A Place of Peace and Rest in Christ Jesus

The Lord Jesus Christ has taken your place — from His Baptism in the Jordan River to His crucifixion, death, and burial — in order to give you His own place in His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father.  So it is that, in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, the one true God is your own true Father, and you are His very own dear child.

As your Savior, the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, has come down from heaven to save you from sin, death, and the devil.  He has borne your griefs and carried all your sorrows on His own back and shoulders.  He has taken the heavy yoke of the Law upon Himself, and carried the full burden of your sin in His Body to the Cross, in order to make Atonement for you by the shedding of His holy, precious Blood.  So, then, in His Resurrection from the dead, by His Word and Holy Spirit, you receive all the good gifts and blessings of His Father, and you find your dwelling place in Him.

Come to Him, therefore — here within His House on earth — and find your perfect Sabbath Rest in Him, in the Liturgy of His Gospel, in the Ministry of His preaching and His Holy Sacrament.

He has ascended into heaven, where He ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of God, and where He has established a place for you with the Father in Himself.  But so has He also made a place for you within His Church on earth; and He abides with you here, especially by the Gospel Ministry of those men whom He sends in His Name and stead, who preach and teach His Word, who work His works with His authority and administer His means of grace and peace.

It is by this Ministry of the Gospel that God the Father reveals and gives to you His beloved Son.  So also does the Son pour out the Holy Spirit upon you and reveal the Father to you.  It is in this way that Christ Jesus brings you with Himself, in the Holy Spirit, to His God and Father in heaven.

Thus, by the way and means of the Gospel, it is indeed on earth, here and now, as it is in heaven.

You cannot come into this divine Life by your own reason or strength.  You cannot grasp it by yourself, nor for yourself.  You will fail every time you try.  You cannot take it, nor can you keep it by your own labors and hard efforts.  Not by your intelligence; not by your instincts, intuition, or experience; and not by any strategy of your own devising.  It is simply not within your power.

But Christ has come to you, and He calls you and brings you to Himself, by the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness.  And with His Word of grace and peace, He gives you a place that remains.

Better than that, your merciful and great High Priest, Christ Jesus, is your Place.  He is your Home, in whom your righteousness abides.  He is your Place of perfect Peace and genuine Sabbath Rest.

You live and abide and rest in Him, in His crucified and risen Body of flesh and blood, as you live and abide within His Body, the Church.  You live in Him, in faith before God, and in love for your neighbor.  Such faith and love are the fulfillment of the Law, the righteousness of Christ, which is credited to you through faith in His Gospel.  Such is the life that He grants to you by His grace, and to which He calls you by His Word and Spirit.  That is the place where you now live with Him.

It is sobering to consider that Judas Iscariot was given that same place, as a disciple, and as an Apostle of Christ Jesus.  But he departed from that blessed place, in order to go to his own place, to a place of his own making, apart from God, to the darkness of despair, death, and damnation.

St. Matthias, though, who has already been given the place of Christ as a disciple, is now called and ordained to work within the place of Christ as one of the holy Apostles, as well.  In that Office he speaks with the voice of Christ Jesus.  He speaks the Word of the Lord, the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins.  He works the works of Christ in His Name.

There is hard work and suffering involved in this sacred vocation.  And at the end of his life and service on this earth, Matthias will be martyred for the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ.  Not only in his words and works, but in his very body and life, he bears the Cross of Christ the Crucified, precisely because he is one who has been given the place of Christ.  That is true, not only for the Apostles of our Lord, but for all of His disciples in their respective vocations and stations in life.

For all of that, and as hard as it may be to comprehend, Jesus declares and promises that His yoke is “easy,” that His burden is “light.”  Not from the standpoint of the world and its expectations; nor from the perspective of your old Adam and your mortal flesh, which, like Matthias, are finally put to death.  But even the burden of mortality and death becomes “light,” and the work that you are called to do is “easy,” because your peace and rest are found in Christ Jesus, in His risen Body, in His indestructible Life.  Your body and life are hidden safely and securely with Christ in God.

You have been granted the place of Christ in the presence of your God and Father in heaven.  So do you also occupy and live within the place of Christ Jesus in loving service for your neighbor, wherever the Lord your God has stationed you in this world, in this poor life of labor.  Here, it is true, the place that you are given and its duties are heavy and hard.  To be called to faith and love in the here and now, is to be called daily to death, to carry the Cross and follow after Christ.  So are you commanded, for example, to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.

Remember, though, that it is the place of Christ to which you have been called, in which you now live and abide by His grace.  He, too, has suffered and died, not only for your neighbor but for you.  By His death He has conquered death, and in His Resurrection He has opened up the way of life for you and for all, forever and ever.  So the yoke is easy, because you do not work or suffer for yourself and your salvation, but for Him who has already died and is risen for your Atonement and Justification.  And your burden is light, because your sin is forgiven and your death is undone.

Such is the Peace of Christ, which the world does not know and cannot provide, but it is yours.

In gentleness and tender care, the Lord who loves you comes to serve you in body and soul, and to give you His own life.  He daily removes and washes away your sins with His holy forgiveness.  He raises you up from death to life, not only by the promise of His own Resurrection from the dead, but also by restoring you to the pledge and promise of your Baptism; by providing for all your needs, according to His grace and mercy; and by feeding you with His Body and His Blood, in which your flesh and blood are made brand new and made ready for the resurrection at the last.

In receiving these gifts, rely upon His gracious Word and promise, and so rest yourself in Him.  Rejoice in the knowledge of faith, trusting that you are reconciled to God in Christ Jesus, your Savior.  Be at peace, dear child of God, as your Father is at Peace with you in His beloved Son.

It is not by your own wisdom, reason, or strength.  It never is, nor can it ever be.  But like a little baby, as in your mother’s womb or at her breast, or cradled in your daddy’s arms, so are you fed and cared for by the Lord your God within His Holy Christian Church, on earth as it is in heaven.

Consider the example of St. Matthias, who does not say or do anything in the case at hand, but he simply receives the Office to which he is called and ordained.  So does the dear Lord Jesus raise up servants for His beloved Church on earth.  He has always done so, even to this day and place.

Through pastors who are given a place by God’s grace — who follow in the train of the Apostles and Prophets and Martyrs, who speak and serve by the calling of Christ Jesus — by their preaching and administration of His Holy Gospel, the Father reveals His beloved Son to you, the Son reveals His God and Father to you, and the Holy Spirit establishes you in the Kingdom of God by faith in His Word.  Not only are you called to occupy an office of love, wherein you serve your neighbor in the world to the glory of God, but so are you given your own house and home with God, your own dear Father in heaven.  For the Body of Christ, His Son, is your Place of Peace and Rest.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

His Works Do Follow After Him

The Lord Jesus has not called you to be lazy.  He has not called you to be idle.  He has called you to rest in Him, and to find peace and comfort in Him, even as you work and do your job.  Learning from Him, and following Him, you bear the Cross in love for your neighbor within your own proper vocation, your own proper office and station in life, to which God Himself has called you.

Being a Christian is not an early retirement or a permanent vacation.  Being a Christian does not involve abandoning your occupations and responsibilities.  It does not relieve you of your duties and obligations in relation to your family, to your job, to your schoolwork or your chores.  You rather do all of these things with a new heart, mind, and spirit, which rest in Christ by faith in His Gospel, while you work and serve and labor with your hands and body in the world.

You know how there are jobs which would normally be routine and easy for you, but, depending on your mood, they may seem especially tedious and burdensome.  Whereas other days a quite challenging and difficult task may be invigorating and joyful, and you may find great satisfaction in working hard and doing it well.  In a similar way, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is not so much in the works they do, but rather in the attitude of heart, mind, and spirit.

A Christian may at times work much harder than someone who does not love the Lord Jesus or know the Father in Christ, and yet the Christian is at peace and finds joy and satisfaction in the gifts of God.   He may give thanks for his blood, sweat, and tears, because he knows where he stands before God, that his life is in Christ Jesus.  Whereas the non-Christian may go about his job half-heartedly, or he may work at it very hard, but, either way, his heart does not rest, and his mind has no peace, because he does not know God rightly; he does not trust the grace of God in Christ.

Again, the Lord has not called you to laziness or idleness, but to rest in Him by faith, and to work in love, to bear the Cross, not as though to save yourself, but rather to serve your neighbor.  As a mother feeds and cares for her children, not to save herself, but for her children’s sake, so do you work to love and serve your neighbor.  And in this way, God gives good gifts to your neighbor.

In the end, none of your works can save you, no matter how many or impressive they may be.  Not by working smarter, and not by working harder.  Your works cannot save you.  Not just because you are too weak, or because you are not trying hard enough, but because the Lord your God has never intended that you (or anyone else) should save yourself by your own works.

What, then, is the point?  Why do you work at all?  Why must you strive and labor and work, and punch a clock, and do your homework, if none of these efforts can save you?  That is the thinking of your sinful flesh, and of your sinful, selfish heart, mind, and spirit, by which you think only of yourself and your own benefit.  With every challenge and opportunity, you calculate the cost, the risk, and the potential “return on your investment,” with no regard for the Lord or your neighbor.

But this is not the point or purpose of your life or your labor.  The point is simply to love, as the Lord your God loves you.  For He has created you in love for life with Himself.  He has created you for love: To be loved, and to love in return, both the Lord and the neighbor He has given you.

You know your Father in heaven and come to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Not by your own ingenuity or cleverness.  Not by your own strength.  Not by any effort or accomplishment of yours.  But by the Love of God, by the grace of His Gospel, His forgiveness of all of your sins.

God is your Father, and He gives you His good gifts, not because you deserve them, but because He loves you for Christ Jesus’ sake.  Not because you are so strong, but even though you are so small and so weak.  Not because you are so grown up and mature, but as you truly are, an infant or toddler, a babe or young child in the presence of the Lord.  He cares for you, feeds you and provides for you, forgives you all your sins, and saves you for eternal life, because He loves you.  And so it is for the sake of His love, in Christ Jesus, that you also work to serve your neighbor.

You do not work to save yourself, because, again, your works cannot save you, and you cannot save yourself.  You are not God, you are His creature.  He has called you into being out of nothing.  Your very existence depends upon His love for you, His utter charity.  There is nothing you can do to master or control Him.  There is nothing you can do even to know Him, to find Him or come to Him, except as He in love makes Himself known to you and gives Himself to you in Christ.

But you are His creature, and as such, the Lord does not despise the good gifts He has given you, not even His temporal gifts of this body and life.  Your intellect and reason, your strength and skill, your talents and abilities of heart, mind, and body are not for nothing.  The Lord your God, who gave them to you, does not despise or disregard them.  Nor should you.  It is only that you are not supposed to use these things to find Him, or to save yourself.  That would not work.  But you are to use the gifts of God to find your neighbor and to serve your neighbor in love.

That is what Christ has done for you.  He has labored in perfect faith toward His God and Father, and in perfect love toward you, His neighbor.  He has nothing to gain for Himself, but He does it for you and your salvation.  He loves you and He works for you because He knows and loves the Father in heaven.  And for that reason, He bears the burden of your sin and death in His own Body to the Cross.  In Him you behold what gentleness, humility, and kindness truly are, and you learn that such grace and mercy are the glory of God.  And they are the glory of His children, as well.

The Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus are His yoke and burden, which He bears for you and for all in faith and love.  But how on earth is that by any means a “light” and “easy” thing?

It is not a light and easy yoke or burden for your mortal body of flesh and blood.  His suffering was painful and real, even unto death, and so also for you and all His disciples, who are called to take up His Cross and follow Him.  But it is a light and easy yoke to bear within your heart, mind, and spirit before God, by faith in His Gospel, when you know and trust His forgiveness of sins, His Resurrection and His Righteousness, and His promise of eternal life with Him in body and soul.

The Lord Jesus bore the Cross and suffered death in the confidence that His Father would raise Him from the dead, vindicate Him, and glorify Him forever at His Right Hand — and that by His Cross and Resurrection He would atone for your sins, reconcile you and all the world to His God and Father, and open the Kingdom of heaven to all who believe and are baptized into Him.  That was the joy that was set before Him, for which His yoke was “easy” and His burden was “light.”  And so also for those who follow Him, who live and love and work and suffer by faith in Him.

Think of the holy martyrs, among whom St. Matthias has been counted, along with most of the Apostles and countless other Christians.  Even the pagans marveled at the way these faithful men, women, and children went bravely to suffering and death.  They forgave those who hurt them.  They were at peace.  They suffered great cruelty against themselves rather than forsake the Lord.

Their peace and rest, their light and easy yoke and burden, was not that which their bodies bore and suffered.  It was the peace in their heart, and the rest that Jesus gave to their souls through the forgiveness of their sins, the gift of free and full salvation by His grace, and the sure and certain hope and promise of the Resurrection in His own crucified and risen Body.

That is your peace and rest also.  For you also are a Christian.  You are baptized into Christ.  You take up the Cross and follow Him as a disciple.  And you are able to labor and work, to hurt, and to suffer, as though it were a light and easy burden, because you are in Christ, and He abides in you with His Spirit.  Thus are you uplifted by His Gospel, and so shall you not die but live in Him.

Are you weary?  Are you burdened?  Are you hard pressed and sorrowful?  Come to Christ and rest in His Peace.  Not by your own reason or strength, but by His Word and Spirit, as He and all His gifts are here poured out for you and given into your hands by the Ministry of His Gospel.

How do you come to Him?  He is already here.  He has ascended on high, to the Right Hand of His Father, not to leave you, but to give good gifts to His Church on earth.  And first among those gifts are the holy Apostles, including St. Matthias.  Men who preached the Gospel.  Men who baptized in the Name of Jesus.  Men who fed His disciples with His own Body and Blood.  And the promise is for you and for your children.  For babies in the womb, and infants at the breast, and toddlers, and teenagers, and for all of the children of God in every age and season of life.

He gives good gifts to His Church.  He gives good gifts to you.  He cares for you.  He cares for His own.  In the same way that you are called and given to take care of your family, to work hard for the sake of love so that others may be served through your efforts, so has Christ given His Church, and your pastors, and your neighbors to love and serve you.  As a mother feeds her child, and as a father cares for his children, so does Christ care for you, and so does His Church also feed you.

See how His Church, His Body, is poured out in love.  And then consider the contrast to be found in the tragic example of Judas.  Called to be a disciple.  Ordained as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  But he turned aside from the House that Jesus built, to go to his own place, to take his own life, to be buried in the dirt.  It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.

St. Luke records that his intestines or his bowels gushed out, this one who betrayed the Lord Jesus and handed Him over for cash.  Yet, the same Lord Jesus Christ has handed Himself over in love.  His own bowels or intestines have churned with divine compassion for you and all people, even for His enemies, so that He sacrificed Himself and poured Himself out for the redemption of the world.  With His innocent suffering and death, by His holy and precious blood, He has purchased you, and won you for Himself, and made a place for you with His God and Father in heaven.

That is why, even though you die, yet shall you live.  That is why those who live in the Lord rest from their labors.  So shall it be at the last in their bodies, especially in the resurrection of the dead, but already do they have peace and rest in heart, mind, and spirit, by faith in the Gospel.

You also have that peace and rest.  It is yours both now and forever.  Your body shall rest at last, as your soul already rests in Christ.  And so do we remember and give thanks for St. Matthias and all the faithful departed, who now rest from all their labors.  They are not forgotten, neither by the Lord nor by His Church, for the Holy Spirit testifies that their works do follow after them.  Their works do not precede them or lead them into heaven, but their good works of faith and love do follow after them in Christ.  And so do your works follow after you by faith in Christ Jesus.

Indeed, you are Christ’s workmanship — you are His good work, a new creation by His Word and Holy Spirit — recreated in His Image for such good works as glorify your Father in heaven.  So do you now follow after Him, through death and the grave, into the Resurrection and eternal Life.

You shall be with Him where He is, forever and ever, because He is here for you, even now.  He has come to give you peace and rest with His Body and His Blood, which are given and poured out for your body and your soul, for the forgiveness of all your sins, and for the Life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Finding Your Place with God in Christ

We cannot remember and rejoice in St. Matthias, the Apostle, without recalling and mourning for Judas, that wretched Apostle whom he replaced, who sold out the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

Like everyone else, Judas was looking for peace and rest.  But what he found was only despair.  In guilt and shame, anxiety and fear, he ended his own life in a suicide of soul and body.  In doing so, he abandoned his vocation and office and went to his own place of death and destruction.  Hence the sobering Word of Jesus, that it would have been better for that man had he never been born.

How is it with you?  Are you also looking for safety and security but failing to discover it?

Whatever the particulars of your situation, you do carry a heavy load, and you do get tired, surely, because you are crushed by sin and death, and you are tempted constantly to look for life and love in all the wrong places.  Yet, there is no real life or true love, nor any lasting peace and rest, until you rest in God your Creator by faith in Christ Jesus your Lord.  Apart from Him, your homestead and your household are desolate even while they persist, and you will not abide in them for long.

Examine yourself honestly, therefore, and ask yourself: How have you gone about seeking relief and satisfaction?  Is it by your own wisdom, works, and ingenuity?  You won’t find rest that way, because you won’t find God that way.  And it will not work for you to find or make “a place” for God in your life.  But, no, your place and your life must be found entirely and only in Him.

So, for example, with respect to your vocation and your place in the world, it is not the case that your calling and stations are means by which you are to achieve and obtain a life for yourself.  They are rather the way you are given to live the life that is yours by the grace of God, wherever He has put you and positioned you in relation to others.

But do you, then, go about your vocation and stations in life in faith and love, being content and at peace with God and with His good gifts of body and soul?  Or do you actually strive to make a life for yourself, a name and a place for yourself, whether by the manipulation and misuse of your office, or by moving outside of your God-given place in search of that which He has not given?

Are you driven by the pursuit of wealth or by the lusts and passions of your flesh?  By ambitions of fortune and fame?  By recreation and pleasure?  Or simply by a desire to be left alone?  What is your personal Tower of Babel, your stairway to heaven?  For what do you sell out the Lord?

The fact still remains, that you’ll not find what you’re looking for, not really — you’ll not find life and love, nor peace and rest — not apart from the Lord your God.  And you won’t find God by any wisdom, reason, strength, or intelligence of your own.  Indeed, you’ll not find God at all till He finds you and addresses you with His Word, His Law and His Gospel.  You’ll not find Him at all, except as He reveals Himself and gives Himself to you in the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus.

So He has, and so He does.  But how?

The one true God has hidden Himself and His righteousness from the prying eyes of fallen man.  He has hidden Himself and His Kingdom from the wise and intelligent, from the grown-ups and the self-accomplished, from the independent do-it-yourself-ers.

But He reveals and gives Himself to the nursing babies, to infants and toddlers, to the handicapped and simple-minded, who are so small and weak and utterly dependent on others to care for them.

And so does He reveal and give Himself, likewise, to those who are like little children — that is, to those who are reduced to nothing in contrition and repentance, who live by faith alone in the providence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Father makes known the Son, and the Son makes known the Father, to those who by the Holy Spirit recognize their sin, their weakness, and their utter need for everything, and who by grace believe the Word and promises of God, that He will help and save them in His mercy, forgive them all their sins, and give them life with Himself.

That is how the true God is, and that is how He deals with you — for Jesus’ sake.  It is the good pleasure and the gracious good will of God that He makes Himself known in love; that He bestows life and salvation, not to the great and powerful, but to the One who is gentle and humble.

Which means, in the first place — and everything else pertaining to life and godliness depends on this point — that the one true God is both hidden and revealed in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended to the Right Hand of the Father in heaven.  For He has come in mercy, in meekness and compassion, to lay down His body and life for your salvation.

This one Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone, reveals the Father to you by His grace.  He does it by His Word and in His own Body of flesh and blood.  He does it by His Means of Grace through the Ministry of His Gospel, wherein your Savior and your God is both hidden from your senses and revealed to faith alone: from the waters of His Baptism to the fruits of His Cross and Resurrection.

Indeed, that is the very point and purpose of the holy office which Judas abandoned and to which St. Matthias was called and ordained by the Lord (as a precursor and prerequisite to Pentecost): That by the apostolic doctrine and fellowship, by the Ministry of the Word, and in the Breaking of the Bread, you should know the Lord Jesus and belong to Him as a member of His Body.

Now, then, are you weak and weary, weighed down, and burdened?  Do not deny that you are — by your sin and its consequences, by your mortality and the perishing of your flesh.  But do not despair or lose heart, either!  Rather, repent of your sins, and come to Jesus.  Take His yoke upon you.  Learn from Him the Way of Life and of Love everlasting.

Sounds good, right?  But where and how do you do this?  What does it even mean, exactly?  And what does it look like in actual practice to believe in Jesus Christ your Lord and come to Him?

It is a passive activity.  An active passivity.  It is not what you accomplish, but what you receive.

Hear and heed the preaching of the Word of Christ.  Listen to Him!  That is the key, as the Father has told you on the Mountain, and as the Father now speaks to you by His Son.

Receive and make use of the good gifts that Christ Jesus freely gives you by the Ministry of His Gospel in His Church.  You won’t save yourself by the good work of going to Church, as those who don’t go often protest.  But it’s a start.  And it’s far more certain that you won’t save yourself by not going.  For it is within the life of the Church in the Means of Grace that the Father reveals the Son and pours out the Spirit upon you in Him, and the Son brings you to the Father in Himself.

So give attention to His preaching and teaching, and follow Him by faith in His Word.  Confess and pray what He has spoken.  Remember your Baptism, and bring your children to be baptized, to be taught, and to practice what the Lord Jesus has commanded.  Live content wherever He has stationed you in this body and life, doing whatever it is He has given you to do there in love for Him and for your neighbors.  Carry out your duties faithfully, in obedience to His Word, trusting that He forgives your failings and raises you daily from death to righteousness and life in Him.

What all of this means, and what it looks like, to say it simply, is received in and with the Cross of Christ.  As He Himself was crucified, dead, and buried, and as St. Matthias and almost all of the Apostles were martyred for their confession of Christ, so are you also put to death in order to live.

You are crucified with Christ by daily contrition and repentance to begin with.  So also do you bear the burdens of your office, and you suffer the sin and sorrows of your neighbors.  And perhaps you will be persecuted in some sense.  In various ways, you share the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But how can He describe that Cross as a light and easy burden?  What kind of rest is that?

Well, dear friend of Jesus, it is peace and rest for your soul, even in the midst of adversity, and it shall be the resurrection of your body, as well, at the last and forevermore.  For in His own gentle humility, even unto death, Christ Jesus has atoned for your sins, conquered death, and reconciled you to the Father in heaven by the way and means of His Cross.

And in His Resurrection and Ascension, He has established a place for you, a home and a family in His Church, in heaven and on earth.  Here and now, under the Cross and from the Cross, He gives to you His good gifts: Apostles and Prophets in His Holy Scriptures, pastors and teachers in His Pulpit and at His Altar, to serve you with the Gospel of His Atonement and His Righteousness, to forgive you all your sins in His Name and stead, and to give you Peace and Rest in His Body.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.