Sermon for 18 March 2012, Lent 4B

The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.

St. John 3:14-21

Lifted Up for You

Fourth Sunday in Lent, 18 March 2012

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Luther sets the scene before us: The Lord delivers an excellent sermon to Nicodemus, a Jew, who supposed that keeping the Law of Moses offered him a way to heaven and that his own ascension into heaven depended upon his fasting, his praying, and his ascetic life. Now Christ interprets and unravels Moses to him correctly and says to him: “That will never do it. Your mode of ascension [to heaven] is not the way, but you must be born anew. Therefore listen to what I tell you. You are a Jew. I shall take your Moses and cite from him passages which you have not understood until now.” Who else [but Our Lord Jesus] would have interpreted Moses in this way before? 22:337

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Jesus is referring to Numbers 21.

Can you believe what the people did? Speaking against God and his man on the scene—dangerous business—playing with fire, or venomous serpents in their case. Such situations, including tragic loss, war weariness, fear of terrorism, personal disappointments, etc. often cause people to speak against God. Is God our enemy? No. The serpent is. It’s in Satan’s best interests to get you to doubt God’s love for you.

When someone’s in trouble, they often refer to that as being in “hot water.” Think about hot water. Think about the trials and difficulties and suffering you’ve weathered or are still weathering. When you put an egg in boiling water, what happens? It becomes hard—a hard-boiled egg. What happens when a potato goes into a boiling pot? It gets soft. You can easily make mashed potatoes. What happens when a tea bag goes in the pot? What happens to it? The tea bag transforms boiling water into tea.

Suffering hardens some people. They may put up barriers, pull away from previously close friends, and even their church family. Others get soft. Their confidence in God appears to fail. Doubts arise. Both eggs and potatoes are in danger of falling away. These are the people who need us. They need their pastor certainly, but you have no idea how meaningful a visit from a caring Christian friend is. God’s promises are solid and sure, especially when it feels like all of fallen creation is against you.

Back to Moses & the people in the wilderness. Luther again: The people were to do no more than believe the word of Moses; the term which the Lord employs here for this believing is “look at.”…[The people] (They) might well have thought, “ Ha, what a ridiculous medicine it is that you propose for the sting and bite of the serpents! Moses, have you lost your senses? How are we to be helped by looking at this bronze serpent which looks like those that bit us? We are so terrified that we cannot stand the sight of them! If only you would instead, give us a drink, a cooling plaster, a cooling drink, to take away the venom and the fever! What good can mere words and looking do? How can that dead and lifeless object up there benefit us? 22: 338-339

Here are thoughts of unbelief, unfaith, likely rolling around in the heads of the people in the wilderness! Here the Lord was calling them to faith, to trust in Him, and some likely remained in unbelief, choosing death by venom over the means by which God had instituted for their life and salvation. Sure, it was only a bronze snake, but it had God’s promises tied to it! That makes all the difference.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. This text speaks of salvation by God’s grace through faith. The Son of Man was lifted up upon the Good Friday cross for you, in fulfillment of the ancient Gospel promise to our first parents, addressed as a curse upon the serpent: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. At the cross Our Lord bore the marks of fang-like nails in his feet and hands, yet there, amid what appeared to be defeat, Jesus crushed the serpent’s head. The old satanic foe lay defeated.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 

For God so loved the world…These words start the recordings of memory. We know how this verse goes. Many Christians have memorized this precious verse about the Gospel.

God so loved the world. The world. The whole world. You will be familiar with the Greek word here for we have brought it into English usage: Kosmos, cosmos. For God so loved the whole cosmos! He created it to love all the people in it, to give them, including you, His Gifts as part of a loving relationship that He creates.

How much did God love you? Enough to send His Son, His only Son, whom He loved. Our Heavenly Father is preparing to sacrifice His Son as Abraham readied Isaac. No reprieve this time. No ram is caught in a thicket nearby. Jesus will die, and willingly. He must be lifted up. The condemnation hanging over the head of every sinner like the sword of Damocles had to fall. Judgment and wrath had to be poured out as a punishment for sin. God’s justice, fairness, and holiness were to be upheld. In God’s love, you are spared. God mercifully doesn’t give you what you deserve—His wrath. God graciously gives you what you do not deserve—eternal life.

God sent His Son to save the world. He desires not the death of a sinner. He would that all would come to a knowledge of the truth, His truth in His Son. But Judgment is coming. When Christ came, He came as Savior. When He returns, it will be as Judge.

One of the most depressing statements I ever heard was spoken by a guest lecturer at the University of Nebraska. He was Jewish, but doubted even the existence of God. He said that when or if this Jesus ever came, he had but one question: “Have you been here before?” He had no clue that by then the question would be moot. Now is the time of God’s favor. Repent and believe the Gospel!

Jesus addresses the question of evil in terms of light and darkness: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."

An old story tells of a desert nomad who awakened hungry in the middle of the night. He lit a candle and began eating dates from a bowl beside his bed. He took a bite from one end and saw a worm in it, so he threw it out of the tent. He bit into the second date, found another worm, and threw it away also. Reasoning that he wouldn’t have any dates left to eat if he continued in this way, he blew out the candle and quickly at all the dates. There are many who prefer darkness and denial to the light of reality.

You know what kinds of things go bump in the night. You know what behaviors are covered by the blanket of darkness. You know, because the Old Adam of your sinful human nature is alive and well in you. There are skeletons in your closet. There are evil deeds that you would rather not come into the light. We tend to harshly judge the misdeeds of Hollywood personalities, pro athletes, Washington insiders, and other people closer to hand. Many lives are backlit by the harsh spotlights of media attention or rampant community rumor mills. Be honest. How well would you stand up under such close scrutiny?

Come Judgment Day, all the books will be opened. Every deep, dark, dirty, pitch-black sin you have committed will be exposed to the light of day. It only takes one sin to damn someone. Are you holding any outside of the blood of Jesus? He comes to shed light in every corner of your sin-darkened existence. Since your sins and my sins will be exposed anyway on the Last Day, why wait and be condemned by them? Wash your robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb! Repent and believe the Gospel! You who dwell in the land of deep darkness, look to the Light of Christ and Live!

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So writes St. John in the first chapter of his first epistle. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Bob Woods tells the story of a couple who took their son, 11, and daughter, 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point of the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earth’s surface. The little girl, suddenly enveloped in utter darkness, was frightened and began to cry. Immediately was heard the voice of her brother: “Don’t cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights.”

In a real sense, that is the message of the Gospel: Light is available, even when the darkness seems overwhelming. Darkness only seems overwhelming. In reality, Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, the Light no darkness can overcome.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

How can water do such great things? How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Who can forgive sins but God alone? These are not new questions. Luther posed the first two in his Small Catechism. Certainly not just the water, or eating bread, drinking wine, and a man saying nice things do this, but the Word of God, the Lord’s own promises, along with the faith which trusts those Words of God.

Our Lord calls for you to repent and believe the Gospel! Even this faith is not from yourselves. It is also the gift of God. We all have occasions to say the prayer, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! The Lord has promised to answer that prayer.

There is no sin that is too big that it cannot be forgiven. Perceived size does not matter to your Lord. It matters not how long you have been away. It is unbelief that damns, unbelief that trusts not God’s Word nor His precious promises. His forgiveness is for you. His forgiveness is full. Everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. Amen.

           

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Sermon for 11 March 2012, Lent 3B

The Rev. Paul J Cain

Exodus 20:1-17

Consciences Captive to the Word of God

Third Sunday in Lent, 11 March 2012

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, WY

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

“Since then your serene majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.

“I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.”^[1]

Martin Luther spoke these words before both Church and State at Worms in 1521, to his Prince and the Emperor, as well as his ecclesiastical supervisors.

His conscience was captive to the Word of God. What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things. For Luther, His obedience and fidelity to the Word was a First Commandment issue: You shall have no other gods. Jesus said: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37).

Today, the Church faces a First Commandment issue that is also a First Amendment issue. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Is quoting the US Constitution as amended by the Bill of Rights political? Yes. Is it partisan? Absolutely not. Politics is the art and science of governing people, groups, and organizations in this life. Christians are to care about other people in this life. Jesus said: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:29).

As the fundamental civil law of the land, our Constitution should be something Americans can agree about. Our public servants promise to protect and defend it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. What then, is a Christian citizen to do if religious liberty is threatened?

No one can give you permission to sin against God’s Word. No one can give you permission to break the Ten Commandments. “No one” means your pastor, your church body, your spouse, your parents or children, your teacher or students, any bureaucrat, judge, legislator, mayor, governor, president, civil servant, or candidate for office. The core truth of my point is that we must obey God rather than men.

 And God spoke all these words, saying,

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” ^[2]

Today, the Church faces a First Commandment issue that is also a First Amendment issue. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

No one can give you permission to sin against God’s Word. No one can give you permission to break the Ten Commandments. No one. We must obey God rather than men. Our consciences are captive to the Word of God.

On February 3, 2012, The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of the St. Louis-based Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, issued a statement about religious freedom in light of the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requiring religious employers to cover contraceptives, even those that can kill unborn children.

It said in part: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception, and we are opposed to the HHS’ decision mandating the coverage of such contraceptives.

“For centuries, Lutherans have joyfully delivered Christ’s mercy to others and embraced His call to care for the needy within our communities and around the world. In a nation that has allowed more than 54 million legal abortions since 1973, we must consider the marginalization of unborn babies and object to this mandate.

President Harrison continued: “In addition, I encourage the members of the LCMS to join with me in supporting efforts to preserve our essential right to exercise our religious beliefs. This action by HHS will have the effect of forcing many religious organizations to choose between following the letter of the law and operating within the framework of their religious tenets. We add our voice to the long list of those championing for the continued ability to act according to the dictates of their faith, and provide compassionate care and clear Christian witness to society’s most vulnerable, without being discriminated against by government.

He concluded: “Increasingly we are suffering overzealous government intrusions into what is the realm of traditional and biblical Christian conscience. We believe this is a violation of our First Amendment rights. We will stand, to the best of our ability, with all religious and other concerned citizens, against this erosion of our civil liberty. Come what may, we shall do everything we can, by God’s grace, to ‘obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”

On February 16, 2012, President Harrison was one of several witnesses to give testimony during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing on the Separation of Church and State. Following are Harrison’s comments to the committee in their entirety:

“Mr. Chairman, it’s a pleasure to be here. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is a body of some 6,200 congregations and 2.3 million members across the U.S. We don’t distribute voters’ lists. We don’t have a Washington office. We are studiously non-partisan, so much so that we’re often criticized for being quietistic.

“I’d rather not be here, frankly. Our task is to proclaim, in the words of the blessed apostle St. John, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sin. And we care for the needy. We haven’t the slightest intent to Christianize the government. Martin Luther famously quipped one time, ‘I’d rather have a smart Turk than a stupid Christian governing me.’

“We confess that there are two realms, the church and the state. They shouldn’t be mixed – the church is governed by the Word of God, the state by natural law and reason, the Constitution. We have 1,000 grade schools and high schools, 1,300 early childhood centers, 10 colleges and universities. We are a machine which produces good citizens for this country, and at tremendous personal cost.

“We have the nation’s only historic black Lutheran college in Concordia, Selma. Many of our people [who are alive today] walked with Dr. King 50 years ago on the march from Selma to Montgomery. We put up the first million dollars and have continued to provide finance for the Nehemiah Project in New York as it has continued over the years, to provide home ownership for thousands of families, many of them headed by single women. Our agency in New Orleans, Camp Restore, rebuilt over 4,000 homes after Katrina, through the blood, sweat and tears of our volunteers. Our Lutheran Malaria Initiative, barely begun, has touched the lives of 1.6 million people in East Africa, especially those affected by disease, women and children. And this is just the tip, the very tip, of the charitable iceberg.

“I’m here to express our deepest distress over the HHS provisions. We are religiously opposed to supporting abortion-causing drugs. That is, in part, why we maintain our own health plan. While we are grandfathered under the very narrow provisions of the HHS policy, we are deeply concerned that our consciences may soon be martyred by a few strokes on the keyboard as this administration moves us all into a single-payer … system. Our direct experience in the Hosanna-Tabor case with one of our congregations gives us no comfort that this administration will be concerned to guard our free-exercise rights.

“We self-insure 50,000 people. We do it well. Our workers make an average of $43,000 a year, 17,000 teachers make much less, on average. Our health plan was preparing to take significant cost-saving measures, to be passed on to our workers, just as this health-care legislation was passed. We elected not to make those changes, incur great cost, lest we fall out of the narrow provisions required under the grandfather clause. While we are opposed in principle, not to all forms of birth control, but only abortion-causing drugs, we stand with our friends in the Catholic Church and all others, Christians and non-Christians, under the free exercise and conscience provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

“Religious people determine what violates their consciences, not the federal government. The conscience is a sacred thing. Our church exists because overzealous governments in northern Europe made decisions which trampled the religious convictions of our forebearers. I have ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. I have ancestors who were on the Lewis and Clark expedition. I have ancestors who served in the War of 1812, who fought for the North in the Civil War – my 88-year-old father-in-law has recounted to me, in tears many times, the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge. In fact, Bud Day, the most highly decorated veteran alive, is a member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

“We fought for a free conscience in this country, and we won’t give it up without a fight. To paraphrase Martin Luther, the heart and conscience has room only for God, not for God and the federal government. The bed is too narrow, the blanket is too short. We must obey God rather than men, and we will. Please get the federal government, Mr. Chairman, out of our consciences. Thank you.”

[Harrison’s full transcript and video from the hearing, as well as a video message and previous statements to the church, can be found at www.lcms.org/hhsmandate]

President Harrison is an eloquent advocate and defender of Lutheran teaching and practice. I don’t have time this morning to share his pithy answers to the questions posed to him, but there are a few issues he brought up that deserve further explanation.

The Church’s task is to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of your sins. We live under a Constitution that guarantees that the Federal Government will not pick a state religion. That is the original meaning of the separation of Church and State in the USA.

Lutherans have no desire to Christianize government because of our teaching about the two kingdoms. Lutherans have learned from experience the danger of state religions, where the state can tell the Church what to teach and what to practice. That is what we want to avoid again. The LCMS in particular exists because a Calvinist prince  in Prussia merged the Lutheran and Reformed churches into one. The Saxons next door wanted no part of it. They came to Missouri.

Lutherans and Roman Christians differ in many areas of doctrine and practice. We agree on life issues, but disagree about contraception.

The Roman Church opposes contraception at all times. Their reasons include both Bible and tradition as equal authorities

President Harrison was not called upon to testify about contraception. He was invited as an expert on religious liberty. Contraception is relevant to our Old Testament reading, Exodus 20, however, when it is part of people breaking the Sixth Commandment.

President Harrison referred to “Our direct experience in the Hosanna-Tabor case,” a reference to a recent nine-to-zero US Supreme Court Case in our favor. That unanimous decision affirmed “that government (at some level) does not have the right to run candidates for our pastoral, teaching, and counseling staff through its own filter.” WORLD magazine writer Joel Belz (February 11, 2012, Vol. 27, No. 3) calls the case a victory for religious liberty:

“The big surprise came in the Court's blunt caution to meddlesome government regulators... Efforts to sort out which functions are "religious" and which are "secular" will from now on find it much harder to get a hearing from the Supreme Court. The suggestion to churches, charitable organizations, and perhaps other bold souls is to get busy ensuring that the religious requirements they impose on employees are in good faith, have a religious purpose, and are made clear to everyone.

“The fact that the high court's Hosanna-Tabor decision thundered with a 9-0 majority means that future challenges on the subject will likely be less frequent and more timid.”

Finally, Harrison’s citation of Luther at the end of his statement has Bible support, as the words are a paraphrase of Isaiah 28.20. “For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.” ^[3]

Literature is full of speculative fiction about societies where God has been replaced by government. Consider Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, or even Atlas Shrugged. Recently, The Hunger Games trilogy depicts a nation where human life is of very little value to the extremely powerful central government.

Reality can be stranger than fiction. Australian ethicists called for post-birth abortions. That is infanticide! In Montana, suicide is discouraged, but it is legal for you to ask a doctor to prescribe something to kill yourself with. Reality can be stranger than fiction.

What then, is a Christian citizen to do if religious liberty is threatened?

Pray.

Speak up. Use your freedom of speech responsibly. Write a letter to the Editor and make use of the freedom of the press. Assemble peacefully to discuss or protest issues of conscience. And, “petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” a freedom the First Amendment also protects. You also have the freedom to run for office if you so choose.

In the context of the rise of a Nazi government in Germany, Martin Niemöller is reported to have said: “First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Luther speaks clearly in his example: “Since then your serene majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.

“I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.”^[4]

No one can give you permission to sin against God’s Word. No one can give you permission to break the Ten Commandments. No one can command you to sin against your conscience. We must obey God rather than men. Like Luther, our consciences are captive to the Word of God. Amen.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

---

^[1] Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 32: Luther's works, vol. 32 : Career of the Reformer II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (112–113). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

^[2] Lutheran Service Book Three Year Lectionary. 2009. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Is 28:20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[4] Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 32: Luther's works, vol. 32 : Career of the Reformer II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (112–113). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Sermon for 04 March 2012, Lent 2B

The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.

Mark 8:27-38

An Ugly Cross

Second Sunday in Lent, 04 March, 2012

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, WY

In the Name of Jesus Amen.

Does anyone love an ugly cross? I never see too many truly ugly ones. Sure, there may be a lonely wooden cross atop a hill on a scenic drive across Wyoming, but look around you. We use smooth-sanded, stained, and polyurethaned wood for our crosses. Precious metal crosses of gold and silver adorn our necks. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yet, unlike Martin Luther, many Americans are averse to seeing Jesus’ body upon a cross.

Does anyone love an ugly cross? The true ugliness of death by crucifixion, especially from a medical standpoint is often too much to bear, too much to behold. Yet we could consider the following. Would you ever decorate your home with an electric chair made of beautiful polished wood? No. Would you wear a necklace with a silver syringe on it, like those used for executions by lethal injection? No again! Yet, we will wear the cross, an emblem of suffering and shame.

We embrace the cross not because it looks like a plus sign (+) or because it is a simple way to put two lines together. Nor do we worship the cross. We cling to the cross because of He who died upon it for us and our salvation.

Jesus taught His disciples about His own cross. But they didn’t love an ugly cross either.

²⁷ And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

We know that the command to tell no one was temporary. Jesus wanted the disciples to wait in order to tell the whole story, Good Friday AND Easter Sunday, when they told the story of Jesus and His love.

When we read an account like the one before us from Mark 8, we tend to identify with those disciples. Peter confesses, “You are the Christ,” and rightly so, for it is the truth. But there were some parts of the truth Peter couldn’t handle. He couldn’t love an ugly cross.

³¹ And he [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly.

Jesus tells the whole story: suffering, crucifixion, death, AND Resurrection. He knew what was going to happen to him. Holy Week was no surprise to the Son of God. He was honest and clear about these things with His disciples.

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter says “No” to the ugly cross. Simon, newly-called Peter, gets the newer nickname of “Satan.” Why? He said no to suffering, to pain, to…the ugly cross before Jesus. Peter rebuked Jesus. That was wrong. Jesus rebuked Peter. The cross was part of the things of God. Peter wanted no part of it for himself or for Jesus.

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Self-denial is the true purpose behind “giving something up for Lent.” I encourage you to pick up something new for Lent. Add a devotion. Add a work of service. Pray for those you never have prayed for in the past. It is also important to learn to give things up…at least for a time. A good place to start is to give up a sin for Lent. In saying this, I don’t mean that you should start doing it again once Easter comes—no. Use Lent as a time to teach yourself to say no to yourself. Wean yourself off of the sin during these forty days. Give it up for good. Then, live in Easter freedom and go and sin no more!

Christians have given up other things for Lent in the past. They are all part of self-denial. This is a spiritual discipline, like fasting. Some have used Lent to show their devotion to God by abandoning bad habits, like costly addictions—costly due to the physical, emotional, and financial toll they take on you and your family. I know some who have given up meat on Fridays. Others have gone all Lent without French fries. That’s really an exercise in self-denial. The point of learning self-denial is not to earn salvation or favor with God. We should be clear on that point. Self-denial reminds us to not become too attached to this world so that we would eagerly pray, “Thy kingdom come” in anticipation of the unexpected Last Day or the day of our own death.

By faith, we learn to love the cross. Holding a cross during a time of prayer or a time of physical pain could be a tangible reminder of where Jesus won salvation for you. Our sufferings could never earn our own salvation, yet they help us to identify with Jesus and He with us. We follow in humble, repentant, faith, willing to suffer all, even lose everything we have in this life, in the hopes of enjoying eternal life and rest with Christ. God doesn’t want to spoil your fun. He wants to save you from Satan, the fallen world around you, and even from yourself.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus loves you so much He loved and died upon an ugly cross. His shed blood forgives your sin. He gave His life so that you would not forfeit your body and soul to the old evil foe. He lost His life to give you life. He took up the cross, not merely as an example for you, but to accomplish for you what we could never accomplish for ourselves. The cross is where Jesus won forgiveness. He delivers it in Holy Baptism, the Holy Gospel, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. He gathers you around these gifts. Receiving them, by faith, is why we go to Church in the first place.

Johann Sebastian Bach, the great Lutheran composer, wrote the following and set it to music, practically a commentary on Psalm 23 and this Scripture text: “….To my shepherd I’ll be true. Though he fill my cross’s chalice, I’ll rest fully in his pleasure, He stands in my sorrow near. One day, surely, done my weeping, Jesus’ sun again will brighten. To my shepherd I’ll be true.

“Live in Jesus, who will rule me; Heart, be glad, though thou must perish, Jesus hath enough achieved. Amen: Father, take me now!

“If I then, too, the way of death And its dark journey travel, Lead on! I’ll walk the road and path Which thine own eyes have shown me. Though art my shepherd, who all things Will bring to such conclusion, That I one day within thy courts Thee ever more may honor” (TDP 44).

Amen.

In the Name of Jesus Amen.