✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Psalm 98,1b-2.4-6; 98,1a 2917
Kantate (4. Sonntag nach Ostern) 039 weiß
Pachomius, Abbot in upper Thebais, Egypt ✠ 348
14. Mai 2017
1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who did through Your Son promise us Your Holy Spirit, so that He should convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment: We beseech You, enlighten our hearts, so that we may confess our sins, through faith in Christ obtain everlasting righteousness and in all our trials and temptations retain this consolation, so that Christ is Lord over the devil and death, and all things, that He will graciously deliver us out of all our afflictions and make us forever partakers of eternal salvation, through the same, Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for Cantate).
2. O sing to the Lord a new song, Hallelujah, for He has done marvelous things! Hallelujah! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
3. Cantate is Latin for sing, and our Introit exhorts us to sing a new song for the Lord has done marvelous things. His most marvelous thing is His Easter Resurrection. Many powerful and rich hymns are based on the events of Easter.
4. The Introit exclaims: »The Lord’s right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.« This is how the Gospels begin their story of Jesus. Matthew begins with Jesus’ genealogy tracing His ancestors from Abraham through to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mark begins with John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Luke begins with the accounts of John and Jesus’ births. John begins by telling us that in the beginning was the Word, this Word was God and that Jesus is this very Word and God. Each Gospel begins with its unique prologue showing that Jesus is bringing to us the promised salvation of God the Father. Mary the mother of Jesus sings the Magnificat (Luke 1,46-53). Zechariah the father of John prophesies the Benedictus (Luke 1,68-79). Both are proclamations of rejoicing in the salvation Jesus brings to our fallen world.
5. This salvation play out in an odd way. The Gospels tell us that, in general, the Jewish crowds are receptive of Jesus and believe He is sent from God the Father; even Greeks and Romans behold Him as a mighty teacher. Most of the Jewish religious and political leaders, with a few exceptions, are critical of Jesus and accuse Him of either being a lunatic or a liar. Jesus explains the disrespect and disdain He receives from His own people: »But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children seated in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates: „We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.“ For John arrived neither eating nor drinking, and they say: „He has a demon.“ The Son of Man arrived eating and drinking, and they say: „Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!“ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds« (Matthew 11,16-19). Even worse, there were some who heard Him preach but refused to repent. Jesus excoriates them, saying: »I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you« (Matthew 11,24). Our generation and culture are no better and no different from that of Jesus’ day.
6. In our Cantate Gospel lection, Jesus informs us that His Father has hidden the truth of salvation that no one truly knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him from the wise and intelligent, but has instead revealed these things to those who are like immature or little children (Matthew 11,25.27). Jesus’s biggest critics were the scribes and priests; the Pharisees concerned themselves with the Scriptures, the laws and the traditions of the elders, while the Sadducees concerned themselves with the animal sacrifices and the Jewish rituals. The scribes and the rabbis had the synagogues in the towns up and down Palestine; the Levites and priests had the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus preached and taught in the synagogues and the temple courtyard where at times He was challenged by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These were the wise and intelligent men in Jewish society for they were the teachers and priests of Judaism. They thought the law and salvation were unchangeable precepts, but Jesus taught such things were pedagogues and guardians established to guide and prepare the people for the messianic fulfillment to arrive in the Son of God. The Apostle Paul, himself a prominent Pharisee, understood what Jesus’ arrival meant; he told the Galatian Christians in his epistle: »The law was our guardian until Christ arrived in order that we might be justified by faith, but now that faith has arrived, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God« (Galatians 3,24-26). The wise and intelligent would not receive such preaching with joy, for it undoes all they had built themselves upon: the meticulous keeping of the law to ear righteousness was dismantled and the solid foundation of animal sacrifices was demolished for righteousness and salvation are given through one man: the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish cross welcomed this because it remove the burden of self-righteousness and made it all about believing in Jesus to be righteous. Greeks and Romans who were burdened with their pantheon (of gods and goddesses) all demanding tribute and praise lest they punish you welcomed Jesus as the Only True God who did not give burdens but removed heavy yokes. Prominent Jews like Nicodemus and Zacchaeus, among others, realized that Jesus is the promised fulfillment that the Mosaic covenant had been preparing them for, namely, the arrival of the Lord’s Christ.
7. Jesus extends His gospel to you: »Draw unto Me, all who have grown weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you relief. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, that I am gentile and meek in heart, and you will find rest for your lives, for My yoke is pleasant and My burden is light« (Matthew 11,28-30). Christ’s yoke is that we are justified by faith in Him; you are God’s child through faith in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age (Galatians 1,3-4). That is the gospel, and the gospel is a burden that is light and easy to bear. This gospel is not earned, but it is freely given.
8. Our sinful flesh is tempted to follow a different gospel, a gospel that has demands added to it. These different gospels promise much, are delivered with persuasive eloquence by teachers who look respectable, but they really distort the gospel and rob Christ of His true glory and honor. Heed the Apostle Paul’s warning: »I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, then let him be condemned. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be damned« (Galatians 1,6-9).
9. The true gospel is that preached by the apostles, written in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament and preached from pulpits that Christ died for you, He has redeemed you and He is risen. Your Baptism connects you to Him and He assures you that your sins are forgiven and eternal life is yours only on account of His death and resurrection. »We are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law« (Galatians 2,16). This gospel is an easy burden to bear. »God has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to us. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God« in Christ Jesus, His Chosen One. »Let us make a joyful noise to the Lord and break forth into joyous song and sing praises« for all that God the Father has done for us through Christ our Lord. Amen.
10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Risen Lord, bless us with the joy of Your gospel so that we sing for joy and proclaim Your goodness throughout all the earth. 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, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
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