1 Corinthians 10:1-3, Colossians 1:13

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Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! It is the joyful Easter season right now in the church, and it’s such a wonderful time. I remember as a kid just going into church early on Easter morning and smelling those Easter lilies and that fresh baked bread and muffins and that Easter breakfast that was cooking in the oven. What a wonderful, joyous, celebratory feast that Easter can be for us as Christians, as we rejoice in everything that Jesus our Savior did for us.

Interesting family tradition we always had at Easter time was the old movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston was always on TV and we would watch that. And I always remember that it was a striking movie, right? And it tells the story of the Exodus, God’s people, the children of Israel, how they were able to be delivered from slavery in Egypt. He led them out by a mighty hand. The ten plagues that he worked to get Pharaoh to let his people go. And then they went, traveled out of Egypt and God led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. What a miracle. And you always remember that image of Moses standing there with the waters being separated. This is a beautiful picture for us as Christians of our baptism. Saint Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter ten he writes,

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea [The Red Sea], and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food. (1 Corinthians 10:1-3)

The children of Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and this was a picture of their liberation from slavery to Pharaoh. For us in baptism, we are set free from a very real Pharaoh. That Pharaoh is the devil, Satan. He was the one who once held us in slavery to sin and fear. And he made us do the works of iniquity, and we were pushed around by him and abused by him. But then our Savior Jesus came to set us free. Jesus is the greater Moses who showed up on the scene and delivered us from the devil. And he did this by his death on the cross, where he paid for all of our sins. He took the punishment for our sins upon himself, and he ransomed us and paid the ransom price for us so that we might be free, so that we would be set free from the devil’s dominion of darkness. As Saint Paul tells us in Colossians one,

For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son. (Colossians 1:13)

And so we pass through the waters of Holy Baptism. We’ve been set free from that old Pharaoh, Satan. We’ve been set free from our sins and from death. And now we journey together as Christians on our way to our promised land, and we journey through the desert wilderness that is this world. We know this place isn’t our permanent residence. We pitch our tents here for a while, for a time in this life. But we’re journeying together toward our promised land, the promised land of heaven, God’s heavenly kingdom, where Jesus is leading us to as his dear followers.

So we follow him through this life, and he provides for us on the way. He feeds us even with bread from heaven, with manna from heaven. We think about in Holy Communion, where we receive his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We’re journeying together and Jesus is leading us, and one day we’ll pass into our promised land. We’ll cross over the waters of death, and there be with our God forever and joy and in peace. And what a comfort this is to us. And what a beautiful picture the Exodus story is of our baptisms. And so we rejoice that Christ has brought us over. We have passed over with our Lord Jesus from death to life. With him we have all things, we are forgiven and we have eternal life. And so all thanks and praise be to Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.

Revelation 2:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21

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Well, it’s that time of year again where there’s a lot of confirmations happening in the Lutheran church, and maybe you’ve even been invited to a confirmation party, for a family member or friend from church. And it’s a wonderful time for our young people to be able to say that the faith of their baptism, the baptism that they had when they were a baby, is their faith. They can profess and confess that before the church and before the world, that it’s their faith. And they promise even to be faithful to their Christian faith and to their Lord Jesus till death. It’s quite a promise.

Typical Bible verse that we often hear in conjunction with confirmation is Revelation chapter two, verse ten. And there Jesus, the risen and ascended Lord, speaks to, John and the revelation. He says to his Christians,

Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10 EHV)

And we think about what a beautiful promise that is from our Lord Jesus. We don’t deserve the crown of life. Not one of us deserves to go to heaven. We’re all of us sinners. If anything, we deserve the crown of shame, not the crown of life. So how is it that we will receive the crown of life by faith in God’s heavenly kingdom one day?

Well, for that, for the answer to that question, we have to think back to what kind of crown Jesus wore while he was on this earth. And we think about that crown and we’re reminded as he was put on trial, as he was suffering and nailed to the cross, Jesus was forced to wear the crown of thorns, the crown of our shame. We’re reminded right after Adam and Eve sinned at the beginning of time, our first parents, when they sinned, part of the curse of sin, Adam would have to deal with thorns and thistles that the earth would bring forth for him. That he’d have to work hard by the sweat of his brow to be able to provide for his family. That was part of the curse of sin. And so when we see Jesus wearing the crown of thorns for us, we can see that as a beautiful picture of the fact that Jesus bore our sins for us, that the sins of the whole world were heaped upon Jesus. Jesus was made to be the king of sinners for us, so that he might save us and make us his holy people.

Saint Paul tells us that

God made him [Jesus], who did not know sin, to become sin for us, (2 Corinthians 5:21 EHV)

Jesus didn’t have any of his own sins. He was perfect in every way. And yet your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world were heaped upon him. And there on the cross Jesus paid for, atoned for every one of those sins, so that you and I can be confident that we are forgiven, that we’re loved by God, that God sees us as his dear sons and daughters through faith. And of course, at confirmation, we’re reminded how we really are God’s sons and daughters, that he’s made us his own in the waters of Holy Baptism.

And so we think about that crown of life, then, that the Lord Jesus will give to us in heaven one day. How unworthy we are of that crown. What amazing love our Savior Jesus has for us, that he wore the crown of shame for us so that we might wear the crown of life. All glory be to Jesus. Amen.

John 14:1-3

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The text for today’s devotion comes to us from the Gospel of John, chapter 14. Jesus says to his disciples,

“Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3)

My grandpa was a carpenter, and my dad is really good at woodworking and unfortunately I didn’t inherit any of their skills. But it was always really fun growing up watching them work on different projects. Sometimes they even teamed up and worked on projects together.

Tradition tells us that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, was a carpenter by trade and that Jesus might have learned that trade growing up being around Joseph. And that’s certainly possible. I always like to think of that as I read these words of Jesus, where Jesus talks about building a mansion for us in his heavenly kingdom and in His Father’s place. In heaven where the father is. And what a great and joyous, wonderful promise from Jesus to his believers that one day we’re going to live with him in the mansions of heaven. We can think of the fact that there’s a mansion with our name on it, written in gold, all because of Jesus and what he has done for us, and that it’s waiting there for us one day.

It’s a great comfort for us, and it’s especially wonderful to think about because as sinners by nature, we are spiritually homeless. We think back to our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they lived in the Garden of Eden, in perfection with God in that blessed place. And what happened to them on account of their sin, they were kicked out and they became spiritually homeless, right? They were kicked out of the Paradise garden that they lived in.

And through Jesus, we have promise from God that we will one day live in a new kind of Eden, restored a perfect, beautiful, heavenly kingdom with God, our Heavenly Father. And this brings us so much joy. We don’t deserve it as sinners. And yet it is Jesus promise to us that we’ll be there one day with him, and will be where he is.

That’s the greatest joy of heaven as Christians, is that we’ll get to be with God in His presence forever. What joy! We’re also reminded too then, that as we go about our lives in this world, in this temporary earthly home that we live in, we’re to give thanks to God for all that we have in our life. We can give thanks to him for the home that we have to live in, the house that we have to live in, we think about, especially during this winter time. We so often take it for granted that we have a warm place to live in, and so we should be willing to help others who are in less fortunate circumstances than we are.

And we ought to help out with those who are homeless, who maybe don’t have a place of their own. Maybe we can help out by volunteering at a local homeless shelter, by making meals, or if we’re financially blessed to give money towards good causes like that, so that other people may have a physical place to live in in this world. And also we should share with them the gospel, the good news of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus, so that they too may no longer be spiritually homeless, but have a home with the father, even as we do, to have that promise of the mansion in heaven waiting for them too one day.

And this is our joy together as Christians, then, that we’re no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with God in the household of God. And we will live with our God forever and ever. What joy and peace in Jesus, the one who has built a future for us, the one who is building a mansion for us and our hearts look forward to that day when we will be with him there forever. Amen.

Luke 13:1-5

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Today’s devotion comes to us from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13. We read as follows in Jesus name.

At that time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. He answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse sinners than all the people living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too.” (Luke 13:1-5 EHV)

Jesus was discussing some of the current events with the crowd. Current events of the day with the crowd when he was talking with them. And I got some bad news for you, back then, the news was not any better than it is nowadays. We hear of a couple horrible tragedies that occurred. First of all, there were the poor Galileans who Pilate had executed in the temple. And then there was also an event where a tower fell by Siloam and killed a whole bunch of people in Jerusalem. And Jesus then is discussing these events with the crowd, and some of the people in the crowd maybe have it in their mind that because those people suffered in the way they did, that they must have been worse sinners.

And Jesus can read their mind that they’re thinking that way. And so Jesus wants to correct that wrong way of thinking about things. Maybe sometimes we’re tempted to think that way, too. We might think that we deserve better than other people because we’re upstanding people. Sometimes we feel a little bit entitled to the things that we have in this life, and we maybe even think that we deserve to go to heaven. But Jesus reminds us that we must all, all of us, repent. Jesus says that unless you repent, you will all perish too. As sinners, we don’t deserve anything good from God. We, all of us, really are deserving of death and hell. That’s what the Bible tells us in Romans, Saint Paul tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we are all deserving of God’s wrath.

And so we dare not put any confidence in ourselves and think that because we’re decent people, that we deserve good things from God and Jesus is correcting that wrong way of thinking here. Jesus, not too long after this, is going to go to the cross. And as he goes to the cross, he’s going to bear all of our sins, carry all of our sins upon himself, and he’s going to go to the cross, and he’ll suffer and die to atone and take away all of our sins and not just ours. But he’s going to pay for the sins of the whole world so that forgiveness might be available to all people.

And that’s the beautiful gospel message, the beautiful, unexpected surprise, if you will. None of us deserve anything good from God. And yet God forgives us in love through Jesus, His son and what Jesus has done for us.

And then today we think about how it’s Ash Wednesday in the Christian church. Ash Wednesday is a day for repentance, for admitting our sins to God. And so, yes, we repent. We admit our sinfulness before God, but then we receive Jesus wonderful forgiveness, the forgiveness that flows to us from the cross and from what he did for us. And even as we do repent in ashes and dust, we look forward to the day when we will shine forever with Jesus and his heavenly kingdom. Amen.