“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Revelation 2:10

In Revelation 2, Jesus is promising the crown of life to the Church at Smyrna if it would faithfully endure the persecution that it was undergoing.  It is quite easy to see the same kind of persecution facing the church yet today in all different parts of the world.  Yet, despite the sufferings and persecution of the church – there is nothing of more importance than the crown of life that is placed upon those who remain faithful and true!

Remaining faithful and true to God and His will is a difficult task.  In fact, left alone with this task we would all fail miserably!  So how do we receive the crown of life?  How do we remain faithful unto death?  Thanks be to God, for we are not left up to ourselves.  We remain faithful by faith in the One who was faithful for us – Jesus Christ!

Jesus was faithful and true to God the Father’s perfect will – for us!  Jesus lived the perfect life required by God’s Law.  Jesus died as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  And Christ rose again victoriously to overcome sin, death, and the devil.  Christ’s faithfulness is credited to us!

That good news helps us to treasure these words from Revelation 2:10 because we have the promise of the crown of life – not by what we do – but because Jesus was and is perfectly faithful for us!

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18

There is a story about a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck.  One day in Sunday School, a substitute teacher approached the girl and said, “Don’t you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn’t beautiful like the one you’re wearing?  It was an ugly, wooden thing.”  To which the girl replied, “Yes, I know.  But my last Sunday School teacher said that whatever Jesus touches, He changes.”

That’s the message we find in 1 Corinthians 1:18 – Jesus takes the weakness and foolishness of the cross and makes it the strength and wisdom of salvation in Christ crucified for us. 

If only we would run to the cross of Christ as the one and only source for all our wisdom and strength.  But our sinful flesh continually looks to satisfy its insatiable desire for wisdom and strength from within and from the world. 

Our wisdom and strength ask the question, “How can I?”  How can I get the most out of life?  How can I feel good about myself?  How can I make my life easier?  How can I stay healthy?  How can I get ahead of my fears, my bills, my struggles, my challenges?  If only I could get stronger and wiser.  Why do so many well meaning people, even Christians, struggle to find the answers to life?  Because we ask, “How can I?” and the only answer to this question will be in OUR wisdom and strength or in OUR ability to obtain it from the world.

The cross of Christ answers the question, “How has God?”  “How has God come close to me to bring me close to Him?”  That question is not natural to us because that question assumes we are lost and need to be saved.  It assumes that we do not have the strength and wisdom to save ourselves.  This season of Lent confronts our failure to keep God’s commandments, it confronts our sin.  We have no strength to come to God.  We have no wisdom to know the way.

We are not saved by our wisdom or good works but by a God who has revealed His saving love through Jesus Christ.  It appears to be a foolish thing for God to sacrifice His Son for sinners.  But what wisdom!  For on the cross, God punished His Son in our place for our sins, so that He freely forgives us while at the same time remaining just since our guilt has been punished in Christ.

Christ crucified.  It appears like such a weak thing.  But what amazing power and strength!  For by the cross, Jesus crushed satan’s head, freed us from sin’s captivity, and broke the chains of death.  Christ crucified may appear weak and foolish, but God reveals the reality to us.  For in Christ crucified is the strength and wisdom to get the most out of life, to find happiness and fairness, to find peace to cope with pain and suffering, and the confidence to face anything this life throws at us – knowing that through the cross of Christ we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation!

“This is My body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of Me…This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

Luke 22:19-20

Martin Luther once said that if we were handing out gold coins at the altar, the balcony would collapse under the weight of those who would be waiting in line.  But on this Maundy Thursday, we celebrate the truth that the Lord’s Supper is a far greater treasure.  In this holy meal we have the body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – given and shed for the forgiveness of our sin.

At the Lord’s Table, Jesus offers us what the Lutheran Confessions call a visible Gospel.  The Lord attaches His Words of promise to the eating and drinking of His body and blood – in, with, and under the bread and wine.  God’s promise, “given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins,” fills our ears and moves our hearts to faith.  His grace touches our lips.  We, quite literally, “taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Even our sense of smell is permeated with His divine assurance.

As Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me”, He is commanding us to remember grace, to trust forgiveness and to stay in His love.  We remember that the grace of God is a free gift – just as God gave His one and only Son as the atoning sacrifice to set us free from sin.

What a great blessing we have been given through the Lord’s Supper!  In the midst of the struggles we face each day in life, God comes to us in Word and Sacrament.  That is our hope in the midst of everything we face – knowing that Christ is with us and for us.  Forgiveness, the strengthening of faith, the certainty of heaven, the empowering for new living, being joined with the living Christ – that is real hope!

God’s blessings to you this Holy Week!

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:10-11

People spend a lot of time talking about love.  Parents love their children.  Husbands and wives love one another.  Friends love one another in special ways.  Siblings love each other. People love their pets, their sports teams and their favorite foods.  Love, though, is more than just something we think or feel.

God is love – true love.  1 John 4 tells us about this love.  1 John says: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  God is love.  Though we so often have failed to love each other, God never fails to love.  God’s greatest act of love is His Son Jesus Christ.  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  God so loved you that He sent Jesus to die for you and me.  And Jesus died because of our lack of love. Jesus willingly died in the place of sinners, sinners like me and you. And Jesus rose from the dead on the third day to win the victory over sin, death, and the devil.

God is love.  That love is shown to us and given to us in the person and work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This Holy Week we focus on the last days of our Lord’s life and the great lengths He went to make us His – now and for all eternity.  Jesus suffered, died, and rose again – all out of His great love for us!  Now that’s true love!

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24

As we approach Holy Week, we focus on the last days of our Lord’s life.  This Sunday, we will see our King come in true humility, riding on a donkey, as we celebrate Palm Sunday.  That humility will continue on to Maundy Thursday, where we will see Jesus washing the feet of His disciples – the task of a slave.  In humility, Christ accepted the fact that He would be betrayed, arrested, beaten, and crucified – all for the sins of the entire world.

Christ Himself bore our sins, because only He could pay the penalty that our sin deserves.  Christ was the perfect sacrifice – the Lamb of God.  As Jesus hung from the cross, the wood that our Lord was nailed to became more than just an ordinary cross – it became a life-giving tree for all who believe in Him.

As Christians, we partake of the fruit of this tree every time we go to the Lord’s Supper.  For the fruit of this life-giving tree is nothing other than the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The wounds that were inflicted on Christ have served to heal us – for it is through those wounds that the life-giving blood of Christ was shed on behalf of us and all believers.

May Holy Week and our celebration of Christ’s victory over death on Easter morning – serve to remind us that through the wounds Christ suffered and died from, we are healed.  For just as Christ was raised from the dead, imperishable – we, too, have the promise of eternal life!

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 10:27-28

It has been said that our scars all tell a story.  As Christians we also know that there are scars that tell the greatest story of all!  We look at the scars of our Good Shepherd who holds us in His almighty hands.  Our Good Shepherd refused to let go of us, His sheep, therefore, He faced the vicious attack of the ravenous wolf by Himself.  Satan attacked the Shepherd in hopes to devour and scatter the sheep.  But no one can snatch us out of His scarred hands. 

We bear the mark of the cross on our forehead and heart – the mark of the love of God for us that He would rather send His Son to die on the cross than let go of any one of us.  The cross is a beautiful mark – for it reveals the love of our God who refuses to let go of us – despite the fact that we are sheep, and sheep love to wander, and sometimes we wander into dangerous situations.  St. Paul reminds us in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.  Death can’t, life can’t, principalities and their evil values can’t, nor things present like cancer, trials, nor height, the greatest times, nor depth, even the lowest of depression, nor anything in all creation, can snatch us away.

What greater safety can there be than to know that the Lord takes your hand, and in the power of His saving Name, promises to never let go – when we face cancer, a job loss, problems in relationships, no matter what struggle or in the midst of any great joy – our Good Shepherd firmly grasps us and assures us of our forgiveness, He restores us in His peace, He comforts us with His presence, and He gives us eternal life.  We are safe in the Name of our loving Shepherd, and we have the scars to prove it – and they are on His hands that hold us forever.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. 1 John 5:4

The celebration of All Saints’ Day can be summarized in one word – victory! This is not victory in the worldly sense of winning a game or something like that – but the victory we celebrate is the victory won for us and given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The world sees victory in a different way. In the sports world, one of the most recognizable symbols of victory is the Nike “swoosh”. Nike has made millions of dollars because people want to wear that same “swoosh” that numerous championship athletes wear. In fact, the brand name “Nike” comes from the Greek word “nikos” which means – victory. But of far more importance than any sports victory is the victory spoken of in 1 John 5:4, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world”.

This All Saints’ Day we celebrate the victory that was won for us by Jesus Christ – a victory that has overcome the world and the sin and death that it includes. As we remember our loved ones who have died and are now rejoicing in eternal life – we give thanks to God for the victory he won for them to give them eternal life. We also rejoice in the certain fact that Christ’s victory is our victory – not just when we die, but right now that victory is ours!
As we celebrate All Saints’ Day, let our hearts and minds rejoice along with all the saints on earth and in heaven as we remember the victory that is ours through Jesus Christ!