There Is Only One

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Last Sunday After the Epiphany

January 17, 2016

Matthew 17:1–9

First, we must come to terms with which Jesus you are going to seek. The one Peter thought was great was the one shining brightly and gloriously. The one in holy conversation with the great prophets of old, Moses and Elijah. The one who took no small effort to bring them up a high mountain. The one who obviously wanted them to share in the splendor that is Jesus Christ; radiant, brilliant.

Yes, this is the Jesus Peter chose. There was only one Jesus for him, and it was not the one who had led them up the mountain. It was the one who was revealing Himself in His true glory now that He was on the mountain. This is the Jesus Peter wanted. It’s too bad the other apostles wouldn’t get to see it, but, Jesus, let’s hang out together here for, oh, forever, just us three with you and Moses and Elijah. It’s perfect. The Jesus who shows Himself for who He really is.

But Jesus tips His hand at the end. Don’t tell anyone about this until later. This was a glimpse. This wasn’t what was meant to be here in this life. So He brought them again down the mountain and He went back to being ordinary-looking Jesus. The Jesus who looked and talked like they did. Sure, He was still healing and preaching, but nothing could compare with that glorious sight on the mountain. That’s the Jesus Peter wanted.

Which would you rather have, the Jesus who is around you all the time, looking a lot like He’s part of the crowd, or the Jesus who will take you from the ordinariness of life and reveal Himself to you in all His splendor? Up on the mountain, there were no problems. Just magnificent Jesus with Moses and Elijah and brilliant radiance. Of course Peter wanted to stay.

But Jesus wasn’t transfigured to show us who He ‘really’ is. This was a glimpse. Jesus was transfigured for another reason, which we’ll get to in a moment. The Jesus we want is the Jesus we don’t need. The Jesus we need is the one we can become apathetic to. So when you come to terms with which Jesus you are going to seek, seek the one He shows you, not the one you think you want. When He shows you His glory, His transcendence, His majesty, don’t be deceived. He’s not showing you what you need. He’s showing you what eventually will be.

The only way you get the Jesus you think you want is the through the Jesus who went up another mountain, this time with no disciples. This time not in holy conversation with Moses and Elijah but in suffering punishment with two criminals. This time His clothing is not shining brightly in brilliant white, but tattered and torn, bloody and filthy. This time His face is not shining like the sun but is bruised and cut and bleeding. This time His Heavenly  Father is not speaking to everyone of His beloved Son but is forsaking His only Son. This time there is no one there to say, let’s stay here, this is the place to be, this is what we need. This time He is there on the mountain, alone, suffering not His own punishment, but ours. Not displaying glory and radiance as we would like, but grace and mercy and eternal love as we truly need.

If you seek Jesus, as Peter did, then don’t look in the wrong place. Jesus brought them back down the mountain and told them not to say anything until after He died and rose. This is the Jesus we need and so ought to seek. The one who went to the cross. There is only one Jesus and if you would like what He gives and does, don’t seek Him in ways He doesn’t come to you. He comes not in glory but in humility. The Jesus who is God in the flesh is the one who actually came in the flesh as a baby. The Jesus who is the glorious Lord displayed His greatest glory in speaking on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Let these words sink deep into your soul.

What does a magnificent display of glory do for you? But the forgiveness of Christ Himself from the cross does everything for you that you need. It erases your sins. It restores you to God the Father. It releases you from the judgment of the Law and the punishment you deserve. It assuages your guilt. On the Mount of Transfiguration God said, This is My beloved Son, listen to Him. What better words to listen than these words from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

This is the Jesus you ought to seek. And once you do you must come to terms with something else. There is only one Jesus and He is the one who came to save you in His death and resurrection. There is, then, only one person you ought to seek. There is only one person you ought to point others to. Once you see Jesus for who He is, you see that He is the only one that can give you what you truly need.

Matthew helps us see this when he tells us that on the mountain Jesus was transfigured and then joined by Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah were prophets who proclaimed Christ. They pointed people to the one who was to come and now, Matthew is showing us, He was here. They proclaimed that God would send the Savior, and now, Matthew is helping us see, He was here.

You see, there is only one. Moses wasn’t it. Elijah wasn’t it. David, Abraham, no other great patriarch, king, or prophet. Jesus. He is the only one. God enveloped Peter, James, and John in a cloud, and said, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.” Not to anyone else. Jesus alone. When the cloud lifted from them and they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. It is Christ who we need. It is Christ in whom there is salvation, no one else. God the Father sent Him and He is the one we need.

Peter had said that he thought it would be a good idea to make three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Nope, there is only one, and it Jesus. He alone went to the cross. He alone suffered for the sin of the world. He alone is the beloved Son of the Father. He alone is the one we are to listen to. He alone is the one we are to point people to. There is only one. There is only one Jesus and He is the one went to the cross. And there is only one God who is the Savior, the Triune God who has revealed Himself most fully and brilliantly in Jesus.

Don’t seek glorious displays from God. Don’t seek manifestations of power or splendor. Just look to the humble places He reveals Himself to you. It’s not high on a mountain, but in simple ways like the water in your Baptism. Like the ordinary words which come from the mouth of a pastor in pronouncing Absolution. Like the ordinary words that are proclaimed when the Gospel is proclaimed. Like ordinary bread and wine which Christ gives to you to give you His flesh and blood. There’s no display of glory or brilliance, just His body and His blood.

What He gives you to eat and drink is the body Mary carried in her womb and gave birth to. It is the body, to be sure, that was transfigured on the mountain. But most especially, it was the body transfigured into a bloody mess while it hung on the cross and which He gave over to His Father as the sacrifice for the sin of the world.

What He also gives you in His Holy Supper is His blood to drink. It is the very same blood that coursed through His veins as He was growing in His mother’s womb and that kept Him alive while He lived on this earth. But most especially, it was the blood He shed on the cross for the sin of the world.

There is only one way to salvation. It is Christ and Him crucified. There is only one thing you ultimately need, it is Christ. There is only one God and He has revealed Himself in His beloved Son, the one who went to the cross and gives you salvation in His doing so. Amen.

SDG

Don’t Stay on the Mountain

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

January 20, 2013

Matthew 17:1–9

There were only three of them. He might have taken all twelve of His disciples. But He chose only three. He might have invited the crowds who had heard Him on the Sermon on the Mount up this other mount so that they, too, could witness the glory of the Transfiguration. But He picked just three from that crowd. After feeding the thousands of the Feeding of the Five Thousand He could have really shown them some glory and brought them along to the Mount of Transfiguration. But He showed this glory to only three of those thousands.

Of those three we have a recollection of it from one of them. In the Epistle today Peter tells us what it was like. It was glorious, of course. It was spectacular, of course. It was something that many, if not all, of us would ourselves like to witness. But the Holy Spirit in inspiring the apostles in writing the New Testament gives to us the perfect perspective on things like this. Peter’s words maintain the glory of the Transfiguration even as they show that it’s not what we ought to hang our hat on. It’s great, but there’s something better, he says. It’s spectacular, and how great would it have been to witness it as he had, but there’s something better that we have.

Consider this, the closing words to today’s Gospel reading: “And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, ‘Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.’” The first detail almost goes past our observance. They came down the mountain. This is a very important fact. They didn’t stay on the mountain. It was great! It was spectacular! They wanted to stay on the mountain! But they didn’t. They came down.

And as they did, we see the second detail, Jesus telling them to keep quiet about it. It’s spectacular. It’s amazing. It’s a sight to behold. But don’t tell anyone. Well, it’s not so much not telling anyone as it is not saying anything until another event of spectacle has occurred. “If you think you saw something today, wait till you see Me rise from My grave. That’s when you can tell people.” And so Peter did. We have it in the Epistle reading. We were on that mountain. We saw the glory. We heard the voice of the Father. We witnessed this glorious event.

But then we came down the mountain. Then we kept quiet about it. Then we reflected upon what we had seen and witnessed. Then we pondered something amazing. The words of the Father. We saw Jesus transfigured before us. We saw glory as we had never known. But as we came down the mountain, He said something to us. No longer radiant, He said, Don’t say anything. Don’t tell people what you have witnessed. It means nothing apart from what I am about to do. The glory you will behold will not make sense at first. I will look the opposite of what you saw on this mountain. I will be beaten, and bruised, and bloodied, and stricken. I will draw My last breath. I will not hear the words of My dear Father, “This is My beloved Son,” but will cry out to Him, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

And after that, I will rise from the grave. There will be glory in these events that will pale My transfiguration before you on this mountain. That is why you must wait to tell others. That, and going back to what you heard My Father on the Mount of Transfiguration say of Me: “Listen to Him.”

And so we did. We listened to Him. We heard the words of the Father and heard the words of the Son. And what we have realized is that, when we wanted to hang out on that mountain, holding on to that glory we were experiencing, we were holding on to something fleeting. The glory we wanted paled in comparison with the glory of the cross and the empty tomb. The glory we attempted to hold on to was truly a vision, a glimpse if you will.

The glory of the cross, though, that is certain. The glory of the empty tomb, that is enduring. The word we have now is something that we have now. On the mountain Jesus’ face was radiant. His clothes were bright and marvelous. But what good does that really do? It does no good apart from the glory and beauty of the cross and the empty tomb. It does no good if you tell people, “Hey, we saw this spectacular display of glory from Jesus! Wish you could have too!”

No, that doesn’t do anybody any good. What does is going down the mountain. What does is the prophetic word. How does Peter say it? “We have something more sure, the prophetic word.” Now, you may be like me and the Word of God does not strike you as spectacular in comparison with the glory of the Transfiguration. But Peter sees things clearly, very unlike the way he saw them when he witnessed the glory of the Transfiguration up on the mountain. “Lord, it’s good we’re here! Let’s stay! We can enjoy this glory forever!” No, it wasn’t until he came down the mountain. Until the Lord suffered on the cross; rose from the grave; until Peter did what the Father had said, and listened to his Lord, that Peter realized that he didn’t need glory, he needed certainty.

He didn’t say, “You know that glory we saw on the mountain? We have something more glorious—the Bible.” No, he said, “We saw the glory, and granted, you didn’t, but we have something more sure.” More certain. More lasting. More what we need. And then he says, “So pay attention to it. It’s like a lamp shining in a dark place.”

Well, with radiance beaming from Jesus’ face and clothes, I’m sure it lit the place up. But it’s like a flicker from a candle compared to the Word of God. The Transfiguration was a vision, a momentary display of glory. The Word of God is a prophetic word of God; an enduring entity that shines brightly and dispels darkness. Don’t stay on the mountain. Don’t seek glory when you have something more certain. Don’t look for the glory you think God should show you when you have something more certain, the prophetic word which is written and proclaimed and applied in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Mountain top experiences are experiences we want to hold on to. But they inevitably contain the action of coming down from the mountain. After summer kids can experience a letdown, now having to go back to school. After a fantastic vacation, instead of feeling great having had wonderful experiences, you can feel down in the dumps now that you’re back to the ordinariness of your life. Any spectacular experience in this life is just that, it’s an experience. It doesn’t last. Some of the effects of it may. But the thing you want to hold on to, what you want to continue, doesn’t last. The experience itself comes to an end. You have to go back down the mountain.

What we learn today is that this is good. Don’t stay on the mountain. You need to go down to the plain. That’s where you live. That’s where God calls you to live your life and carry out your vocation He has given you. That’s where you do what our Heavenly Father has instructed you to do, you listen to your Lord. You hear the prophetic word and receive the salvific means of grace. If you stay on the mountain you are removed from the place where your Lord comes to you and gives you His true glory. It’s known chiefly in His giving His mercy and grace to you.

It’s here in this house where we hear the Word of God and receive the Holy Supper of our Lord. It’s in our homes where we hear the Word of God in family devotions and where we pray together. It’s in our daily lives where we serve others and bring them hope to their lives that comes only from coming down from the mountain and taking them to the Mount of Calvary where Christ paid for all of their sins. Showing them the empty tomb where He guaranteed eternal life in conquering the grave. Pointing them to the waters of Baptism which are connected with the word of God and in which they are transformed into a new creation.

At the very least we ought to see that Jesus, who was transfigured in glorious display, came down the mountain. He did so in order to ascend a humble mountain, Calvary. Even that mountain, though, He came down from, having accomplished salvation and displayed His true glory, that of suffering and dying for us. His rest in the tomb even was momentary, He left that dark place after three days. He reigns on the mountain now, so to speak, having ascended to heaven. But even here, Jesus doesn’t stay on that mountain, but rather descends to us; coming to us in the Gospel and the Sacraments.

After the glory and after the voice of the Father, the disciples saw on that mountain Jesus only. When we hear the Gospel, when we remember our Baptism, when we receive the Lord’s Supper, we ought to see Jesus only. It was Jesus only on the cross. Don’t stay on the mountain seeking glory from Him. Hang out where He has promised to come to you. It is indeed good to be here where He displays His glory by giving you grace and forgiving you. And in this way you may descend the mountain and go in peace and serve the Lord. Amen.

SDG

Why Jesus Was Baptized; Why You Are Baptized

The Baptism of Our Lord

First Sunday after the Epiphany

January 13, 2013

Matthew 3:13–17

To get an understanding of why John was so puzzled when Jesus came to him to be Baptized by him, listen to what Matthew had said earlier in chapter 3, right before today’s Gospel reading: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”’” Matthew goes on to say that “Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”

Furthermore, Matthew tells us that John said “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” The very next thing that happens is what we heard in today’s Gospel reading, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.” No wonder, as Matthew tells us, “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”

Baptism is a treasure. It is a rite and a Sacrament the Church has cherished since our Lord Jesus Christ instituted it. We cherish it because it is the very means by which a child of wrath becomes a child of God. It is the blessed way in which a sinner is forgiven; in which a person who is dead in sins is resurrected to new and eternal life. John was rightly puzzled. “I’ve been paving the way for You. I’ve been preaching repentance and Baptizing people. I’ve been pointing people to You and now that You’ve come, You’re not going to preach, You’re not going to Baptize, You’re not going to take over for me… You’re going to be Baptized?”

I have to imagine John trying to keep his hands steady as he Baptized Jesus, having just proclaimed to everyone their need for repentance and Baptism, and now the sinless Son of God was requesting Baptism at his very hand. Like John, we know our need for Baptism. Also like John, we don’t understand why it is that Jesus needs to be Baptized. He had no need for repentance. He hadn’t sinned. He wasn’t dead in sins and in need of being made a new creation. He came to save us from sins.

John acquiesces, however. It’s only right that when Jesus says, “Here’s the thing, do it the way I’m saying it,” that you do it. John in this regard truly is what he had said he was, he was not worthy in comparison with Christ. He came to be the one to prepare the way for Jesus and when he does what Jesus says to do, namely, Baptize the one he has been preparing the way for, he is humbly submitting to that one, Jesus, the Messiah.

Jesus’ reason is that it is to fulfill all righteousness. Baptism is a passive thing. It is something done to you. One does not do anything in order to be Baptized. You are washed. You are forgiven. You are brought into new life. It’s similar to birth. You did not do anything in order to be born. Your mom was pregnant with you and then gave birth to you. You came out of her womb by the working of her and the doctor. This was passive on your part. You were the one receiving. You were the recipient of life. That’s the way it is in Baptism.

So when Jesus came in order to do—to forgive, to save, to restore, to create anew—it’s odd to John that Jesus would be the passive recipient of John’s Baptism. In Baptizing Jesus, John would be the one doing the doing, Jesus would be the one receiving. This, Jesus says, is what will fulfill all righteousness. We think of Jesus fulfilling all righteousness for us in terms of His acting, His working, His doing. What He is saying here is that it is in terms of His receiving. He is being a passive recipient, just as we are to be.

John may not have understood what this meant, this Baptizing Jesus in order to fulfill all righteousness, but Jesus certainly did. He knew that this Baptism He was receiving was connected with the other Baptism He would undergo; the Baptism by fire; the receiving of the wrath of God for sinners upon Himself. God was most certainly doing the work in this act of accomplishing salvation, or, as Jesus says it, fulfilling all righteousness, but He was doing it by Jesus being the passive recipient of the punishment and wrath for our sins.

Think of it. Jesus on the cross, suffering what we human beings rightly ought to suffer, namely, the wrath of God poured out on sinners. We are the ones who need to repent, not Him. And yet, He went humbly to the cross to suffer in our place. When Jesus shows up on the scene at the moment John is making his case that people need to repent and be Baptized, and Jesus, instead of Baptizing, as John said He would, is Himself Baptized, we see what Jesus was doing. He was receiving. He was receiving what we ought to receive. When you’re Baptized, you don’t do anything. You receive. God does something to you.

When Jesus was Baptized, it was the same thing. He was receiving. But He wasn’t doing it because He needed it. He was doing it to fulfill all righteousness. In other words, He was doing it for us. He was already accomplishing His work of salvation for us in receiving what we ought to receive, namely, a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Often in the New Testament when the word ‘fulfill’ is used it’s in terms of fulfilling prophecy. Isaiah 53:11 has this prophecy: “by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities.” This prophecy connects Jesus’ Baptism, as He said of it, in order to fulfill all righteousness, with the cross, bearing the iniquities of all sinners. The theologian Leon Morris makes this great statement about what it was Jesus was doing when He turned the tables upside down on John the Baptist: “Jesus might well have been up there in front standing with John and calling on sinners to repent. Instead he was down there with the sinners, affirming his solidarity with them, making himself one with them in the process of the salvation that he would in due course accomplish.”

Isaiah 53 is the clearest passage in the Old Testament of the Suffering Servant, the Messiah who came to suffer for the sins of the world. We rightfully see this passage as pointing to the cross. With Jesus’ rationale here at His Baptism, perhaps we should see that prophecy, as well, as encompassing all of His work of salvation, as Isaiah 53 also says that “He was numbered with the transgressors.” There Jesus was, in the Jordan River, with a bunch of sinners who needed to repent; who needed to be Baptized; who needed Jesus. And there was Jesus, with them in those waters.

There was Jesus, the one Matthew earlier in his Gospel account said of His birth, that this was Emmanuel, God with us. God was with those people on that day. They had come out to hear an itinerant preacher and in John heard a message of repentance, and a call to be Baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. What they got was Jesus coming into the water with them, being Baptized, fulfilling all righteousness.

It would be one thing to talk about Jesus’ Baptism as the historical event it is and leave it as that. But the Baptism of Jesus actually means something for you. It affects who you are and how you live. When you consider what those people got when they heard John and were Baptized by John, that they received Jesus having the water poured on Himself also, that He was joining with them in this, you begin to see what Paul in Romans 6 was talking about when he said that in Baptism we are united with Christ. Our Old Adam is drowned, our New Man is raised up, as we are joined with Christ in Baptism in His death and resurrection.

This is how Paul says what he does in the Epistle reading today: “Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

It might seem that having water applied to you and words spoken in connection with that water is too simple of a thing to be the major thing it is. But this is how God works. He uses the simple, the lowly, the foolish. The Catechism even asks this question, “How can simple water do such great things?”, in response to the question, “What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” And so the question: “How can water do such great things?” And the answer: “Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.”

In the Epistle Paul brings home the purpose Jesus said John should Baptize Him: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” God is the source of your life. How? In Christ Jesus. God has made Him our wisdom, and in light of Jesus’ words about why He was Baptized, in order to fulfill all righteousness, our righteousness, and our sanctification, and our redemption. When you are Baptized He joins Himself with you. You are united with Him. All righteousness is fulfilled for you. You have purpose. You have new life.

And as Paul said in the Epistle, consider your calling, continue to pray as we did in the Collect of the Day, “Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life.” Amen.

SDG

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.