Whose King Is He?

The Epiphany of Our Lord

January 6, 2013

Matthew 2:1–12 

Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”

 There were these wise men who came to Jerusalem seeking the King of the Jews. The things of it was, they were Gentiles. Why were they looking for a Jewish king? Why were they wanting to worship Him? They were Gentiles. When Pilate affixed the sign above Jesus’ cross he wrote, “The King of the Jews.” Pilate was a Gentile. Why did he write that? In fact, the Jews wanted to know that very thing. “Don’t write,” they said, “‘The King of the Jews’ but that this man said ‘I am the King of the Jews.’”

At the beginning of His life Jesus is shown for who He is, the King of the Jews. The funny thing of it all is that He is shown this by Gentiles. The Jews didn’t want Him as their king. Granted, Pilate didn’t either, but he wrote accurately when he wrote on the cross of Christ, “The King of the Jews.” Certainly unknowingly, the statement He posted above Jesus’ head as He hung there on the cross brought to fulfillment Jesus’ own words in John 4: “Salvation is from the Jews.” Jesus had spoken those words to a woman who was a Samaritan. The Jews were very particular about their Jewishness. Samaritans, though sharing a common ancestry with them, were treated by them in the same way they treated Gentiles—as not one of them.

In a basic sense, Gentiles were nothing more than the “nations.” In the Old Testament there were the Israelites and then there was everybody else—the nations, the Gentiles. While the Israelites were most certainly the chosen people of God He never intended for only them to be saved. His salvation was always proclaimed and offered to the ends of the earth. To His own precious people, the Israelites, as well as to the nations, the Gentiles.

But we know how to take a good thing and turn it into a selfish thing, don’t we? If we are chosen we begin to think we’re better than others, don’t we? If we have been blessed we start seeing everyone else as not blessed for a reason; they are somehow inferior or not worthy. This was the problem with the Jews. Their heritage was the chosen people of God, the Israelites. They saw themselves as somehow special. They constructed a religion in which they were chosen because they deserved it. They were blessed because they did what was right and good and pleasing in the sight of God. They lost sight of grace and mercy. They forgot that their blessings came solely from the immeasurable love of God.

And so while God was their king, they rejected Him as their king. They weren’t able to see the grace in their God, in their king, in coming to them to bless them and care for them. They wanted to be self-sufficient and worthy in the eyes of the world.

But along comes God as a baby. An infant who lay in a manger rather than sitting on a throne. And this was no king for them. But Pilate called it correctly, didn’t he? This is the King of the Jews. The one hanging here, bloody, beaten to a pulp, losing blood, struggling for oxygen. And Pilate didn’t even know the half of it. As much pain as he could inflict on that man he referred to as the King of the Jews, he was unaware of how God saw His only-begotten Son as the King of the Jews. For God the Father inflicted nothing on Him, but laid on Him the sin of Pilate and every Jew and every Gentile.

See, this wasn’t just a Gentile ruler convicting some guy who claimed to be a king of some people known as Jews. This was God bringing salvation, from the Jews to the Jews and Gentiles. In other words, to everyone. Jesus was Himself a Jew. Jesus shared the same heritage the Jews did, from the chosen people of God in the Old Testament, the Israelites. The fact that He was born of a woman means that He had a genealogical ancestry, as we all do. But it wasn’t just that He was a “Jew.” He was of the lineage of the Promise. It went all the way back to Abraham, who was a Gentile, by the way.

That’s the important part of all of this. Salvation is not in who you are or where you’re from or what you’ve done or in your heritage. It’s in the one who hung up there on a cross with a sign hanging over His head that read “The King of the Jews.” The promise was given to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. There’s that word again, nations, Gentiles. His son, Isaac, was the father of Jacob who was renamed by God “Israel.” Thus the Israelites were born and the Jews ended up holding on to this genealogical ancestry rather than the promise given to Abraham.

The promise was fulfilled in Jesus, the King of the Jews. In other words, it was fulfilled in the cross. It was fulfilled in sins taken away, salvation accomplished, mercy showered on all. That’s what Epiphany shows. It shows that Jesus came not as a king in the way Herod was. Herod attempted to hold on to his power. He didn’t see that the king the wise men were seeking came to be his king. Not to unseat him from his throne; to call him to repentance as He does everyone. God Himself is the one who calls people to serve as kings and rulers. There’s no problem with Herod sitting on his throne. There was a huge problem with him being troubled that God sent His Son as King; King of the Jews, the one who came to bring salvation.

The wise men came to worship the true King. The one who was in a manger, not one who came to rule from a throne. The one who would care for His people from a cross, not a palace. Kings have power, and rightfully so. They need that power if they are to serve in a God-pleasing way as kings. The key, though, is serving. One is not carrying out his calling from God as king or ruler if he abuses his power or seeks to hold on to his power. The power is to be used for the good of those in the nation. He is to protect them. The wise men humbled themselves before a King who could do this like no other.

Jesus’ reign as King is from heaven, but unfortunately that doesn’t do us any good since we have rejected Him as our king. But He is the ultimate King. He came to us so that we could be restored to Him. As a king is most fully a king in his calling when he is carrying out his office as one who serves his people, Jesus shows us that He is the true King in that He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And if you are ever in doubt about how your Lord rules over you as your King you need look no further than those words of the Wise Men: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” You need not look past the words written by Pilate: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Put simply, look no further than the cross.

Whose King is He? He is your King. He is the King of the Jews. He is the King of the Gentiles. He rules His people in grace and mercy. Not because they are of particular lineage or ancestry. Not because they’re really good people. Not because they’ve maintained their power as a chosen people. Because of the cross. Because of grace and mercy. Because this is the kind of King we have in Jesus.

In a strange sort of way, we who are Gentiles, in other words, we’re not Jews, are actually not the Gentiles. We are the true Israel the New Testament speaks of. In other words, we are the people of God. We are the Christian Church. We are His chosen nation. Chosen, not on the basis of anything of ourselves, but of His mercy in Jesus, the one who was crucified.

And with that, because God in His mercy has chosen us, we who are sinful, there is the danger of us falling into the trap of turning in on ourselves instead of always looking to the cross and the Christ, the King, who hung there. There is the danger of thinking of ourselves as better. Of thinking of others as not as good. God has chosen us after all!

We need to be humble. We need to serve our King, the King who served us. We need to recognize that we are chosen simply because it is His pure grace, mercy, and love that drew Him to us. To be born, to suffer, to die, to rise. To come to us in Baptism and to give Himself to us in bread and wine. It is the King, Jesus the humble Servant, who is our sole glory. Not ourselves. Not our works. Not who we are or what we do. Not our lineage, not our church affiliation. Nothing. Only Christ. Only the true King, the one who came as the King of the Jews and brought salvation to all. Amen.

SDG

The Epiphany of Our Lord

The feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord commemorates no event but presents an idea that assumes concrete form only through the facts of our Lord’s life. The idea of Epiphany is that the Christ who was born in Bethlehem is recognized by the world as God. At Christmas, God appears as man, and at Epiphany, this man appears before the world as God. That Christ became man needed no proof. But that this man, this helpless child, is God needed proof. The manifestations of the Trinity, the signs and wonders performed by this man, and all His miracles have the purpose of proving to men that Jesus is God. Lately, especially in the Western Church, the story of the Magi has been associated with this feast day. As Gentiles who were brought to faith in Jesus Christ, the Magi represent all believers from the Gentile world. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

O God, by the leading of a star You made known Your only-begotten Son to the Gentiles.  Lead us, who know You by faith, to enjoy in heaven the fullness of Your divine presence; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of J. K. Wilhelm Loehe, Pastor

Although he never left Germany, Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe, born in Fuerth in 1808, had a profound impact on the development of Lutheranism in North America. Serving as pastor in the Bavarian village of Neuendettelsau, he recognized the need for workers in developing lands and assisted in training emergency helpers to be sent as missionary pastors to North America, Brazil, and Australia. A number of the men he sent to the United States became founders of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Through his financial support, a theological school was established in Fort Wayne, Ind., and a teachers' institute in Saginaw, Mich. Loehe was known for his confessional integrity and his interest in liturgy and catechetics. His devotion to works of Christian charity led to the establishment of a deaconess training house and homes for the aged. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

Most glorious Trinity, in Your mercy we commit to You this day our bodies and souls, all our ways and going, all our deeds and purposes, We pray You, so open our hearts and mouths that we may praise Your name, which above all names is holy. And since You have created for us the praise of Your holy name, grant that our lives may be for Your honor and that we may serve You in love and fear; for You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Circumcision and Name of Jesus

Already on the eighth day of Jesus’ life, His destiny of atonement is revealed in His name and in His circumcision. At that moment, His blood is first shed and Jesus receives the name given to Him by the angel: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). In the circumcision of Jesus, all people are circumcised once and for all, because He represents all humanity. In the Old Testament, for the believers who looked to God’s promise to be fulfilled in the Messiah, the benefits of circumcision included the forgiveness of sins, justification, and incorporation into the people of God. In the New Testament, St. Paul speaks of its counterpart, Holy Baptism, as a “circumcision made without hands” and as “the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

Lord God, You made Your beloved Son, our Savior, subject to the Law and caused Him to shed His blood on our behalf. Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Created for Purpose

Sunday after Christmas

December 30, 2012

Luke 2:33–40

You have some things in common with Jesus. You have a purpose. He did as well. You were born. He was as well. Unless He returns in glory first, you will die some day. Jesus died as well. You will be raised on the Last Day. He was raised from His tomb.

But there are important differences. You are a human being. While Jesus became a human being, He is God. You are sinful. Jesus is holy. You were created. Jesus, as Simeon says in the Gospel reading for today, was appointed.

It’s in this last difference that you meet up with Jesus in the first similarity you have with Him. You were created for purpose. He was appointed for purpose. The similarity here is not just that you have purpose even as your Lord has purpose. You have purpose because He carried out His purpose. That’s why He carried out His purpose, because He created you for purpose. He called you to eternal life so He brought eternal life to you by carrying out the purpose for which He was sent.

Simeon alluded to this: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” The cross has since become the chief sign of Christianity. It is nearly universally recognizable as the symbol for Christianity. So when Simeon pointed to a sign off in the distance in which people would oppose it, we see how extraordinary it is that Jesus carried out His purpose for which He was appointed.

It is all love and mercy toward you. You were created for purpose and He accomplished what was necessary for you to carry out your purpose. The Collect gives guidance here. First there is listening to God. Then there is doing what He has called and given you to do. You were created for purpose. This is what we prayed in the Collect: “O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature. Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us.”

You were created for purpose, but the Fall changed all that. In Romans 5:12 Paul says that “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” You have veered away from you purpose to which God has called you by your sin. You have rejected His purpose for you by sinning against Him. In the Collect we prayed that just as God has created us for purpose, He has “wondrously restored our human nature.” How He has done this is “in the incarnation of [His] Son.” Our prayer is that He “grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us.”

He became like you in all respects except for your sin. He took on human flesh but not sinful nature. On the cross He took on Himself all of your sin. This is the purpose for which He was appointed. It is the thing that gives you a re-creation. You are created anew for purpose. This purpose is “that [you] may ever be alive in Him.”

The events after Jesus’ birth are revealing as to what it means in the Collect praying our God to grant “that we may ever be alive in Him.” When Simeon talked of Jesus being appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed, we are shown how the Law and Gospel do their work. It is clear from the way Luke and the other Gospel writers present the coming of Jesus that He came for the Gospel. He came to bring salvation. He came to bring life.

What this means is that you first must die. When the thoughts of your heart are revealed you are exposed. You are seen for what you are. This is why Jesus came. He knows what is in your heart. At the cross every heart is exposed. Every person is shown for who they are. You are sinful from birth. Your life is one in which you daily live in your sinful flesh. You fall short every day.

This is the work of the Law, and Jesus does not come except for the Law having done its work. He must come with His sword of the Law to pierce you through, otherwise you will die in your sin. When you are pierced through by the Law you are called to repentance. You still die, but you don’t die in your sin. You die to it. Your sinful nature is drowned, crucified, slain in Baptism. When Simeon had spoken his wonderful words of his eyes having seen salvation because he now held the infant Jesus in his arms, Luke says that “his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.” When an infant is Baptized we, too, ought to marvel at what is said about that little baby. “I Baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That baby is joined with Christ in His death and resurrection, the baby’s little life drowned to sin and raised to new life. That is something truly to marvel at.

And so along with the piercing of the Law He brings His precious sweet Gospel. This is, after all, the purpose for which He came! It is what He was appointed for. To bring salvation. To bring forgiveness and life. Even there in the temple when Simeon and Anna were speaking of His glory and His grace, Jesus was in the very act of bringing about salvation. It all culminated in the cross and the empty tomb. But it wasn’t just death and resurrection, it was an entire life, joining our human flesh, fulfilling the holy will and Law of God, bringing about restoration to fallen humanity, and ultimately, taking upon Himself the sin and guilt of fallen humanity.

All of that is the basis for the wonderful prayer we prayed, that our God “grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us.” You were created for purpose. You were restored in the incarnation of His Son. You now live out this purpose. How? You are ever alive in Him. The Church down through the ages gives us great wisdom. There’s certainly freedom to pray from your heart. There’s also an immense blessing in going back to these prayers, these brief Collects, and being shown the rich wisdom the Church has drawn from the Scriptures in handing down these prayers to us.

Yes, you do good works. Yes, you serve others. Yes, you think and calm down before reacting in anger. Yes, you love and cherish those God has given you to take care of. Yes, you do all of these things and you beat down your sinful flesh instead of giving into it. All of this is good, right, and salutary. It’s also good to be reminded of it now and then; perhaps often. It’s good to be exhorted to these things. And so here you have.

Now hear the wisdom of the Collect of the Day. You don’t just do things. You don’t just strive to carry out your purpose. You don’t even simply try to get better and better. You pray your gracious God to grant you to ever be alive in your Lord, He who made Himself to be like us. This is your purpose! To be alive in Christ! You were crucified to your sinful flesh so that you could be raised to new life in Him. Live in that new life! Don’t just do stuff, live according to your purpose, which your Lord Himself has given you.

This is why you always go back to you Baptism. It’s why you need to partake of the Lord’s Supper often. It’s why you continue to hear the Gospel proclaimed to you. It’s why you confess your sins and receive Absolution of those sins. Without these you will fall back into your sinful flesh. You will be living in death. Your new life in Christ is something you live—He has given you new life—but it’s not something you sustain. The Means of Grace do that. The Gospel and the Sacraments, the very life-giving means He uses, are what brings you continually to new life from your sin.

Paul beautifully brings this out in a tightly-wrapped presentation in the Epistle reading, saying that we were “enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

You were created for purpose. You were redeemed in order to be restored to this purpose. You now live in it here on earth and will forever in heaven. Amen.

SDG

Sunday After Christmas

The Christmas season begins with the celebration of Christmas. It continues in the twelve days following that. The celebration of the birth of Jesus continues with the celebration of the infant Jesus and all that He has done for us and for our salvation. As everything in the Church Year delivers Christ to us and points us to the cross, so in the Christmas season we are drawn to the cross with the words of Simeon concerning the Christ Child. He was born and He lived a life that we could not, without sin, yet suffering for our sin so that we may have life.

Collect of the Day

O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature. Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of David

David, the greatest of Israel's kings, ruled from about 1010 to 970 B.C. The events of his life are found in 1 Samuel 16 through 1 Kings 2 and in 1 Chronicles 10—29. David was also gifted musically. He was skilled in playing the lyre and the author of no less than 73 psalms, including the beloved Psalm 23. His public and private character displayed a mixture of good (for example, his defeat of the giant Goliath, 1 Samuel 17) and evil (as in his adultery with Uriah's wife, followed by his murder of Uriah, 2 Samuel 11). David's greatness lay in his fierce loyalty to God as Israel's military and political leader, coupled with his willingness to acknowledge his sins and ask for God's forgiveness (2 Samuel 12; see also Psalm 51). It was under David's leadership that the people of Israel were united into a single nation with Jerusalem as its capital city. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

God of majesty, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven, we give You thanks for David who, through the Psalter, gave Your people hymns to sing with joy in our worship on earth so that we may glimpse Your beauty. Bring us to the fulfillment of that hope of perfection that will be ours as we stand before Your unveiled glory; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Matthew’s Gospel tells of King Herod’s vicious plot against the infant Jesus after being “tricked” by the Wise Men. Threatened by the one “born King of the Jews,” Herod murdered all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger (Matthew 2:16–18). These “innocents,” commemorated just three days after the celebration of Jesus’ birth, remind us not only of the terrible brutality of which human beings are capable but more significantly of the persecution Jesus endured from the beginning of His earthly life. Although Jesus’ life was providentially spared at this time, many years later, another ruler, Pontius Pilate, would sentence the innocent Jesus to death. [Kinnaman, Scot A. (2008-10-31). Treasury of Daily Prayer (Kindle Locations 32935-32939). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.]

Collect of the Day

Almighty God, the martyred innocents of Bethlehem showed forth Your praise not by speaking but by dying.  Put to death in us all that is in conflict with Your will that our lives may bear witness to the faith we profess with our lips; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of John, Apostle and Evangelist

St. John was a son of Zebedee and brother of James the Elder (whose festival day is July 25). John was among the first disciples to be called by Jesus (Matthew 4:18–22) and became known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” as he refers to himself in the Gospel that bears his name (e.g., John 21:20). Of the Twelve, John alone did not forsake Jesus in the hours of His suffering and death. With the faithful women, he stood at the cross, where our Lord made him the guardian of His mother. After Pentecost, John spent his ministry in Jerusalem and at Ephesus, where tradition says he was bishop. He wrote the fourth Gospel, the three Epistles that bear his name, and the Book of Revelation. Especially memorable in his Gospel are the account of the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–12), the “Gospel in a nutshell” (John 3:16), Jesus’ saying about the Good Shepherd (John 10:11–16), the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11), and Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene on Easter morning (John 20:11–18). According to tradition, John was banished to the island of Patmos (off the coast of Asia Minor) by the Roman emperor Domitian. John lived to a very old age, surviving all the apostles, and died at Ephesus around AD 100. [Kinnaman, Scot A. (2008-10-31). Treasury of Daily Prayer (Kindle Locations 32817-32822). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.]

Collect of the Day

Merciful Lord, cast the bright beams of Your light upon Your Church that we, being instructed in the doctrine of Your blessed apostle and evangelist John, may come to the light of everlasting life; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.