Converted from persecutor to devout believer

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Conversion of Paul (observed)

Acts 9:1-22  +  Matthew 19:27-30

Imagine witnessing a public execution, the execution of a peaceful man against whom the only charge was encouraging people to turn to the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, telling people about the love of God in sending His Son to save those very people from their sins, and about God’s judgment against those who reject their Savior. The man’s name is Stephen, and he’s being put to death by having people throw rocks at him until they cause enough bruises and break enough bones to kill the peaceful man, who is praying for his executioners even as the stones are flying. And you’re not witnessing it from afar, with horror or with sadness. You’re standing right there in the midst of the angry stone-throwers, giving your nod of approval to their actions. And not only do you approve of their actions, but you’re already planning how you will find other people, fellow Jews, both men and women, who are just like this peaceful man, so that you can arrest them, tie their filthy hands together, and have them tried and executed in a similar way. Imagine being that angry at these Christians, that vengeful, that violently determined to snuff out their religion by snuffing out their lives. Why? Because they have dared to confess out loud the name of Jesus of Nazareth as the King of the Jews, the Son of David, the crucified and risen Messiah. And why are you so determined? Because you are absolutely convinced that the Jesus whom they confess is a charlatan and an enemy of your God and of His holy Law.

That was Saul. Saul the Pharisee. Saul, the Roman citizen, or Paul according to his Roman name, born in Tarsus, but brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of the famous rabbi Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of Jewish law, and as zealous toward God as anyone has ever been. Zealous, but not according to knowledge. Zealous for the truth, while being ignorant of the truth. In other words, he thought he knew God rightly. He thought that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob supported his endeavors to snuff out these Christians. But, of course, he thought wrong. And so his zeal, and his religion, were worthless.

Now, God could have justly struck Saul dead for his crimes against God’s beloved Christians, which, as Jesus Himself says in our text, were actually crimes committed against Him. Why do you persecute Me?, Jesus demanded. I strongly suspect that many of those early Jewish Christians were praying imprecatory Psalms against Saul, that is, those Psalms where the believers plead with God to rain judgment down on their enemies and His. But it’s as Jesus said in the second lesson you heard tonight: Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Judas Iscariot, one of the first and most prominent of Jesus’ followers, ended up last—cast into outer darkness—for his betrayal and unbelief. While Saul, who began, not as a follower but as a persecutor of Jesus, Saul, who considered himself the least of the apostles because he had persecuted the Church of God—Saul became among the first in God’s kingdom, perhaps the most famous of the apostles and by far the most prolific writer of the New Testament Scriptures. Saul the last, Saul the least, Saul the persecutor became Paul the first, Paul the believer, Paul the bold confessor of Christ, and, as a result, also Paul the persecuted, suffering the same kind of persecution for Christ that he had once carried out against Christ.

What a story! A story, first and foremost, of grace, of God’s free favor toward a man who by no means deserved it, of grace that burned through Saul’s unbelief and stubborn resistance as he went from “kicking against the goads,” that is, resisting the Holy Spirit who had been urging him, “goading” him, through the Word of Christ preached by Stephen, for example, to the message of the cross, to seek to be justified by faith instead of by works of the Law, to no longer resist, but to give in to grace, to repent and believe that Jesus was the Christ, that even his sins had been atoned for by Jesus, that the Gospel promise was meant even for him, that God would forgive even a persecutor of Christ. The word of Christ, spoken directly by Christ in Paul’s vision, and the word of Christ, spoken by Christ’s servant Ananias, brought about the miracle we call conversion.

And someone will ask, why did God give Saul a special vision of Jesus to bring about his conversion? Should we all expect such a vision in connection with our conversion? Should anyone? Absolutely not! Unless that person is called to be a founding apostle of the Christian Church. The truth is, Saul had to see the risen Lord Jesus, not for his conversion, not to become a believer, but for the witness he would have to give to the world. Paul would go on to be an apostle in the truest sense, an eyewitness of Jesus’ resurrection, called and later taught directly by Jesus just as the Eleven had been. Paul would be one of the chosen apostles who, together with the Old Testament prophets, would form the very foundation on which the Church of Christ was to be built.

Now, Saul didn’t cooperate with God the Holy Spirit in His conversion; he didn’t use any natural power that he had to choose Jesus. But after he was converted by the preaching of Ananias, Saul the believer did work together with the Holy Spirit. He was immediately baptized. Then, he stopped persecuting the Christians and instead began to preach the crucified and risen Christ in the synagogues, knowing that most of the Jews would turn against him, knowing that many of the Christians would struggle to accept him, knowing that some of the very Gentiles to whom he was being sent would imprison him, torture him, and eventually kill him. As the Lord told Ananias, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.

But it didn’t matter. From that moment on, Saul’s life had a new purpose, a new direction, and for the next 25 years or so, for the rest of his earthly life, he would willingly and gladly work harder than the other apostles, and suffer more. He would rely, not on himself and his strength, but on God and His strength, whose grace was sufficient for Him, so that, spurred on by God’s grace, Paul would pour out his life as a drink offering, until there was nothing left. Because, while he was still God’s enemy, Christ died for him. And then He took him and goaded him until he gave in. The Lord forgave and justified him by faith alone and took him into His kingdom and even made him into a minister of the New Testament.

Now, what would the Lord teach you through the example of His dealings with St. Paul? You (probably) can’t exactly relate to him as a murderer and violent persecutor of the Church. You definitely can’t relate to him as one who was enabled to see the Lord Jesus with his eyes and receive His teaching directly from heaven. But some of you may be able to relate to him as someone who was once zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. Ministers can relate to him as a called preacher of the Gospel, and all of us can relate to him as a wretched sinner upon whom God had mercy, and who then devoted the rest of his life to serving the Lord Jesus.

Your conversion was no less of a miracle than was the conversion of St. Paul. You were God’s enemy, too, when you were born, and part of you, the Old Man that clings to you throughout this earthly life, is still God’s enemy, not zealous for God, not trusting in God, but eager to go his own way, believe his own beliefs, and live for himself and for a good life here in this dying world. But God had mercy on you. Long before you were born, He gave His Son into death on the cross. And long before that, He made the plans for your conversion, before the foundations of the world were laid—how He would find you with the Gospel, how He would goad you to faith through His preached Word, and how He would preserve you in the faith by Word and Sacrament, through all the troubles and trials of this life, how He would change you from a self-serving creature into a person who is driven by God’s love to love both God and your neighbor, to devote your every moment to the service of God and to the building up of His kingdom. Just like He did with the Apostle Paul.

Take comfort in that! And let the mercy God has shown you with regard to your own sins continue to inspire you and spur you on to serve Him gladly, eagerly, and tirelessly, being willing, as Paul was, to become the objects of scorn and shame, and even worse forms of persecution, always rejoicing with Paul that I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Amen.

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The kind of Savior who changes water into wine

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 2

Romans 12:6-16  +  John 2:1-11

Since Christmas, the Scriptures have been introducing Jesus to the world as the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. We saw Him as a baby in the stable, and with the wise men, and in the temple. We saw Him again as a 12-year-old child in the temple. And on Wednesday we saw Him as a 30-year-old man being baptized, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, and acclaimed by God the Father as His beloved Son, in whom the Father is well-pleased. The next event in Jesus’ life was His 40-day fast and temptation in the wilderness, which we’ll talk about during the Lenten season. But the next events after that are recorded in today’s Gospel, which includes the very first miracle Jesus performed. In all these stories, the world is getting to know the Savior whom God has sent, and each account teaches us something important about Him.

As our Gospel begins, Jesus has just been called the Lamb of God by John the Baptist, just a few days earlier. He has just gathered to Himself His first five disciples, still part-time apprentices for the time being, and all of them were from up north, from the region of Galilee, just like Jesus. After teaching them for just a day or two, they headed up to Galilee to a wedding, to which both Jesus and His mother Mary, and these five Galilean disciples, had all been invited. Stop and think about that for a moment. This wedding must have been planned for some time. Those invitations must have gone out months before, probably before Jesus was baptized, certainly before He called these first disciples. It wasn’t by chance that they met Jesus or started following Jesus when they did. It was God’s providence and plan that brought Jesus and these five disciples to the wedding that day, just as these disciples were starting to get to know Jesus.

What’s the first thing we learn about Jesus here? We learn that, as the God-Man sent on the most important mission in all of history, He is happy to attend a common wedding celebration. That says something about how He views marriage, as something good, as something worth celebrating. It says something about how He views human interactions, as necessary and important. It shows something about how He wants to interact with people. For the last six months or more, Israel had been getting to know God through the prophet John the Baptist, who lived an isolated, austere life alone in the wilderness, always serious, never drinking even a drop of wine, much less attending parties or joining in social activities. Jesus would not be like that.

Now, understand. Both John and Jesus were doing exactly what God wanted them each to do. But John’s was a ministry that focused almost entirely on recognizing and repenting of sin, and pointing people away from himself to Jesus, in whom they would find forgiveness and salvation, and so his own ministry was austere, solemn, and not what you would call “friendly,” while Jesus’ ministry was focused on receiving those who recognized their sins into God’s grace and into God’s house. A much friendlier kind of ministry. Both kinds of preaching are essential, and Jesus would do His share of condemning sin in the impenitent, and calling sinners to repentance, sometimes angrily berating the hypocritical religious leaders who were leading people astray from God. But it’s a matter of focus, a matter of goals. The goal of Jesus’ ministry would not be to leave people terrified because of their sins, or pointing them somewhere else for salvation. The goal of His ministry would be to bring sinners to Him, leaving them at peace, blessed, even happy, with a godly sort of happiness. We begin to see that in Jesus’ decision to attend a wedding celebration as the first public act of His ministry.

What’s the next thing we learn about Jesus as we’re “getting to know Him”? We learn that His relationship with His mother has changed from what it was. Up until very recently, Jesus had been living at home with her in Nazareth. Now He has begun His ministry as the Christ. Now He has begun to gather disciples to teach them as their Rabbi. Now He would no longer be consulting her, seeking her advice, or involving her in His decisions. Mary needed to be instructed about that change.

She seemed to think that Jesus ought to do something about the wine running out at the wedding reception, and she seemed to think it was her place to prompt Him to do something about it. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” It wasn’t an order. It was just a bit of information, but it came with an implied suggestion. “Maybe this is Your opportunity to reveal Yourself to the world!”

But we see that Jesus didn’t say, “Yes, mother! You’re right!” or “Thanks for letting me know!”  He used a Hebrew idiom that’s used in a few places in the Old Testament and a couple of times in the New. In every place, the phrase can be translated, “What have I to do with you?” It was a phrase used by the king of Egypt to King Josiah of Judah. It was a phrase used by the prophet Elisha to the wicked king Joram of Israel. It was a phrase used by a demon when talking to Jesus. What have I to do with you? Jesus is putting some distance between Himself and Mary, as having different aims, different goals, different purposes. And He calls her, not “mother,” but “woman,” not a harsh thing to say, but it’s a very direct indication that Jesus’ role as the Christ has nothing to do with His personal relationship with Mary. She will always be His mother, of course, but that motherly role or motherly relationship will have no special influence on Him or on His ministry. If only the generations after the apostles had paid attention to that!

My hour has not yet come, Jesus adds. “My hour” is a reference to the time when Jesus to bring His ministry to its fulfillment in giving Himself up to His enemies and allowing Himself to be put to death on a cross. That was “His hour” to reveal Himself to the world, to complete His God-given mission. Already at the outset of His ministry, Jesus has an eye on the end of it. In other words, He knows the plan. He doesn’t need or want Mary’s help.

Nevertheless, in spite of those words, Mary suspects that Jesus might yet do something about the wine situation, so she tells the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. And He did use this as an opportunity, not to put on a big show, not to reveal Himself to the world, but to just a handful of people—His new disciples, and, of course, the servants to whom He would give instructions.

He told them to fill up the six stone jars that were standing there with water, and then to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast, the man in charge of inspecting and approving everything for the party. And it says that When the master of the feast had tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it was from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone sets out the good wine first, and when the people are drunk, then he sets out the inferior wine. But you have reserved the good wine until now.” And in this simple miracle of changing water into wine, we learn so much about Jesus, and about the kind of Savior, the kind of Christ He is going to be.

First, notice the low-key nature of this miracle. As we already said, it was only known to a handful of people, most importantly, to Jesus’ new disciples, and it had the intended impact on them. As John writes, This was the first of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Second, notice the power-of-creation aspect of this miracle. Jesus didn’t perform any magic here. He used the same divine power He had used at the creation of the world to take water molecules and turn them into something else with a word, with a thought. He didn’t have to pray for God the Father to do this, or wait for a word from God, telling Him or enabling Him to do this. He did as He pleased, knowing that it would bring glory to His Father.

Third, notice the high-quality aspect of this miracle. He didn’t make something that could barely pass for wine. He made real wine, and, according to the master of the feast, the best wine.

Fourth, notice the generous nature of this miracle. Jesus didn’t have to help out the bride and groom. It wasn’t His responsibility. But He chose to do it, both out of kindness toward them and to teach His disciples these lessons. And He chose to make, not just a few bottles’ worth of wine, but the equivalent of about 300 bottles of wine.

Finally, notice the celebratory nature of this miracle. It’s not healing a debilitating disease, or casting out fiendish demons. It’s not calming a raging storm, or raising the dead, or even providing sustenance for the hungry—all of which Jesus would do during the course of His three-year ministry, where He fixed a few of the many problems that plague the human race. No, this was a miracle of transformation, for the purpose of enjoyment, for the purpose of celebration. Wine is not necessary. It’s not a need. And it’s not there to fix a problem. It’s for our enjoyment, and for rejoicing together when we celebrate something worth celebrating. (Obviously it has other uses, but that’s what it’s for, from a Biblical perspective.)

When we put together all these lessons, Jesus’ disciples got a good first picture of the kind of Savior Jesus was going to be, and it also helps us to see Him for who He is. He is a Savior who doesn’t seek to impress people, but to teach people about God’s promise to save us from our sins through Him. He is a Savior who is both true God and true Man, both our Brother and our God, and we do well to remember both things. He’s a Savior who didn’t come to help us scrape by, but that we might have the best future, the best inheritance in heaven, to have life and life in abundance. He’s a Savior who is overflowing in generosity toward all who come to Him, and who would have His people be generous to others, as He has been generous to us. And He’s a Savior who gives us something worth celebrating—true happiness in God, in His Word, in the fellowship of His Church, in His salvation, in the love God had for us, that He would send His Son to suffer and die for our sins, that He would bring us to Baptism and call us His children, that He would give us a celebratory meal of His body and blood, joined to enjoyable things like bread and wine, that He would choose to dwell among us forever and celebrate with us forever. That’s the kind of Savior Jesus reveals Himself to be in today’s Gospel, and throughout His life—a Savior who gives us reason to celebrate, a Savior worth celebrating. Amen.

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A necessary step to fulfill all righteousness

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord

1 Corinthians 1:26-31  +  Matthew 3:13-17

On Sunday we heard about how twelve-year-old Jesus amazed everyone at the temple in the Jerusalem. It’s now about 18 years later. Jesus has spent all that time in Nazareth, growing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. We know that He learned some carpentry from His earthly father, Joseph, who was a carpenter, by trade, because Jesus Himself is once referred to as “the carpenter.” It appears that, sometime during those 18 years, Joseph died, because he is conspicuously absent from the rest of the story of Jesus’ life. The next thing we hear about Jesus happens when He’s about 30 years old, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record how Jesus came down from Galilee to the Jordan river, to be baptized by John, who had started preaching and baptizing several months before this. Why was Jesus baptized? For what purpose? What was the significance of it? What does it matter for us and for our salvation? We’re going to walk through these five verses from Matthew chapter 3 and then answer those questions.

As Jesus approached John to be baptized, John recognized Him immediately. How, we don’t know. We’re not told of any interaction between the two before this. Maybe John knew in the same way that Simeon and Anna recognized Jesus as a baby, by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In any case, John knew that Jesus was not at all like other men. He tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized, saying, “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” John, as a prophet sent by God, knew a lot about Jesus. He knew that he (John), like everyone else who was coming to be baptized, was sinful and in need of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and that Jesus had no need of those things, because He was sinless to begin with. John knew that he was just a humble messenger, while Jesus was the divine Messenger to whom John was pointing. He knew that Jesus was far greater than he, far superior to him, as he confessed openly soon after baptizing Jesus. He knew that he needed to be saved by Jesus, and that Jesus certainly didn’t need to be saved by him. And he was right about all those things.

But John didn’t know everything about God’s plan of salvation. Jesus fills him in a little bit. Allow it for now. For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. John knew he was supposed to be pointing people to Jesus, but he didn’t know, until now, that Jesus’ ministry had to begin with a very special baptism. John knew that Jesus was the Righteous One. But he was just now learning, from Jesus, that baptizing Jesus was part of “fulfilling all righteousness.” We’ll talk about that more in a minute.

Now, to be washed by someone is a humbling experience, even more so when it’s a washing that’s normally connected with spiritual dirt, where everyone else who comes to be baptized is being baptized specifically because he recognizes that he’s a sinner who deserves nothing from God but His wrath and punishment. And so Jesus was humbled by John, and John must have felt awkward doing it. But at Jesus’ word, John consented and baptized the Lord Jesus.

We’re told that, right after Jesus was baptized, three remarkable events occurred. He saw the heavens opened to Him, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and came upon Jesus, and the Father spoke those incredible works that He would later repeat at Jesus’ transfiguration: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is the second reference in the New Testament to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The first was in Gabriel’s announcement to Mary about Jesus being the Son, of God, who would be conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. But here at Jesus’ Baptism, the three Persons are clearly seen. What does it all mean? What was it all for?

First, do you remember, when Jesus was crucified between the two thieves and the Evangelists record that it was to fulfill a prophecy about the Christ? He was numbered with the transgressors. Jesus’ death among sinners was the culmination of that prophecy. But it was really a prophecy that was fulfilled throughout Jesus’ life, and in a very special way at His Baptism. Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. He went to Baptism together with a multitude of people, all of whom were transgressors, sinners. And He allowed Himself to be counted among them, even though He had no sin, just as, one day, He would allow Himself to be crucified among sinners, as if He were a sinner. This is all part of what Paul says about Jesus in 2 Cor. 5: God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was part of “fulfilling all righteousness” for Jesus, the Righteous One, to be numbered among the transgressors, so that all who believe in Him might be numbered among the righteous.

Another purpose of Jesus Baptism was that it served as what we might call His “anointing,” His inauguration and ordination into the office of the Christ. Now, Jesus was the Christ from the moment He was conceived and born. As the angel told the shepherds, “Unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.” He was always the Christ with regard to His identity. But it was at His Baptism that Jesus fully entered into the office of the Christ, the ministry of the Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. And even though He was the Son of God, as the Son of Man He didn’t take that office or that ministry upon Himself. He waited for the Father to open the heavens to Him, and to send down the Holy Spirit upon Him, and to speak the words of approval upon His Son, designating this man Jesus as His chosen Servant for this one-of-a-kind mission to save the fallen human race. The Baptism of Jesus, where the Father spoke and the Spirit came upon Jesus, is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus later applied to Himself: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me.

Finally, what does Jesus’ Baptism mean for you and me? It means that Jesus is the Savior you should trust in, the only Savior chosen and sent by God the Father, the only one who has the Father’s full approval, in everything, because Jesus never once failed or faltered. He is the Righteous One who was willing to be numbered with the transgressors in order to bring us transgressors to God. He is the Righteous One with whom we believers are now clothed through Holy Baptism, as Paul says, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And having put on Christ through Baptism, you have now become a beloved child of God who is well-pleasing to the Father, because in this strange and wonderful Sacrament of Holy Baptism, God has made a way for you to be connected to His beloved, well-pleasing Son, who was baptized, just as you were—not in the same place, or by the same person, or at the same age, but in the same divinely instituted washing. His was a washing of solidarity with sinners, an anointing of ordination, a reception of the Holy Spirit. Yours was a washing of solidarity with Christ, an anointing of adoption, and, likewise, a reception of the Holy Spirit.

The Baptism of Jesus is the event in which God the Father held forth His beloved Son to the world as wisdom from God, including both righteousness, and holiness, and redemption. Forget the wisdom of the world. Here is My wisdom, the Father says. Forget the righteousness of the world. Here is your righteousness! Forget the holiness of the world. Here is your holiness! Forget the redemption that the world offers. Here is the redemption that God offers! Here, in this Man Jesus, the Christ, the beloved Son of God, who makes you beloved sons of God through faith in Him, and through Baptism. Rejoice in this Sacrament that connects you with Christ! Amen.

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Remember, this Child is God

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 1

Romans 12:1-5  +  Luke 2:41-52

In this Epiphany season (as also, by the way, in the Christmas season), we spend a few weeks looking at some key “epiphanies,” some momentary revelations of Jesus’ hidden divinity. Can you appreciate the need for those revelations? There was nothing—not a single thing—about Jesus that looked divine. In every way, throughout His life, He appeared to be nothing other than an ordinary human being. When He was a baby, He looked and acted like a normal baby. When He was a child, He looked and acted like a normal child. And when He grew up into a man, He looked and acted like a normal man—an especially good baby, and child, and man, but still, just a man.

Some people have always had a hard time with this, especially people who only know Jesus post-resurrection from the dead and post-ascension into heaven. We barely know Him as a man. To us, Jesus is God! (At least, we know that intellectually.) There were some people already in the second century who made up stories about Jesus’ childhood, stories in which His divinity was shown off regularly. In one such story, from the fictional Gospel of Thomas, Jesus, when He was 5 years old, molded some birds out of clay on the Sabbath day, and, when Joseph rebuked Him, He clapped His hands and brought the clay birds to life. In another story, Jesus was playing with some boys on the roof, and one of them fell down and died. That boy’s parents accused Jesus of pushing the boy off the roof, so Jesus raised the boy from the dead so that he could testify that Jesus wasn’t to blame. These are silly stories that don’t fit at all with the Jesus we have come to know through the Holy Scriptures. He was not regularly showing off His divinity. People everywhere, even His parents, at times, mistook Him for nothing but human. That’s why we turn to these little epiphanies in the Bible, because through them the Holy Spirit was teaching the people back then, and us today, that that baby, that child, that man, who was so obviously human, was not only human. He was, and is, God. In fact, the one and only story from Jesus’ childhood that the Holy Spirit wanted us to know is the story before us in today’s Gospel, which took place when Jesus was twelve years old. It was nothing as spectacular as bringing clay birds to life or raising a boy back to life. But it was still a little revelation of Jesus’ hidden identity as the God who became man to save us from our sins.

Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph made the annual trip from Nazareth down to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, as all the men of Israel were required to do by the Law of Moses. Even that tells us something important about Jesus’ childhood, that He was raised in a home in which the parents sought, above all things, to be faithful to God. As we learn later on, Jesus and His whole family were also well-known in the synagogue of Nazareth, showing that Jesus’ custom of attending synagogue every week on the Sabbath Day didn’t just begin when He began His ministry, but was the continuation of a lifelong practice, established by Joseph and Mary, of godliness and reverence for God’s Word. Christian parents do well to imitate this example of regular worship and devotion to God’s Word and to God’s commandments. You don’t have to be the parents of the Son of God in order to be models to your children of faithfulness to God’s Word. Every Christian parent is called to this.

They spend their week or so in Jerusalem observing the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then, after the feast is over, the caravan from Galilee gets up early in the morning and departs at the scheduled time. And Mary and Joseph walk a full day’s journey away from Jerusalem, assuming that twelve-year-old Jesus is in the caravan somewhere, with some of their relatives. That tells us a couple of things, too. First, that Jesus obviously spent a decent amount of time with His relatives and neighbors from Nazareth. Second, and more importantly, that even at twelve years old Jesus was perfectly dependable and trustworthy. His parents cared for Him but didn’t worry about Him. They weren’t overprotective of Him. And that’s usually a good thing.

But this time Jesus did something unexpected: He stayed behind in Jerusalem, apparently without telling anyone. By the time Mary and Joseph realized He wasn’t anywhere in the caravan, the day was already over, and they spent a sleepless night worrying about their Son. The next day they spent walking back to Jerusalem, and didn’t find Him when they got there. Finally, on the third day, they found Him in the temple, safe and sound, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions, and answering the teachers’ questions with a level of understanding that amazed everyone who heard. Jesus wasn’t preaching yet. He wasn’t pretending to be a 12-year-old rabbi, nor was He showing any disrespect for His elders, or calling on anyone to repent or believe anything. But this interaction between the teachers and 12-year-old Jesus, witnessed by Jesus’ parents and by the people in the temple who were there, is the first part of the epiphany in today’s Gospel, a clear indication that this ordinary-looking Child was no ordinary Child, but had a God-level understanding of the Holy Scriptures, of God, and of the ways of God.

Mary and Joseph were left astonished, too—astonished that Jesus hadn’t just joined their caravan as they expected, but stayed behind to engage with the teachers in the temple. When they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Mary is offended. She feels that Jesus has mistreated her and His father. So she scolds Him.

But He, respectfully and mildly, scolds her back: He said to them, “What do you mean, you were you searching for me? Did you not know that I had to be engaged in the things of my Father?” But they did not understand what he said to them. This is the second part of the epiphany in today’s Gospel. It had become so easy for Mary and Joseph to see their Son as their son. They hadn’t forgotten, intellectually, where He came from, or the things the angels had told them about Him. But they had been settled in Nazareth for nearly a decade by this point, and life had become very normal for them there. “Your father and I” have been looking for you. But she seems to have put it out of her mind that, in a one-of-a-kind way, Jesus had another Father, the Father in heaven, who had not sent His Son into the world to be just an ordinary, human boy, but had sent Him on a one-of-a-kind mission that only the Son of God could accomplish.

Jesus had been sent (1) to reveal God perfectly to mankind; (2) to live a perfectly righteous life under the Law as sinful man’s Substitute; (3) to call sinners to repentance and faith, giving the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe; (4) to suffer and die for our sins; (5) to rise from the dead, becoming the perpetual Mediator between God and man; and (6) to reign on God’s throne until the end of the world for the good of His brothers. These were “the things of My Father” that Jesus had to be engaged in. Not that He would do everything at the age of 12, but even at the age of 12, Jesus had work to do for His heavenly Father.

That work would continue at home. Yes, He had to spend some extra days in the temple when He was 12, fulfilling Mission #1 and providing that little epiphany of His true identity as the Son of God. But then it was back to Nazareth with His parents to continue fulfilling Mission #2. Luke tells us that He was subject to them…And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Obeying His parents, gladly and willingly, was part of Jesus’ mission to live a perfectly righteous life under the Law as our Substitute. As the 4th Commandment says, You shall honor your father and your mother. And “growing in favor with God and man” is also part of that, as He devoted His childhood, and His young-manhood, to serving God and His neighbor, as every child and young man should, but as no one does as much and as gladly as they should, except for Jesus.

And so Jesus served as our Substitute under the Law, even as a child, covering the sins of all believers. And His devotion to His Father in heaven, while unique because of His one-of-a-kind relationship with the Father, still serves as a shining example for all of us. And His willing submission to His earthly parents and authorities certainly shines as an example that all Christians must follow.

But, above all, today’s Gospel gives us an important glimpse of who Jesus is, which was easy to forget for the people who lived with Him, but is also easy for us to forget, or to put out of our minds: This Child of twelve years old was God. That man hanging on the cross was God. The One now seated at the right hand of God the Father is your human Brother, but He is also your God, “who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and became man.” And as your God, He commands you still today: Repent and believe the good news, the Gospel of your salvation, brought to you for free by the God-Man Himself! And, as your God, He commands you who believe also to live as those who recognize Jesus, not only as a great man, or a great teacher, but as the Man who is God, and, therefore, who has every right to tell you how to live, as He does through the apostle Paul in today’s Epistle: I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God. Amen.

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A King worth seeking

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

(audio only of the sermon for this evening’s service)

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Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Matthew 2:1-12

This evening we tell again the story of the wise men. And as we review the details of their journey to seek the newborn King, we’ll also look into the meaning of it.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.”

Matthew doesn’t give us all the backstory that Luke does about the trip to Bethlehem, and the angels, and the shepherds, and the manger. No, Matthew simply tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of King Herod. But then Matthew includes this wonderful story that Luke skips over, about the arrival of the “wise men from the East.”

They were from “the East,” probably Babylon, where all the Jews had lived for a time in the 500’s BC, and where some still lived, giving the wise men access to the Old Testament Scriptures. The phrase “wise men” is also translated Magi. They were the court officials and scholars of their day. Their scholarship included not only astronomy but also what we would call “astrology,” which basically means “reading the stars for omens and signs.” They read the stars to know important things like, when summer and winter begin, or when the year starts over. Many ancients also read the stars to try to foretell the turn of events on earth.

But in this case, the wise men read the stars, or one particular “star,” and put it together with the prophesied birth of “the King of the Jews.” There is one such prophecy in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers: I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel. And they may have put that prophecy together with another prophecy, the one Jacob spoke to his son Judah: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the one comes to whom it belongs comes. He will receive the obedience of the peoples. The star is connected to the coming of the One to whom the scepter, that is, the kingship, truly belongs. Hence, the King of the Jews, but also the one who will “receive the obedience of the peoples,” namely, the Gentiles. So it’s with good reason that the wise men, who were Gentiles, believed that this newborn King of the Jews was a King worth seeking.

During their journey, they seem to have lost sight of the star. But that’s okay. Where do you go looking for a king? In a king’s palace, of course! So they went to King Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, assuming the child had been born in his house. But When King Herod heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Isn’t that sad? God brings His long-promised Son into the world, and the king and the people of the holy city are troubled by the news! The Jews, like many people today, liked the idea of the Christ coming. But hearing that He had actually arrived? That troubled them. If the Christ had truly come, then they knew their lives would change forever, and their relationship with God would be put to the test. They couldn’t just talk about Him anymore. They would have to face Him! And for that, they weren’t at all prepared. It’s as John says in his Gospel, He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.

When Herod had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea. For so it was written by the prophet, ‘And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a Ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

The priests and scribes knew the Scriptures well enough. They were able to point the wise men to Bethlehem, according to Micah’s prophecy, to the birth of the promised Ruler. Micah adds this about the origins of the Christ: His goings forth are from of old, from eternity. In other words, although the Christ would be born as a human child, His origins go back to eternity with God the Father. Who wouldn’t want to seek such a King?

Well, Herod, for one. And the priests of Jerusalem, and the people of Jerusalem who heard about the wise men’s visit but left the seeking to others.

Then Herod, after he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them carefully at what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the young Child; and when you have found him, bring me word, that I may come and worship him also.” After hearing the king, they departed. And, behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced greatly.

As we heard on Sunday, Herod was lying about wanting to go worship Jesus. But for their part, the wise men were eager to find Him and overjoyed at the prospect of worshiping Him. The fact that the star which they had seen in the East “went before them” and “stood over where the child was” makes it pretty clear that this was not a star at all, but a bright object in the sky that the Lord placed there and used specifically, and apparently only, for this purpose, to lead these particular Gentiles to Jesus, in Bethlehem, to spark the chain of events that would follow, and, by the example of the wise men recorded by the apostle Matthew, to teach all nations that Jesus is a King worth seeking, and worth worshiping.

And when they had come into the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him.

That is was a “house” means it was no longer a stable; up to two years had passed since Jesus was born. But whether Jesus is still an infant or whether He’s a toddler of almost two years, nothing could have seemed stranger to Mary than to see these wealthy foreigners show up at her door, fall down on their knees, and worship her Son. Yes, she knew where He had come from, but that didn’t make any of these things less bizarre, or less astonishing.

We should say a brief word about the gifts the wise men gave. And opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Gold is a universal treasure, and surely a fitting gift for a king. Frankincense, an expensive kind of incense, was also associated with royalty, but also with priests as an offering to God. The same was true of myrrh, except that myrrh was also used for burying the dead, as it would be used about 30 years from then, on Good Friday, with myrrh that Nicodemus would donate to bury the crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Is Jesus a King worth seeking? The wise men thought so. And, notice, they didn’t just sit over there in the East in their homes and “seek Him” in their hearts when they saw His star. They didn’t just stay home and pray to God, thanking Him for sending this King into the world. And they didn’t just worship Him in their hearts, but on their knees, with costly gifts and offerings. Because they recognized that this King would rule not only over their hearts but over their entire lives. And because they recognized that God had sent this King into the world in a place—a place far, far away from where they lived, but a place to which they had the means to travel, even though it would be arduous, dangerous, and very expensive. And they recognized that the best worship they could give to this special King was not just with their hearts, but with their feet, and with their knees, and with their treasure.

So give your heart to this King, but also give Him your feet, and your knees, and your treasure. In fact, in view of God’s mercy in sending His Son for us, offer your whole body and your whole life to Him as a living sacrifice and as your reasonable act of worship. Not to purchase His favor, but because you recognize the worth of the King of the Jews, who reveals to you, through the wise men, that He came to redeem all people from their sins, to draw all men to Himself, to be a King who reigns over all things for the benefit of all who believe in Him. So seek Him where He points you now, to His written Word, to His preached Word, and to His holy Sacraments, where the King makes Himself available to you to receive your worship, and, wonder of wonders, to give you the gifts you need to have peace with God and to remain faithful unto death. Jesus is a King worth seeking, a King worth worshiping, because He is a King who once wore a crown of thorns for you: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Amen.

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