Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Isaiah 40,26-31. Quasimodogeniti

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Isaiah 40,26-31 2614

Quasimodogeniti 036

Anastasius, Bishop of Rome, ✠ 401

27. April 2014

1. O Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer 136).

2. »Therefore, Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because He is strong in power not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: „My way is hidden from Yahweh, and my right is disregarded by my God“? Have you not known? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths faint and are weary, and young men fall exhausted; but they who wait for Yahweh renew their strength; they mount up with wings like eagles; they run and are not weary; they walk and do not faint.«

3. When Jesus had risen from the dead, His reception was met with skepticism by His apostles and disciples. The women initially left His empty tomb in fear. Peter and John then went to the empty tomb, but they did not understand what it truly meant. Today we heard in our Gospel Lection how Thomas refused to believe the testimony of his fellow apostles. The days surrounding Easter Sunday were muddied with unbelief.

4. Comforting, then, are the words of the Prophet Isaiah: »Yahweh gives power to the faint and increases strength to him who has no might. They who wait for Yahweh renew their strength; they mount up with wings like eagles; they run and are not weary; they walk and do not faint.« A pity Thomas did not remember those words when he heard the testimony from his fellow apostles: We have seen and touched the risen Christ! We discover, however, in the Holy Scriptures that seeing the risen Jesus is accompanied with hearing the Word of God, and with this combination the Holy Spirit creates faith. Consider the disciples who conversed with Jesus on their way to Emmaus on Easter afternoon. Only after He had taught them from the Scriptures that »it was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory« (Luke 24,26) that they saw Jesus for who He truly is, for when He broke bread with them they realized they were in the presence of their rabbi and friend, Jesus. So it goes also with Thomas who believes after seeing and hearing the risen Christ with his own eyes and ears.

5. We are 2000 years away from the first Easter. Jesus has ascended and His post-Easter appearances has essentially ceased. For this reason John writes his Gospel 60 years after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. He gives us these comforting words spoken first to Thomas but practical for all who would hear the preaching of the apostles: »Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed« (John 20,29). You are among the 2.2 billion Christians around the world (of 7.2 billion) today who have not seen the risen Jesus and yet you believe in that risen Jesus.

6. So why do you believe in the risen Jesus? Let me give two apologetic pieces of evidence for you to consider: 1. The New Testament witnesses do not bear the stamp of dupes or deceivers, and 2. A saving knowledge of Christ crucified and risen is not the mere result of right reasoning about historical facts (Piper).

7. The apostles and evangelists are rational, honest men who report the teachings and miracles as ones who were eyewitnesses to the actual events in Jesus’ life or disciples of those apostles who had heard their teachings. They do not portray themselves as paragons of virtue or stalwart followers of Jesus. They present their faults and misunderstandings of Jesus for all the world to read. Furthermore, they do not de-emphasize Jesus’ humanity nor over-emphasize His Divinity. They tell how Jesus was tempted, wept and struggled with His impending crucifixion, and they also speak of His great miracles and teachings from the Scriptures. Luke begins His Gospel by saying: »it seemed good to me, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account so that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught« (Luke 1,3-4). Therefore, the apostles and evangelists were not men prone to hysteria, deception or over exaggeration. They were men who preached what they had seen and heard from Jesus, and they backed up such preaching with historical facts. Case in point: Jesus was missing from the tomb on Easter. What accounts for this? Someone could have stolen the body. The disciples could have gone to the wrong tomb. They might be deluded or irrational. Such theories were claimed in the days following Easter, but the problem was: if such things are true, then produce Jesus’ corpse. The way to stop the apostles in their tracks is to prove their preaching false by hauling out Jesus’ dead body. Try as they might, neither the Jews nor the Romans could produce the dead body of Jesus, and therefore the preaching of the risen Christ was proved to be the most reasonable, if unfathomable, explanation for the empty tomb on Easter.

8. Historical facts, like the empty tomb on Easter, and proper reasoning of these facts do not result in faith in the crucified and risen Christ. The Holy Spirit uses these facts preached and proclaimed by apostles, evangelists, bishops and ministers, and He creates faith. The Apostle Paul teaches that: »Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ« (Romans 10,17). This word of Christ is the account of the 66 books of the Bible, codified in the Three Creeds and preached from the Church’ pulpits. Baptism and Communion also create and strengthen faith in the risen Christ. The Holy Spirit uses these means of grace to create faith. Jesus said: »The Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you« (John 16,13- 14). And again, Paul declares: »If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Icon of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said: »Let light shine out of darkness,« has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ« (2. Corinthians 4,3-6).

9. Thomas heard the Easter gospel, saw the risen Christ and believed. The Holy Spirit created faith from unbelief, using the words of God and the Word of God made flesh to make Thomas a confessing Christian. The Holy Spirit has done the same to and for you through the Word and the Sacraments. He gives strength to the weary and life to the dying so that »the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus« (Philippians 4,7), for „Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining; have mercy, Victor King, Ever reigning! Amen. Alleluia!“ (Wipo). Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd, send forth the Holy Spirit to our church and in our lives so that we know we are Your sheep and follow You in both faith and sanctified living. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Isaiah 40,26-31. Quasimodogeniti

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