Remember this day that the Lord has made - Sermon for Easter Vigil

This sermon was written for the saints at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to be preached on Saturday night at the Easter Vigil, 2012.

Welcome to this new day – the day of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead! Jesus rose on the first day of the week, which began at sunset tonight. And since then, every first day of the week has been blessed. Since then, every first day of the week has become a celebration of Easter as the Church gathers around her risen Lord in Word and Sacrament until he comes again in glory to raise all the dead and to bring us into that great wedding banquet that has no end.

Today is also the Third Day – the Third Day of the Paschal Triduum, the blessed Third Day about which Jesus said, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Today has also been called “The Eighth Day” – the day of the new creation. For God made all things in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. And Christ labored for the six days of Holy Week and on the seventh day his lifeless bones rested in the tomb. But now he rests no more. Now he is risen from the dead and that changes everything. You can’t just start over again counting the days of the week as man has done since the beginning of creation, because this creation is waxing old, like a garment. This creation is destined for fire, because the sin of man – the sin of us all – has ruined it. We’ve ruined everything, and so everything must pass away; everything must be destroyed. Everything – except for the living Lord Jesus. He has already conquered sin and passed from death to immortality. He is the beginning of the new creation, a perfect creation, and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He is our doorway out of this dying world and our entrance into the life of the next.

And we enter through that doorway through Holy Baptism. It’s no accident that ancient baptismal fonts were octagonal – eight-sided – in shape. Because the Church understood what was really going on in that Sacrament, what was really happening in the spiritual realm. The baptized is being drawn out of this dying world and into the new creation of Christ, being clothed with Christ and with his resurrected life, the life that belongs to all of you who have been baptized and believe in the risen One.

So welcome to this day, fellow believers! Today is a new day with the dawning of new life and the beginning of the destruction of death. And whether we remember it as the first day, or the third day, or the eighth day, let us remember with the Psalmist that this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24)! Amen.

Remember the Spirit, the water and the blood - Sermon for Good Friday Tenebrae

This sermon was written for the saints at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to be preached in the evening Tenebrae service on Good Friday, 2012.

Now the first Holy Day of the Three Holy Days comes to a close and a new day begins now at sunset – a special Sabbath Day for the Son of God, a day of perfect, undisturbed rest for his dead body in Joseph’s tomb. And just as God rested from his whole work of creating the universe on the seventh day of creation, so the Son of God rested from his whole work of salvation on the seventh day of that first Holy Week.

It had been quite a day, with all the suffering and death that the whole world of sinners had coming to them, now poured out on the sinners’ Substitute – all in a single day. And yet, even after as he died and before he was buried, God already pointed to the three gifts that flow out of Jesus’ death. Of all the things to think about and remember as Good Friday comes to a close, remember the Spirit, the water and the blood.

With his Passion – his suffering – complete, with his work of redemption finished, Jesus breathed his last and “gave up his spirit.” Then one of the soldiers pierced his side, and out came blood and water.

The Apostle John points us to those three things in his Gospel, and explains it in his first Epistle, This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

What do these three agree about? Well, they agree that Jesus really, truly and actually died. He gave up his spirit, and blood and water flowed out of his side when it was pierced.

But they agree on more than that. Because, John says, not that they testified when Jesus died, but that they testify now. To what?

To exactly what Psalm 130 says: If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
That Psalm is fulfilled on Good Friday, at the great “It is finished!” The Lord did redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

But how is that redemption applied to you? How is it the forgiveness Jesus won applied to you so that you may be justified? How does the forgiveness that is “with the Lord” get to you so that you are forgiven, so that you can stand before God?
It’s by the Spirit, the water and the blood.

On that very first Easter Sunday, the risen Jesus would appear to his disciples, breathe on them and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” The Spirit of Jesus hands out the forgiveness Jesus won on the cross in Holy Absolution, in the forgiving word spoken by the ministers of Christ.

It’s also by the water, by which the Spirit plunges us back through time and unites us with Christ. What did Peter say on Pentecost? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins!

It’s also by the blood. What did Jesus say at the very beginning of that first Holy Day? “Take, eat; this is my body. Take, drink; this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this…”

All the benefits won by Jesus on that Good Friday, all the treasures of his life and death – forgiveness, life, salvation, victory over sin, death and the devil, a Father’s love, a place with him in Paradise – all of it comes to us now through Word and Sacrament, through the Spirit, the water and the blood. And it’s no accident that they were all there on Good Friday, just like it’s no accident that John recorded it, just like it’s no accident that you, here, in this place, have been reached by the Spirit, the water and the blood. God’s love for you and his desire for your salvation are from eternity. And just as he elected us in Christ since before the foundation of the world was laid, so he also planned Good Friday from eternity, so he also planned how and where and when the Spirit, the water and the blood would come to you to bestow on you the forgiveness purchased by the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

And just as Christ entered his Sabbath rest on that first Good Friday evening, so there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, according to the writer of the Hebrews. Let us strive to enter that rest, he says. And how will we do that? Through faith alone in Jesus Christ. And how will God sustain that faith in us until the end? Through the Spirit, the water and the blood. Remember. Amen.

Remember that it is finished - Sermon for Good Friday Chief Service

This sermon was written for the saints at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to be preached during the hours of the cross on Good Friday, 2012.

John 18 - 19 + Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 + Psalm 22

The Word of the Lord through the prophet Zechariah: Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. (Zech. 3:8-9)

Today we remember that single day, that day of once-and-for-all atonement, that day of redemption called Good Friday.

So many things to remember from Good Friday: The before-sunrise trials before Annas and the high priest Caiaphas. The false witnesses. The spitting and mocking and striking. The early-morning trials before Pilate and Herod and Pilate again. The ripping of Jesus’ back to shreds. The purple robe. The crown of thorns. The Gentile governor’s attempts to free an innocent man. The Jews’ insistence that their king be crucified.

Of course, it’s Jesus’ six hours or so on the cross that we remember most of all. And it’s that striking Psalm, 22, that painted the picture for us a thousand years before the events took place. I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. They have pierced my hands and feet. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. All who see me mock me. He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him! All my bones are out of joint. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Isaiah has already told us why. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

But even as Jesus cries out from the cross in agony, he is directing us back to the Psalm. And what we find there is not the hopelessness of despair and guilt and punishment, but faith in God in the midst of the deepest agony, the hope of an end to punishment, an end to suffering, and the ushering in of salvation. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

It was about the 9th hour – about 3 PM when Jesus cried out from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?” And it was about at the 9th hour – 3 PM on that Day of days when Jesus was delivered, his suffering ended. His Father delivered him, delivered him to death, but through death, to Paradise for his worthy soul, and to a Sabbath Day’s rest for his weary bones.

One perfect life had been lived. One perfect death had been died. A life of obedience and trust in God from start to finish – the life and death of the Man who is also God. It is finished!, Jesus cried. And was it ever! Satisfaction made. Redemption finished. Forgiveness won. For every sin of every sinner, including you.

This atonement finished by Jesus, this payment for sin made by Jesus is the firm footing for our faith. This is what is preached in the Gospel. This is what is delivered to us by God in the means of grace. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ with his perfect righteousness, the only righteousness that avails before God. Jesus Christ with his finished work of redemption.

Now, what sin can the devil throw in your face and say, “Oh. That one’s too big. I’m sorry. Even Jesus’ blood can’t cover that one”? “Oh. You did that? You harbored a thought like that in your heart? And you call yourself a Christian? No forgiveness for you – not if God finds out about that.”

Foolish devil. And foolish you, if you believe him. It is finished, Jesus said. There is no sacrifice or payment for sin left to be made. Once for all, it is finished.

Or, what good work will the fool devil fool you into doing in order to make God “happy”? What good Christian sacrifice will you make for him, to hold it up next to Jesus hanging on the cross, “See, God! Well, Jesus did all that, but I did this! Look here! Look at me! I’m a good Christian, aren’t I?”

You might as well be one of the damned Pharisees who called for Jesus’ crucifixion. Because if you dare to hold up another righteousness before God than that of Jesus, if you dare to rely on any sacrifice but the sacrifice of Jesus, then you will be locked out of the heaven Jesus won for you. It is finished, Jesus said. God’s law has been satisfied. Don’t try to satisfy it some more.

Instead, trust in the satisfaction Jesus made! Trust in the crucified One. Hold his sacrifice up before God and say, “See! Look at this! Look only at this! Accept me because of this! Because of him!” That’s faith. You really want to make God happy? Then remember that it is finished, that God is already appeased by the sacrifice of Jesus, and happy with all who put their faith in him.

As the Psalm says, All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Yes, the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, even as the Church has remembered for some 2,000 years, even as we are doing today. It is God’s will that you remember this Day of days, Good Friday, that you remember Jesus Christ and him crucified, that you worship him and tell of him to the next generation. But of all the events of Good Friday, of the crucifixion itself, God wants you to remember this, that it is finished. Salvation has been won, for you. Amen.