The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

 The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – January 19, 2025

Psalm 66; Amos 9:11-15; Romans 12:6-16a

St. John 2:1-11

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The first of our Lord’s active miracles was enacted at a wedding in Cana. It was no accident that our Lord chose a wedding as the occasion for this first and chief miracle. In the beginning, creation was not deemed ‘very good’ until Eve had been given to Adam in the first Holy Marriage. From that moment on, God has blessed the world through the union of man and woman, the one flesh union through which children are created. Precisely through this one flesh union, the Promised Seed, the Savior, was to be born. The entirety of the Old Testament can be viewed as a genealogy, tracing the lineage of the Promised Seed, and as such, it is a story bound to Holy Marriage.

What’s more, is that God has described His relationship to His people in terms of Holy Marriage. Through the prophet Hosea, He said, “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”[1] In the New Testament, we not only have the parables of the wedding feast and the virgins attending the wedding feast of Christ, but such explicit statements as “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” and “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”[2] That is to say, the Church has been betrothed to Christ, presented to Him as a chaste and righteous virgin, in purity and holiness, and we are members of His body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, united in a one flesh union with Christ.

It is for these reasons that Christ highly values Holy Marriage. Our earthly marriages are a picture, an image, of this marriage between Christ and the Church. From the marriage of Adam and Eve to the last union joined before the Last Day, Holy Marriage is a depiction of Christ and the Church.

Since it is God Himself who has created marriage and has declared, “What God has joined together, let not man separate,”^[3] divorce must be of the devil. Divorce is a rending of the one flesh union, a tearing apart by man of something which has been joined together by God. Divorce must of the devil if it is a tearing apart of that which God has created.

Christ makes no exceptions where divorce is acceptable in the eyes of God. Rather, when He speaks of cases of adultery, the one who has committed adultery has already broken the one flesh union. The divorce has occurred in God’s eyes. The question is not if a signed document makes the divorce but if the spouse who committed adultery will repent and the spouse sinned against is willing to enter once again into the one flesh union with the repentant sinner.

It is also for these reasons that our marriages should be blessed by Christ and conducted in the House of God, the church. A wedding in a courthouse, presided over by a judge is just as valid as a “church wedding” because marriage has been built into creation by God. It is a part of natural law. But we, being sons and daughters of God and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, ought to seek to have our marriages blessed by Christ, attended by the true Bridegroom. The Church is the most fitting setting for a wedding because it is the setting for the marriage between Christ and His Church.

When the wine at the wedding feast in Cana began to run dry, the Blessed Virgin said to our Lord, “They have no wine.”[4] Built into this statement is the request that He do something about it. St. Mary is motivated by a sincere sympathy for the bridegroom and the guests. If the feast ran out of wine, the bridegroom would be embarrassed and put to shame. It would indicate that he was incapable of providing for the feast to which he had invited all these guests. On behalf of the guests, if there was no wine, the feast would end. The joy and merriment would come to an early end. Wine elevates a meal into a feast. The Blessed Virgin is sincerely concerned for all involved and she looks to her Son to alleviate the potential disaster.

However, she is met with a hard response. “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” From this response, we learn a few things about Mary’s request. First, she is asking her Son to do something as the Word of God, through whom all creation was made but she is making her request from her position as His mother. That is, she is leveraging her authority as mother to make a request of her Lord. This is a misuse of her maternal authority. She has no right, as His mother, to request the Christ to make divine acts. Certainly, as a Christian, she has every right to make requests of her Lord, but in this case, she is misusing her office as mother to press Christ into acting.

Ask almost any Roman Catholic about praying to Mary and they will say something like, “We don’t pray that she would do anything but that she would ask Jesus to do it. It helps to have His mother on your side.” That is exactly the error that Mary is making in telling Jesus to do something about the wine at Cana. She is truly blessed among all women and full of grace, but she has no special access or sway with God than any other Christian. Calling her, “woman,” is not derogatory in any way, but it is our Lord’s way of reminding His dear mother that in divine matters, she holds no special office to request His actions.

Speaking of His hour holds special significance in the Gospel of St. John. It refers to the hour of His crucifixion. It indicates that the crucifixion is the culminating moment of the work of Christ. There, His work is finished. It is complete. All the miracles, all the words of Christ point forward to the hour in which all things are completed. Our faith rests on the historic event of the crucifixion and resurrection.

At the same time, because of the crucifixion, Christ may speak of His hour being present in all His actions. Here, it indicates that not only was St. Mary requesting that her Son do something about the wine, but that He do it now. The wine was beginning to run dry, and she wanted to spare the hosts and the guests the shame of knowing there was no more wine. She wanted Him to intercede before the problem was made public.

Here we see the Blessed Virgin’s second folly. She put a specific timeframe on a miracle of God. She as much as told Him, “They have no wine. Give them wine and do it now before the problem becomes an embarrassment.” Such temptation is great for all who call on the name of the Lord. We feel the passing of time. We know that yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is coming very soon. Because of that, we want what we want, and we want it now. If this holds true for a party about to run out of wine, it also holds true for what we deem to be emergencies. Your sister is dying of cancer and may not make it to tomorrow. You want God to act now, or it will be too late. Patient though he was, even Job’s patience ran out and he demanded that God act.[5]

“If our prayer to God is to be acceptable and be heard, then of course we are not to prescribe the time and manner for help, especially in bodily needs. Here we hear from Christ that He has a specific hour, that is, He has actually already in His heavenly counsel decreed when and how He will help us. We should patiently wait for that hour.”[6]

Having been reminded of the proper use of her office as mother and Christian, the Blessed Virgin also gives us a glorious example of faith. She turns to the servants and says, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”[7] Hearing the Word of her Lord, she remembers the virtue of patience and trusts that whatever her Son does, it will be for the good of those gathered at the feast. With Job, she says in her heart, ‘Your hands have molded me and made me into everything I am within and without, and even though You hide it in Your heart, I still know that you remember it.”[8] Christ our Lord may not do exactly what she wanted or when she wanted it done, but whatever He does will be better than she could imagine. And “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”[9]

Hearing a sincere Christian prayer for those gathered at the wedding feast, our Lord performs the first, and chief, of His miracles, for the purpose of manifesting His glory.[10] In the first place, we see by this miracle, and all miracles, that Jesus is truly the Almighty God, Lord and Creator of the universe. Unlike the prophets, He does not need to call upon God to act through Him. He is the God through whom all things are made.

We also see that Christ is revealing Himself as bringing overabundance in joy and grace to those who would receive Him, sympathetic to the needs of man. The stone waterpots formerly held water used to make one ritually clean. Our Lord takes these instruments of the Law and turns them into vessels of joy and gladness, filling them with His Gospel of grace for all in attendance. He makes the understanding of the Law lovely, for that is how the Gospel interprets the Law.

The one who hears and believes the Gospel of Christ, that He has come and delivered you from your sins by means of His death and resurrection, has their heart of stone turned to a heart of flesh.[11] Hearing that the obedience owed to God, that which we cannot perfectly fulfill, has been fulfilled by Christ, our hearts are made glad. “Wine makes glad the heart of man.”[12]

In terms of overabundance of joy and grace, we hear from the master of the feast that the guests had already been well drunk and are now provided with almost 200 gallons of good, strong wine. Our Lord answered St. Mary’s prayer in a greater way than she could’ve imagined.

Not only did this miracle manifest the glory of Christ but “His disciples also believe in Him. They recognized Him as the Son of God and the promised Messiah in whom they placed their heartfelt trust. From this we learn that all miracles of Christ relate to and call for faith; God’s Word and His miracles are the two pillars and the foundation of faith. For from the Word and promises we come to know His gracious will; from the miracles we come to know His divine omnipotence upon which the trusting heart from now on must found and establish itself. May God the Lord sustain and uphold us in such a faith through Christ—the Initiator and the completing Perfector of [our] faith (Hebrews 12:2).”[13]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Hosea 2:19-20.

[2] 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:30.

[3] St. Matthew 19:6.

[4] St. John 2:3.

[5] Job 31.

[6] Johann Gerhard, Postilla, Volume 1, translated by Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: The Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, 2001), 161.

[7] St. John 2:5.

[8] Job 10:8, 13; paraphrased.

[9] Romans 5:5.

[10] St. John 2:11.

[11] Ezekiel 36:26.

[12] Psalm 104:15.

[13] Gerhard, Postilla, 163-164.

Invocabit (Lent 1)

Invocabit – February 18, 2024

Psalm 91; Genesis 3:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

St. Matthew 4:1-11

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The first and most important lesson to take from the Temptation of Christ is that He suffered the temptations of Satan and overcame them on your behalf. The war between Jesus and the devil begins right after Jesus’ birth, as the servant of Satan, Herod, sought to murder the infant Jesus. But on that occasion, the devil worked through his agent to assault the Son of God. It is not until Jesus is Baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and marked by the Word of the Father as being a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice for the sins of man that the devil took a personal stake in assaulting Jesus.

Baptized by John, Jesus is immediately hurled into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It was the will of God that Jesus be tempted in the wilderness. He willingly submitted to this temptation. If He had not, then the devil could not tempt Him. The devil is powerful, but he is not omnipotent. He is not the “equal-but-opposite” of God. The devil is, after all, an angel, a created being, a spiritual being.

Why might Christ will to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness? To win the victory on your behalf. When Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden, they fell, choosing to listen to the word of the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit. When the Israelites were tempted in the wilderness, they fell, complaining against Moses, Aaron, and God, and saying they preferred slavery in Egypt over freedom with God. When given the land of Canaan, the Israelites were tempted to worship the false gods of the Canaanites, and they fell, worshiping Baal and Asherah.

By contrast, our Lord was cast into the wilderness to be tempted and win the victory. But He did not win the victory for Himself. “He battled as the Surety, the Mediator, the Substitute of the whole human race, for all men, for us who are gathered here. Through sin all men sold themselves to Satan; all became his servants and subjects of his kingdom. To redeem and save men Christ came as the real Owner of all the souls of men in order to conquer Satan, destroy his kingdom, take his booty away again, free us from his power, and lead all men through the kingdom of grace into the kingdom of eternal glory.”[1]

So it is that we can see Christ taking the place of all mankind in the struggle against sin, death, and the devil. He is winning the victory that you cannot win. He humbly and willfully submits to being tempted by Satan to fulfill the Law of God. Your salvation was not won by breaking any rules. God did not simply assert His authority over all creation and rewrite the laws of reality. Instead, He entered into reality, into creation, that He would win the prize of your salvation according to the Laws which He already wove into the world. When He told Adam and Eve that in eating the fruit, “dying you shall die,” He meant it. The consequence of sin is death. In order to fulfill this Law, someone must die.

Thus, being anointed as the acceptable sacrifice for sin, Jesus submits to being tempted that He might fulfill the whole Law. Where man has failed, Christ has stood steadfast and won the victory. By His overcoming temptation, we see that He is truly the unblemished Lamb, acceptable as the perfect sacrifice for all ages. This is by far and away the most important truth of the temptation of Christ.

Knowing that Christ was tempted on your behalf and won the victory over temptation on your behalf, you are now free to see His actions as an example for your own. Such an example should never overtake the fact that Jesus defeated Satan for you, but it is the necessary consequence. Seeing David strike down Goliath, the Israelites were spurred on to victory, chasing down the Philistines and killing every last soldier and plundering their tents.[2] The actions of the army would be impossible, let alone insignificant, if not for the actions of the lowly shepherd boy from Bethlehem. So much more is this true of the actions of Christ and the resulting actions of all Christians. We have seen our Almighty General conquer in the fight. This should then rouse our souls to imitate His glorious victory as we chase down and smite the remnants of the devil’s pitiful army.

The example of Christ for us to follow in fighting against the temptations of Satan are three-fold. First, we see that Christ has been in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights without food or water. He has been fasting. At first, this seems like a weakness. At first, it seems as though Christ would be at His weakest and that is the reason that Satan has chosen to tempt Him at this time. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”[3] This fast of Christ is an example of the spiritual discipline of fasting which strengthens you against the temptations of the flesh.

The primary purpose of fasting is to remind you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.[4] The result is the training of your flesh, bringing it under the control of your faith. Fasting, if you are not used to it, is difficult. Remember, fasting is not just “giving something up for Lent.” To fast is not to eat. Christians have always practiced fasting, but the guidelines have been different at different times and in different places. Sadly, these guidelines have sometimes become the basis of controversy in the church as though God had commanded a specific method of this discipline.

The basic guideline to fasting is to not eat for a period of time. If this is something new for you, you might begin on Sunday mornings. Do not eat until after you have received the Sacrament. By the time we get to the Lord’s Supper in the Divine Service, you will notice how hungry you are and the first sustenance you receive will be the Body and Blood of Christ. If you would like to go a step further, choose a day of the week—historically Wednesday or Friday—on which you will not eat from sunup to sundown. When you do eat, it should be a lighter meal for the practical reason that gorging yourself on an empty stomach is not good for your gut but for the spiritual reason that fasting is not an excuse for gluttony. And if you would like to go even a step further, then fast on your chosen day from the time you wake up until you go back to sleep.

The second tactic to learn from Christ is how to counter the temptations of Satan. The devil tempts Jesus with corrupted versions of creation and the Word of God. He tells half truths and offers that which he has no right to give. Such temptations are incredibly enticing for man. Yet we see Jesus not only parry, or deflect, such attacks of Satan, but He delivers a riposte, or counterattack. How? He rightly uses the Word of God. He rightly takes that given to Him by the Father and uses it against such false teachings.

For you to use such a tactic first means you must know the Word of God. You must be familiar with the teachings of Scripture. It is one thing to quote Scripture. Even the devil can do that. It is another entirely to use it appropriately. This requires that you read the bible every day. You must be steeped in the Word of God. The pace at which you read the bible is dependent upon you. Maybe you are only capable of reading a few paragraphs a day. Maybe a chapter. Maybe multiple chapters. I can tell you that you are capable of reading more than you think. Challenge yourself to read more than you think you can. There are myriad bible reading plans out there. If you need one, let me know and I’ll get you one.

Being familiar with the Word of God, being steeped in it, is only the beginning. It is necessary that you commit the Word of God to memory. No matter your age or your relative ability to memorize, it is possible. Start with the verses you already know. Almost everyone in this room knows John 3:16. Excellent. Then, think of every time we sing or speak verses of Scripture in the liturgy. You probably already have those memorized. Most everyone here today could participate in the Divine Service without looking at your hymnal for the ordinaries, that is, the parts of the liturgy that don’t change.

From there, think of the verses that are used in the catechism and those verses choses for the Congregation at Prayer which correspond to the catechism. If you worked to memorize only those passages I’ve already mentioned, you would arm yourself with close to 100 verses of Holy Scripture. The next step would be practicing using those passages. When you are tempted to sin, speak aloud a corresponding Word of God. Tempted to gluttony, then say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”[5] Tempted by anger, then say, “Do not avenge [yourself], but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”[6]

The final tactic to be learned from our Lord is reliance on God and his ministers, specifically the Holy Angels. Amid temptation, it is vital that you remember relief is at hand. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for [the Lord is] with me.”[7] Though they are unseen, God has appointed the Holy Angels to be ministers to His beloved, a mighty army encamped around the children of God.[8] No amount of suffering or temptation will last forever for those who trust in the Lord. “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, those these all be gone, the victory has been won, the kingdom ours remaineth.”[9]

The comfort and ministration of the Holy Angels may not always be as apparent as those who ministered to Christ after His temptation, but your temptations are also not as apparent as the Devil whisking you away to top of the temple nor showing you all the kingdoms of the earth. Just as your temptations are real so too is the ministry of the Holy Angels real. Whether in the guise of mortals or simply working unseen, the Holy Angels will and do minister to all of you. In fact, they always guide and protect you. Be strengthened in the knowledge that all the heavenly host is on your side and fighting with you against Satan, all his works and all his ways.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] C. F. W. Walther, Gospel Sermons, Volume 1, translated by Donald E. Heck (St. Louis, MO: CPH, 2013), 160.

[2] 1 Samuel 17:51-53.

[3] 1 Corinthians 1:27.

[4] St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.

[5] St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.

[6] Romans 12:19.

[7] Psalm 23:4.

[8] Psalm 34:7.

[9] A Mighty Fortress, Stanza 4.

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – January 22, 2023

Psalm 97; 2 Kings 5:1-15b; Romans 12:16b-21

St. Matthew 8:1-13

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Just as our Lord finishes preaching the Sermon on the Mount and walks down the mountain, a leper approaches Jesus and worships Him. Lepers were commanded to stand afar off, calling out “Unclean! Unclean!” lest anyone contract the disease by passing too closely. Yet this leper bolds walks up to Jesus, falls upon his knees, perhaps even falling prostrate—flat on the ground—in worship of the Incarnate Lord. After such a provocative approach, the leper humbly says, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”^[2]

Here we see the boldness of faith. Faith makes you more powerful than the US President and more wealthy than Jeff Bezos. Christ says faith the size of a mustard seed is capable of moving mountains.^[3] It is by faith that in Psalm 82, God says to Christians, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.”^[4] Faith makes you a god among men, a lord over lords, and a mighty conqueror of this world.

It takes such faith to ask anything from God. The centurion knows that he is not worthy to have Christ stand under his roof. The centurion knows that he is not worthy even to be speaking to Christ. Yet faith, given to him by God, has made the leper and the centurion worthy to stand before the Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Judge, and Lord of the Universe and dare to ask for something as trifling as a healthy body.

Yet even such faith as can move mountains is worthless if misplaced. The leper is able to approach Jesus with such bold faith because he trusts that Christ is not only powerful but merciful, gracious, and loving. Faith is not only knowledge in the power of God but trust in His goodness. The bold faith of the leper is not without humility.

The humility of faith trusts that God is good and will deliver to you that which is best. You do not have all of the information. You cannot see through God’s eyes. We are bidden by the Lord’s Prayer to form all of our prayers according to the Will of God.

When you pray that God would sustain you in right doctrine, the teaching of the Scriptures, and that he will not cast you away, you can be certain that the answer to your prayer will be a resounding yes. God has promised to do these things for you in His word.

But when you pray for something that is good and necessary for this body and life, but which God has not specifically promised to you in His word, then the humility of your faith ought to always cause you to ask according to the Will of God. “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The leper is not questioning the ability of Christ nor Christ’s love for him. The caveat of “if You are willing” refers to the uncertainty within the leper if being cleansed is really the best thing for him. Jesus knows what is best and so the leper humbles himself to the Will of Jesus.

The humility of the centurion’s faith is expressed somewhat differently. Jesus is ready to come straight to the centurion’s home to heal his servant, but the centurion stops Him. “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come to my home. Your Word is enough for me. I know you are the Lord of heaven and earth. Just as my soldiers obey my commands, I know that all of creation will obey Yours. Please, just speak a word and I know—I trust—that my servant will be healed.”

No one is worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. Historically, the words of the centurion are the words prayed before received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only say the word and Your servant shall be healed.” We are not worthy to receive forgiveness, let alone to feed on the Body of God. Yet in our unworthiness, the Son of God descended into our flesh to die for us. He took on our humility and shame so that we would be given the faith which makes us kings and lords.

The humility of the centurion is in his request only for a word because he believes the Word of God will do precisely what it says. He believes the Word of Jesus will be good for whomever it is spoken. So too should you humbly believe that the words which I speak are not my forgiveness, but the forgiveness of God, your Father. You should humbly believe that what I give to you in the cup is the Blood of Jesus, not doubting because it doesn’t taste like blood. You should also humbly believe the Word of God is true simply because God has said it. If you disagree with it, submit your own will to the Will of God.

St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”^[5] We see the love personified in Christ while healing the leper. Leprosy is always a symbol of our sinful condition because it deadens our senses toward God. We are not only numb toward God but dead. This necrosis creeps throughout our souls, poisoning us against God and man until we are finally laid in the grave of our own choosing, fated to spend eternity in darkness, weeping and gnashing our teeth in anger against a God we refused to know.

In this deadened state of leprous sin, the Word of God comes to us. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.^[6] Having heard the Word of God, faith is kindled in our dead hearts. Our flesh begins to move and having faith, we are bold to pray, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”^[7]

We, like the leper, already have faith. He is not praying to be converted. If that were the case, his actions would lead to salvation. No, he has already heard the Word of God and now prays that this forgiving Word would act upon his body. He prays that Christ would give to him that which is best for him. So too, we pray for food and drink, house and home, health, money, possessions, a pious spouse, pious children, good government, good friends, peace, discipline, honor, and the like.^[8]

In so doing, we also pray to be made holy. We pray that Christ would relieve us of the temptation to sin. It ought to be the desire of every Christian to live without sin. No sin should please us who would be like Christ. Praying to be cleansed with the leper is to pray that sin would cease its clinging to our conscience. While the temptations of the flesh will never cease on this side of glory, prayer for relief from sin is certainly biblical, practical, necessary, and pleasing to our Father in heaven.

The centurion himself is an example of love. He comes to Jesus not for his own healing, but the healing of his young servant. He pleads to God on behalf of another. This is love. The centurion must have traveled some distance, though not necessarily a long distance. This takes time and resources and for what? A slave? A young slave? He does this out of love. At some point, perhaps during the Sermon on the Mount, the centurion heard the preaching of Christ. The Word of God replaced his heathen heart of stone with a heart of flesh and now the centurion desires to live in service to his neighbor. Faith makes you a lord of all, but love makes you a servant of all. Faith without love is dead.^[9]

So too, should we follow the centurion’s example of faith working out in love, the greater being a blessing to the lesser. No one can provide for every need of everyone they meet. But you can provide for the needs of those God has given into your care. You can sacrifice your own comfort for the sake of another. You can humble yourself so that your children, your less fortunate friend, your sister, or even your destitute mother may have more than the bare minimum in life. To sacrifice yourself for the needs and wants of another is the definition of love.

Such faith and love will be rewarded. Both the Jewish leper and the Gentile centurion will be seated at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. They shall dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for all eternity. This feast has also been prepared for you, beloved in Christ. The blood of the Jewish leper and the works of the Gentile centurion did not secure their invitation to eternal bliss. The Word of God, which delivered the very faith by which it is apprehended, moved their souls to repent of their sins and trust in Christ for salvation. This faith is then shown forth in love for their fellow man.

Your faith too is shown forth in love, even when you don’t realize it. You cannot help but show love toward your neighbor so long as you have faith. The act of changing a diaper is not worthy of salvation but the act of changing a diaper is the showing forth of love born by faith. It is the blessing of the helpless child by the capable mother.

So too are your prayers heard and answered no matter how it may seem to you. Faith means trusting that Christ knows what is good for you and will deliver that which is good. If your prayer is not answered the way you wanted it to be, then realize that you do not know what is best. God does. It would be worthwhile to practice praying like the leper and the centurion.

“Lord, if You are willing, You can deliver me from pain. But I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. Only say the Word, and Your servant shall be healed.”

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[2] St. Matthew 8:2.

[3] St. Matthew 17:20.

[4] Psalm 82:6.

[5] 1 Corinthians 13:2.

[6] Romans 10:17.

[7] St. Matthew 8:2.

[8] A summary of the Small Catechism on the 4^th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

[9] James 2:17; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 5:6; Colossians 1:4; 1 Timothy 1:5, 14; 1 John 4:20.

The Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany

The Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany – January 8, 2023

Psalm 100; Isaiah 42:1-9; Romans 12:1-6a

St. Luke 2:42-52

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord and place a special emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. Last Friday, at the Epiphany of our Lord, we celebrated the revelation that this child in the manger is truly God. At the Epiphany, there is a special emphasis on the divinity of Jesus and His kingship over all creation. As the Sundays after the Epiphany progress, the Gospel readings will focus on the miracles of our Lord which reveal His divinity. Epiphany means “to reveal.”

It is then notable and quite interesting that we begin the Sundays after the Epiphany not with a miracle text, but with the only text God has delivered to us which describes our Lord’s boyhood. When Jesus was twelve years old, His family went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, as was their yearly custom. After the feast, His family departed Jerusalem to return to Nazareth. Since they’ve spent eleven years with Jesus in the family and have come to expect His perfect obedience, they didn’t even bother to check that He was numbered with His brothers. Joseph, Mary, and their relatives departed for Nazareth.

It took an entire day for them to notice that Jesus was not with them. When they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him, it took three more days for them to look in the Temple. At last, when they found Jesus, Mary rebuked Him for making Joseph and her anxious. Jesus responds, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”[1] After this, Jesus went down with them and was subject to Joseph and Mary, increasing in wisdom, stature, and favor in the eyes of God and men.

The first question you may have of this text is how could they forget Jesus for a full day? Remember, Jesus is God in the flesh. They have raised Him for the last twelve years and He is perfectly obedient. Joseph and Mary have left Jesus behind because they’ve grown complacent. Because He is perfectly obedient, they’ve come to expect that He can read their minds. When they forget to tell Him they are leaving town, they expect He will know anyway.

From this, we see that neither Joseph nor Mary is without sin, but Jesus is. Jesus does not sin if Joseph and Mary fail to communicate with Him. Even Mary’s attempt at rebuking Jesus makes it clear that the sin lies with her and Joseph. “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”[2] It is clear that she is at fault for not being a diligent parent and yet to admit as much would be embarrassing. She knows it would be a lie to say, “You hid from us” when the truth is they forgot Him. So she says the next best thing, “why have You done this to us? You made us so anxious.”

Upon further examination, we must learn from the sin of the parents and the sinlessness of our Lord. The sin of the parents is complacency. They have grown so comfortable with the obedience of their Son, they believe He no longer needs parents. They have abdicated their role to train up their Son—whether He is divine or not.

This is the temptation for anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time. It is tempting to become complacent with your faith. It is tempting to believe that you’ve already heard about that stuff and so you don’t need to come to church, or bible study, or read the bible at home, or review the catechism. In fact, there are many in our church body who believe that once you’ve been examined in a confirmation class, you no longer need to do memory work and there is no reason for the Pastor to examine what you know of the Scriptures.

This is complacency. All Christians must be on guard against such complacency because should you fall into this temptation, you won’t even notice that you have left Jesus behind. Joseph and Mary were blessed by God to have remembered after one day of journeying. If you fall into complacency, you have no promise that you will remember after one day or even before your death. The less you attend to your faith, the less you will want to.

On the other hand, the sin of Joseph and Mary speaks specifically to parents. Sending children to school—be it public, private, or otherwise—does not absolve you as being in charge of their education. We do not send children to school to be taught by experts. We send them to school to assist us in our duty to educate them. The same goes for teaching the faith. Catechesis classes at the Church are important but one hour a week at Church will do nothing to foster the faith of anyone. Daily prayer, daily bible reading, daily discussions concerning the Word of God are necessary for raising a child in the faith.

It is necessary that children be present at the Divine Service. Children’s Church is a terrible heresy of the North American church. By distracting children with food and games during the Divine Service is the same as telling them there is nothing here for them. How does a child learn? A child learns by imitation. Repetition is the mother of learning. The youngest among us is learning the faith right now. Sure, the infants in our congregation do not yet understand language, but they are learning the sights, sounds, smells, textures, and even tastes of the church. If we teach children that the church is a place to play and eat, then we can’t be surprised when they leave the church for more entertaining pastures.

We must now turn our attention to Jesus. Whether Joseph and Mary completely forgot to tell Jesus they were leaving or if they simply gave unclear direction, we do not know. We do know that without sin, Jesus remained in Jerusalem. He remained in Jerusalem and went straight to the Temple to learn. Do not misunderstand the text. He is not teaching in the Temple. He is sitting diligently at the feet of the teachers. He is listening to them and asking questions. Those standing around were amazed at what diligent of a student He was.

Imagine a student is perfectly attentive and perfectly obedient. Then imagine the teacher asking a question and this student doesn’t give an inappropriately academic answer, but gives a thorough answer displaying understanding of precisely what the teacher was teaching. This is the boy Jesus in the Temple.

From this, we must first understand that faith in Jesus Christ is not about academic knowledge. The avoidance of sin is not about academic knowledge. Keeping the righteousness of Christ is not about academic knowledge. It is about attentiveness to the Word of God. It is about diligently listening and taking to heart the things of God. It is about trusting the Word of God above your own thoughts and desires.

It is very rare that I share personal stories from the pulpit because you come here to hear the Word of God, but in this case, it is illustrative. Sometime in grade school, we were given an assignment over the weekend to write a story about our summer break. Because the assignment was to write a story, I returned on Monday morning with a fantastical story about falling into a hole in the street and discovering a cave full of treasure. The teacher was delighted but told me I misunderstood the assignment. She was looking for a story about something that really happened.

The point of this anecdote is that in misunderstanding the directions, I did not sin. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, can remain perfectly sinless and perfectly obedient while making a mistake. Mistakes of this nature are not due to sin, but to the imperfection of the world around Him. Thus, it would be entirely possible for Christ to have mis-measured a board in the shop with Joseph or answer a question of the teachers in the Temple incorrectly.

The difference between Jesus and you & me, is that we do not know what it is to make mistakes without sin. I miscut a board because I am in a hurry and didn’t carefully measure. You miss questions in Bible Study because you were busy talking to your neighbor or thinking about lunch. We make mistakes because we are imperfect. He made mistakes because we are imperfect.

This ought to bring you a degree of comfort. Jesus Christ, True Son of God and True Son of Mary, was capable of making mistakes without sinning. He is truly man and is displaying that God is not interested in all Christians having perfect academic records. The Father is interested in diligent study of His Word. Does that mean everyone must know Greek and Hebrew? No. God has given you other vocations. Does it mean that everyone ought to devote more time than you do to God’s Word? Absolutely. Diligent study of God’s Word simply means to read and reread the Word of God so that it becomes a part of you.

Our Lord’s subtle rebuke of Mary is astonishing. “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” It is as if He is calmly saying, “Why didn’t you start by looking in the Temple?” Where else would Jesus be? Joseph and Mary likely went to all of the places a human twelve year old would be found; a twelve year old driven by the passions of his flesh and the desires of a sinful heart. They remembered that Jesus is True Man but had somehow now forgotten that He is True God.

Why be anywhere else? Not all Christians are called by God to spend their days contemplating the Word of God from sunrise to sunset. You have families. You have homes. You have vocations every bit as pious and holy as the Office of the Holy Ministry to attend to.

At the same time, when there is the opportunity to come into the House of the Lord, the Christian heart rejoices. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the House of the Lord!”[3] It is the complacent hearts of Joseph and Mary who would now say, “But how much do we have to go? Does Thursday count for Sunday?” To ask such a question is to ignore the Gospel. It is not an exercise of Christian freedom to seek the least number of services to attend in order to maintain membership. That is a sin. It is a sin against the Third Commandment and a sin against God’s Word.

Rather, find the joy in receiving God’s Word. Enjoying coming to Church doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy other activities. It means you can enjoy those other activities because God has given them to you. The joy of the Divine Service and the Daily Offices comes not from getting what you want but from receiving what you need.

This is the final lesson to learn from the Boy Jesus. From beginning to end, Jesus displays humble submission in this text. While He is in the Temple, Jesus sits quietly and obediently learns from the teachers. He does not question their authority, even though He has been since before the world began. He does not demand the teachers act according to His expectations or even that they teach the topics He is most interested in. No. The Word through whom creation was made humbly obeys the authority of His teachers and diligently learns from them.

Then, when the Holy Family returns to Nazareth, Jesus is said to be subject to them. In spite of the sins of Joseph and Mary, Jesus is subject to them because they are His parents. God has set the world in order, and it is not always related to ability. God created Adam first and then Eve. Man is the head of woman not by ability but by Divine Order.

  What do I mean not by ability but by Divine Order? It is conceivable that a woman could craft better sermons and teach more effectively in the church than a man. Yet God has strictly forbidden this. Why? Because it is not given to woman to have authority over men. Man is to be the head of woman even as Christ is the head of the Church. If Jesus Christ can submit Himself to His parents, then all women are capable of submitting themselves to the authority of men.

And make no mistake—submission does not mean weakness nor slavery. Submission means recognizing the authority of another and placing yourself under that authority. The one who is in authority must also recognize his duty to lovingly serve and care for those under his authority. No Christian is to lord his authority over another, be it male or female. At the same time, having authority sometimes means rebuke, warning, and exhortation. Sometimes authority means simply to teach. In all cases, him with authority is called to lead by divine right, not by human order.

If Jesus Christ, True Son of God and True Son of Mary, can submit to teachers in the Temple and sinful human parents, then all Christians can follow His example by submitting our wills to His. By such submission, we too will follow our Lord in growing in wisdom, stature, and favor with both God and man.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Luke 2:49.

[2] St. Luke 2:48.

[3] Psalm 122:1.