Lent 2
Last Sunday’s Gospel brought us to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry as we once again heard of His baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptizer. We then heard St. Mark’s brief account of the devil’s tempting Jesus: The Spirit immediately sent Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan. St. Mark then ends his account with the rather comforting lines: He was with the wild animals, and angels were serving Him. Last week, we saw with Jesus being with the beasts an image of the Messianic age [Is. 11.6] –a picture of perfect peace; and we saw fulfillment of the prophecy [Is 43.16-20] of the beasts “honoring” Jesus for who He is and what He is doing: that He is bringing about the new exodus from slavery to sin, death, devil and hell. But the Holy Spirit, through the holy Evangelists, gives us a full picture as He has St. Luke ending his account of the temptation this way [Lk 3.13]: Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. Notice this ominous ending—the temptations were not yet done; it wasn’t just for the 40 days that Jesus was tempted and after that He didn’t have to worry about it anymore; but instead the devil continued to tempt Jesus throughout His ministry. It wasn't as if the devil had failed to get Jesus to sin and so he gave up.
There here is also a lesson for us. Just because by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us we may successfully resist the devil’s temptation to sin, that doesn’t mean that he will leave us alone, that we can rest on our laurels. Instead St. Peter, tells us [I 5.8]: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
In today’s Gospel, we have an account of that opportune time that the devil seized:
Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the Law; be killed; and after three days rise again. He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But after turning around and looking at His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”
The temptation? To listen to Peter who tried to correct Jesus, saying that these things—rejection and being killed—would never happen to Him. Here the devil used Peter as his instrument; here the devil drove Peter to speak as he did. But Jesus recognized the devil’s working, the temptation—just as He did before because this was really the same temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness—to get the kingdom and glory but without the suffering, without the cross. Thanks be to Jesus that He faithfully, willingly and obediently went down that path of suffering and death for us and our salvation. And the very proof that Jesus went down that path to bring us salvation and was successful, never once sinning, was the fact of His Easter morning resurrection.
Today’s Gospel brings us toward the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. As Jesus’ time with the apostles was drawing to a close, He, as it were, was asking them what they had learned being with Him. Jesus went away with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.” “But who do you say I am?” He asked them. Peter answered Him, “You are the Christ.” Here we come to a vital point—we ourselves have heard of Jesus; we have heard of His life and His work; we have heard His teaching; we have been baptized—in other words we have met Jesus and have been with Him—and we have heard His claims of who He said He is, claims backed up by His miracles, claims backed up by His resurrection from the dead. Each of us must hear and answer Jesus’ question: But who do you say I am? And if we have been with Jesus and encountered Him in word and Sacrament and answered the question like Peter did “You are the Christ”, how can we/ our lives ever be the same? And that’s the point! After Jesus, our lives can never be the same. If our lives don’t reflect that we have met Jesus—the very God Himself and our Savior—even though we may make the claim, then we don’t know Him or don’t want to know Him; then we are, as He says later in the Gospel: ashamed of [Him] and [His] words in this adulterous and sinful generation and He, then, will also be ashamed of [us] when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. This is something vital for us to reflect on especially now during this Lenten season—am I still the same even after meeting Jesus.
The thing is—Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is a Person. It’s all about Jesus who He is and what He has done for us and now gives us fully and freely in His word and sacrament. At its heart and core Christianity is not “3 steps for this” or “5 steps toward that”—no matter how valuable and worthwhile the outcome may be. These may be very popular themes among many preachers. But when it all comes down to it, Christianity at its heart and core is Jesus—His person and work. “But who do you say I am?” He asked them. Peter answered Him, “You are the Christ.” And notice how Jesus draws this confession out of the disciples with St. Peter as their spokesman: On the way He asked the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.” Jesus gets the disciples to list all the false notions of who He is. The people who thought that Jesus was John the Baptizer come back to life, or Elijah who had returned, or one of the prophets—either one who had come back to life or another in the long line of prophets going back to the OT—they all had pious notions of Jesus but they were wrong. And, in fact these false notions were very dangerous. That’s why at that time Jesus warned [the disciples] not to tell anyone about Him. With all these false ideas floating around about who Jesus is, who the Christ is, people would be encouraged in their false Messianic hopes; Jesus does not want the disciples indulging the people in all kinds of their carnal hopes. The people heard, picked up things about Jesus and they fit Jesus into their ideas/ notions. But they never really “met” Jesus. That’s the same problem we have today—especially in our nation that still has vestiges of Christianity that people pick up and mix with their own notions. Most people today, like in Jesus’ day then, have heard about Jesus but have no idea who He really is; they never met Him.
Dear Christian, how blessed we are—we have met Jesus; we have encountered Him at Baptism, in the word and in the Holy Supper. By the work of the Holy Spirit we in faith say along with St. Peter and the rest: “You are the Christ.” But what does Jesus do after hearing the disciples’ beautiful confession of faith? Does He say “good” and then send them on their way? No! Jesus began teaching them more about Himself; He brought them further and deeper into the faith and into the truth. Our text: Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the Law; be killed; and after three days rise again. He was speaking plainly to them. Jesus was telling them more and more about Himself and the work that He would do. Even here, although they knew Jesus rightly, “You are the Christ”, they still had false notions; they still had to be taught. Of course, the same applies to us! Yes, we as Christians know Jesus rightly and confess Him, “You are the Christ”, but we still need to be taught and to grow in the faith. We can be true believers at heart but still have misunderstandings about the holy Christian faith. That’s why we are always striving to grow in that faith and knowledge. That’s the wonderful thing—after meeting Jesus and coming to know Him, we can never be the same but want/ earnestly desire to grow in that faith and knowledge. A true knowing of Jesus is never satisfied with a few facts about Him. That is at best being lukewarm. When we come to know Jesus rightly we are never the same because we love Him and want to know more about Him and to grow in our knowledge and love. When we meet Jesus, we will never be the same but we will desire the most intimate communion with Him—in the Holy Supper as we unite with Him who bodily/ physically comes to us in the bread and wine.
Once we truly meet Jesus we are never the same because what is important to us changes. Our text: [Jesus] called the crowd and His disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. Look at how different the life of a Christian is from the world around us—different because we met Jesus and our lives will never be the same! We deny ourselves—that is, we ourselves are not the object of our life and actions. We live our lives not to please ourselves, and in particular our old sinful nature that wants to serve self and sin. Our lives do not revolve around us but around our Lord and His will; it revolves around love of Him and love of our neighbor. And this denying ourselves is a busy, active love and life. What does Jesus say here? – let him take up His cross. Take up! It’s active! We take it up! We want to deny ourselves; we want to deny our old sinful nature—say no to its desires and wants because we met Jesus and are different. We want to do the Lord’s will and deny/ put to death/ kill/ crucify anything in us that would get in the way of us following Him—ultimately to heaven. We deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus because the Holy Spirit is mightily at work in our lives. We meet Jesus in His word and sacrament and He gives us the Holy Spirit to lead and empower us in this life of holiness! That’s why our lives are different—because the Holy Spirit is at work in us. By the power of the Holy Spirit we leave behind what everyone else thinks and wants—the prevailing standards—in order to be on that path of self-denial, path of fighting against sin and following Jesus.
Our text: After all, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? When we come to know Jesus, our lives will never be the same because the most important thing for us is our soul—and a glorious eternity in heaven soul and body with the saints and the holy angels in the presence of and beholding the Holy Triune God. That’s our goal. Everything in this life must serve this purpose; we judge what is vital and what isn’t by how it affects our walk and path to heaven following Christ! Our greatest joy is Jesus our Savior whom we have come to know! He has given us life and salvation; He has reconciled us sinners to God. We serve Him and show our faith in works of self-denial—all out of love and in thanksgiving to Him.
This Lent, may we truly examine heart and life and conscience: we have met Jesus—are we truly different? If we see that we are not much different than the unbelieving world around us; if we see that we try to make Jesus “agree” with us and fit our notions; if we feel no real desire to know Jesus better and more and more intimately, may we recognize that maybe we really haven’t come to know Jesus rightly and taken Him and His word to heart. Let us use this time of Lent to reflect and then to run to our gracious Lord Jesus seeking His mercy. And meeting Jesus as He forgives us our sin in the holy Absolution and Gospel, may our hearts then be so full of joy and love of Him that we want to grow in our faith and love and knowledge of Him. And always growing in that, our lives will never be the same as we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. INJ Amen.