Jesus Has Come, to Show Us True Reality - Sermon for February 16th

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 16^th, A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Jesus Has Come, to Show Us True Reality
Luke 6:17 - 26

 Sermon Audio Available HERE

LSB 533, Stanza 1:  
Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal,
Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End.
Godhead, humanity, union supernal,
O great Redeemer you come as our friend!
Heaven and earth now proclaim this great wonder,
Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. 

   Gospel means Good News.  It doesn't get much more "Gospel-y" than that first stanza of this hymn.  Our hymnwriter,  Johann Ludwig Conrad Allendorf sings of the pure joy found in Jesus Christ, who is the beginning and end of all things.  God become a Man to be our friend.  Eternal pleasure.  Pure Good News. 

   Which is how our reading from Luke starts.  Pure joy, pure Good News, as all the sick and diseased were hurrying to Jesus.  All you had to do was touch Him and be healed, because power was just coming out from Him.  Can you imagine how excited the people were?  Power is flowing from Jesus, diseases are instantly gone, demons are chased away.  Good News.  Pure Gospel. 

   Which of course makes the words Jesus then preaches difficult to take.  Strangely, to us who are used to a world in which every advantage must be taken, every interesting thing must be leveraged for maximum influence and profit, Jesus doesn’t build on His miraculous power.  As He begins to preach, He doesn't celebrate the healing miracles He had performed.  Instead Jesus lifts His eyes to His disciples and paints a much darker picture.  Jesus speaks of joy, found in persecution.  Laughter, in the midst of weeping.  A rich kingdom in the midst of poverty. 

   Which is it going to be, Jesus?  Pure joy, as you bless and heal?  Or pure struggle, as we suffer and face problems?  His actions suggest pure joy, but Jesus' words describe struggle.  In stanza one of our hymn, Johann Ludwig has so far only extolled Jesus for who He is, which is all good.  Is our hymnwriter missing a necessary part of the story?  If he has it wrong, we will have to leave his hymn behind.  We better hear more of the song. 

Stanza 2
Jesus has come!  Now see bonds rent asunder!
Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear.
See him burst through with a voice as of thunder!
He sets us free from our guilt and our fear,
Lifts us from shame to the place of his honor.
Jesus has come!  Hear the roll of God's thunder!

    Still joyful.  But now the hymnwriter introduces conflict.  Victory is clear in this stanza, but it's a victory that entails defeating some truly negative things.  Chains of bondage, rent asunder.  Fetters, or cords, ropes of death, are suddenly dissolved.   Guilt.  Fear.  Shame.  All removed.   Still triumphant, but our hymnwriter introduces our earthly reality.  To be removed, guilt, fear and shame first have to be present in our lives.  Which they are. 

   If all we ever sang was the first stanza of this hymn, we would end up rejecting Jesus, because He is too perfect for us.  His glory and greatness are very different from what we see in our lives.  Sometimes life is great, but too often we face doubt, sorrow and pain. 

   If all we ever heard was how perfect Jesus is, our imperfection would drive us away from Him.  But our hymnwriter doesn't stop at one stanza.  He knows of human troubles.  In stanza two he speaks of our struggles, that are completely overcome by Jesus.  Even as his victory chant continues, Johann Ludwig does acknowledge the reality of our lives, that we are not always conquerors, going from success to success. 

     Jesus speaks of our earthly reality even more soberly.  Life for the disciples, for the Christian, says Jesus, will be difficult.  Poverty, hatred, tears and persecution are all to be expected.  Worse yet, the world appears to fare much better.  The world, suggests our Lord, will have riches, plentiful food, laughter. 

     Yet, says Jesus, to be a poor, hungry weeping disciple is to be blessed.  To be a rich, well-fed, laughing unbeliever is to be cursed.  Jesus turns everything upside down.  All the natural desires we have for our lives here on earth He declares to be curses, if they are apart from discipleship.  The things we naturally fear He declares to be blessings, if they are endured by a believer.  How can this be?  How can we possibly accept what He says?  Jesus is seeing something, is focused on something different than we see.  There's something hidden, a reality we can't easily discern. 

Stanza 3
Jesus has come as the mighty Redeemer. 
See now the threatening strong one disarmed!
Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress,
Brings forth the pris'ners triumphant, unharmed. 
Satan you wicked one, own now your master!
Jesus has come! He the mighty Redeemer!

     Our hymnwriter writes his victory song, because he knows the whole story, the story of how Jesus won the victory.  Johann Ludwig celebrates this victory, and he understands over whom the victory has been won.  We see disease, discrimination, hatred, fear and suffering in the world, and sometimes in our lives.  These are bad, of course, but they are only symptoms of a bigger problem. 

   The true adversary we face is Satan.  His power over us is the reality that Jesus saw with great clarity as he spoke His blessings and woes.  Satan is real, and is our adversary, the strong one who seeks to hold us captive in chains of bondage and fetters of death.  Our accuser who points his finger at our sin and declares our guilt.  The one who raises our fear, and makes us ashamed.  The sin that infects our world, the sin that is also inside each one of us, all of this sin is what gives Satan power, power too great for us to overcome.  This contest is the backdrop to Jesus’ sermon.  To resist Satan in this life is to face sorrow.  To go along with Satan seems to make life easier.  That's the reality of the here and now.   

    Quite naturally, we tend to be most concerned with the here and now.  If we miss a meal, our hunger makes food our #1 priority.  If we get caught outside in sub-zero temperatures, we quickly become concerned, above all else, with finding warmth.  Our minds are typically occupied with our immediate situation.  Yesterday's bills.  Tomorrow's test, at school, or at the clinic.  Next week's work.  Maybe our longest term thinking has to do with next summer's vacation. 

   Some of you, the more farsighted among us, may be able to pat yourselves on the back because you have planned for your future, for retirement, for life as a seasoned citizen.  Your investment counselor applauds you for being farsighted. 

    Well, Jesus does care about your here and now, but His main focus is longer range, much longer.  Jesus looks a lot farther out; His sights are set on forever.  Forever and ever.  Eternity.  As Jesus describes the Christian life in terms of struggle, He speaks soberly of the here and now, of life as a battle between good and evil.  Jesus speaks this way because He knows that eternity will not be spent in a struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.  In eternity it's either one or the other. 

   In eternity God will separate Himself from all evil, from Satan and from all who are under his control.  Those with God will have pure joy, pure Gospel, pure victory, the first stanza of our hymn.  Those with Satan will have pure misery, total condemnation, eternal defeat.  The struggle over eternity happens now; the side you are on in this life determines the side you'll be on forever.   

   The reality Jesus sees and describes is sobering.  But Satan doesn't want you to catch on.  One of Satan's greatest weapons in our 21^st century world is the false but popular idea that he doesn't exist, that evil and sin and punishment are ideas dreamed up by the Church to control people.  Which goes right along with the false teaching that God, if He is good, would never really hold people accountable for the evil they do. 

   Jesus speaks as He does to shatter our illusions about this life, and the next one.  God is good, and heaven will be glorious.  But Satan, sin and death are also real.  God's goodness means that in the end He will not tolerate evil; He will not postpone His judgment forever.  Dealing with the reality that Jesus describes is not easy.  Jesus says it may bring hatred and scorn, it may bring weeping and poverty.  Reality is hard to live with, but living in a false reality is to die.  And not just physically.  Missing the reality Jesus is trying to teach us about will lead us to die spiritually, to be counted in the kingdom of Satan, to be in bondage to the evil one.    

   It's necessary to recognize reality, that’s the starting point.  But our recognition does not change reality.  Knowing that you are a sinner, and cannot free yourself from your sinful condition is true and necessary.  But this knowledge, this confession, does not set you free. 

   Thankfully, Jesus did more than just teach about the reality of sin.  He improved the reality of the here and now for many people, by healing diseases, feeding the hungry and casting out demons.  But that wasn't enough.  We need more.  We can learn to see the reality of our world, but we can't break free from our bondage.  We can be cured of a disease, but the fetters of death are still coming.  We want to reject evil, but we can't even stop ourselves from falling back into sin.  We continually give Satan new ammunition to use to accuse us. 

   Jesus has come. Since this was our condition, Jesus has come and has attacked the real problem.  He disarmed the threatening strong one, our enemy, the Devil.  Jesus broke down the walls of Satan's fortress.  Not with an army, not with any weapons of war.  Jesus defeated death with death, a unique and dreadful death, His own death on a Roman cross.  Jesus freed us from Satan's power by offering Himself in exchange.  A ransom.  Jesus' death in exchange for the death we deserve.  Jesus' suffering in exchange for the suffering we have earned.  

    And Satan took the deal.  He couldn't resist the chance to lash out at God, to inflict pain on the only begotten Son of the Father, to see the Father's judgment fall on Jesus.  Which is how Satan's lost His power.  Jesus is stronger than all the punishment Satan could offer. He received and quenched all the fire of God’s judgment against every sinful man, woman and child of all time.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Because Jesus suffered and died, in our place.

   And, thanks be to God, death could not hold Him.  The fetters of death dissolved, disappeared, on the Third Day.  Jesus rose, forever the victor over death and Satan. 

Stanza 4
Jesus has come as the King of all glory!
Heaven and earth, oh, declare his great pow'r,
Capturing hearts with the heavenly story.
Welcome him now in this fast-fleeting hour!
Ponder his love! Take the crown he has for you!
Jesus has come! He, the King of all glory!

    Jesus came, and brought the truth about reality.  The reality we can't overcome, the reality that sin and misery are naturally part of this world, part of our lives.  We could not escape, we could not overcome.  So Jesus overcame it all, for us.  He conquered sin and death, and brought victory by rising to new life. 

   And now He comes to bring us into His new reality.  As the King of glory, Jesus has the authority to grant a share in His new life to sinners like you and me.  And so He does. Jesus gives forgiveness and new life to anyone who hears and believes that Jesus did it all, for us.  Jesus continues to capture hearts with the heavenly story, creating faith with the power of the Gospel.  Ponder His love, revealed in the story of His life; love and power, splashed over you in Baptismal waters, hidden for you under plain bread and wine. 

   Being a follower of Jesus makes this life better, in many ways.  Knowing the truth about Jesus and His love gives you peace, and teaches you wisdom, for living today without fear.  Receiving the forgiving love of Jesus empowers you and me to forgive and love others.  Life as a Christian is not without problems, indeed sometimes it seems that Christians suffer the most.  But Christians suffer with Jesus, in Jesus, because Jesus has suffered for them, and He never abandons His own.   

   Life is better as a follower of Jesus.  Ponder His love, and Jesus will not only rescue you,   He will also make you a part of His ongoing work.  Jesus captures hearts through the telling of His story, the heavenly story which He tells through His Church.  Jesus works through you, His people, His disciples, to reach the next person on His list.  Ponder His love, focus more closely on what God has done for you in Jesus, and you will get a front row seat to the ongoing adventure of His rescue mission.  Ponder His love, take the gifts He has for you, and Jesus will change you and shape you and move you, to be a voice for Him in this here and now world. 

   Jesus has come, and He has a crown for you, laid up in heaven, perfectly sized for your head.  Knowing this promise, focusing on this bright future that Jesus gives to us today, now we have joy even when we have sorrow.  Now we can laugh, even when we must cry.  Now we have honor, even when the world despises us.  We have honor, because we have Jesus.  Blessed are you when these things happen to you on account of Jesus, for great is your reward, in heaven with Jesus, who reigns with the Father and the Spirit, one God, your God, who has loved and continues to love you, perfectly, forever and ever,  Amen.