Easter 4—Cantate
Dear friends in Christ. This Sunday is named “Cantate” which is the Latin word for the command “Sing!” and comes to us from the first word of the Introit from Psalm 98: Sing to the Lord a new song. And why? For He has done marvelous things. And what are those marvelous things? The psalmist continues: His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has openly shown in the sight of the nations. There is always more than enough cause to sing to the Lord in joy—even when we are in greatest sorrow and anguish. The psalmist here lifts up our eyes from our present situation, from any troubles and hardships we are in the midst of that would put a damper on our joy, and points us to the Lord and His victory, to His salvation. In other words, we are directed in our times of sorrow and hardship to Easter. Easter puts everything into the proper light and perspective. There we see that when Jesus was raised from the dead, our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell all lay defeated: His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. With Jesus standing victorious over our spiritual enemies, with the stone rolled away from the tomb’s entrance to show it was empty, the Lord has made known His salvation.
When Jesus went to the cross, the sins of the world were laid on Him the holy, sinless God-man; and He endured God’s righteous wrath and punishment. But when He was raised from the dead, that was the Father’s pronouncement on the world, its absolution: Forgiven! The holy and righteous God punished the sins of all in Christ; and now He credits us with Jesus’ holiness and righteousness: His righteousness He has openly shown in the sight of the nations. Easter is not just a once a year thing, but it gives form and focus to our everyday lives—especially as we are in times of struggle and trial. At all times, even, and especially, in times of most severe hardship we can Sing to the Lord a new song because looking back on Easter we see who we are in Christ—God’s dear redeemed children; we see that in Christ we are reconciled to God who is working all things for our spiritual and eternal good; we see that heaven is open to us; we see things from a heavenly and eternal perspective because the Lord has made known to us His salvation.
1. How did the Lord make known His salvation? How did we come to know of and receive the blessings and benefits of Easter? How did we become His dear Christians? That’s what St. James writes in our text: Of His own will He gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we are a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Dear Christian, it is not by our work, strivings, efforts, merits, worthiness that we are Christians and have a new spiritual life, that we received the blessings and benefits of Easter. Instead, we have been born again, born from above! It’s that new birth, that new spiritual life that we have that allows us—even in times of trial—to Sing to the Lord a new song.
The foundation of our new birth, why we can even have this new birth to begin with, is all grounded on the work of Jesus. Our text: Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Jesus is that good and excellent Gift. The words that St. James here uses to describe the Gift, good and perfect, are both qualities, characteristics of God. What, for example, does Jesus say [Matthew 19:17]? No one is good but One, that is, God. What about that gift? It is from above, that is, Jesus is true God but what does He do? He comes down from heaven precisely to be our Savior. Jesus tells us [John 3:13]: No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. What our text so beautifully teaches us is that Jesus is the Good Gift; it teaches us that the Father gave His Son to become also true man and so come from heaven and to be born for us. And why? So that we might receive heavenly gifts and blessings; that we might have a second birth, a new birth; that He gave birth to us by the word of truth.
Left to ourselves and our first, our natural birth, that would lead only to death. It would begin with us being born slaves to sin, devil and death. It would be a life marked by both ignorance of and hatred of the one true God. It would be a life that would lead us finally to an eternity in hell. That’s why we need that second birth, that birth from above, that He [give] birth to us by the word of truth.
s punishment and wrath over them in our place and reconcile us sinners to Him. He came down from heaven as the Perfect/ Complete Gift, and offered that perfect/ complete sacrifice for our sin on the cross as He said [John 19:30]: It is finished that Good Gift and that Perfect Gift is the foundation, the reason why we can have a new birth, that God gave birth to us by the word of truth.
t because He had to; it was by His grace, not our merit. St. John writes in His Gospel about the Christians that we [John 1:13]: were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Here is the solid foundation of our new birth: because God willed/ desired our salvation/ our new birth, He sent His Son to become true man and to live a sinless life for us and to suffer and die for our sins.
But how do we receive the blessings and benefits of Jesus, that Good and Perfect Gift? How does that new birth, that second birth, that birth from above come about in us? Of His own will He gave birth to us by the word of truth. The word of truth is the greatest blessing. Here, when we think of the word of truth, let us think of the word in its fullest expression—not just the word that we heard or read, but also including the visible word, the Holy Sacraments, in particular Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism receives its power from the word. Luther reminds us: Without the word of God it is plain water and no baptism but with the word of God it is a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit. Because Baptism receives its power from the word, it works faith.
Jesus told Nicodemus: Unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the kingdom of God [John 3:3,5]. By baptism we become children of God by grace. What a glorious, certain foundation our new birth has: the merciful will of God took us, by the means of grace—the word and sacrament—out of our natural sinful life and worked in us, placed in us, a new divine life. He could do this because of Jesus and His work for us—His life, suffering and death. Of His own will He gave birth to us by the word of truth. So by word and baptism, there is the beginning of our Christianity! By baptism we are begotten and brought into God’s holy family, the Church.
2. Now that God has given birth to us by the word we, dear Christian, are a kind of firstfruits of His creation. The first fruits, the first of the harvest in the Old Testament times, were set aside and presented to the Lord as an offering. Here the Christian, the one who received that new life, that new birth, by the word of truth is called a kind of firstfruits of His creation. By virtue of our new life, by virtue of the fact that we have had a second birth, a birth from above, we have been set apart from the rest of the sinful world, from the rest of lost, condemned humanity. What a great grace of God that none of us can fully understand or thank God for enough!
Christians. What does that mean, according to St. James in our text: Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls 21].that is, recognizing and being sorry for sin we have committed. Putting sin away is both fighting against it and seeking forgiveness for where we have sinned. When we put away sin, we confess it and receive from Christ both that perfect forgiveness for that sin we have committed and that perfect righteousness/ that perfect keeping of the law that Christ brought about for us. What is this daily putting away, but the daily return to our new birth, to our baptism; daily going back to that baptismal font and reclaiming that forgiveness and righteousness Jesus gave us in baptism?
Therefore all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Our new birth daily shows itself in the humility of faith. Faith, on the one hand, is a very bold active thing in putting away, as it fights against temptation and sin and strives to do the will of the Lord, and as it goes to the Lord in confession; but on the other hand, it is a very meek and humble thing: it doesn’t rely on self and works; it claims no holiness or righteousness of its own. Faith simply receives the word—the word of forgiveness in the Gospel, the pronouncement of forgiveness in the absolution, the forgiveness and holiness given in baptism and the Holy Supper. In other words, as faith receives with meekness the implanted word, it is not doing anything new or exciting; it is simply receiving again what it already has/ possesses—the forgiveness of sin and the holiness of Christ; it simply clothes itself once again with Christ and His righteousness. The word and the blessings of forgiveness and eternal life were given to us by God when He gave birth to us by the word/ baptism. In the meekness and humility of faith we simply receive and take advantage of what we already have, what God has given to us.
Our new birth, dear Christian, by God through His word is the greatest blessing. Its foundation in Jesus’ coming and work for our salvation and given to us in baptism. It has continual effectiveness in our daily lives—especially in times of sorrow—so that at all times, in our new birth, we can always sing to the Lord a new song. INJ Amen