Faith Lutheran Church Desboro

Right Faith                                                                                  

Zechariah 9:9-12. ESV
Palm Sunday                                                                                                       

24/03/24.

 

            “Use the right tool for the job.” My high school shop teacher, Mr. Magashazi taught us that lesson. Then proceeded to show us how dangerous and ineffective it is when you use the wrong tool for the job: using a knife instead of a screwdriver and stripping the head off the screw, or trying to scrape paint off using a pair or scissors. The bloody knuckles he suffered from doing the work poorly helped drive the lesson home: “use the right tool for the job.”

            So, you might really admire a Harley Davidson and dream about buying one of your own and driving that “hog” on a road trip. But those chrome pipes and orange pin stripes are not what you want if you plan to run through the mud on the back edges of your field. What could be better for that than a tuned-up dirt bike? Who needs chrome and a cool paint job if you’re just going to cover it with mud? The powerful torque of a two-cycle engine and the aggressive tread on a pair of knobby tires: that’s what you need to tackle dirt, sand, slime and gravel. The right bike for off road.

            Fans of Jesus might have preferred to see Him ride into Jerusalem on a mighty war horse. Kings of powerful armies rode into victory after battle on a war horse at the head of their calvary and troops. Zechariah the Prophet pictures it: spectators quake with fear as officers riding chariots with metal wheels thunder through their streets, bowmen march in step, their weapons slung across their backs; and at the head of all these military forces: the King riding on a splendid steed. Impressive!

            But not Jesus: “Your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v. 9). That’s how the Prophet pictured Jesus. And that’s how He came into Jerusalem. The donkey was the right mount. In some ways, a powerful horse also fits as a ride for Jesus. For He is not just any King. Jesus is the King of Kings. True God in human flesh. None greater. “The highest place that heaven affords is His, is His by right” (LSB 532:2). King Jesus should choose the most glorious war horse around.

            Yet He chooses a humble donkey, an everyday form of transport: the moped, the e-bike of the first century. For He has come to make peace, not to make war. Christ has not come to destroy, but to give life. The Lord has not come to make prisoners, but to set the prisoners free. In lowliness and humility, the King has come to give us hope. The right ride is the donkey.

            Jesus is the right Messiah for the crowds who welcomed Him that day. He is the right Saviour for you: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

            Hosanna means, “Lord save us!” The joy and excitement that ran through the Jerusalem crowds on that first Palm Sunday was faith in God. Masses of the faithful in Jerusalem for Passover expected that God would save His people. Previously, that salvation was by military might: a show of strength and power: chariot, war horse, and battle bow (v. 10), says Zechariah. Even the disciples after Easter expected Jesus to take the throne as King and “restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6). War and battle continue to rock Jerusalem today, inflicting casualties on Israelis and Palestinians alike. Faith that God will build His kingdom through strife and conflict: that’s false faith. Jesus says “Wars and rumours of wars” (St. Matthew 24:6) are proof that the world’s end is coming. Conflicts between nations reflect the conflict of sin in our hearts: the old Adam at war within us (Romans 7:13-25).


            Our hearts: that is the battleground where Jesus enters as the King to conquer. Not with chariot, war horse, and battle bow. The Lord Jesus puts Himself on the front line: Christ’s own flesh and blood are the weapons He musters to wage war against our enemies: sin and death, devil and hell. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! As the Prophet Zechariah foretold, the world’s Saviour rides into Jerusalem, humble and holy, riding on a donkey. His destination is the cross. What looks like defeat is actually the ultimate victory. Jesus battled Satan, the grave and hell itself when He suffered on the cross. His strategy: since He has no sin, being true God Himself, Jesus took on the sin of the whole world. Like an atomic blast, the death of Christ annihilated the power of sin and its guilt over us. What rule does sin, devil and hell have over us? In Christ crucified, “It is finished” (St. John 19:30).

            With the right faith, we welcome Jesus today: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Like those Jerusalem crowds full of joy when Jesus comes, Confirmation is where we “Lift up our hearts, therefore to the God of all grace and joyfully give answer” to those questions that point to the right faith: faith in the Holy Trinity; faith in His work in our Baptisms; faith in the Word of God, the Bible; faith in the true and right teaching of that Word. By God’s grace in Jesus, we look past the day of our Confirmation to welcome Jesus Sunday after Sunday as He rides into our lives with His Word, preached and taught, and with His Sacrament, the real presence of His body and blood here in Holy Communion. Confirmation looks ahead to a lifetime of faithfulness to Christ our King. Through faith in Jesus, we have the peace of sins forgiven. Through faith in Jesus, we are released from the waterless pit of guilt and the prisons of despair that capture our hearts and minds.  Through faith in Jesus, we have hope in a world that has lost its way. The right faith trusts Jesus Christ: our Saviour and King!

            Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He.

            Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

                                                                                                            Amen






Promises! Promises!                                                           

Jeremiah 31:31-34. ESV
The Fifth Sunday In Lent                                                                                   

17/03/24.

                                                           

            Lex meets Dean who’s carrying a movie in his hand. “All right! Videos! Can I borrow your movie?”

            “But, I haven’t seen it yet,” protests Dean.

            “I tell you what,” offers Lex. “I’ll watch it tonight, and bring it back first thing in the morning.”

            “Really?” asks Dean. “Will do,” promises Lex.

            The next day, the two boys meet in the supermarket. “Did you bring my video back?” asks Dean.

            “Slipped my mind. But I feel terrible,” says Lex, who offers to bring the movie back the next day and to buy Dean another.

            “So, you’d really do that?” Dean asks. “Will do,” promises Lex.

            The next day at the supermarket, Dean asks Lex for the movies. “Slipped my mind,” says Lex. “But I feel terrible.” Dean gets angry. So, Lex invites Dean to meet him at a restaurant. He promises to bring both movies, an album Dean likes, and to pay for the meal.

            “So, you’d really do that?” Dean asks. “Will do,” promises Lex.

            Dean is waiting at the restaurant for an hour and a half, when he sees Lex walk past the window. Hopping mad, he runs out of the restaurant into the street. “Hey! What’s up, huh? You were supposed to meet me at the restaurant at eight. Where were you?”

            “Slipped my mind. But I feel horrible about the whole thing,” says Lex, about to make more promises.

            “No, I don’t want to hear it,” shouts Dean. “You’re the king of empty promises.”

            Do we make promises? Do we keep them?

Word Bound

            How about Baptism? The covenant of Holy Baptism brings promises with it. Parents and sponsors promise to remind the child of Baptism, pray for her, bring her to Church, Sunday School, and Confirmation. For His part, God the Holy Trinity makes promises of His own: washing away her sins, clothing her with the righteousness of Christ, kindling the flame of saving faith in her heart, writing her name in the Book of Life in heaven, accepting her as a member of the Holy Christian Church on earth and in heaven, guarding her in body and soul as His own dear child. Baptism is all about promises.

            So is Confirmation. Children and adults who stand ahead of the congregation accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God and stand by the truth of its teachings expressed in Luther’s Small Catechism. Confirmands promise to be faithful to the Lord and to the Lutheran Church, and suffer all, even death rather than fall away from it. For His part, God the Holy Spirit works through His Word and Sacraments to increase their faith, giving them the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, of grace and prayer, of power and strength, of sanctification and the fear of God. Confirmation is all about promises.

            Married couples make promises. Husband and wife pledge and promise to be faithful to each other, forsaking all others as long as they both shall live. For His part, God joins the married couple together in one flesh, promising His favour and blessing through their lives together. Marriage is all about promises.

            In court, witnesses promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

            Those in business make an agreement, a contract, a promise. Maybe they shake hands on it to make it official.

Unsteady Word

            Do we make promises? Yes we do. Do we keep them? If you look at Israel, the answer is “no.” God was faithful to them like a husband. But they broke their promises to God, a kind of spiritual adultery.

            Have we kept our promises? By God’s grace, we often do. But there are times when we have let others down. We repent because our track record is not good, not perfect. We have not always kept our promises to God and others.

            In Irish folklore, it is said that if you catch a leprechaun, he is duty-bound to reveal to you the location of his crock of gold. But, leprechauns are deceptive creatures, even when you have their word of promise.

            So here’s a made-up story: While he was out for a walk one day, this guy couldn’t believe his joy when he found a leprechaun! The man caught hold of him and wouldn’t let the creature go until he revealed the secret location of his stash of gold. “I’ve hidden it under the old stump in the forest,” the leprechaun told the man. Off he went to claim his treasure. Only, once he arrived at his destination, the man was shocked to find the forest was gone: in place of the trees, there were only stumps as far as the eye could see!

            Promises! Promises!

 

Promise Me A Solid!

            When we break our promises, the Lord does not look for ways to make us pay. He sent His Son Jesus to pay for us. When we are unfaithful to the Lord and others, God responds by making a new covenant with us. He always keeps His promises.


            “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” (St. Matthew 18:20).

            “The Lord is my rock and my fortress” (ψ 18:2, 31:3).

            “I will be with you always” (St. Matthew 28:19).

            “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (v. 34).

            Here, Jesus makes a new testament, a new covenant with us in His blood. The night He was betrayed, Christ instituted the Holy Supper of His true body and blood. This New Testament Sacrament gives what He promises: here, we have our sins forgiven, eternal life given as a gift and salvation from hell. Since the Lord makes this covenant with us, it takes all the uncertainty out of where we stand in God’s eyes. We are His people. He is our God. He promises.

            The new covenant is based on this fact: the Lord always keeps His promises. It does not depend on our faithfulness to Him. Instead, He is unchanging; His faithfulness to us never wavers. No longer does God write His Word on stone, like He did the Ten Commandments, for us to obey. The new covenant He makes with us is this: God speaks His Word into our ears and writes that Word onto our hearts. The Holy Spirit gives us this faith. Not just that God exists, but that the Lord is on our side: God for us, our Immanuel.

            Because of Jesus, He tells us, “I forgive you. I don’t even remember your sins. I promise.” We trust Him from the heart. For the Lord always keeps His promises.

                                                                                                                                    Amen​







Ugly Stick​                                                                                   

Numbers 21:4-9. ESV
The Fourth Sunday In Lent                                                                               

10/03/24.

                                                           

            Ugli fruit (aka Jamaican tangelo). This hybrid is a cross between a mandarin orange and a grapefruit. Doesn’t look so good: green and wrinkly. Hence the name: ugli fruit. But, this ugli fruit tastes sweet and tangy.

            Ugly duckling is a fairy tale about an especially ugly creature hatched by a mother duck: teased, abused and cast out because it was so ugly. Yet, at the end of the story, this ugly duckling grew to reveal its true identity: a beautiful swan.

            Ugly stick: that’s the name of a brand of fishing rod used for various kinds of fishing.

Ugly Sin

            Israel was complaining. Not the first time, this displaced nation of more than a million souls was unhappy during their desert wandering. What was it this time? They were bored! “Impatient” (v. 4). Sick of eating the same food: the daily divine gift of bread from heaven! They loved being free from slave work in Egypt. But this trip through the desert is taking forever! So they complained. Against Moses, the human leader they were following out of Egypt; through the Red Sea; past Mount Sinai; through this desert to who-knows-where. And, they complained against God, who called Moses to set His people free. ‘This doesn’t look like freedom,’ they griped. ‘This looks like death!’ It was an ugly scene. They sinned by complaining against God, accusing Him: ‘You brought us here to die!’

            True! Many died! Their ugly sin brought ugly death: poisonous serpents sent by God to bite the people so that they died. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).  Bitter complaining brought bitter serpent bites that inflicted bitter venom and bitter death. Ugly!

            “These things happened to them as an example to them, but they were written down to warn us” (I Corinthians 10:11). Just like the impatient nation of Israel in the desert, bitter complaining still happens today. Even among us! Complaining against God breaks the first commandment. Sin is ugly. The venom of sin is death. Repent!

A Beautiful Confession

            That’s what Israel did: turning from their complaining, the collective crowd confessed: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He may take away the serpents from us” (v. 7).

            And He did. The Lord’s called servant interceded for His people. Moses asked God to forgive. Moses asked God to heal. The Lord was quick to answer.

Saving Sign

            God answered the prayer of Moses with an ugly stick. “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole” (v. 8). The bronze serpent on a pole reminded Israel of their sin. The bronze serpent on a pole reminded them how much they needed God to cure them: the serpent’s poison rendered them feverish, immobile, unable to do anything to save themselves. They just laid there dying on the desert sand. Just as we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the deadly effect of our sin by what we do. God must save us: like He saved Israel.

            Look at this ugly stick and live. They looked, believing what God said, and God healed them. Not the snake on the pole—this ugly stick did not heal them. God restored their lives. In spite of this ugly sign, the Lord reversed the poison from the serpents and healed their sicknesses. Israel trusted God’s word of promise.

            That’s how He works: the Lord saves us by faith. To save the world from perishing, that is, dying from the venom of our sins, God provided a sign: the ugly stick of Christ on the cross. God loved the world like that: He gave His only Son over to the ugly death of crucifixion. His pure, innocent, only Son was nailed to a Roman cross to drain the poison of punishment from our sins.

            Jesus on the cross is ugly: Christ crucified (I Corinthians 1:23) is repulsive to the world; offensive to our sensitive sinful nature; a scandal (σκάνδαλον) to the woke and politically correct. Yet, Christ on the cross is the effective and only way we are healed, forgiven, and saved (St. John 14:6).  All who look to Christ on the cross, believing in Jesus alone to save their souls from perishing in their sins, have eternal life. No question. For certain. Forever.

            By means of this ugly stick, we have everlasting life with all the saints and angels in heaven. God saves us. Beautiful!

            Amen.






He Will Find Us                                                                           

Exodus 20:1-17. ESV
The Third Sunday In Lent                                                                                 

03/03/24.

                                                           

            Advertisements for workout clothing! That’s what popped up on the home page of the search engine I had opened on the computer to access prayers from the Missouri Synod for a Sunday service. Along with the usual news items, and celebrity stories, persistent pictures advertising workout wear kept on appearing. Apparently, someone had been shopping online—businesses posted their ads for me to click on—even though I had no interest in exercise clothing. Be careful what you view online. The truth will out. Your search history will find you.

Law, Law, Law

            Just like the Law of God. That’s what we hear in today’s Old Testament reading. When Lutherans talk about God’s Law, they mean the Ten Commandments. Almighty God wrote His Law—His unchanging will for all mankind—with His finger on two tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18): handed down to Moses; handed down to Israel; handed down to the world; handed down to us. His Law is immutable: subject to no development; no evolution; no change. God has not changed His mind: His law is still binding on us in 2024. The Ten Commandments prescribe what is right and wrong for our actions, our words, and our thoughts. God’s Law forms the backbone for Canadian Law: forbidding murder, adultery, and stealing with fines and jail time. Yet, God’s Law penetrates even deeper into our lives. The Commandments show us our hearts, our sins. God’s Law cannot save us. The Law always accuses us (Ap III:8). The Law always condemns us. God’s Law always finds us (Num. 32:23).

            You don’t have an idol: a statue of a false god sitting in your home. But you totally love money, sports, family, prosperity or something else in your heart (Prov. 11:28; Matt. 10:37, 15:19). You don’t curse, swear, or take the Lord’s name in vain. But when you’re in trouble, do you call on His holy name in prayer, and thank Him when He answers you? (Ps. 50:15; Eph. 5:20). You take a day off from work for rest (maybe), but easily find fault with preaching, Preachers, or God’s Word (Lk. 10:16). You love Mom and Dad until a sword of division comes between parents and children: rebellion, resentment, exasperation (Matt. 10:34-36; Eph. 6:4). Honour them as God’s representatives? Really? You haven’t killed anybody. But, you’ve been hot with anger against others (Matt. 5:22). You’ve kept your body sexually pure, but lusted after others with your eyes (Matt. 5:28). Adultery’s in the heart. You’ve never robbed anyone. But love of money has closed your heart and closed your wallet to help the needy (Matt. 5:42; I Tim. 6:10; I Jn. 3:17). You don’t lie, but your words have destroyed the good name and reputation of others (Jms. 4:11). You are content with your property and the people in your life, but become bitter and unhappy when other people get ahead in the world (Ps. 73:3-14; Matt. 6:31; Jms. 1:14-15). Use the Commandments to get right with God? Even when we obey them outwardly, God’s Law convicts our minds; points the finger of guilt at our hearts. It hurts! Keeping the letter of the Law does not obey the spirit of the Law. God’s Law finds your sin. God’s Law finds my sin. Repent!

Seeking Shepherd

            Jesus finds you in your guilt... and forgives you. He is the Good Shepherd of His sheep: “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered...” (Ezekiel 34:11-12). The seeking Shepherd Lord finds you where God’s perfect Law has convicted and condemned you. Not to add more guilt. Jesus finds you to forgive you. The seeking Shepherd finds all your sins—every word, every act, every thought that has broken God’s Ten Commandments—Jesus finds even those sins you’ve tried so hard to hide; the ones you don’t want anyone to know, especially God, and finding them all, He’s nailed them to the cross in His own body. God’s holy Law judged you guilty. But Christ took that guilt on Himself. The Holy Son of God was judged guilty of your sins, mine, and all the world’s sins. Now, in Him, in Christ crucified, we are declared, “not guilty.” In Christ crucified, we are free of the Law and its terrible demands. In Christ crucified, we know the power and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:23-24): the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Forgiveness in Christ Jesus... will find you.

Good To Be Found

            Here. In Church. Here. In the Divine Service of Word and Sacrament. Jesus purified God’s house. Here is where God serves us. Here, is where His Gospel forgives and cleanses, binds up and restores what the Law of God has destroyed and condemned. True, here in the Lord’s house, we also gather to sing, to pray, to give offerings, and to give our time. But Church is not simply where we give God His due. This is not just another business for money-changers; a house of trade and sacrifices (Jn. 2:14-16). More importantly, this is where God serves us. The risen Christ Jesus is here: to seek and to serve: “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them” (Matt 18:20). The Word of God, recorded in the Ten Commandments, also speaks to us here in Bible and sermon every Sunday. The Word of the Lord that created worlds now recreates our hearts and our minds, our bodies and our souls with His Word. He finds you and me.

            For this is the temple of His body. The living body and blood of Christ, distributed from this altar fills the bodies and souls of the people sitting in the pews around you. We are the body of Christ because Christ crucified and ever-living has found us, and has forgiven us. He makes us live.

            Just as the Lord will find us forever. We who depart this life will find another in the life to come. Wherever our final earthly resting place will be, when Jesus comes back, His powerful, life-giving Word will call us to life again, and will resurrect our bodies to live eternally. He is the Lord. He will find us.

            Like Adam and Eve hiding in Eden, sin makes us want to hide from God. Yet, in love, He seeks us out (LSB 709:3). In Christ crucified, the Lord finds us. Forever.

                                                                                                                                    Amen






Father Abraham                                                              

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16. ESV
The Second Sunday In Lent                                                                             

25/02/24.

                                                           

   Father Abraham had many sons, Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you, So let’s all praise the Lord.

            Sons receive the inheritance. Sons carry on the family name. “You are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26) in Christ Jesus.  Through Jesus, the great Son of Abraham, I’m a son of Abraham—the one God credited as righteous on account of his faith (Genesis 15:6). And, so are you.

            Both Abram and Sarai are given new names by the Lord in today’s Old Testament. “Abram”(םרבא) means “exalted father.” Looking to future generations, including Jesus, including us, God renamed him “Abraham,” (םהרבא) which means “father of many nations.” His wife Sarai (יר) was renamed “Sarah,” (הר) which means “princess.” God would make her the mother of many nations. Abram heard these great, rich promises in full incline: while face down, prostrate in worship ahead of God Almighty. For he and his wife had not earned this unique favour from God—no they had done nothing to deserve His rich blessing. The Lord blesses Father Abraham and Princess Sarah by His grace alone—His pure, undeserved favour.

Faulty Family Tree

            Sinners were they. For not long after God’s unexpected, unsolicited, gracious call of Abram in the pagan land of Ur in Old Babylonia, when he was seventy-five years old, our Father in the faith soon showed his sin. Twice, fearing for his life, Abram called Sarai his sister (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-13). Although this was true, Abram concealed the greater truth: that Sarai, his princess, was also his wife. Abram broke God’s commandments: one, five, six, and eight. Sarai went along with the deception. Later, she urged her husband to have a child (Ismael) with her servant, Hagar. When contempt for Hagar and her son filled her heart, angry Sarai drove mother and child out of the house, out into the desert, so they would die of starvation and thirst (Genesis 16:1-6). Sexual sin, anger, violence, unbelief and fear. Sarai and Abram were no plaster saints. Like all people, they had sinful skeletons in the closet of their family tree.

Like Father...

            When we read in the Bible (or see in the news today) that great women and men like Abram and Sarai fall into great sin and vice, we might become proud in our hearts and say to ourselves: ‘Well, I’m not perfect. But at least I haven’t done that.’ “These things happened to them as an example to them, but they were written down to warn us” (I Corinthians 10:11). Why? So we repent. Turn from our sins. For the same sin that was in them is in us. We are tempted by sexual sin, the pressure to conform to the ways of the world, to throw others under the bus to save ourselves; fear; unbelief. “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Sadly, Father Abraham is like us in the sins that tempt us; in the sins against God’s Commandments that trap us. We can try to excuse ourselves; to rationalize our words; to justify our actions (Romans 2:15). Christians: just own it! Repent. Confess. Be forgiven!

Covenant In Christ

            I’m a son of Abraham. And so are you. Because of Jesus: the Son of Abraham. The Lord’s covenant of blessing with Abraham—to be the father of many nations—resulted in Jesus Christ, born of Mary in Bethlehem: the Son of Abraham and the Son of God. Covenant means promise. Out of Sarah’s agèd body, from her family line, the Saviour of the ages arose. Out of the family tree of Abraham, the branch of David produced the Messiah of the nations.

            Childless Abraham, at ninety-nine, trusted in the Lord to fulfill His Word, and establish His covenant. Through this Holy Child of promise, Jesus the Christ, all his sins were forgiven. For “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Father Abraham and Princess Sarah believed God. They trusted in the Messiah, in the Son of Abraham to be born.

            Just as we do. We don’t have to be of Jewish ancestry. We don’t have to be descended from Abraham’s family tree to be sons of Abraham. For, he is “the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11) in Jesus for salvation. Since we have been baptized into Jesus, we are kings (v. 6) and queens, princesses and princes in the kingdom of Abraham’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again from the dead to fulfill the Lord’s covenant with Abraham. Throughout all the nations of the world, the one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church is made up of all who hold in their hearts the faith of Abraham. As we receive the Lord’s blessing of the forgiveness of our sins, we are a blessing to others. Sons of Abraham.

Christened

            Sarai and Abram were renamed by the Lord. So have we. Like Abraham, you came into the world connected to the human family: identified by your last name. Then, Mom and Dad chose your given name: that’s yours alone. Born again in the water and Word of Holy Baptism, the Lord has renamed you: Christian. That’s the name that means, “like Christ.”

            Children of Abraham, trust in the Lord: in His blessing of forgiveness, in Christ Jesus, life and salvation. You’re a son of Abraham. And so am I.

                                                                                                                                    Amen






​Come Again                                                                                

Genesis 22:1-18. ESV
The First Sunday In Lent                                                                                   

18/02/24.

                                                           

Come Again?

            ‘Take your only son Isaac... and sacrifice him,’ said the Lord. ‘What’s that? Come again?’

            Abraham was a friend of God (II Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, St. James 2:23). The Lord called Abram from the pagan land of Ur in the east, to leave his father’s house, pack up and travel to the land of Canaan. The caravan of Abram and Sarai headed west to the land God promised to give him, propelled along by the joy of the Lord’s promise to make him the father of many nations. By grace alone, Abram had the blessing of the Lord.

            But, the promises were slow in coming true. For land, Abram only had a burial plot for his wife in this Promised Land. Ishmael, son of Abram’s servant, seemed to be heir-apparent of his entire legacy. The son promised by the Lord would not be born yet—not until years later into the future. Sarah was ninety and Abraham was one hundred years old when the promised son finally was born. A baby in the house at that age made them laugh! So they called him Isaac (קחצי “laughter”). Nobody was laughing a dozen or more years later. Not on the day when God tested Abraham. The Almighty was deadly serious when He commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering at the summit of Mount Moriah. Abraham loved his son. How would God fulfill His promise to make Abraham the father of many nations without Isaac? A burnt offering! Come again?

Repent: Come Back!

            Well, with those same words, the Lord calls out to each of us: ‘Come back to Me,’ He tenderly invites. Repent and be saved!

            The sacrifice of Isaac is the appointed Old Testament reading to begin this first Sunday in Lent. These forty days before Easter provide us with a season to prepare: to examine our hearts and lives through the mirror of God’s Word to see our sins, to turn from them; to see our Saviour and be forgiven by Him. To come back. Repent!

Christ Comes Back For Us

            “In returning and rest you shall be saved” (Isaiah 30:15), God promises! We repent of our sins and come back to the Lord because He comes back for us. In Christ Jesus, God’s only Son, the Lord provides for us: forgiveness, life, and salvation.

            Jesus is like Isaac, only greater. Through Isaac, God promised to bless Abraham with many descendants: a whole nation to bless the world. Through Jesus, the Child born as the great Descendant of Eve, God promised to bless all peoples with the birth of a Saviour from sin, death, and hell. Abraham and Sarah waited for many years for Isaac to be born. But, from the beginning of the world, believers in God waited for thousands of years for the Messiah to be born. Both boys were only sons of their fathers: Isaac born to Abraham; Jesus begotten of the heavenly Father. Both sons were obedient to their fathers’ commands: going to death willingly. Isaac must have had a strong body: he carried the wood for the sacrifice on his back and shoulders as he climbed the mountain. Jesus, at thirty-three years of age, carried a greater wooden burden: bearing His own cross out of the city of Jerusalem to the hill of Golgotha. On that cross, Christ would be crucified. Bound, and lying prone on the altar of sacrifice, Isaac was ready to die at the hand of his father. By the grace of God, in His great compassion, He sent His angel to intervene and spare Isaac’s life. Nailed to the cross, Jesus went all the way, and died in our place. Jesus is the Lamb of God provided by the Lord to take our sins away (St. John 1:29). Lord, have mercy! He died. Isaac lives. He died. We live. We, as we repent of our sins, trust in God’s only Son our Saviour for forgiveness. We come back to the Lord in repentance. The crucified, risen, and living Christ comes back for us: working among us today in His Word and in His Sacraments.

We Will Come Again

            In Christ, we will come again. That’s what Abraham believed. Even in the face of such a terrible task: even when commanded to offer his only son into death in the flames, Abraham trusted in God for renewal of life. For resurrection. To come back from this.

            “We will come again to you,” Abraham told his two servants who waited with the donkey, “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you” (v. 5). How’s that? Come again?

            This just doesn’t add up. If Abraham offers his son on the altar of burnt offering, then how can he and his son come back to the servants?

            The resurrection of the body! In Christ, we come back again. The author of the book of Hebrews explains: “By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Hebrews 11:17-19).

            The terrible reality of sin: death takes our loved ones away from us. The terrible test Abraham faced was losing his son, his only son, the son whom he loved. Just as we heard Ash Wednesday’s terrible refrain: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Sounds like there’s no coming back from that. But in Christ, we will live again. When He resurrects our bodies, a great reunion will happen in heaven with those saints who have died in this world only to live again in the world to come.

            Christ has defeated death. In Jesus, we will come again.

                                                                                                                                    Amen