Pious Lutheran

Women at the Empty Tomb , Fra Angelico, 1439 Do not be Alarmed for He has Risen Christians feel very defeated these days The Crucified One is risen Instead of being defeated, we Christians are in fact victorious Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Oh rejoice ye Christians loudly! Christ has risen from the dead! Let the bells ring and the organ pipes sing with jubilation! Let our voices be raised with loud shouts of Hallelujah! This is the day for celebration and jubilation, since today is the heart of Christianity, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is the highest feast and holiday, outshining all the others. This feast is so great it’s the basis for why we gather every Sunday, since every Sunday we are celebrating the resurrection. Every Sunday is, in a sense, Easter! The whole year therefore is crowned with the joy of Easter. Yet the typical mindset of a Christian these days is very similar to the mindset prevalent among the women who first reached t...

Ecce Homo,  Caravaggio, 1605 Behold your King! His kingdom is not of this world His glory is His crucifixion He rules by bearing witness to the truth Out stepped Jesus, wearing a crown of twisted thorns and a purple robe, while soldiers spit on Him, hit Him, and mockingly paid homage to Him: “ Hail, King of the Jews! ” Pilate brought Him before the people, declaring: “ Behold your King! ” Stripping Him naked He was nailed to the cross, and above His head a sign was posted: “ Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. ” Soon the veils will be removed from the crosses here, and we too will gaze upon the cross. The words of Pilate ring out into our ears: “ Behold your King! ” Christ is King! This notion brought great anger to the crowd of Jews. “ If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes Himself a king opposes Caesar. ” They went so far as to confess: “ We have no king but Caesar. ” For them the only kingdom they wanted was an earthly kingdom. They wanted ...

Last Supper , Jacopo Bassano, 1546 Food that Matters Food is important to us This Lord’s Supper is more important We want to eat healthful food The Lord’s Supper is medicine of immortality, except to those who eat unworthily Food is kind of a big deal. We eat it every day. We have multiple rooms in our houses dedicated to food. The most frequented stores sell food, like grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations. When we get together with others one of the central activities is typically eating. Even our churches have kitchens and dining rooms as big as our sanctuaries. Food is kind of a big deal in the Bible, too. The opening chapters of Genesis are about God creating a world to feed us with, and Adam and Eve falling into sin with the action of eating wrongly. Throughout the Bible food is everywhere, from Old Testament dietary laws to the heavenly wedding feast in Paradise with the Lamb of God. Today we heard about one of the most significant events among the Israelites, the Exodus...

Give Us Barabbas , 1910 Jesus takes the place of a Criminal Jesus took the place of Barabbas Jesus took our place His blood is on us and on our children I really appreciate the story of Barabbas. Barabbas is legitimately a criminal; he’s an insurrectionist and a murderer. Jesus is charged with insurrection, but is innocent and everyone knows it. Barabbas deserves to die, but he goes free. Jesus deserves to live, and he is crucified. Jesus takes the place of a criminal. This story of Barabbas is actually a very beautiful parallel to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This was the most solemn feast among God’s people in the Old Testament. This was the one day of the year when the high priest entered the holy of holies in the temple or tabernacle. On this day two male goats were taken. One of those goats was to be taken for the sin offering, and the other was the scapegoat.The goat which was to be offered for sin was sacrificed and its blood was sprinkled in the temple to make atonement be...

Job and His Friends , Ilya Repin, 1869 As Christ Suffered, So Shall We Job Suffered He suffered because He was blameless and upright, feared God, and turned away from evil His suffering was good because  through it God proved Job’s faith Jesus suffered He had not sinned, and was not punished for His sins, yet He suffered His suffering was good because it results in our salvation We suffer We are sinners, and we suffer, but not necessarily because of specific sins This suffering is good because it strengthens us and prepares us for our salvation Why do people suffer? People tend to think of it like karma. If you do bad things, bad things happen to you. If you do good things, good things happen to you. To some extent this is true, there are consequences for your actions. If you’re a criminal, the consequence may be that you go to jail. However, life doesn’t always work so simply. It’s not a one to one correlation, where bad things happen to you because you did bad things, or you’re s...

St. Patrick Preaching to the Kings,  Franz Borgias Mayer, 19th Century God’s Judgment God is the judge Judgment carried out on Jesus, the Lamb of God We bind unto ourselves Jesus and His word, therefore, Jesus was our substitute “ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and He is the judge. ” God is the judge. I hear it said occasionally: “Don’t judge me, only God judges me.” That’s entirely true, God will judge all of us. However, people usually say that meaning they don’t want anyone to be critical of their lifestyle or behaviors, and they think God’s judgment will be very lenient and easy. But, that’s not really the case. We read in Hebrews: “ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ” Jesus told us that He is the judge, and the Lord will judge His people. “ Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. ” Indeed, the wages of sin is death. We are the heirs of Adam and Eve’s sin, and also the heirs of death.  Or as it again says in...

The Crucifixion,  end of 15th Century Christ’s suffering as proof of God’s love for us The greatest love is Christ’s love for us from the cross We abide in Christ’s love when we love God and others When we abide in Christ, we are attached to the vine and we live in Him Fairytales of today are filled with stories of true love. Of course we know this fairytale love is romantic love, and specifically it’s that feeling of emotional excitement for the other person. There’s nothing wrong with that emotionally excited love, because God has created us to feel that emotional excitement at the beginning of marriage. We have a whole book of the Bible, Song of Songs, that delves into that excited romantic love between a husband and a wife. This romantic love is a beautiful thing! It is good, nevertheless, to recognize the limitations and weaknesses of that excited romantic love. First and foremost being, it’s a flash in the pan, and it burns hot for a while and then settles down. Because of it...