Lent 1

Luke 10:17-20 - Invocavit Sunday - March 9, 2014
Rejoice in This!

This morning we give special attention also to these words from the 10^th chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus had sent out seventy men to the places where he himself was about to go.  We read in Jesus’ name:

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”  And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” 

These are your words holy Father; sanctify us by the truth; your word is truth.  Amen. 

The reason we are sinners is because the devil is a liar, and because our first parents believed his lie.  Now, we could curse them and complain about the misfortune they have caused us.  But before we do, we need to understand the proper definition of original sin.  We call it original sin not simply because it was the first sin committed by man.  We call it original sin because it is the origin of all the other sins we commit.  Original sin is the sin that all sinners of all time are equally guilty of.  We inherit sin not as a genetic defect that is not our fault.  No, we inherit sin as rebels who conspired with our first parents against God and his word.  Spiritually speaking, we were there with Adam consenting to what the devil was saying, and rejecting what God had spoken.  In other words, if it had been any one of us in the Garden with the devil, the story would be the same. 

Lent 1

Matthew 4:1-11- Invocavit, Lent I - February 17, 2013

To Keep You in All Your Ways

The eternal Son of God became Man and placed Himself under the law to redeem humanity whom the law condemned. 

Jesus did not pretend to humble Himself.  He didn’t pretend to be an ordinary man in order to put on some sort of show of heroism and holiness.  No, He was truly humbled.  In His mercy and wisdom, He declined to make full use of His divine prerogatives as the eternal Son of God in order that He might, as a man, fulfill what we could not.  This is a mystery.  And it means not only that, although He was God, Jesus hungered and thirsted as a man—and that He got tired and slept.  It means also that, as a man, He trusted the word of God.  He trusted the word of God as one who needed the word of God, as one who had no strength apart from it.  He relied on it completely.  Jesus did not claim a relationship with the Father other than the relationship that the Father revealed by speaking His word.  Think of that! When Jesus prayed, He didn’t take a break from His state of humiliation in order to tap into some spiritual connection unavailable to you and me.  No.  He prayed as one who believed God’s promise to hear Him.  “Call upon Me in the day of trouble.  I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15).  Jesus believed this.  That’s why He prayed so much. 

And talk about the day of trouble.  Our Gospel lesson this morning sums up for us what trouble does—what trouble looks like when the devil’s wiles and cunning afflict the weakness of human flesh.   It wasn’t just a generic trouble that Jesus faced, like some obstacle course.  It was an attack specifically designed against the Son of God.  The attacks of the devil that Jesus faced are not the attacks that the unbelieving world experiences.  They are the attacks that only he experiences who can rightly call himself a child of God.  They are the temptations of a Christian.  The devil attacks those whom God has claimed. 

Lent 1

Psalm 32 [Matthew 4:1-11] - Invocavit, Lent I - February 26, 2012 

Blessed Is He Whose Transgression Is Forgiven

A while back there was a popular movie that I remember watching.  In it, the main character was a crooked lawyer who made a living getting criminals off the hook.  But then something magical happened that made it impossible for this man to tell lies.  A lawyer who couldn’t lie.  Well it made for a pretty funny movie at least.  In one scene, right after this lawyer lost his ability to lie, a faithful customer of his called him on the phone.  He had just committed yet another crime, and, wanting to avoid punishment, he asked for legal advice.  He received from his lawyer, however, a helplessly honest response: “Quit breaking the law!” 

What good advice.  There are consequences to breaking the law.  It’s wise to obey it.  When one obeys the law, he has nothing to fear from those who enforce it.  We avoid all sorts of punishment by doing what the one who is able to punish tells us to do. 

It’s the same with the law of God.  The law teaches us how to live good and pleasing life before God and man.  Scripture teaches us that those who do according to what God’s law demands will live; those who don’t will die.  We don’t.  Therefore, the law reveals in us exactly what the law condemns.  And the wages of what it reveals is death.  This is the relationship between the law and the sinner.