word of God, and at times, completely against the Word of God.

It is not written that one must ritually wash their hands, utensils, and couches before eating in order to be found worthy before God. Nor is it written that one can neglect and reject honor and obedience to father and mother in place of showing that honor and obedience to God alone, to the detriment of one’s parents. Yet, in Jesus’ time, this is exactly what the people being taught by the Pharisees were receiving as the Word of God. The were teaching the traditions and commandments of men as the doctrines of God.

There are some modern parallels. For instance, there are holy orders that are set up as part of the Church of Rome. In these orders you can find monks and nuns who have abandoned honor for father and mother in place of a life fully devoted to God. Now, I do want to go on record as saying that there are some benefits to such an ascetic lifestyle, both spiritual and temporal, such as richer devotional life with more time spent in the Scriptures as well as some delicious breads, cheeses, coffees, and beers. The irony in that devotional life, however, is that this lifestyle is seen as being more holy and God-pleasing than other vocations, not the least of which is that of son and daughter. Our churches teach, however, that there are good works to be found and done in every God-given vocation, including son and daughter.

You’re not off the hook either, being members of the Lutheran church which, as you read through the Lutheran Confessions, reject those holy orders. The Pharisaic tradition of putting a glistening, godly polish on sin finds its way into your lives, too. It happens every time you make an excuse for a sin, every time you justify your sin. You hit your brother or sister because they hit you first or because your anger against them is just—retribution is justifiable. You took the pen, pencil, or other office supplies from your employer because you work hard and are due more compensation than your pay check shows. You gossip, speaking all manner of evils against your neighbor because they live in gross, manifest sin—it’s okay because it’s the truth that everybody knows, even though no one knows the whole story. “And many such things you do,” all of which may seem right, but are declared to be sin by the Law of God.

Jesus said, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:22) It is written in Exodus, “You shall not steal,” and “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:15-16) Of the second one, you’re taught, “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Of it all, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)

Both the polishing of sin and setting up traditions as doctrinal are means of justifying one’s actions before God. In a way, you could say that sin polishing is traditional, too. In any case, tradition has become religious idolatry—something that you must do in order to earn God’s favor, and so you go through the motions in order to get your fill of holiness for the week or feel better about yourself and the sins you’ve committed. In so doing, you do nothing more than honor God with your lips, but your hearts are far from Him, as Isaiah prophesied, Jesus quoted, and the Pharisees fulfilled.

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15) The Gospel is this: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He is come and has fulfilled the Law. That is why you are here to gather at the altar in the traditional liturgy, repent of all of your sin, all of the ways you have polished your sin with self-justifying sin (sin upon sin), and receive Him who is the fulfillment of the Law. Here is the good news for you, dear listeners: The Son of God did not come to destroy the Law, but He is the fulfillment of the Law, all of its precepts and demands. He kept the Law perfectly for you, and for you—did as the Law demanded you do—and He suffered and died as the Law demanded, as payment for sin, for your sin. He is come to you as the Law fulfiller, your sin-bearer, your Sacrifice as He has come to the church of all times and places, and He gives Himself to you for the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation.

That’s how tradition works with Jesus. In Him, there is no boasting, least of all in tradition and pedigree. This is how St. Paul put it:

Paul was an upright man, a Pharisee among Pharisees. He kept the Law (or so he may have thought) and even stood by all of those traditions of the elders. He did it all, and yet not one bit of it mattered when it came to Christ. Paul’s Pharisaic righteousness was no match for the righteousness He gained from Jesus Christ—from full and complete God-given faith and trust in Jesus and His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Paul describes his own righteousness as rubbish—“a steaming pile of dog crap” would be a better translation of the word he uses—compared to the righteousness that is His in Christ Jesus.

Being in Christ, St. Paul was rescued from his former Pharisaic ideals, especially those which ran counter to the Word of God. And in Christ, He was given the Biblical tradition of finding in Jesus the forgiveness of his sins in the means in which Jesus comes—in the Word, in Holy Baptism, in Holy Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper.

This is the tradition of God, handed down from generation to generation, practiced by the apostles, by St. Paul himself following his conversion, and commanded by God. By His command, Jesus invites you to Himself in these means, gives Himself to you in these means, joins you to Himself and His righteousness in these means, so that you, like St. Paul before, would count all of your self-righteousness and religious traditions as “rubbish,” and be conformed to His death so that you would attain to the resurrection from the dead, even as Jesus died and rose again for your salvation.

This gathering of the saints is a good tradition, dear listeners, and one not to be neglected. (cf. Hebrews 10:25) You are here, gathered by the Spirit of God around Word and Sacrament, as the saints gone before have been. You are here by grace to receive Jesus, who is truly, flesh-and-blood present. By Baptism, you, like the saints before you, have been and are joined to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, for the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation. In Holy Absolution, you are constantly reminded of your joining to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation. In the Lord’s Supper, you tangibly receive the benefits of Christ’s death to which you have been joined as He comes to you, sacrificed body and blood given in bread and wine. All of this is declared to you, in your hearing, by the Word of God, around all of which you are gathered. Jesus is graciously present for you in these means—His tradition, His doctrine, His commandment—and so you are forgiven for all of your sins.

After putting the topic off, in detail, for the past few weeks, today I will get to the details of the Lord’s Supper, as it pertains to our continuing stroll through John 6.

Feeding on the flesh or body of Jesus and drinking His blood is exactly what is done in the Lord’s Supper, “in, with, and under” bread and wine. And it is because of this, and especially verses 54-56, just quoted, that when you hear Jesus call Himself the Bread of Life and Living Bread, and when He says, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world,” your first instinct as a Christian who confess a real presence of Christ in the elements of the Sacrament is to hear Him talking about the Sacrament.

There is a term what what was just done, dear listeners; it’s called eisegesis, at least in a general sense; though you could say that this is reading and hearing John 6 exegetically. Eisegesis is to read a meaning into the text or to come at a text with a preconceived bias. It is the opposite of exegesis, which it to interpret what a text is saying. Listening to John 6 alone and hearing the Lord’s Supper is eisegetical; to bring other parts of John’s Gospel to John 6 (or his other writings), even parts of the other three Gospels, would be true exegesis. Exegesis holds fast to the tenet that Scripture interprets Scripture; therefore, when you come at John 6 with what Jesus says of bread and wine in Matthew, “This is my body…This is my blood,” (cf. Matthew 26:26-29), you rightly hear Jesus speaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Still, I have to preach about what Jesus is talking about here. Lutheran theologians throughout the ages have noted that this is not an obvious reference to the Lord’s Supper: the words of institution are not recorded, no wine is present, Jesus uses the word “flesh” and not “body,” and the crowd is generally hostile and unbelieving. Furthermore, these events happen some time before the Supper is instituted, which would make them, at best, proleptic to the Sacrament.

Nevertheless, the fact that Jesus is the Christ is not in question to John’s readers, nor to the people to whom Jesus spoke that day in Capernaum. What does it mean to be Christ? It means that He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (cf. John 1:29), that He is the Savior of the World (cf. john 4:42), that He accomplishes the salvation of the world by fulfilling every Lamb-sacrifice from the Old Testament and giving His life as a ransom for many. This, of course, He accomplished on the altar that was the hill called Skull wherein was planted the cross upon which He was nailed and died, giving His flesh and shedding His blood as the propitiation for your sins, and not yours only, but for the sins of the whole world. (cf. 1 John 2:2) So, what you are being pointed back to from these events in John 6 is the incarnation of the Word of God, as St. John previously wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

And, as mentioned last week, this is the point Jesus is making in John 6, that His flesh and blood are given for the sacrifice for the sins of the world. Hostility and unbelief do not effect Jesus’ status as the Christ—He is the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe. (cf. 1 Timothy 4:10) However, feeding on His flesh and drinking His blood is to trust solely in Him and His work for your salvation; it is true food in that it truly saves. Other breads, meats, and drinks, all for which you must work, do not lead to salvation—while they certainly nourish the body, they are not true food that leads to salvation. A father in the faith, St. Augustine, put it this way: “This is then to eat the meat, not that which perisheth, but that which endureth unto eternal life. To what purpose dost thou make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and thou hast eaten already.” That last sentence is most especially poignant: “Believe, and thou hast eaten already.”

Now, there is something to guard against here. “Believe, and thou hast eaten already,” St. Augustine wrote, and the temptation is to think that food eaten in faith is not real. This is to assume that faith isn’t real. “Seeing is believing,” the old axiom goes, and, oh, how wrong it is. “[F]aith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote. (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is the substance of things hoped for—a Christian hopes for life everlasting, and this isn’t simply wishful thinking, but sure and certain knowledge that in the flesh-and-blood sacrifice of Jesus the Christ there is redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Faith is the evidence of things not seen—you do not and cannot see, touch, feel, taste, or in any other way sense that you are saved. In fact, all physical evidence would point to the contrary—oh, how poor and miserable a sinner you are. But, faith knows otherwise. Faith sees the physical evidence, confesses it, pushing it aside, and trusts completely in the flesh and blood of Jesus the Christ for forgiveness and salvation—and this is the height of truth, declared to you by Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (cf. John 14:6) Faith is quite real, no matter how “nonphysical” it is or perceived to be ; therefore, eating of Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood is true as much as they are real food and drink; any Jesus you cannot eat is not the Jesus who preached in Capernaum.

In this way, then, it is said of those Christians of Protestant Reformed persuasions that they also eat of the flesh of Jesus Christ and drink His blood, even though they would deny that His body and blood are truly present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. By faith, they, too, receive their Lord and Savior, their Redeemer, for the forgiveness of their sins. His flesh-and-blood sacrifice was sufficient and is effective for them—as well as the Papists and Eastern neighbors down the road and around the world—as much as it is for you.

You receive Jesus by faith for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. And here’s how you make the connection to eating His flesh and drinking His blood to the Lord’s Supper, distinguishing Lutherans, Scripturally, from those Protestant Reformed brothers-in-Christ. Rev. Peter Bender wrote,

Jesus comes to you for your forgiveness, life, and salvation through means. You ate His flesh and drank His blood as you received Him in the sacrament of Baptism. You eat His flesh and drink His blood as you receive Him in the Word read and proclaimed, in Holy Absolution. Then, most tangibly, you eat His flesh and drink His blood as you receive His body and blood in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. When it comes to receiving Jesus and His gift of eternal life, no one way is more important or greater than another—Jesus comes to you in all of them, and He is present—flesh and blood—in all of them mercifully and graciously for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.

At the same time, one should not speak of any one of them in exclusion to the others. To this end, Rev. Bender also wrote,

All of these means are ways in which Jesus the Christ comes to you. It is wrong for to look to one of them in exclusion to the others. And, yes, this does happen.

For instance, there is the person who would neglect the coming together of the saints, whereat the Word would be proclaimed to them, where they would hear Holy Absolution, and where they could receive the Lord’s Supper, all because they feel they meet Jesus well enough worshiping alone on a mountain top, ocean shore, or river bank and by simply studying the Bible. Yes, Jesus does come to that person, but is Jesus there for that person’s forgiveness, even as the oneness of salvation is confessed to be that, “which includes the proclamation of the Gospel, the shedding of the Lamb’s blood upon the cross, and the reception of God’s salvation in the Holy Supper?”

Or, there is the person who perceives that countless Masses spoken on their behalf, whether or not people are present, whether or not they are present, are efficacious to their salvation. So, the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, as the Papists understand, even without the reception of the bread and wine, and Jesus is there for the celebrant, but is He present for the celebrant’s forgiveness, even as the oneness of salvation is confessed to be that, “which includes the proclamation of the Gospel, the shedding of the Lamb’s blood upon the cross, and the reception of God’s salvation in the Holy Supper?” Much the same could be said for the one who attends the Divine Service, and could worthily receive the Sacrament, but refuses for whatever reason.

As much as there is a perceived disconnect between faith and reality, one can and does easily disconnect the means of grace from each other. Now, that’s not to say that daily devotions and Bible Study avail nothing. There is a certain benefit to celebrating services at which the Lord’s Supper is not given and received. There is great benefit to hearing the words of Holy Absolution outside of the Divine Service setting. These all serve you well by placing you in the Word of God, but none of these should be done to the exclusion of any others; on the contrary, they are to be done in conjunction with one another. Yes, hold your devotions and study your Bibles—gather together with others of the family of your household or the household of God to do it—but come also where Jesus is present for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. Yes, enjoy Matins, Vespers, and Compline services, but do not come to these alone, but also come to hear of your sins forgiven as Holy Absolution is spoken over you and receive your Lord’s body and blood. Yes, make frequent use of your pastor privately to hear Holy Absolution, but then do not forsake the gathering of saints around Word and Sacrament. These are all part of your Baptismal life and your growth as a Christian.

“[O]ur salvation is one, which includes the proclamation of the Gospel, the shedding of the Lamb’s blood upon the cross, and the reception of God’s salvation in the Holy Supper.” The Son of God took on human flesh and blood, being born of Mary and given the name Jesus, YHWH saves, in order to give His flesh and blood as the sacrifice for sins and be your Savior. He has done this, given His flesh and blood to you, given you faith to receive His flesh and blood. And so it is that you are gathered here: you are Baptized, you have heard of the forgiveness of your sins in Holy Absolution, the Word of God was read to you and is now being proclaimed to you, and you will soon receive the body and blood of the Son of God under the bread and wine. This is the oneness of your salvation. In these means do you really and truly feed upon the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood. These are the Words of eternal life, and they are yours, and so you are forgiven for all of your sins.

What is bread? What image first comes to mind when the word bread is said? Is it the loaf you can find bagged at the back of Walmart. How about the appetizer placed on your table at the restaurant as you look over the menu? It’s the biscuit on which is placed the sausage, egg, and cheese, the bun on which you place your all beef patty, the slices you pile high with tuna, chicken, or egg salad, the roll with which you mop up the last bit of gravy or salad dressing, and the tortilla in which you place your beans, meat, cheese, and salsa. It’s a filler food—white, wheat, multi-grain, gluten free, what have you.

Bread is a staple food; it has long been seen as such. It is given by God, granted to all people alike, be they good or evil, but it is a food for which you have to work, as all First Article gifts are. As the curse pronounced to Adam went, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...” (Genesis 3:19a), even as St. Paul wrote, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10b) Bread is a staple food, but much hard labor is required to obtain and enjoy it.

It is into this image of the life-sustaining, laborious staple that the Lord Jesus Christ places Himself. He does it, also, in a way that indicates a fulfillment of the Old Testament usage of bread.

As much as bread sustains this mortal life, even so Jesus, the Bread of Life, gives and sustains life. Even more so. For the staple bread that is eaten, that mortal, crusty bread one gets at the supermarket or the restaurant, sustains life only for the day; “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” And despite eating this ordinary bread, everyone dies a little just trying to get it. Eating a slice of Wonderbread or Udi’s will not keep you alive forever—just long enough to get your next slice—but anyone who eats the Bread of Life, who is Jesus, will live forever.

Now, having heard what Jesus said, your mind might jump to the Lord’s Supper. And that’s good; eating Jesus for eternal life should evoke thoughts of the Lord’s Supper, as the benefits of eating the body of Christ and drinking His blood are forgiveness, life, and salvation. But, that’s not what Jesus is getting at here. As much as I put off talk of His Supper last week, I need to hold of on that for yet another week—at least as regards today’s pericope from St. John’s Gospel.

The Lord’s Supper is a very good thing, and I don’t want to make it sound as if I am ignoring it, but as much as it may seem as if John is heading in the direction of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 6, especially with the profound statement Jesus will make in next week’s reading, Jesus is not talking about the Lord’s Supper there. To understand that, it helps to recall what first happened in John 6: Jesus miraculously fed 5000 men plus women and children with but a few small loaves of bread, and ended up with more left over than what He started with. All the talk of bread, manna, and eating in the rest of John 6 flows from that. Furthermore, every bread-y reference from the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in what Jesus has to say in John 6. As Dr. David Scaer put it,

After all, as Dr. Scaer also wrote, “It wasn’t as if part of the Old Testament referred to Jesus and part didn’t. It all did.” Even the bread of the Old Testament: the manna of the wilderness, the unleavened bread of the Passover, the show bread of the Tabernacle and Temple, the grain offerings, and all the other images of bread pointed forward to Jesus who is the Bread of Life.

So, here is a man who performed a miracle for a great number of people, and they sought to make Him king for it, that He would sustain them with miracle bread for the rest of their earthly lives. Jesus took this and, as He so often did, He turned it upside down. In essence, He told the crowds that this staple food is not the important thing when it comes to Him, but that He is; bread sustains life, but Jesus gives life far greater than any earthly bread—even manna from heaven and all the bread of the Hebrew Scriptures—could ever do. Jesus is the Bread of Life—eternal life. Jesus “was their bread of life on their journey through this life and the food that would sustain them in the next. He was the viaticum, the food for the valley between life and death,” as Dr. Scaer wrote.

Listen to how He puts it:

• And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
• “[T]his is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”
• “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
• “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
• “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”

To put it succinctly, to eat the Bread of Life is to believe in the One whom the Father sent, His Son, Jesus the Christ. To believe in Jesus is to have everlasting life. To have everlasting life is to be raised up from death on the last day. That is to say, “[M]an does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Furthermore, this belief in Jesus, having eternal life, being raised up from death and over death is a free gift from God: “[T]his is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day…No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” The Father gives all to Christ, and His will is that He should lose none of them. No one can come to Jesus and eat of the Bread of Life except that the Father give them to His Son. As St. Paul was inspired to tell St. Timothy, “…God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

And what does the Son do? Listen to Him again:

“The bread that I will give is my flesh,” Jesus says. Again, this sounds very much like the Lord’s Supper, and it is well and good that you should hear that, for His Supper is very much connected to what He is saying, and that is, “I will give my flesh for the life of the world.”

However, as much as the gift of faith, forgiveness, life, and salvation are free to you, they did come with a price: the Bread of Life came to offer His flesh—His body—for the life of the world. When He said that, Jesus was pointing forward to the cross where He would take the place of every Old Testament sacrifice for the sin of the world. “Now all those sacrificial animals, the goats, the cattle, the sheep, and the turtle doves, were pushed to the side so that He could stand in the place of every man, woman, and child who ever lived,” Dr. Scaer wrote. God’s grace to you is free to you—the forgiveness He lavishes upon you comes without cost to you, without any merit on your part, all undeserved—but it cost Jesus His life. He gives His flesh for you on the tree of the cross in order that by God-given faith in Him you would have forgiveness, life, and salvation—being raised up at the last day.

What more can I say about bread? Well, there are diet plans and programs which seek to remove bread from what you eat. Now, I’m not going to debate the benefits or consequences of not eating bread, but it suffices to say that just as there exists this plan which gradually removes bread from the cupboard and diet until it is no longer consumed, there are those who approach the Bread of Life with such nonchalance. The Bread of Life is so often left out of one’s diet when life gets hectic and stressful. And in these days of ever growing complaints of being so busy, who doesn’t have hectic and stressful lives?

And it’s an easy diet to justify, as it is perceived that the diet consists of only 1 hour of the Bread of Life a week. “It won’t hurt if I miss this one hour this time,” the excuse goes. Oh, the intent might be good to get back to it next week, but as I have often said, the habit of forsaking the assembly of saints (cf. Hebrews 10:25) quickly and easily grows from the first miss to the second, each time being easier than the previous. Before you know it, you hardly miss the assembly, you hardly miss the Bread of Life, because of the blindness and ignorance of and your being bound to sin.

And if one can easily justify the forsaking of the assembly for a mere hour a week, especially because there is no time for it, then it stands to reason that the personal and familial devotion time as well as group Bible Study time in addition to that mere hour would also be a casualty of the diet against the Bread of Life. It is sad and depressing how poorly these treat and with such low regard these regard the Word of God, that they can so easily push it and Him aside who took their place under the full wrath of God. Such is the nature of sin, so this is not just an issue the nebulous “them” have.

Oh, but it gets worse. Again, I do not mean to debate or criticize the proclamations of modern nutritional science, but it has been said that bread is of little or no nutritional value. Man can survive on a diet of no bread, they say, and this is proven true by the fact that so many survive from one bread-less meal to another. What I do mean to get at is that just as there are those who say, right or wrong, that bread is an evil or non-nutritional food, so are there those who say so of the Bread of Life. This is most evident in the court of public opinion where the teachings of Scripture find themselves at odds with popular social issues, such as creation vs. evolution, abortion, euthanasia, cohabitation, and “homosexual marriage.” “Those are ancient ideals,” these opponents proclaim, “they don’t apply to our modern society. We have evolved past them.” These hear the good news of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, and reject it, just as there are those who reject bread as a staple food. Such is the nature of the heart hardened by sin.

God’s will is that Jesus should lose none that He gave Him, but He does not force salvation on man. If man in His sinful will turns against God, it grieves Him, to be sure, but so be it. Forgiveness is still there for them; Christ died for them as much as for those who believe in Him—He is the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe. (cf. 1 Timothy 4:10) So, why are some saved and others not? Because those who are not have rejected the Bread of Life. One is saved by grace, but damned by refusal of grace. Such is the nature of foolish sinfulness.

But it is precisely for these sins that Jesus the Bread of Life took your place before the wrath of God. He suffered and died on the cross for these sins, and all sins, so that you would not have to. Now, the Father draws you to Him who is the resurrected Bread of Life, even as He is the Resurrection and the Life. (cf. John 11:25) This is how God’s grace works for and to you. Listen to Jesus:

By these words you are taught that you cannot go to the Father. The One whom the Father sent brings the Father to men, and the Father draws men to Him. It sounds circular, but this is the will and work of God, and it is most gracious: Jesus brings the teachings of the Father from heaven to men; the Father uses these teachings to gather men to Jesus. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “All your children shall be taught by [YHWH].” (Isaiah 54:13a) This is why Jesus would later say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father...” (John 14:9b) “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29) It is all God’s work, and none of yours—God be praised!

Here you are gathered, dear listeners, not come of yourselves, but gathered by the Father. Were it completely up to you, you wouldn’t be here, but the Father of all mercies, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father who sends the Bread of Life has gathered you here. It is as you confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth…”

Yes, dear Baptized, the Father has sent the Spirit that you would be gathered into His most gracious presence. For it is here in His presence that the Bread of Life comes to you to give Himself to you. Jesus, the Bread of Life, has taken your place before the wrath of God, and given you faith that trusts in Him solely for forgiveness, life, and salvation, and which rejoices for His death on your behalf; He has given His flesh for the life the world—for the life of you. Here you are taught by God and brought to Christ, for you receive the Bread of Life in Word and Sacrament, and so you have life and salvation—you will be raised at the last day—because you are forgiven for all of your sins. Praise God from whom all blessings flow…to be continued.

The people in today’s text are guilty of two errors. These are errors as old as time since the fall; errors which still plague people to this day.

The Gospel readings for these past several weeks have been events which happened one right after another. This is pattern will continue for the next few weeks, too, though from St. John’s Gospel instead of St. Mark’s. The death of John the Baptist, the feeding of the 5000 men, the walking on the water, and the healing of the sick in Gennesaret all happened one right after the other. Even before the Baptist’s death, what you had been hearing were events which happened one right after another, except that what you had been hearing was interrupted by the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession.

Today’s Gospel reading, although from John, actually continues the narrative. John leaves out the short bit that Mark includes about the healing in Gennesaret, but before today’s reading, Jesus fed the 5000 men, sent His disciples ahead of Him across the sea to Gennesaret (though not named), walked to them on the sea, then got in the boat with them. Today’s lesson is the very next verse, but back on the side of the sea where Jesus fed the multitude.

That day, some of the multitude returned to that spot looking for Jesus, and knowing that He had sent His disciples ahead of Him, gathered at the shore for more. They noticed that only one boat was missing—the one He sent His disciples in. They also noticed that Jesus was gone. Seeing the one boat across the lake, they get into the others and head to Capernaum, near where the one boat was in the region of Gennesaret. There, in Capernaum, they found Jesus.

They are surprised. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” There was only one boat missing, so Jesus couldn’t have taken one to follow after His disciples. He could have walked there, but that would have been a long walk around the lake…unless He walked on the lake, but that’s absurd.

Now, you know how you ask a question in order to “break the ice?” It’s a rather innocuous question to which you neither really want an actual, detailed answer, nor do you expect one. “How are you doing?” “How have you been?” “What’s up?” Those questions so innocently, perhaps mindlessly, and the expected response is “Okay,” “Not much,” or something like that, and then the regular conversation can continue from there.

Here, the people ask Jesus what might be considered a pretty innocuous question; “When did you come here?” I call it innocuous because I don’t think they were concerned with the when as much as with the how. More than that, I’m certain that they didn’t go to Capernaum merely to ask Jesus how He got there.

And Jesus knew it:

Jesus got right to the point. The crowd arrived in Capernaum because they wanted their bellies filled again. Here was the man they wanted to make king because He gave them enough food miraculously to fill their bellies, and they didn’t have to do a thing for it. (cf. John 6:15) It’s the kind of promise you could easily come across from one candidate or another in an election year, a promise to meet all your physical needs, seemingly miraculously; such a promise is made to garner votes because it speaks to felt needs, it speaks to the false god of self, to the belly god.

That’s who the people thought Jesus to be. To these people, Jesus was their belly god. For them, He was someone who would fill all of their wants and needs, and I’m not saying that hunger and thirst, homelessness and nakedness, disease and death aren’t actual needs. Nevertheless, this is an error as old as time—since the fall—and one which still plagues people today. Jesus is not seen as God; on the contrary, He is reduced to the cartoonish image of a genie in a bottle. You rub your magic lamp and say, “Dear Jesus, I could really use $100 today. Amen.” Who couldn’t use $100?

But what does Jesus say to this kind of thinking? “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” In other words, “[S]eek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) Jesus is not come to fill your bellies with bread; He is not come to give your $100 when and where you want it.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t pray for these things. Jesus gave words to pray which sound very much as if you should. “Give us this day our daily bread.” What does this mean? “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” What is meant by daily bread? When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you are praying for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. $100 (or more) fits in that category.

However, when you pray the Fourth Petition, you are not asking for an abundance of these things. If God determines that you need bread to fill your bellies, then He will supply a way that you will get that bread. If He determines that you need $100 to get by, then He will supply a way that you will have that $100. What it doesn’t mean is that you are to expect these things every time you want them or feel you need them, but you pray for them realizing that He is the giver of all that you need, not to mention the way to obtain His temporal gifts, whether that be some benefactor or charity, the hand of a parent or guardian, or, perhaps the most common of all, the vocation or job you are given to do.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25) And so Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Jesus has moved into the realm of trust in God, of believing in Him, of receiving everlasting life. All of those temporal blessing from the hand of God are good things, they are His First Article gifts, which He wants you to have, and He will give them to you as He deems you need them. But, they perish. They do not endure to everlasting life. A belly daily filled with bread miraculously derived will not last to eternal life. However, there is a food which endures to everlasting life, and the Son of Man will give it to you.

It comes as a bit of shock, then, having just heard that the Son of Man gives this everlasting food, when the people ask, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The heart of man since the fall is geared against the Gospel; it is geared against hearing that God gives and does everything for fallen man—in fact, it is geared to rejected God and His graciousness. “No,” sinful man responds, “I do not want what you have to give; I will work it out myself.” “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” It’s an error as old as time since the fall, and one which still plagues people today. This error often rears its ugly head in one of two ways, both of which are deadly.

First, you have the idea that in order to be acceptable to God, you must work it out. There must be something to do in order to garner God’s favor, not only for this eternal food, but also for all of His First Article gifts, those things which He gives to support this body and life. In short, in order to be saved, you must please God with what you do. It’s the idea that people who are generally good get into heaven. So, you start to bargain with God: “Lord, I know I’ve sinned, but look at all of the good things I’ve done,” or “Lord, if you’ll just give me this one thing, I promise to do something else in return.” Do these sound familiar? I’m guessing that they do, for who is immune from ever having at least thought them?

Second is the thought that you are good enough at one time or another that you can get away with neglecting God and what He has to give you. You may even boast about how good you are, sounding like the Pharisee who compared himself to the tax collector: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” (Luke 18:11-12) You start to reason or justify your neglect of the Word of God: “My sins weren’t so great this week, so I’ll pass on the Sacrament today; we’ll have a shorter service and I’ll be home all the sooner for it.” “I did pretty good this week, I think I can skip church this once.” “I don’t feel like going to Bible Study tonight, but I’ve studied my devotions with extra intention this week.” To this, of course, can be repeated Jesus’ words today: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (emphasis added)

Both of the ways of this error neglect the truth that Jesus spoke to the people today: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Jesus took their question and turned it around. Instead of talking about the works man does, He spoke of the work that God does. The work of God is that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Or, as He inspired St. Paul to write, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Faith is the work of God—it is His gift to you—not the result of any work you do.

Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Faith and salvation—believing in the Son of God and the food which endures to everlasting life—are the free gifts of God; they are yours by faith.

How gracious and long-suffering Jesus is. For the people in today’s text still don’t get it.

They go right back to the bread; the bread that miraculously filled their bellies and twelve baskets of leftovers wasn’t sign enough. Sinful man is always asking for proof, always asking for a sign, always wanting more so that he may take things on sight and not by faith. Since the fall, man is geared not to take God at His Word. Again, how many times, in torment of conscience or confusion, have you asked God for a sign or for direction: “If this is what you really want me to do, give me a clear sign, O God.”

Jesus doesn’t oblige. He turns to His Word, which is what He gives you, too. To the people in today’s text, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” This is now the real meat of what Jesus has to say. He laid it out there for their hearing. The food which endures to everlasting life is not merely some bread to be eaten, but a person. “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…which the Son of Man will give you…[the work of God is] that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

When the Law of God has it’s killing way with fallen man, it can produce repentance, which always cries out to God for mercy. “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison; Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.” This cry for mercy can find expression in many ways as the soul finds itself without that which it needs and, by grace, earnestly desires: “Sir, give us this bread always.” Here you have the cry of faith for life.

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Bread is the central object in today’s text. Yet, there are two kinds being discussed—daily bread which sustains and nourishes the body, and the Bread of Life which sustains, strengthens, and nourishes the soul. Daily bread provides for life when it is consumed; conversely, the Bread of Life provides life when He was consumed in His passion and death—the death of the cross for the sins of the world.

It was there on the cross where He who knew no sin became sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21) There, He shed His blood for the propitiation of your sins, and not for yours only, but for the sins of the world. (cf. 1 John 2:2) He who called Himself the Bread of Life is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (cf. John 1:29) He has borne your sins of self-righteousness, self-justification, all the works you do in rejection of God’s grace, the works of which you boast—indeed, all your sins—He has taken them all from you, they are no longer yours, but His. Jesus died with them on the cross; He was buried with them in the grave, but He rose victorious over sin and death, while they all remained in the grave. They haunt you no more; you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

The life that He gives is everlasting: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) The life He gives is a seat forever at the heavenly victory banquet at which there will never be hunger nor thirst. There is celebrated the Feast of Victory of Our God—His victory over death and grave, which was won as He burst forth from His three-day prison and which He has given to you by grace through faith.

“Sir, give us this bread always,” you pray by grace in faith. Your prayer is not for daily bread alone, but also that His kingdom come and that you be delivered from all evil, by which you also pray that you would be given the Bread of Life. Repentant souls clamor for this life-giving Bread. And so, Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, which means House of Bread, is come to give Himself to you in Word and Sacrament. More on that in the coming weeks, I’m sure, as the Gospel readings continue through St. John’s 6th chapter.

Therefore, for now, it suffices to hear these words. Jesus answers the prayer for the life-giving bread, which He is. He is come, and He gives Himself to you freely. Your seat at His everlasting victory banquet is sealed in His blood, even as your banquet robes are washed clean in it and made white. There, you will hunger and thirst no more, neither for the food which perishes nor for righteousness, because by grace through faith you are the righteousness of God, received by Baptism, strengthened by the Word and Sacraments, all of which give you Jesus, the Bread of Life, for whose sake you are forgiven for all of your sins.

Picture it, if you will…

You’re on a vast, grassy plain. Everyone is there with you. You all decide that it’s a great place to build a city, so you start making bricks and mortar. Somewhere along the way, someone suggests a tower, and that the city should be the crowning achievement of mankind. “We’re going to make a name for ourselves,” they say.

So, the city and tower are being built, monuments to the greatness of mankind. The plans are in place, and they are grandiose. Foundations are established, brick and mortar laid, buildings are formed, and a great tower right in the middle. All the while, you’re feeling pretty good about yourself; you take pride in the structures you’ve had a hand in building.

Now, God decided to take a closer look at all that had been done, and He comes to the conclusion that now is the time to disperse the people. Furthermore, he had to confuse their languages so that they would have trouble communicating with each other. This would help to prevent them from doing something so haughty again.

So, right in the middle of their tasks, maybe as they were building more buildings, maybe putting the finishing touches on what they had already built, maybe they were hunting or fishing or gathering or farming. Maybe there were some who were right in the middle of addressing some others, giving a speech or a sermon of some sort. They would have been addressing their friends and neighbors, talking to you, then right in the middle of the address, they would begynne å forkynne for deg på et annet språk som du ikke kunne forstå. Hvem vet, predikanten kan til og med bli overrasket over den selv, eller kanskje han ville lure på hvorfor dere alle begynte å se på ham som forvirrede valpehunder. Du kan til og med tro at han er full.

Anyway, you get the idea. That might be the way things went on the plains of Shinar that fateful day. The people did make a name for themselves: from that day, the place was known as Babel, because God had confused people’s language there. It’s not the least bit ironic that many languages today use some form or derivative of the word babble to indicate confused or confusing speech.

Picture it, if you will…

You’re in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks. You’re there to celebrate a harvest but also the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Here’s the thing, though: your family hasn’t lived in the Promised Land for a very long time. Sure, you’ve all made your way there for the appointed times, but you’re even less a resident of the Holy Land than the Roman officials and soldiers occupying the place. Consequently, your native language is not Aramaic or Hebrew or even Greek; sure, you know enough to get by in certain situations, such as buying some bread to eat, and you may be able to recite one thing or another in the synagogue in Jerusalem, but the sermon makes no sense to you.

Suddenly, there’s some commotion down the street. You heard a rushing wind for a moment, even felt it, and made your way in the direction that it blew. As you get there, you see 12 men who look aglow, tongues of fire resting on them, and they’re speaking. What’s more, you can understand them…every word! You turn to the guy next to you and begin to talk to him, but then realize that he’s from somewhere else; he can’t understand you, but he can understand these men.

You hear an amazing sermon on the Messiah, that He has come and died and rose again, and that He is ascended into Heaven, because He is the Son of God who is the propitiation for all sins, even yours. Salvation is finally come (not that those who came before were necessarily lost)! And by their preaching, they are delivering this salvation directly to you and into you. It’s a good thing you can understand what is being said.

Later that day, you are baptized, one of about 3000 added to their number that day. (cf. Acts 2:41)

Pentecost is the antidote of Babel. Where once God confused languages in order that sinful man wouldn’t become too full of himself, on Pentecost He undid that confusion—miraculously—so that man could be full of God, at least many of those assembled in Jerusalem that day. For on that day, and in the days since, many have been added to the number of the Church because Christ had been preached into them, including you, dear hearers! Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins has been proclaimed to you, and you have heard it and understood it because the marvelous deeds of God have been proclaimed to you in English (and maybe a little Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, and Norwegian now-and-then, if only to make a point).

But that’s the way God works, isn’t it? He pronounces a curse, but also gives a way out from under it. At Babel, He cursed mankind with confused languages, yet in the centuries since, he has undone that by giving people His Word in languages that they understand. In the garden, He cursed mankind with death—by his own choosing, it should be said—yet proclaimed that there would be a chosen Seed by which He would rescue man from death and give eternal life.

Much of the focus of this day is usually the tongues of fire and the speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave the apostles utterance. While that is a great thing to look at, the story of Pentecost is more than that—so much more! First, Peter uses the prophet Joel to explain that all of these people in Jerusalem being able to understand these 12 had been prophesied. That’s as far as today’s second reading goes, ending before Peter gets to the real meat of the day, proclaiming the reversal of mankind’s bondage to death:

This word cut the people to the heart, they were convicted, and asked what they needed to do in order to be saved. Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized,” and about 3000 of them did so that day. Peter and the other 11 did exactly as Jesus told them they would. He said, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” And the Holy Spirit did that day exactly what Jesus said He would do: “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

The people that first Pentecost were convicted of sin; they were cut to the heart and repentant. They were convicted of righteousness, having received the word of forgiveness and Holy Baptism. They were convicted of judgment, having heard that the devil is judged guilty and they are judged not guilty for the sake of Christ. And this is the same thing the Holy Spirit does day-in-and-day-out to all who hear and receive him—even you, right here and right now.

For you see, you are the reason that Jesus had come and went to the cross. Oh, it’s certainly nice to think of that in terms of having now been saved, but don’t neglect the Law in all of this. If it weren’t for your father Adam having disobeyed the word of God not to eat of the forbidden tree, and if it weren’t for you adding to that by your own daily participation in his disobedience—forsaking God and His ways—then Jesus would not have needed to come and be crucified. Because of you, God had to die. This is the work of the Holy Spirit with the Law, to show you your sin and convict you of it, to show you that on your own merits, you are unworthy of the paradise that God had originally intended for you to live in, and even moreso the paradise of eternal life that He has now prepared for you.

But, because God chose to die in your place, He now freely gives to you the merits which do make you worthy of the paradise of eternal life—the same paradise that Jesus told the repentant thief he would see that day from the cross. That’s because He has given you the same repentance and faith to receive Him and believe in Him—a faith which calls upon Him by name, as St. Peter declared from the pen of the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And remember, “[N]o one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3) By way of the Holy Spirit, you are convicted of righteousness for the sake of Christ Jesus, your propitiation!

What does this all mean? Well, St. Paul put it most beautifully: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) That is to say that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (cf. 1 Timothy 1:15), and since you are one, He has come into the world to save you. By the work of the Holy Spirit, you hear this and receive it and believe it. “This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:23) This is His doing, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Du er tilgitt for alle dine synder.

You are forgiven for all of your sins!