Psalm 89,20.24.26-28; 1. Chronicles 29,11-12. 2. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 89,20.24.26-28; 1. Chronicles 29,11-12 0917

2. Sonntag nach Epiphanias  015 

✠ The Baptism of Jesus ✠ transferred 

Maurus, Abbot at Glanfeuil, France ✠ 584 

15. Januar 2017 

1. О Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, the God of Israel who alone does wondrous things; as the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills bear righteousness, let us bear Your grace in our Baptism, so that we daily live with the assurance of our adoption and forgiveness.  Amen. (Gradual) 

2. Behold, now the Lord of lords arrives, and the reign, the power and the glory are in His hand. I have found David, My Servant; I have anointed Him with My holy oil, My faithfulness and grace shall be with Him, and in My Name His horn shall be exalted. He will cry to Me: „You are My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation.“ And I will make Him the Firstborn, the Highest of the kings of the earth. I will keep My steadfast love for Him forever, and My covenant will stand firm for Him. 

  3. In today’s Introit the Lord declares: »I have found David, My Servant; I have anointed Him with My holy oil, My faithfulness and grace shall be with Him, and in My Name His horn shall be exalted.« In the Old Testament, the Lord’s prophets anointed the kings of Israel. »Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it upon Saul’s head and said: „The Lord has anointed you to be prince over His people Israel“« (1. Samuel 10,1). Then years later, »Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward« (1. Samuel 16,13). Years later, the Lord promised King David: »Your son, Solomon, shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of His reign forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son« (2. Samuel 7,13-14). The Messiah would descend from David’s royal lineage through Solomon and through this lineage God’s would bless not only Israel but all the nations as well (2. Samuel 7,19; Psalm 72,8-11.17). 

4. The kings of Israel were temporal rulers with Divine appointment. They were sons of God and messiahs. Both Messiah and Christ mean anointed one. They were the chosen ones through whom the promise of the actual Son of God and Messiah would descend. This truly Divine Son of God would establish His throne with justice and with righteousness (Isaiah 9,6-7). 

5. The Introit tells us: »He will cry to Me: „You are My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation.“« David was just such a man. He wrote in the 63. Psalm: »O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You. I will bless You as long as I live; in Your Name I will lift up my hands, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips, for I remember You, and I meditate on You in the watches of the night. You have been my help, and My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.« 

6. But David, like us all, was a sinner. He did some horrible things as king. He did not always trust God or worship Him as he should have. We are in the same predicament as David as we daily fall short of the glory of God. We often use David’s own words when the weight of our sin bears down upon us: »Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise« (Psalm 51,1-4.7.10-12.15). 

7. The Introit continues: »I will make Him the Firstborn, the Highest of the kings of the earth.« While this is certainly true in regards to David and his royal line, it is merely a type of the greater antitype fulfilled by Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes in his Epistle to the Colossians: »Jesus is the Icon of the Invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things« (Colossians 1,15-20). Jesus is King of creation as the Only-begotten Son of God; He is also the King of Israel as a descendant of David. 

8. Finally, the Introit tells us: »I will keep My steadfast love for Him forever, and My covenant will stand firm for Him.« The old testament ratified through Moses at Mt. Sinai was always meant to be temporary; it was meant to prepare the way for the advent of the Messiah. The new testament ratified through Jesus at Mt. Zion is God’s permanent covenant for the world. The old testament was merely a shadow of the good things to come through Jesus in the New Testament (Hebrews 10,1). Thus, Jesus told John at His baptism: »Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all God’s righteousness« (Matthew 3,15). At this event we have John, Prophet of the old testament and Jesus, Messiah of the new testament. The old testament transferred to the new testament, for John said that he must decrease so that Jesus could increase. 

9. The Voice of God the Father declared at Jesus’ baptism: »This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased« (Matthew 3,17). Here God the Father through John the Baptizer publicly anoints Jesus as the Messiah and the Christ. Jesus is publicly inaugurated as the King of Israel and the Son of God through whom all the promises given to the patriarchs and the prophets would be fulfilled. The blessing spoken by Jacob so many centuries earlier was fulfilled at Jesus’ baptism: »The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to Him; and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding His foal to the vine and His donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He has washed His garments in wine and His vesture in the blood of grapes« (Genesis 49,10-11). Thus Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the foal and colt of a donkey. He gives us wine to drink in His Sacrament that is His true blood. He then shed His blood on the cross. In all this Jesus fulfilled the mission of the Christ: to lead His people and give His life as a ransom to redeem all mankind from their sin.  Amen. 

  10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You have done the will of God; pour out Your Good Spirit  upon us so that we may walk upon the level ground of Your Holy Word.   Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 1:1– 11:1. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.