Christ Calls Death Sleep, and It is So

Mark 5:21-24, 35-43

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live." And he went with him ….

While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

I am a father of four daughters. I love each dearly. I see pictures of their childhood and treasure those times. I don't see them daily any more, but the desire for their wellbeing is no less.

The welfare of your children or dearest loved is no small thing either, is it? If the issue is one of life and death, parents would move heaven and earth, if they could, just to spare their child.

The Bible tells of a man named Jairus, a father whose young daughter was deathly ill. Helpless, he came to Jesus. Everything else was irrelevant. Here was a prominent man, a ruler of the synagogue whom we could suspect was normally very distinguished and not one to be down on all fours begging. But his dignity was immaterial.

In faith, he beseeched Jesus to touch his child so she might live. There is no room for pride when death threatens. All hope and credit rests in Jesus.

A great crowd also surrounded Jesus. But this too was no consideration to Jairus. Did the ruler of the synagogue not realize he was expecting a great deal to ask Jesus to come to his house, treat his daughter, and respond to his insistence when many others also were hurting? In the crowd were other folks in need. Didn't they count? Yes, he was asking a great deal. But that's why he came to Jesus!

In fact, right in the middle of this chapter the Bible suspends the story of Jairus and tells of a woman with a chronic hemorrhage who slipped through the crowd to touch Jesus and was healed. Everything about Jairus' little girl is postponed while Jesus inquires after this woman, finds her, and speaks comfortingly to her.

A few, it seems, were mindful of not asking too much of Jesus. In fact, when the report came that the little girl had died, some suggested Jesus not be troubled any further. Those who came with this report were not so much concerned for Jesus’ time and trouble as much as they now believed Jesus would be irrelevant in the face of death. If the child has died, then what's the point of bringing in Jesus? What's the point of counting on Jesus when his delay in ministering to someone else made him too late for little Talitha? What's the point of pleading for help if, in the long run, God is "a day late and a dollar short"?

One can only imagine Jairus' feelings as a father to have loved his daughter so much that he would leave her side just when she was so critically ill, prostrate himself before Jesus, plead for help, persist in spite of other people's needs, have his hopes raised only to face the holdup of a woman whose problem traced back twelve years. After twelve years, couldn't that wait a little bit longer when today minutes, even seconds, count?

All this only to be told the little girl had died.

What a severe test of faith this was. Jairus believed in Jesus though his faith was taxed. It would be strained further. A gauntlet of yowling mourners waited at the house, an uproar probably increased because it was a youngster who had died. How this must have shook Jairus especially when the bawling turned to derisive laughter when Jesus announced the child was only sleeping.

The Lord's Word cut past all the experts, all outward indications, all "reasonable" human conclusions, all experience, all scientific deductions, and all collective judgment. All such things are subordinate to the Word of Christ to which faith clings when all other intrusions, conclusions, and derision interfere.

Nothing but faith belongs in the death chamber. Jesus does not allow the doubter, the cynic, the agnostic, the pessimist, or the naysayer into the child's presence. He takes only those who hope in Him. Speculation or misgivings about the power of Christ are out of place. Contempt is incompatible with hope. Science cannot raise the dead.

But Jesus can - and does.

He calls death sleep, and it is so.

He calls you who have sinned, saved, and it is so.

He calls you who mourn, the comforted, and it is so.

He calls you who hunger for righteousness, the satisfied, and it is so.

He calls you who are insulted, persecuted, or falsely accused for his sake, the blessed, and it is so.

He calls to the little girl, "Talitha cumi," and immediately she rises because only Christ can make it so.

He takes those who believe in him, who know that Christ is the Lord of life, tested though they may be, right to where faith sees its validation - in the resurrection!

Jairus received even more than what he asked. He asked that his daughter be made well, yet Jesus did more than take away an illness. He conquered the death in her. Jesus raised her from death to life.

This is the Christ you and I know and trust. He gives us more than we could ask. He exceeds all our hopes. He pays double for all our sins. He answers before we ask and surpasses the best we can imagine.

Therefore when others recommend Jesus not be bothered; when others howl that death defeats us all; when others brazenly laugh that Jesus is "above his pay grade," you and I remember the empty tomb. You and I enter where the Christian bereaved have gathered and sing:

"Now all the vault of heaven resounds,

in praise of love that still abounds:

Christ has triumphed! He is living!

Now still He comes to give us life

And by His presence stills all strife.

Christ has triumphed. He is living.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

(LSB 465)

Surviving the Hindenburg

Philippians 3:17-21

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

We walk in danger all the way. The foes arrayed against Christ and His people are fearful. Not only is their rage real, the enemies of the cross do not use plastic bows and arrows or shoot pop-guns. Nor are they engaged just in war games where plans are set and strategies considered but only theoretically.

No, the threat is absolutely real, for "many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ." Satan boasts of his legions. (Mark 5:9)

Should we quake with anxiety and have hearts melt to think the enemy that loathes God also hates us? How dreadful that the single-minded aim of Satan is literally to destroy us, to entangle us with such love of earthly things that our eyes, hopes, and affections concentrate anywhere other than on Christ.

All this brought St. Paul to tears. He cried as he wrote his letter to the Philippians.

Yet his tears were not shed in despair for the church whose citizenship is in heaven, who’s Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, works bodily resurrection. Rather, he cried for the doom of our enemies.

In 1937, a WLS Chicago radio reporter named Herbert Morrison witnessed the tragic explosion of the Zeppelin Hindenburg which came down in a ball of fire above the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey. His cry of grief captured on newsreels of the time echoed across the globe. "Oh, the humanity!" he cried.

This must have been much the same emotion of St. Paul as he sees raining down on people a hail of debris and crashing jetsam. The adversaries of Christ have brought to bear the full arsenal of horrible weapons: temptations, lusts, and even death against us. But they are caught in their own mesh.

The fire of devastation and ruin is not for us. Christ the Lord comes in his glorious resurrected body. He comes with power to save, not to bring down but to lift in splendor those who have walked by faith in Him. He comes in the divine power by which all things are subject to Him.

One survivor of the fateful Hindenburg catastrophe was a 14 year-old boy named Werner Franz, a cabin boy on the great air ship. Who would imagine his miraculous saving from the conflagration was through a shower of water. The flames had advanced upon him blocking any escape from the inferno. But then a water ballast burst open, and he was soaked. He is one of only two survivors still alive today.

You and I also have been soaked.

Drenched in the saving waters of Holy Baptism we are transformed from the shame of our sins into heirs of salvation. We have been drenched. Our disgrace is washed away and we are called to glory in Christ Jesus.

Satan and his dominions cannot prevail.

Jesus Christ has the power of life and resurrection. So, even though we walk in danger and the perils are real, we Christians are under no jeopardy. We have citizenship in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

And that's not hypothetical.

Beyond My Words

Luke 5:17-26

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

There is no way all the superlatives in the world don’t apply always, completely, and exclusively to Jesus. You just can't overstate how wonderful He is. All the praise of saints and angels, all the respects offered him, and all the recognition isn't ever enough to convey the matchless goodness of our Savior.

I wish I could love Him as much as He deserves to be loved. I wish I could thank Him somewhere in the neighborhood of how He’s blessed me. But at least He grants me the privilege of trying.

Think of a time when you have really tried your hardest to find words to express just how much the grace of God means to you and how precious Christ is. It’s like going on your tiptoes, like reaching up to a height of eloquence human words have yet to achieve. How do you say without fumbling that the forgiveness of sins is both the sweetest and the most magnificent gift you have ever received?

What stratosphere of poetry or loftiness of prayers can do Christ justice? It just can't be done. Even at my best, I’m like the paralytic in this beautiful story of Jesus. The man’s friends carry him up to a roof to get to Jesus. That’s like somebody lifting up my lame and palsied words a few feet in the air when the real tributes and homage made to Christ deserve to echo across the mountain tops and rebound between the stars. How can we accomplish openly enough or boldly enough the command, “What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Let the Gospel of Jesus Christ soar to every corner of the universe. Yet, no pulpit is high enough and no spire tall enough to touch the glories of the Lord.

True it is: Christ is transcendent Lord and infinite God. By the communication of attributes, Jesus possesses all that can be ascribed to God. He is omniscient, immutable, perfectly benevolent, omnipotent, and endlessly more. As the Nicene Creed declares, He is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

But from my little perch on the house top, the divine magnificence is beyond both comprehension and reach.

But do you know the real wonder — I mean the really, astonishing wonder about this Jesus?

He’s down below us, sitting among people in the most ordinary of ways. The superlative words are not mine or yours. They’re His. The dearest words ever to fall on ears like ours are, “Your sins are forgiven you.” That’s what the paralytic was told. No pearl draped speech; no gilded tongue. Just wholesome, comforting, tender words.

Your sins are forgiven!

Oh, God, what a blessing to hear those priceless words from your dear Son.

God is not remote in the far-flung heavens. He is here in Christ for us. Here with us is this wonderful man, this rare and loving man who isn't just the superlatives but also the most normal of men. So authentically human.

We’re told that one of those days, “the power of the Lord was with him to heal.” Of course Jesus could heal any time, but as with us, there are just some days when God uses His children exceptionally. Jesus wasn't on parade being the “super-guy,” the “super-healer,” or the “super-image” of future Christians trying to be perfect.

He is simply teaching and serving, listening and answering, loving the lost and curing the lame.

Yes, I wish I could love Him as much as He deserves to be loved, but the fact is He loves me though I deserved it not at all. I wish I could thank Him in proportion to how He’s blessed me, but He’s chosen to beat me to it. He blesses me and all his children, including you, with grace beyond all thanks, with forgiveness beyond all bounds, and with peace beyond all endings.

Such goodness is beyond my words.

No Harm -- No More Foul

Luke 4:31-37

And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, "Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him!" And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, "What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!" And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

What a difference an audience makes.

Private wicked thoughts and concealed attitudes, secretive opinions and muted criticisms which prove we are sinners to the core translate quite differently before an audience. The real you is filtered somewhere between heart and lip. Something said in one's innards comes out very differently in front of an audience.

The version of yourself you want publicized will depend a great deal on the audience. Confidants hear one version; authority figures another. Conversation in a vehicle stopped for speeding will noticeably change as the window is rolled down. A kid's buddies are a different audience than his parents.

But rarely does anyone hear the real you.

The real you is the private you. We obscure our true selves in public. We are not so different from actors on a stage. The audience is given a show, and we become increasingly talented performers. Using words that follow a script we are practiced pretenders masquerading before an audience.

But before you think this overstated and you take offence in believing you are not so much a fraud, realize just how expert we've learned to fool even ourselves. We become our own best audience with self-congratulations and especially self-exonerations.

I have a loyal audience in me, myself, and I.

The man at the synagogue in Capernaum was diabolic. There was someone else inside him who was playing to an audience. The loud voice with which he spoke was not for Jesus' sake but so others would hear.

Skilled in insinuation and innuendo (as we all are), the demon wasn't about to reveal his true self. He wasn't going to let slip the malicious character he actually was. Devious, yet plainspoken, Machiavellian, though direct, conniving, yet with the appearance of candor, he speaks not so much to Jesus as to the gallery.

Can we get these people to fall for the suggestion that someone else knows better than Jesus Himself why He is here? ("I know who you are.") Couched in questions rather than in direct address, can we get these people to fancy that Jesus may be dangerous? ("Have you come to destroy us?") Can we get these people to swallow the idea that Jesus is unnecessary? ("What have you to do with us?").

The ugly private truth doesn't have to come out. The hidden opposition to Jesus can remain concealed as long as the audience is suckered. That was the aim of the demon, and that's the way we operate so very often, God forgive us.

The poor possessed man has no comfort in explaining, "That's not the real me talking; the devil made me do it."

His deliverance and comfort, as ours, is the authoritative Word of Christ. Jesus deprives the demonic man of his audience. "Be silent," Jesus ordered him. The real truth would be exposed, "Come out of him." All the impersonation and artifice is subdued. The masquerade is ended. The cover-up is uncovered.

The demon tried one more scene for the audience. He threw the man down right there in their midst. He desperately tried one last performance to keep from being "outed."

Sound familiar? In desperate ways we contrive to hide the sin and perversity which lurks in our nature. We have thoughts fraught with fear at being laid bare and known for what we are. We don't want it leaked out for fear of being embarrassed or hurt.

Yet, no such peril will befall you to whom Christ has come. Your true self in baptism is Christ. The congregation around you is not an audience but the fellow redeemed, those who with you have been set free from the twisted oppression of sin and a vile spirit.

You need not fear the truth. We are told the man there in Capernaum was delivered by Jesus, the false spirit "having done him no harm." You and I no longer need to posture in front of people. Christ sees that no harm comes to us. We don't need to fake our way because the authentic Word of Christ is our safety. We may repent without trepidation, confess without anxiety, and speak candidly without alarm because Jesus will never permit us to be harmed.

He will never falsify his forgiveness to you. He will never rig anything to your disadvantage. Jesus went to the cross to spare you and me harm. No one applauded him there. He didn't perform to a crowd. The suffering wasn't a put-on. He showed His true self there, the unfiltered, guileless Jesus Christ who is the very same inside and out. On Calvary He was laid bare so that we may know exactly who God really is. His pure spirit, his public righteousness and private virtue are exactly what He is.

He is none of those things the demon suggested, but that demon's voice has been silenced forever. In its place has been given us the true Holy One of God with absolutely no harm to a single one of us.

No harm. And no more foul.

His Footprint

Luke 4:16-21

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Christ is found in the midst of the congregation. He is home. His native land is the Scriptures, His teachers are the patriarchs and prophets whom the Spirit guided to pen the living Word of God. His native tongue is the Torah and the Writings. Jesus knew the Scriptures the way we know the sounds and security of our homes.

Nothing foreign to him is in its pages, nothing alien to His nature. He is God and man, and this day a scroll, also both divine and human, is placed in his hands.

Isaiah is the author of the lesson Jesus read in Nazareth, but God Himself is the source. The parchment and ink are earthy, but the Word is God's revelation of the Christ who comes in fulfillment of all which was promised.

The man Jesus grasps Holy Scripture. The God Jesus speaks the Word.

To proclaim good news to the poor, He is the good news itself among them. To proclaim liberty to the captives, He is the redeemer come to rescue all. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, He is the substance of grace itself.

All Scripture points to Christ, and all Scripture flows with Him. It is His portrait.

In one sweeping declaration transcribed by Isaiah, we are told of Christ's mission and its consequences. We are told about the One whose effect could not be greater. The blind once unable to see the truth of God are enlightened. Those captive to sin are liberated from it power. The time for the announcement of Good News and God's undeserved favor is come.

This text proves God is neither demure nor bashful. He is provocative and bare. He intends to be known. The world is to be given His work, the scope of which is astounding.

God is not provincial or tight, but comprehensive and global in His effect because "the poor," "the captive," "the blind," and "the oppressed" include all of us. The effect of His appearing is world-changing and life-giving.

Christ is breathtaking.

I have to laugh. In our environmentally sensitive age, we are urged to leave as small a footprint in this world as possible. Christ came to do just the opposite. He came to alter the course of life and death for every human being. He is the heaven-sent, spirit-bestowed, deliverance of God Himself to the world.

No one has ever left a more important or necessary footprint in this world.

I was told recently if everyone lived my lifestyle we'd need six earths to accommodate it. Apparently my carbon footprint is disproportionate to the resources of the world.

We've all heard that preaching: buy only what is ecologically friendly, use 100% recycled paper, carpool, turn off lights and peripherals over night, and make use of e-mail as much as possible. Think green.

I say ...

Think red. The color of his bloodly passion.

Think yellow. The color of sunlight to the blind.

Think blue. The color of the heavens obtained for the oppressed.

Think purple. The color royal of the King whose realm is real liberty of mind, body, heart, and soul.

Think white. The color of the robes of righteousness on those no longer poor.

Think and rejoice in the kaleidoscope of blessings which surge to the world because this prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled. God's footprint has been placed on the earth.

I'm not against conservation. There is much of "green" thinking which is just plain common sense. Indeed, if we should go into really severe times, recycling will be necessary. (It used to be called wearing hand-me-downs and using mason jars.) A few old-timers tell stories of bathing an entire family on one drawing of bathwater which sounds more than just ecologically friendly.

But if leaving no footprint means we best serve the world by leaving nothing behind, nothing that is not degradable, nothing that indicates we were here, what a shame. And more the shame if our conservation somehow implies we are the saviors of the world. We aren't! Christ is.

If the most caring act we can do for this world is to keep from using it and leave behind only the carbon molecules of our bodies to fertilize the next generation, then we have missed our Christian calling.

The aim of believers in Christ is to leave as big a footprint as possible in the world, not one obviously of waste dumps, deforestation, and inveterate consumption, but of influencing the world through the Word of Christ, to make a real difference.

That's why Christ came.

He didn't leave any carbon footprint at all! He didn't even leave the molecules of his body behind because He rose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven.

Yet his body is here. It is the church. It is you and I who make the footprint of Christ wherever we go. In the midst of the church is Christ today just as surely as Christ was in the midst of the congregation at Nazareth.

We want to leave the traces of Christ behind us, the evidence that God was in the world, the marks of His holy visitation in the baptism we celebrate and the communion we share. We mean to speak with His tongue, serve with His heart, and walk in His shadow.

Leave His footprint wherever you go. Proclaim Good News. Live in the liberty of your sins forgiven. Use the seeing eyes God has given you to find others His cross has freed, and echo the decree of God's favor as you love and forgive in His Name.

Christ made colossal footprints. Stand in them, and walk.

Meaning No Disrespect to Angels

Hebrews 1:1-14

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?

Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”

Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Angels are very prominent in this text. In fact, the angels of God are admired and commended as ministering spirits whose service to the church is in relation to her salvation. The vibrant heavenly angels in their worship of God are incomparable beings. They are winds and flames of fire to the advantage of God's people. They are exceptional and mercurial. To call anything angelic is to offer a high compliment, for the station of angels is noble. The faculties given them are astonishing, and their proximity to God is enviable. On Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28:12), the angels were ascending and descending from the very precincts of heaven. We salute them as emissaries and servants of the Most High God.

Yet, though high and holy, the angels provide here perhaps their most valuable service -- not by being what they are, but in showing what they are not.

They are not the Son of God. Not even close. They are not the creators of the world. Not in the slightest. They are not those who uphold the universe. Not even a little. They are not the One who vanquished sin, not even a smidgen of it let alone the whole of sin. They are not the exact divine depiction of God. They do not sit at God's right hand. They are not eternally begotten. They are not to be worshipped, and they possess no throne or scepter.

Angels are prominent in this text by virtue of the fact they are not prominent. As magnificent and agile as they are, as reverential and light-invested as they may be, never did God say to one of them, even the greatest of them, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”

Meaning no disrespect to angels, this text is really about the One who in Nature, Person, and Work bears the Name above every name (Phil. 2:9-11), Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Son of God of the same essence as God the Father. He is the God made flesh who came to shed his blood as vicarious atonement for the sin of the world. He plummeted into death. He descended so far as to make himself nothing. He took the nature of a servant and humbled himself even to death. Yet, by this sheer plunge into mankind’s iniquity, descending to serve the lowest grade of vile humanity by undertaking our sin’s accountability and consequence, He inherits a name and standing to surpass even that of angels.

We Christians may dare to contemplate the greatness of angels. Somewhere in our flights of thought informed by Scripture we can feign to envisage angels for they are creatures, yes of a different nature than we mortals but not of a different origin.

But of God Himself there is not even one scant footing for our imagination. Do not imagine He is God. Christ Jesus is God. God has no genesis. He is not confined to the realm of angels. He exceeds and surpasses the best of love for He Himself is love and the beloved of God. He excels purity, goes beyond righteousness and surmounts perfection. No holy angel presumes to be his peer but is content to worship in wonder the God whose throne and kingdom is forever and forever.

Dearly beloved. This is the God who gave Himself for you, the Author of creation and Conservator of the cosmos. He is the exact representation of divinity, God Himself. He is the One whose Name cannot be uttered except by holy lips, the One far above the stars and unconfined by space — aloft the realms of light.

He made purification for your sins and mine. He was crucified for you and me, hating iniquity yet loving the iniquitous so as to pay double for all our sins (Isaiah 40:2). In sublime unity with God the Holy Spirit who is “the oil of gladness,” this Christ, this Redeemer, this God of our salvation is the meaning and material of God's Word. Next to the greatness of His Name, nature, and work, the eminence of angels can only retreat. Together with them, “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven” we laud and magnify His holy Name. Yet, our highest praise can never soar as high as God's own Word, for when God the Father sent His only-begotten Son, He was speaking to us in a tongue of such beauty that even angels cannot express.

“In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son.”

Blessed are we. Beyond the pinnacle of wisdom, beyond the greatest soaring anthem of praise, God has spoken to all the world. He has given us His Son!

I Will Set Shepherds Who Will Care

Jeremiah 23:1-8

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Sheep cannot care for themselves. They are the most vulnerable breed of animal with no natural defenses. They have no quills like the porcupine. They can't change color like a chameleon. They don’t have fangs like a leopard or wings to carry themselves from danger. They have no claws like a bear or the hard shell like a tortoise. Sheep don’t exactly smell nice, but they don’t even have the pong of skunks. They are sitting ducks … though even ducks have some camouflage. Sheep by themselves are absolutely at risk.

Therefore, can any crime be worse than a shepherd who destroys the very sheep under his protection? It makes our blood boil to hear of some neighborhood thug who forces his way into the house of a helplessly disabled old woman to subject her to robbery, mugging, or even murder. Terrible as that is, at least the hooligan wasn't someone she should have trusted. He wasn't her guardian, her protector.

That is the calling of a shepherd.

Likewise, the abuse of a child is the lowest, most contemptible transgression because a child is powerless. That’s why all three synoptic Gospels record Jesus saying, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt. 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2)

A shepherd has the unconditional custody of such little ones, those dependent ones who have no other cover, no other shelter. Sheep are wholly dependent on the kindness, care, and safety of their custodian, their shepherd. Otherwise, they are completely helpless.

So, to abuse the sheep, to scatter and abandon the sheep is despicable. The false shepherd is, without question, the most dangerous of mortals. He is more malignant than any career criminal, more cruel than a terrorist, and more deadly than an assassin because he slays from within the fold.

He is not the “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” He is the destroyer in shepherd’s clothing. Any “minister” disloyal to the Word of God or who amends God's Word to accommodate tastes, preconceptions, judgment, or popular views causes the most superlative of injuries because he imperils the eternal souls of men. He doesn’t just kill; he robs people of the one blessing by which they can be mended from their wreckage of sin—the pure Word of God.

Alas! False shepherding is terrible also because it is the easiest of scams because the poor, compliant sheep don’t know how to protect themselves. It takes no heart, no truth, no grace, and no effort to tear down. And when the sheep can't fight back—when even the whole flock together could not stand against such maltreatment—the false shepherd exercises compelling power.

But God will not stand for it.

Almighty God pronounces undeniable “Woe” against such “shepherds,” for what they have done (scattered) and for what they have not done (cared for). God will deal with such charlatans personally.

Oh, one may say, I don’t have to worry there. I’m not a pastor or minister. This must apply only to someone called and ordained who is faithless or becomes corrupt. At most it speaks to someone who holds himself or herself (some women suppose themselves religious guides and diviners of wisdom) as self-determined. Since I’m a lay person and not one of them, I don’t have anything over which to lose sleep. The Lord declares this verdict against evil shepherds—not me.

Yes, but do not miss the point. What is so despicable is that the presence of a false shepherd devastates the sheep. It is the sheep at risk. The Lord’s woe against shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of His pasture may not crash upon you, but the ruin of the sheep is already a fait accompli.

The church is not warned against false shepherds (Matt. 18:7, Acts 20:29-30) for nothing.

This is why our Lord personally stepped in as the Shepherd of His flock. Even as God's people were pressed and misled by deceitful or careless prophets and priests, God drove His flock out of the country — for two reasons; to get them away from the even greater danger than a wilderness—the danger of someone corrupting the Word of God—and secondly, to demonstrate the consequence of blindly following anyone who is not truly of Christ.

But so declares the Lord. “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.” God in Christ moves to search for and retrieve his scattered flock. Is it because of any quality in the sheep? Is it because they are bold or admirable? Hardly. It is because He has named them his own. He calls us, “my people” and “my flock.”

But what kind of shepherds does he then give? Who are these other caring shepherds who will attend to and protect the flock? The answer lies in God's promise of the One whom He will raise up, the One through Whom Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. The name by which he will be called is “The Lord is our righteousness.”

The true undershepherds of Christ serve as Christ to God's people. They are not their own. They proclaim nothing but the Lord’s righteousness. Their ministrations are not marked with novelty and innovation or their own imagination, ingenuity, or originality. They speak only the Word given them in sacred Scripture—unchanged, undiluted, and unamended. They preach Christ. They deliver Christ in the Holy Sacraments. They forgive in Christ’s Name. They are no different than if Jesus were there Himself … indeed He is there, for their office and service bear Christ’s authority—the authority of the Word of God. These shepherds have also Christ’s singular object, the care, protection, and provision of the sheep whom Jesus Himself rescued by His life, death, and resurrection.

Under them, are the sheep any less dependent? No, they remain so. Can they now care for themselves? No, but that is no concern. They are still sheep, but they need not fear because they are no longer vulnerable. They need not be dismayed. They need never be anxious that even one of their number will be lost. They do not need quills, fangs, claws, shells or camouflage.

The sheep and their shepherds are united in communion with the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. In Him and through Him they receive all that is needed. The shepherds serve with joy, and the sheep receive with joy – for their life and joy is Christ.

Release!

Jeremiah 15:1-9

Then the Lord said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
You have rejected me, declares the Lord; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—I am weary of relenting.
I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways.
I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly.
She who bore seven has grown feeble; she has fainted away; her sun went down while it was yet day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares the Lord.”

There is a funny scene in the Steve Martin movie, “Father of the Bride.” Playing the role of George Banks, he nervously meets for the first time his daughter’s future in-laws who own a very large lavish home in upmarket San Marino, California—the MacKenzies. These folks also have large Doberman pinscher guard dogs.

In the scene of their first meeting, George witnesses John MacKenzie at his front door control these threatening dogs with a sharp command, “Release!”

But then, in a later scene, George, on the way to a bathroom is cornered by the same muscular, snarling dogs who mean business. Martin in his classic “splayed legs” physical comedy tries to remember what John MacKenzie said before to quell these critters at the front door.

George: Can you tell me where the restroom is?

Joanna MacKenzie: Oh, actually the one down here is a mess. We're remodeling. Try the one at the top of the stairs. It's the seventh door on the left.

George: Second door?

Joanna: Seventh.

(The scene changes and George is met in the upstairs hallway by — you guessed it — the dogs)

Dogs: Snarling

George: I'm leaving. I'm relaxed and I'm leaving. Relent! Recoil. Reverse!

Apparently the dogs have a good ear and discriminate between these similar homonyms and “Release!”

Now, I admit it is far funnier in the film than in my retelling. But now consider the passage from Jeremiah 15 which accompanies these thoughts. There is no joking here. God says, “I am weary of relenting.”

There is no punch line. There is no comedy “hook.” There is no amusing word like “Release!” or “Relent!” or “Reverse!” to make all the seriously unfunny, sad and sickly wrongs in God's people just scamper away. Jeremiah is “the weeping prophet.” He is not a wit or dramatist. He is an ambassador of the Living God, and here God's Word through Jeremiah is a fateful and foreboding Word.

It’s not a screenplay. It’s not theater. It’s not farce.

It is very important for us to know that God's Word is not a stock word, and the people in Jeremiah’s narrative are not fictional characters set by convention. Nor are we who read Holy Scripture just flipping through a tale.

I remember someone once making the point that they hesitate to refer to Bible narratives as Bible “stories” because the word “story” with some people implies that what is told is merely an invention or an imaginary tale and therefore is not real, not to be taken all that seriously.

A skilled jester like Steve Martin, with his deserved reputation for comedy, can make that encounter with the Dobermans into a hoot because it’s make-believe. It’s a pretend menace. It looks real, but no one takes it seriously.

But when God says to unrepentant —persistently unrepentant — Judah that He will appoint over them destroyers, one of which is “dogs to tear” — He means business.

God is not pulling contrived script out a stock repertoire of theatrical “God lines.” He is not just employing staged formulas. And we are not just an audience. The people of God are not spectators or onlookers in a gallery.

There is momentous dialogue here in Jeremiah, but it doesn’t come from the pen of a playwright. Holy Scripture exposes us to God Himself and the seriously earnest truth He pours from His heart and mouth. God’s bona fide Word is so authentic that it is dangerous. This text transports divine power to devastate and destroy.

God is righteous—He keeps His Word—and He will bring down the curses He threatened. (Deut. 28:15-68)

The Lord will not relent. He will not recoil. He will not reverse. He will not release. There is no cliché to neutralize Him, no quip or wisecrack to get around Him, and no “messin’ with him.

God says through Jeremiah, “You have rejected me … so I have stretched out my hand … I am weary of relenting … I have winnowed … I have bereaved them … I have destroyed my people … I have made anguish and terror fall upon them” ---------- (fade to black)

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)

This is not God relenting. This is God redeeming!