Epiphany 4 Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

Yes indeed, Christ Jesus is True God and True Man, come into this world to fulfill all righteousness, to fill righteousness up to the brim, to have it overflowing even, on to all of us, washing us clean from our sins and winning us everlasting life, and we see Jesus do this boldly today by... taking a nap? I mean, that is how our lesson starts – Jesus gets into the boat, and then He takes a nap. Now, it doesn't end there, there's more to go on, and we will address that, but this is where we will start today. Jesus takes a nap.

Once again we are in Matthew 8, just like we were last week. Jesus had been preaching on the mountain, and when He comes down, Jesus heals people left and right. Not just the leper and the Centurion's servant, but bunches of people. And there's more and more to do, but Jesus says that We should go to the other side of the lake just to get away from the crowds, and when the disciples get into the boat, Jesus takes a nap. Remember, that while Jesus is indeed true God, He is also indeed True Man. He is a human being, and in this time of His humiliation and suffering prior to His resurrection, He gets tired. You all understand this. You all have had plenty of times where you've worked and worked and then just got plum tuckered out. This is the hardship and burden we face as people in this fallen world. We are to love God and to love our neighbor. Now, loving our neighbor, serving each other, had always been part of the plan. God had placed Adam in the garden to work, to care for it. Eve was to be a helpmeet for Adam, to work with him. But sin made our work... different. Difficult. Adam is to tend to creation – well, that was an easier job before the fall. After the fall the world shakes itself apart, the impact of sin and death echoing all over the place. And it made Adam's job harder, it made Eve's job harder – and it makes all of our jobs harder too. And it made Jesus have to work harder as well. Think on all of Jesus' miracles – those are all correcting or fixing things that would never have been broken if it weren't for sin.

But that's what Jesus did, He was fulfilling righteousness, making things right again. And that's what you as a Christian know that you are called to do, to make things right in your own vocations. If a spouse, be a good spouse. If a parent, be a good parent. If a child, be a good kid. Be a good worker or student or be a good neighbor. And when sin and trouble get unleashed, clean up the mess. Forgive people and help mitigate the consequences. And you know what all that is? It's tiring. It's hard work, and it wears and it grinds upon us. And we need rest. Want the proof – see, right there, in that boat, a sleeping Jesus, worn out from work. You know, your work won't save you, just getting one more thing done won't fix everything – there are times it's good to get your rest, to tend to yourself. (Now, there's also a point where you need to get off your lazy backside, but that's not the point of this text or sermon. However, I don't want to hear about any of you kids ignoring your parents when they tell you to do your chores - “but I'm napping like Jesus” - not the point. Got it? Alright.)

However, there often is a reason why we feel like we can't take our rest, because we will be thrown behind schedule, and there's more work to do. That's part of this lesson today too. In fact, that's the setting for the main point today. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep. So while Jesus and the disciples are on the boat heading to the other side, a storm whips up. A great storm. A few things on sailing in the ancient world. Generally boats sailed in sight of land, because if a storm whipped up, you wanted to get to land and shelter quickly. The disciples, however, are crossing the lake and trying to avoid a crowd – if you sail too close to land, they'll just follow you. So the implication is that the disciples are farther from shore than normally would be comfortable. And then there's the Sea of Galilee. It's an inland lake, and just because of that storms can whip up on it quickly – winds hitting the cold air over water, and boom, sudden storms. This geological reality is the reason why Lake Michigan and Lake Superior can be really dangerous to sail on, especially in winter. You all have heard Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The weather changes suddenly and things get dangerous. Well, that's where the disciples find themselves.

And they went and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord, we are perishing.” Now, remember that many of the disciples are seasoned sailors. Me, I don't overly like boats, I'd get nervous in a 2 foot wave. Not so the disciples, they know what's easy enough to handle, and they know when it's bad. And, it's bad. And this is a place where sometimes we make our translations too proper, to stuffy. In the Greek they just say three words – Lord, save! Dying! This is not a well crafted plea of rhetorical elegance – this is panicked. This is the disciples seeing doom and destruction coming at them quickly. And it's all understandable – I'm sure we've all had those moments of panic that are reasonable and understandable. Again, these things happen in a sinful world, where not only is our work much harder but the dangers we face also are magnified and ramped up.

So, what will happen? Well, we see a tired Jesus. And I want you to hear this rightly. Sometimes we think of this story like in some majestic painting, Jesus standing in a pose of power and authority, His arm boldly against the wind, pushing a calm onto it. No. No, that's not what is described here. If you will allow, let me translate verse 26. And Jesus said to them, “Why are you cowards, little-faithers?” Then rousing He shouted down the wind and the seas, and there was a great calm. The word there that gets translated as “arose” - that I put as rouse, it's the word that describes pushing through the grog of waking up. It's not waking up bright eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go, it's lifting your head to see what time it is. The best comparison for this is mom or dad taking a nap, and the kids misbehave and one comes up complaining, and dad mutters, “little brats,” and then he shouts, “Stop messing with your sister's dolls” or whatever... and then goes back to sleep. Jesus hasn't even lifted up His head when He, addresses the disciples in a loving yet dismissive way, and then Jesus barks at the weather to be quiet... and it was quiet. The calm day. Because that language describing how that great calm appeared, it's the same phrasing that gets used in Genesis at creation – and there was light. And there was a great calm.

Hence the utter amazement of the disciples – And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?” Again, if you were a sailor, you didn't necessarily like great calms either. They meant you were stuck, or you had to row if you could. And they are looking at Jesus, who is probably right back asleep – and what sort of man is this? Well, He's God almighty. He is the Creative Word of God. He called the seas and the winds into being, so of course they will listen when He speaks, and they will do what He says, because He has authority over all creation. And for a while, the disciples' job was much easier. There was no wind to fight, nothing hard to do with the sailing, why don't you take a break and rest a bit too, disciples?

When we speak about what Jesus does, about fixing things – we often talk about forgiveness and resurrection, but sometimes we underestimate the importance of Jesus bringing about a new heaven and a new earth. We are so used to living in a fallen, messed up world, with all its dangers and disorderliness that we don't understand just how wrong it is for creation to be this way. St. Paul says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Because of sin the world is messed up. Wind and sea get all out of whack. Weather goes nuts. Nature itself tries to kill us because everything goes out of place. But there will come a day when it's not going to be that way – and not because we adopt some political policy or anything like that. We don't get to control the planet nearly as much as we think we do – but it will come about when Jesus brings it about and renews all of creation come the last day. This is why we have phrases like, “the life of the world to come” - because in a very visceral way, we can't even wrap our heads around what life will be like when we are raised from the dead and living in Christ's Kingdom and don't have to fight and strive to stay alive all the time. When creation will be our willing servant and we will gladly and easily tend it and care for it as it yields its abundance.

Jesus comes to fix it. To make all things right again – to make you and me right again, to make creation right again. And He does so. And on the one hand, as regards His humanity, this is incredibly hard. Jesus does suffer. Jesus gets worn out. Jesus is literally worn out to death upon the Cross. Jesus knows and understands the toils and hardships you face. And yet, on the other hand, as regards His divinity, well, the Word of God gets things done and nothing can get in His Way. And this is the beauty, the wonder of the Incarnation, of God becoming Man, God entering into His fallen creation fully to save and redeem us, to restore and recreate us. And we get to see bits of this blossom out now – even now Christ Jesus works in you and through you to do good, real, true, good in this world, good in the face of all the sin and wickedness there is. But my friends, there is more to come, because Jesus does it all, fulfills it all, works on making everything righteous. And we marvel as we see this play out in the Gospel, and we shall delight in it always when we see it face to face. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Epiphany 3 sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

    Let's get the context of where we are as our Gospel lesson starts. Our text begins with, “When Jesus came down the mountain...” What mountain? Well, this is referring to the mountain upon which Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapters 5 through 7. It's the great section of teaching, of explaining both commandments and mercy. And we get several weeks during the Church Year where our Gospel lesson is from the Sermon on the Mount: Ash Wednesday about fasting is from there, and then there's “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven – do not be angry with your brother.” And then there's “Beware of False prophets” and then “Consider the lilies of the field,” and then the Beatitudes on All Saints' Day. That's 5 lessons every year on the Sermon on the Mount. And there's other passages that are familiar with – you are the salt of the earth, let your light shine before men, love your enemies, the Lord's Prayer, Judge not, lest ye be judged. Do unto others. Build your house on the Rock. Do you get what a section of powerhouse teaching Jesus has just finished?

    And Jesus comes down the mountain, and what happens? “And behold, a leper came up and knelt before Him, saying, 'Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.'” So there's really two things to note here. The first is that this whole situation would be very... uncomfortable according to the Old Testament Law. If you were a leper, you were not supposed to be in crowds. You certainly weren't supposed to come up to people and get in their way – this is not according to the health laws laid down by Moses. Lepers are to be off and away from everyone. And let's face it – if you listen to the sermon on the mount, you know that Jesus isn't one to water down the Law. No, Jesus pumps up the law. Don't kill – I say don't hate. Don't commit adultery – I say don't even lust. So on the one hand it might be expected that Jesus would simply come down hard on this rule-breaker, this endangerer of the people who dares to break his isolation and quarantine.

    But on the other hand, listen again to what this leprous man says. “Lord, if YOU will, You can make me clean.” This is a statement full of faith. It's not even couched in terms of what the leper wants, it's a simple statement of fact – You, Jesus, You are Lord God Almighty, and if Your will is that I be clean, You have the power to make that happen. If Your will isn't that, well, Your will will be done. If I remain unclean because You will it, so be it. If You chose to lambaste me and turn me into a warning for everyone else, so be it. If You chose to walk on by, so be it. Your will will be done.

    Now remember, Jesus comes to fulfill all righteousness. He comes to make things right. Yes, the Law does deal with moral standards, and our moral standards for ourselves are to be high and strict. However, not everything in the law of Moses was about morality. Some of it was practicality. Lepers were not banished because they were evil, but to prevent the spread of a disease. So, how can Jesus do things in the most right way – what makes things be the best? Well, He shows us. And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof for them.” Jesus deals with levels of righteousness here. First things first – Jesus cleanses the leper. The right thing, the best thing would be for you to be healthy. There you go. But there's also some other things to fix up, loose ends to tie up. Now, you're going to be quiet, because let's not cause a panic or a riot or mass confusion in this crowd – that wouldn't be right. And you're going to go and get yourself incorporated back into society properly – go see the priests, they officially declared people fit for society if their leprosy cleared up. Dot the “I”s, cross the “T”s – let's get everything in order.

    Of course, the neat, wondrous thing is how Matthew describes the healing – because this isn't just a healing, this is foreshadowing, this is a pattern that Jesus is going to follow. Jesus “stretched out His hand and touched him.” Now, one of the rules of the old testament was that you don't touch lepers, it makes you unclean. Well, Jesus came to take up our uncleanliness, to take up our sin, so Jesus touches the guy. And what is Jesus going to do with all our sin, all our uncleanliness – He's going to go to the Cross – He's going to stretch out His hands on the Cross - that was a euphemism for being crucified in that day. He goes there to pay for our sin so that we would be cleansed from them. Because that is how Jesus fulfills all righteousness – by cleansing us and taking up the punishment for our sin in Himself.

    And when I say “our” I mean “our” in the broadest possible terms. Jesus comes not just to take up the sins of the so called good people, or just the people from the right family, or what have you. Why yes, Pastor, Jesus takes up the sins of the whole world, we know that. Well, there's practical implications to that. And we see that as the lesson continues. When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering in great agony.” Now, pause a second. What are you seeing? The Romans were the vile occupiers of Israel, and there is a Centurion, a big boss man, probably the top Roman in the area. This Jesus is even for him? For this man who owns Jewish “servants” - no, it's who owns a Jewish child slave. Are you even for this person, Jesus?

    Yep. Jesus says, “I will come and heal him.” Now, this would be scandalous. You don't enter the house of a gentile, and you certainly don't kowtow to the roman boss – there are just things you don't do. But Jesus wishes to heal, to make things right, and then the Centurion pipes up again. Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, “Go,” and he goes, and to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it. Jesus, what You offer would cause offense, so allow me with great respect to point out two things. First, I'm not worthy to have You enter my house – it wouldn't be right. Let's not rile up people. Second, You don't need to actually come to heal my slave-boy, because You have authority. Authority works by the word – with my centurion authority, I speak and those under my authority listen and do. I know Your authority. Speak, and it will be done.

    And Jesus is tickled pink, He is absolutely chuffed – this Centurion hits the nail on the head concerning faith better than anyone else so far in Israel. And yes, Jesus has come for even the Gentiles – many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven – this Centurion will be worthy of being in My Father's House for all eternity. And then the healing comes – you want your marching orders Centurion, then Jesus will give them - “Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. Go, march on – but go knowing that when I call, when I call you forth from your grave, you will rise, Centurion, and when I call you to the eternal feast, you will come with joy, Centurion, for you have faith, and you know that you are under My gracious authority – and everything is right again.

    So then, here we see what Jesus comes to do, here we get another picture of what Jesus fulfilling righteousness looks like, what it means. Jesus will cleanse, and Jesus will exercise His authority for your good. The whole point, the whole purpose of everything Jesus does is to go to the Cross to cleanse you and rise from the dead to re-establish His authority over you. Sin meant that Adam and Eve had to be driven from the garden, that we all would die – that's just the reality. By going to the Cross Jesus takes up that sin, pulls it off of us, and He Himself takes up the punishment even of death. By His death the barriers keeping us from relationship with God and eternal life with God are cast down. But, if we were still left on our own – we'd just mess up again and again. You all get the point, you all know ways in which you mess up over and over – and the people around you probably know a few more about you that you don't recognize in yourself. We don't need to go over that right now, but suffice it to say that if left to our own devices, we'd be lost. So Jesus rises from the dead to re-establish His authority over all of mankind – this is what Paul speaks of when he says that Jesus is the New Adam – the new head of humanity. We will not simply follow old Adam along the paths of sin – no, you will follow Christ. He will speak His word and you will hear, listen, and do it. And this happens by faith now, you receive this by faith now. He says, “I forgive you,” and you are forgiven. But we get the struggle, the constant push and pull of sin – but that will go away when you die, and when Christ Jesus says to you, “Rise” and you rise at the last day, and the you will be like Christ, fully under His authority, only listening to Him, no longer seeing to the temptations of Satan, no longer bothered by sin dwelling in your flesh. The good order, the right order, where we simply listen to Jesus and receive Good from Him with nothing getting in the way – that's what Jesus establishes for you with His death and resurrection, and what He will bring about in you through your death and resurrection.

    So until then, by the working of the Spirit we listen to Jesus' Word, and He cleanses us and instructs us – even until we are raised from the dead and never need cleansing again, and never need to be taught or trained again to delight in His Word. He has come to win you salvation, and He shall come again to see that you have His salvation, that you enjoy it for all eternity at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and this Leper and this Centurion and all the company of heaven at the feast without end. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World!

Epiphany 2 Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
Jesus has come to fulfill all righteousness – that was what He declared to John that he would do. And this week we get to hear Jesus's first miracle, His first “sign” as John puts it. "This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory." The miracle in today's text is a sign - it is meant to reveal who this righteousness fulfilling Jesus is. It shows forth, it manifests His glory. That is what it does. But the miracle, it's so simple and quiet. It doesn't at first glance look to be very glorious, and a wedding party doesn't seem to have much to do with righteousness – but no, Jesus knows precisely what He is doing. Jesus will reveal His righteous glory here – listen.

"On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples." Here's the very first thing to note. This isn't the place where we would expect there to be a show of glory. Cana? Okay, it's a town, but it's a backwater town off in the mountains. It's not Rome, it's not Jerusalem - it's not the big leagues, it's minor league. It's not big time, it's just some piddling wedding off in the boonies. And even there, Jesus is just a guest, a cousin of the groom, probably. Jesus isn't the center of attention, he's not even in the wedding party! How is this going to be glorious? And there's the first problem. We all too often associate "glory" with fame. We associate glory with being the center of attention. And this is what all too often we sinful folks want - we want attention, we want a bigger and bigger stage where everyone will see me and laud me. When I was little and playing wiffle ball in the front yard, I didn't day dream about hitting a weak blooper at Single A Peoria, I was going to hit a towering grand slam in the bottom of the 9th with two outs to win the Cubs the World Series. That's what we think of when we think of Glory. In fact, we will even call people who draw attention to themselves "glory hounds". But this seeking of attention is not what the Scriptures speak of when they speak of Glory.

In fact, Jesus does the opposite. "When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.' His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever He tells you.'" Before we look at the idea of glory here - a note about "Woman". This isn't like some guy today saying, "Woman, go make me a sandwich". In the ancient world, that was a term of respect - more like "Ma'am". So Jesus isn't being rude to His mom here - in fact, He's being very polite. But note the situation. There's Mary. And she knows who her Son is. She's been waiting thirty years for this whole Messiah thing to take the stage - and she wants it now. Let's get this show on the road Jesus – oh look, they are out of wine. And Jesus' response - what does this, this lack of wine, have to do with Me? My hour, my time has not yet come. Note this about Christ's glory - He's not seeking it - rather it will come when it is time. Christ is not about seeking fame and fortune and personal glory. That's not His focus, this isn't a selfish thing. I'm not here at this wedding to get famous, Mom. My life isn't about everyone saying, "Wow, look at how cool Jesus is, He's so awesome." That's not the glory I seek. Moreover - Christ will be glorified when the time comes. It will come when the Father glorifies the Son. John 17 begins with Jesus, just before He begins His passion, praying, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." When Christ Jesus talks about glory, it isn't about fame. It is His humility. It is Him suffering and dying. You want to see Christ's glory, you want to see the Son lifted up - it's not going to be on the shoulders of the team after he leads the game winning drive - it's going to be on the Cross. There's the glory - the Cross. That Jesus will forever be known as Christ the Crucified. That He will be forever the Lamb who was slain.

When we think of glory, we think of it as something self-serving. Of drawing attention to ourselves. Of making our life better. That's just sin, that's the impact of sinfulness and selfishness upon us. Jesus turns that on its head. His glory comes in serving, in seeking and saving the lost. It comes when He draws attention not to Himself, but to the Father - for God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Behold Christ on the Cross – this is to redeem you, this is to show you the love that the Father has for you, this is to give you eternal life. Do you want the evidence, the proof that Jesus is the Messiah? Here it is - He's not seeking after His own fame, His own glory - He simply wants to restore you to life and salvation so that God the Father might be praised eternally. Now, will Christ receive praise for this - sure - but that's not the point, the goal. The point is always the Father and you. The point is Jesus being righteous and fulfilling all righteousness for you, for your good. Jesus truly fulfills the Law – He loves God and He loves His neighbor, who cares what people think or see.

But Jesus is full of love for His neighbor, and running out of wine at your wedding reception would be a lousy thing. In fact, it would be wrong. It wouldn't be right to have that celebration turn flat, so Jesus does decide to act, to make things right. But again, note how He acts. He doesn't stride into the middle of the reception hall and say, "Hey guys, I heard you were out of wine - well, BLAMMO!" It wouldn't be right to draw attention away from the bride and groom like that. So instead, very quietly we hear this: "Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it." See how quiet this is. Nothing spectacular. Just simple water to wine, in the back, where only the servants see. And did you note the vessels? Jesus doesn't walk up to the empty wine barrels and with a loud voice say, "BE FILLED!" Nope. Purification vessels. I'm not really here to make wine - I'm here to fully and completely purify you guys – it's fulfilling righteousness time. But go on, be about your business, and let the master of the feast taste the wine, so he can be about his business. There's no seeking of fame, just showing love and care and being done with it.

And the master tastes it, and the water has become wine, and he's confused, because: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This again is backwards. The master of the feast had one main job - to keep everyone having a good time without letting them get sloppy drunk. So what did you do - the first glass of wine would be "good" - that is high quality and also strong - so that everyone starts to feel good... and then you bring out cheaper, watered down wine, and keep things under control that way. But this is good wine. Strong, tasty, high quality, uncut. The kind of stuff you wouldn’t normally serve at the end of the party because that could lead to things getting well out of hand. We aren’t used to good wine this late in the game - why didn't you bring this one out first!

The wine, the food, everything was good at first. At Creation we have the Father seeing that it was good. If Adam got around to making some wine before the fall - guess what, it would have been good too. And Adam would have enjoyed it well and properly and rightously. But then the fall. And then things get worse. And we had to have a master of the feast to keep things from falling to a drunken brawl, because after the fall we could find ways to mess anything up. Even parties. We'd start fights there, at a celebration, at a happy time - in parts of my family fighting is almost a Christmas tradition. And parties with no master to keep things in line - they'd get sloppy, things would just get messy. And now Christ comes, and He makes wine... and what is it? GOOD wine. Why? Because He is God, and He has come to make all things good again, to restore creation, but more than that! He comes to fulfill all rightousness – to take sin away from mankind to where we can have all things good again and not abuse them. When we get to the feasts of eternal life, the wine there will be Good, but it won't be a problem for any of us because we won't be abusing God's good gifts to us, ever. And there is Christ Jesus, in the back, quietly doing what He does, being who He is, True God and True Man who restores creation and loves God and neighbor - and this little foretaste of the life of the world to come is in this master's cup, and the master doesn't know how to handle it.

So then, this is how Christ manifests His glory. At Cana, we see a glimpse of who He is, we see a glimpse of true glory, rather than the false, fleeting things we hope for. We are sinful men, we fall short of the glory of God - but there is Christ Jesus, the image of the invisible Father - and He goes quietly about His business. He will restore creation, He will win forgiveness for you with His death upon the Cross, He will rise from the dead to destroy death. He will make things right. And He will do this for you, in a simple quiet way that the world will hardly notice. He will take water, not from a purification rite vessel, but from a font, and with that Water and His Word He will wash away your sins, tying you to Himself. He will bring you to His feast, His Supper, to give you His own Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. He will give you life and salvation and forgiveness so that you might be with Him forever. This is the glory He craves, to restore you to whom God had created you to be - His companion, His friend, one who would dwell with Him in His presence for all eternity. And this is what Christ Jesus will do, and nothing will stop Him, for He is determined to show you perfect and complete love and forgive you all of your sins and raise you again on the last day. This is how He manifests His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World+ Amen.

Baptism of Jesus Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

    There are some passages, some parts of Scripture which are just utterly profound, that speak to the truth of God's love, God's care, God's plan of salvation with such depth that they still surprise you anew when you see them again. And our Gospel lesson is one of those passages, especially what Jesus tells John. This Gospel passage is monumental. It is earth shaking. In fact, one could make an argument that it is this passage where the Old Testament ends and the New Testament really, in truth, begins. It's the place where our salvation, how God would accomplish it in Christ Jesus, was shown forth.

    Consider how the passage starts. John the Baptist is out at the River Jordan doing his John thing. He is baptizing people for repentance, preparing them for the coming of the Messiah. And we cannot understand how profound what John was doing would have been for the people of Israel. For over 400 years there had been no prophet, no preacher like John. John is like the prophets of old returned, he is the essence of the Old Testament dropped right in the middle of Israel. The boldness of Elijah, the strangeness of Ezekiel, the way with words of Isaiah – it's all condensed into John. And what is the message of John – repent, repent you sinners, turn away from your wickedness because you know you've been doing sinful things, and you've been letting yourself off easy as you dive on into the foulest of sin. Repent, wash, get ready – for the Messiah is coming. His kingdom is coming. You don't want to be all grungey and gross when the King arrives – you want to be well dressed and on your best behavior. Repent, the Messiah is coming. We've got to get ready, we've got to clean up our acts and keep our noses clean – He is almost here!

    And this is a good message, and a solid message. Over and over, throughout the Old Testament, you see the children of Israel fall into great shame and vice when they forget the Lord. They get caught up in sins and vices that aren't all that different from the disdain and anger and lust and greed that are peddled all around America today – and prophets would warn them to repent before disaster came. Sometimes, for a time, Israel listened to the prophets and things got better. Sometimes, they didn't, and things went catastrophically bad for them. But throughout that proclamation of “repent or face the consequences,” there was also a thread pointing to the coming of the Messiah who would finally, fully fix things, who would fully take care of evil. And the general assumption tended to be that if there was punishment in the Old Testament, well, when the Messiah showed up, let's just say I wouldn't want to be in messy shoes when that happened. It was sort of thought that it would be the great “you wait until your dad gets home” event. It would be “we better have our rooms cleaned before mom sees them or there will be literal hell to pay”.

    And so John preaches repentance – the Messiah is coming, the garage door is opening and He'll walk inside the house any moment and woe be unto you if you haven't cleaned up your room – clean, clean now! This makes perfect sense, especially considering how things generally worked in the Old Testament. But, my friends, we are reaching the change, the twist, the turn – we are hitting the point of the start of the New Testament. Yes, Jesus was born on Christmas, but even then you still have such a strong focus on doing things the Old Testament way. Still the Sacrifices, still Mary presenting Him in the temple with 2 turtle doves. It's still Old Testamenty in approach... until our lesson when we hear this: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. The Messiah finally comes, to... to be baptized? The Messiah, God Himself, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, comes to... be baptized? Jesus comes to where the sinners are, and instead of smiting or shaking a fist... He stands with them. Oh, are we dealing with sin here? Well, as the Messiah I have to be here where sin is – and as I have become man, I'll go right where the sinful men that I've come to save are.

    This seemingly made no sense. This is backwards. John understandably says, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” You've got the order wrong, Jesus. You are the top of the top; we should be kowtowing to You! If you go to the palace you don't find the King down with the scullery maids getting dish-pan hands from scrubbing pots. What are You doing down here in the baptismal washing pits with us – we need to clean up our act and get ready for You! And then Jesus says something utterly earth shattering, and we don't notice it because it's so quiet. But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now....” This is wondrous, this is gorgeous. The word that gets translated here as “let it be” is a forgiveness word – it's let it be, let it go, overlook it – you know the “let the little children come to Me” - quit being all worried, because I'm here and it's all good in Me. It's the same word for “forgive” in the Lord's Prayer. Let it be about forgiveness from now on. I'm not showing up here to scourge the wicked, John – I'm not here as the grand drill sargeant who is going to whip you all into shape. Why? Because that just can't happen.

    Again, consider the Old Testament. Even with all the preaching and teaching and warning... people kept on sinning. People kept messing up. Even the washing of the flood didn't suffice to clean the planet of sin. No, something else would have to be done – and here, right here, this is the moment, from this point now, right here – we're New Testament. It's going to be forgiveness time, and how? Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus reveals what He is going to do. You see, for us sinful human beings, dealing with sin is a neverending thing. We always will be fighting against sin in our life, we will always have something to repent of. Our lives are ones of daily repentance. There's never going to be a service where you or I don't have things we ought to confess – that's the beauty of having confession of our sins over and over in the service – at the start, in our prayers, saying, “Lord, have mercy!” Sin is pervasive in our lives, and we're always stuck cleaning up messes. Sin is a pit that we can't dig our way out of because we are sinners.

    So the Messiah comes – Jesus arrives. And John's expecting a bit of tounge lashing and finger wagging because even with all that John has done, sin is still around. And Jesus say, “No – that's not how we are going to handle this situation”. As the great Lenten hymn puts it – Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. So Jesus enacts the great exchange. Jesus decides to fulfill all righteousness.

    See, sin isn't just doing bad stuff – it's a lack, it's an absence of righteousness, of goodness. Because of our sinful nature, we cannot obtain or maintain or live in a fully righteous way. I hate to break it to you, but you're going to sin this week. You're going to at times be a jerk, be lazy, be rude, be a lout. That's the reality of our fallen life; sin and death has ripped a part of who we ought to have been out of us, and we can't fix that of ourselves, and even cleaning up afterwards and apologizing doesn't fix us. To be a sinner is to lack, is to not be able to do or fulfill righteousness. So, Jesus comes to do it for you. As you and I can't, Jesus decides to do all things for you and me. And this fulfilling is two fold. As Jesus joins us in the waters of Baptism, He is pledging that He Himself would be the One to be held accountable for sin. All the sins of the world that are washed away from us are washed onto Christ Jesus. Jesus becomes the sin-bearer – He takes up your sin, your wickedness, and He carries them to the Cross and He takes up your punishment in full with His Suffering and Death. This is why Paul will say that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – of course not, because He took it all up.

    But there's more. There's still that lack of righteousness, that hole ripped out of us because of sin, because of death. So Jesus comes to fill that hole, to fulfill all righteousness, to do what we were supposed to do for us. Jesus shows love fully. Jesus serves His neighbor fully. Jesus is righteous – and He gives His righteousness to you. He fills you with it. This is why Paul will say, “It's not longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Christ Jesus gives Himself to you and lives in you and through you. And at the moment, we're still sinful, still dealing with death – we're like leaky pails but Jesus keeps pouring more and more of His righteousness, His forgiveness into us, in His Word, in your Baptism, in His Supper – over and over forgiveness and righteousness to you – even until you die and are raised from the dead and then suddenly, you aren't leaky anymore, you aren't broken or sinful or dying any more, you are raised completely whole, completely filled, completely clean – once again made into the wondrous creation Christ Jesus intended you to be.

    Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. It's the shift, it's the turn. From this point forth in the Gospels, and indeed in this season of Epiphany and in the season of Lent we are going to get lessons centering on Jesus fulfilling all righteousness – showing that He really is the Messiah, God Himself come to fix sin, to make things right, to defeat sin and death. Jesus takes up His ministry here, His task, His duty of seeing to your salvation. And it's going to work – And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.” Once again, God was well pleased with man – something that hadn't been since before the fall. Jesus is doing it, He is fulfilling all righteousness – and it's what He's doing here in His Church to you, as He gives you His own Spirit and declares that you are forgiven and that God is well pleased with you because of Jesus, because He joined Himself to you in Baptism. It's the wonder of the ages – and it really gets laid out and shown and started right here as Jesus is baptized so as to be your Savior. It's a wondrous thing, and we will delight in it for all eternity. Amen. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +