Throughout the Lenten season this year, we have talked about some of the saints, the holy people, those set apart in Christ by faith in Him.  In the end, we remember them not because of the accomplishments that they made, or their mark on history. We remember them because of Christ and His work for them and through them in their lives.  We remember them because they are ones for whom Christ suffered and died.

Tonight, we heard again the Passion of Christ, and we are reminded that this was not for those who were better believers, those who did fantastic things worthy of the history books, but that Jesus died for sinners.  Sinners like you and me. The perfect Son of God, the Light of the world, snuffed out because of our sinfulness, hung on the cross in between two criminals, identifying with us, and being punished for it.  This is how much God hates sin, that He would send His own Son to die because of it.  This is also how much God loves His children.

Pilate brought Jesus out before the murderous crowds near the end of Jesus’ trial and he proclaimed, “Behold the man.”  This mockery emphasized Christ’s weakness and vulnerability. St. Paul writes in Philippians 2, “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).  Behold the man, stricken smitten and afflicted.  Behold the man dying on the tree.  Behold the man, innocent in the sight of God and before men, yet suffering for the guilty. Behold the man who lived the perfect life that God’s people could not. Behold the man, who dies the death all humankind deserves. 

It's very fitting that we hear these words today, as well, because this year March 25 is not only Good Friday, it is also the Feast of the Annunciation.  This coincidence will not happen again for another 141 years.  The Annunciation is when the angels appeared to the Virgin Mary to announce to her that the she would be the mother of Jesus. Luke 1:31-32a, 35 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

Now, the reason why this is significant is that it nicely ties in Jesus’ conception and His death, the beginning of His incarnation and His atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.  For this is the reason why the Son of God became man, so that He could die for all men and for our salvation.  We behold not just the man.  Behold the Son of God made man, the Holy One of God, incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, and who now lives and reigns to all eternity. Behold the Son of God made man, the Holy One who took the wrath of God upon Himself that you might be declared justified in the sight of the Father, pure and holy in the eyes of God. Behold the Son of God made man, for when God looks at you, though your sin be as scarlet as the blood that flowed from Jesus’ side, He beholds Christ. God sees not your sin, but holiness of His Christ in you.

Behold, the life giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the world.  Jesus was made to carry His cross that He would be crucified on.  Physically, emotionally, that must have been a horrible burden.  He’s carrying the very thing He was to be killed on.  But spiritually, it was even worse.  Because He lifted the weight of more than a wooden cross.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  He bore the weight of all my sin, of all of your sin, of all the sin that has ever been committed and ever will be on his back as He climbed up to Golgotha, onto Mt. Calvary. 

So here we are, guilty as charged.  Like the women and the disciple whom Jesus loved stood before Jesus as he was hung on the cross, we behold the man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.  We have nothing to offer to God except our sinfulness.  That little white lie you told the other day might as well have been the hammer that drove the nail a little deeper in Jesus’ wrist.  Those bad thoughts you had about your spouse, or parents, or the guy who cut you off while driving, those might have well been the thorns that dug deeper into His head.  When you did that thing you knew was wrong, and yet were all alone and you knew that nobody would ever find out it, that might as well could have been your chant, “Crucify Him.  Crucify Him.” 

When we come face to face with the presence of sin in our lives – no matter how carefully we have sought to conceal it from ourselves, from others, and from God – we are afraid, too. None of us are untouched by sin. We all have a desire to be considered better than we really are. We all want to be valued for what we are able to do. We have nothing to deserve Jesus taking our place.  And yet God the Father gives us God the Son to stand in our place.  This is the God that we have.  A God who offers His own Son to die in our place so that we might live. Through faith in Him, Christ puts us on His body, because He carried the punishment for our sins, and pours the Gospel in our wounds, He then binds them up, covers them and forgives our sins. (Chemnitz, quoting Melanchthon, Loci Theologici I, 492)

Behold, the man, the Son of God.  On the cross, Jesus hung and died, finishing what He came to do.  On the cross, Jesus purchased our way into eternal life.  On the cross, in earthly suffering, God offered spiritual healing.  On the cross, in physical death, God offers eternal life. John 6:68-69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.”

Saints of God, those redeemed by the blood of Christ and declared righteous by His holy death – grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Tonight, we are here for the beginning of the Sacred Triduum. As the saints of God, we are here to receive the gifts of God in Jesus Christ. We come here tonight as people who are needy, broken, worn down and wore out, sinners in need of forgiveness.  Some of feel and experience this more than others.  Sickness and poverty are all around us.  Pain and suffering are our constant companions. And all our good works, all our efforts, all our worries and grasps for control, at best, are sacrifices that only stave off the inevitable approach of death. In the midst of this, we bow down today in humble worship, remembering our Lord Jesus Christ on the night in which He was betrayed, where the Devil began to do his worst to the Son of God, and wherein Christ institutes a holy gift for His holy people.

We know where this is all going. We know the outcome. We hear the Word of God and by hearing again of Jesus’ passion and resurrection, faith is delivered and strengthened.  We know that Easter is coming. This is the reality behind all of our ceremonies, all our holidays, all our prayers and songs and praise.  This lies behind the Sacraments. We don’t baptize into a memory. We are baptized, present tense, into the living Christ, the one who is the life of the world.   We aren’t eating the dead flesh of our God, we aren’t cannibals.  We partake of the risen, living body and the risen living blood of Jesus Christ, that which is given, is poured out, for you.

To receive this gift of God is to receive Jesus’ suffering and death as the atoning sacrifice for one’s sins. To refuse to recognize Christ’s body and blood in the Holy Meal is to court condemnation. We treat God’s Word very seriously about this, and wish that no one would harm themselves by receiving it without faith, or make a false confession of faith. Sharing in Christ’s suffering and death is only means to glory. As the Church now proclaims the Lord’s death until He comes in our reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, we are bound together as the new creation, the body of Christ, a holy people sustained by the holy gifts of God.

What makes this meal so special, what makes it and every Lord’s Supper miraculous are Jesus’ words spoken over the bread and wine: “This is my body… This is my blood.” His Word is sure and certain, it does what it says, and delivers the goods. The provision of these holy gifts in the Supper bestows the forgiveness of sins and new life with God, based on Jesus’ death. This meal is the new Passover by which He establishes a new community that will celebrate this meal in remembrances of His death and resurrection in anticipation of His return.

Today we remember the holy desire of Christ to give Himself to us in His body and blood for our forgiveness. It’s a gift He continues to give unto eternity. Jesus still gathers His holy people, His saints, around a table, welcomes sinners, and gives to us the body that was on the cross and the blood that ran from his pierced hands, feet, and side, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of a world. 

Luke points us tonight to Jesus’ death as the sacrificial Passover lamb who fulfills the sacrifices of the Old Testament and who unites us to Himself in this way. The Passover lamb whose blood atones for all is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This isn’t just any Passover, but Jesus’ Passover, because on this night, the Lamb who must be sacrificed stands on the threshold of the new era of salvation. After this Passover, there is no need for the Jews to celebrate it anymore because Christ is our Passover. He interprets the food at the meal, the story of the Exodus, the broken bread and the cup of blessing in terms of Himself. Jesus’ words to His disciples is a prophecy of what He will do, in a greater way, on the cross and then in the Church’s celebration of the His Supper. It is the final fulfillment of the Exodus, wherein God frees us from our slavery to sin.  Because of what Jesus does through His Word, both then and now, He instructs His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

In this holy meal, God remembers us for Christ’s sake.  Every time God showers His holy people with gifts, it is because He remembers His promises in Christ to save us.  This is especially true in Holy Communion, wherein these divine gifts are the body and blood of Christ for our forgiveness. As we receive the benefits of Christ’s perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection, God remembers us for Christ’s sake as He bestows a holy thing to His holy people. This then is the cause of our remembrance – God gives, we receive, and we remember Him in faith as we respond in love to Him and toward our neighbor.

As God reminds and we remember, eternity unfolds in time. The eternal life of Christ is present by His grace, which will usher us into the eternal state.  This Sacrament, this Holy Meal, is the most important meal from Eden to the End. For it delivers unto us, the very body and blood of Christ, offered up in death on the cross and now given with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

Our eating of this Supper, from Easter to the Last Day, is an act of table fellowship between God and man celebrating that the kingdom of God has come and is present.  It is in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper that the fulfillment of Jesus’ promises come to us, are delivered to us, are kept in us.  God’s kingdom comes to us, while we also anticipate, we have a foretaste of, the final day when Christ will bring all His saints to the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which shall have no end. Amen.

Palm Sunday prayer from Byzantine Vespers, “Passing from one divine feast to another, from palms and branches, let us now make haste, O faithful, to the solemn and saving celebration of Christ’s passion Let us behold him undergo voluntary suffering for our sake, And let us sing to him with thanksgiving a fitting hymn: “Fountain of tender mercy and haven of salvation, O Lord, glory to you!”

Shortly after Jesus entered into Jerusalem a week before His resurrection, some Greeks wanted to see Jesus.  After such a reception that He had as He entered Jerusalem, it comes as no surprise that they first approached some of His disciples.  Eventually, word got to Jesus that they wanted to see Him, and He responded, “If anyone serves Me, He must follow Me; and Where I am, there will My servant be also.” 

As Christians, we often talk about following Jesus.  Some in fact, refer to Jesus follower.  Usually thought of as following His example. What would Jesus do, sort of thing.  Now, to be sure, Jesus does serve as an example to us. We hear of His miracles, His teaching, His passion. He is the perfect son of God, and we are called to be imitators of Him in our way of life.

But is this what being a Jesus’ follower is all about?  Is it simply about a moral code of conduct, of suffering for doing the right thing?  Is being a Christian simply a life of imitation?  Ultimately, though, these words of our Lord are not words of the Law. They are not a burden that our Savior puts on us in order to show us how to be “good Christians.” These words are Jesus are pure Gospel, and invitation to faith, to life, to see Jesus only.

When learning to walk, people sometimes look at their own feet to make sure they don’t trip over themselves.  Their eyes are cast downward, to their own steps, their own direction. You can’t see where you are going if you’re looking at your own feet and in our sin we are too full of ourselves to look at anything else. Through faith, God’s Spirit lifts our eyes to see only Jesus.

So we follow Jesus this week as we start off the holiest of weeks in the year. We follow Jesus as He enters Jerusalem.  We follow Jesus to the upper room where He and His disciples eat of the Passover meal and Jesus institutes His Supper. We will follow Jesus to the garden of Gethsemane and hear His prayer. He will follow Him through His arrest, His trial, His beatings. And we will follow Him to the cross.

At the beginning of Holy Week, Jesus knew where He was going and what His outcome would be.  He spoke to His disciples foreshadowing His death and His resurrection.  We know where this is all going. We know the outcome. We know that Easter is coming. This is the reality behind all of our ceremonies, all our holidays, all our prayers and songs and praise.  That is what lies behind today, as well. We hear again of these critical accounts of what our Lord Jesus went through in order for us to be saved. The events of Holy Week, our walk following Jesus’ footsteps, aren’t just retelling a historical story.  We aren’t involved in a passion play, it’s not a reenactment of what Jesus went through, but a time to reflect upon Christ and His passion, and that it is all for us, for the forgiveness of our sins, for our life and salvation.  And that He delivers these to us, here and now,

So we too may reflect on this happy outcome. Christ has defeated sin and death.  And through faith in Him, by means of His Word and Sacrament, He delivers that to us here and now, to deliver and preserve us in the true faith.  So as we look to Jesus this week, by faith, we know that our afflictions, that our sadness and loss, has an outcome. There is an end in sight, a blessed end, whether here in time or there in eternity. God will end the cross of the godly and turn it to their advantage at death, for then we shall obtain the crown, the white robe, and the joy of eternal life all because of Jesus. 

Jesus is the only grounds for our justification.  Just as a man, when faith awakens, ceases to look at himself and sees nothing but Jesus only, so God also looks not upon the man who believes nor does He see his indwelling corruption and his sins, for they are atoned for by Jesus.

Sin always remains, yet is always atoned for!  It is a blessed thing when the faithful soul in prayer fixes His eyes of faith on Jesus only; when he does not look about him to lay hold on his own scattered thoughts, nor behind him at Satan who threatens him with the thought that his prayer is in vain, nor within him at his sloth and lack of devotion; but looks up to Jesus only, who sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. Jesus is the strength of the Christian, who fights the war against the corruption of your heart and minds, for which there is no cure on heaven or earth except Jesus only.

Our conscience, our own anxiety, all the slaves of the law bid us go the way of obedience to the very end in order to find peace with God. But the way of obedience has no end. It lies endlessly before you, bringing continually more severe demands. If you seek peace on that road, you will not find peace, but the debt of your sins is too great. But now Christ is the end of the law; the road ends at His feet, and here His righteousness is offered to everyone who believes. It is to that place, to Jesus only, that God wishes to drive you this week. Jesus only, the foundation of our faith, and Christian, a follower of Jesus, sees nothing else, believes in nothing else, builds his hope on nothing else than Jesus.

Do not ask to be like this or that person, but pray that you may be like Jesus.  Do not attempt to imitate the gifts of others or their measure of grace, but walk in your Savior’s footsteps.  Don’t skip over Holy Week, don’t miss out on Thursday and Friday as we gather together in worship and in remembrance of Him. But also don’t stay there, in the dark, nor at the cross. The Church celebrate Holy Week as one unified liturgical experience centered in salvation’s great event, the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Christ.

Some of this came sermon comes from the chaper, "Jesus Only" by Bo Giertz, in The Hammer of God

The events in today's Gospel happened on the Tuesday of Holy Week.  This was midway between that triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the arrest in Gethsemane a couple of days later.  This was Jesus’ last public appearance in the temple.  The next time He came into the temple, it would be under guard in order to appear before the Sanhedrin before they sent Him to Pontius Pilate for crucifixion. It’s here that Jesus speaks a parable familiar to our ears, that about a vineyard.

Jesus tells of a man who plants a vineyard and let it out to tenants This setting would have been something that all the people would understand.  Renting out vineyards was a common practice just as renting out farm land is common today. Most of the people who listened to the story would quickly know that the vineyard represented God's people. This was a common picture throughout the history of God’s people.   The owner of the vineyard would be God the Father.  The tenants who cared for the vineyard represented the Jewish religious establishment including the scribes and the chief priests who were in the crowd listening.  The servants who came looking for the fruit of the vineyard were God's prophets.  The owner's son would be none other than Jesus Himself.

The meaning of this is fairly simple and we all have heard it before.  This parable is God’s salvation history.  God is the owner sending his servants over and over again, the prophets to his people Israel and they are killed by them.  Until finally God sends His Son, but the same fate comes to Him. As the wicked tenants threw the son outside the vineyard and then killed him in the efforts to gain the inheritance for themselves, so also the corrupt Jewish leaders sent Jesus out of town to die on a cross. 

But that doesn’t stop God.  What man had intended for evil, God used for the good of all.  Jesus quotes from Psalm 118, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  Jesus, who was the rejected stone, conquered sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy life, His suffering, His death on a cross, and His resurrection from the dead.  Unlike the son in the parable who stayed dead, Jesus Christ, the stone, who was rejected, didn't stay dead.  He is now the living cornerstone for me, for you and for all who believe.  This is the Gospel message which we pass on.  1 Corinthians 1:23-24 "²³We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Well, that vineyard can also stand for the church today.  We may not kill the prophets, but we all too easily allow them to gather dust as they lie about on coffee tables and bookshelves.  Today, the words of the prophets live in the pages of our Bibles and all we have to do to shut them up is place them back on the shelf.  The people who killed the prophets might have thought they hated the prophets, but in reality, they hated the Word of God that spilled out of their mouths.  They hated the constant reminder that they were sinners in need of God's grace.  The only way they could get rid of those words was to kill the body that they came in.  We may not kill the prophets, but we can do something far easier: ignore them.  All we need to do to reject the message from the owner is to stay home on Sunday morning and keep God’s Word on the bookshelf.

Invitation to re-grasp what we lose sight of easily.  It’s easy to forget a basic and underlying truth.  Why does our congregation exist?  To bear fruit, which belongs to the owner of the vineyard.  The pastor serves as the tenant farmer sent to work in the church and give God what is His.  This church isn’t my church.  The church doesn’t belong to the Ministry Council or to the Board of Elders.  This is God’s field. He has planted faith by the proclamation of the Word. He waters and nourishes by Baptism and Communion.  He expects the fruits of His labor to flourish, fruit of the Spirit, fruit of sharing the love of Christ, fruit of growing as God’s people and vineyard.

There is no hint that the vineyard not is being fruitful.  It’s that those in position of authority who should be sharing the fruit aren’t willing to give it.  You don’t have to look very far to see that corruption of the sinful nature still affects those in leadership positions in the church.  It seems like there’s a never-ending media frenzy of clergy cover-ups, abuse, and sin.  But’s it not just them. Everyone of us here struggles with the sinner inside of us who wishes nothing else than to steal what belongs to God, to hoard it for ourselves, to take the inheritance and make it ours by our own self-righteous efforts.

While we don’t always bear the fruit we should, and are tempted to hoard the fruits of faith we bear for our own glory, we have a Savior who suffered extreme rejection for us and is now alive and the true object of saving faith.  The rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone shows us that all is not lost.  Rejection has, and will, occur.  Zion Lutheran Church could crumble and fall apart.  Christianity could disappear from America.  Lutheranism could disappear from the world.  But even if it did, God’s Church will go on.  God’s mission will succeed, regardless of rejection.  Rejected by the religious leaders of the day, God exalts the Son, and builds His Church upon that Rock.  One may stumble over the rock or be crushed by it.  All who reject Christ will feel its sharpness and pain.  And yet upon this rock, God plants and builds His vineyard.  God’s vineyard will exist, even if He is the only worker.  God’s vineyard, the Church, will produce fruit.  Because the son of the owner, Jesus Himself, is the cornerstone that establishes God’s Church forever.

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Coming Home to the Father

Fourth Sunday in Lent C

March 6, 2015

There’s no denying. Our families shape us profoundly.  The family is the primary place where life is lived, where we learn what it means to love and to be loved, of how we should treat others and what we should expect from others.  There’s no greater joy, nor any deeper hurt, that what is experienced in our families. For good, bad, or somewhere in between, our families are part of who we are.

It is not surprising, then, that the Lord told a parable about a family in today’s Gospel lesson.  It’s fitting that we hear of this parable again during the Lenten season in order to help us see more clearly who we are in relation to our Heavenly Father.  For no matter how far we have run away from our identity as the beloved children of God, He desires to have His family whole.  He runs to greet the repentant sinner and welcomes us back into the family.

Certainly no one in that time and place would have expected the father in the story to do anything like that.  Even the prodigal son didn’t expect to be welcomed back in that way.  He came back asking for a place as servant, not out of a false sense of humility, but because he knew he had no right nor did he deserve to be a son.  He had squandered that relationship, that family, when he basically told his father that he meant nothing to him but a source of money.  And since the old man would not hurry up and die, he wanted the money now.  And he got what he wanted, with all the immorality and loss that came with it.  No one treated him like a son, no one would welcome him to be part of their family, no more family dinners except out of the pig trough.

In all parts of our lives, Christ calls us to holy joy, not to self-indulgence that alienates us from Him and even from our true selves. That was what happened to the prodigal son.  After abandoning his father and family for the love of money, he was so addicted to pleasure that he ended up literally in a pig sty with no human dignity at all. And since the Jews considered pigs to be unclean, the Lord makes clear that this fellow had truly hit rock bottom.

At that point, the young man came to himself and realized what he had done and how wretched he was.  He knew he had rejected his family, that he had sinned against heaven and before his father.  But maybe, just maybe, he could bargain with the old man and be welcomed back as a servant. And so he headed home. 

While he was still far off, his father saw him coming.  Notice, the father doesn’t stand and wait, but he runs to embrace his wayward son.   He did not speak a critical word to the young man, but only showed him love and rejoices that a lost son had returned home, that one who was dead to him had been restored to life.

This familiar parable should make us uncomfortable, for it reveals truths that we would rather not acknowledge.  Namely, we are all prodigal sons and daughters, having foolishly rejected our true identity as God’s beloved children.  We have all placed pride and self-centered desire before preserving a proper relationship with our Father and our brothers and sisters. And as a result, we have all made ourselves and others miserable in ways large and small.

Perhaps we cannot imagine something like that happening to us, but we must be careful not to minimize or treat our sins lightly.  We can ruin any human relationship through self-centeredness or thoughtlessness, no matter how ordinary our thoughts, words, and deeds may seem.  Selfish desires, choosing our own comforts over the well being of others.  Bothered the with the responsibilities of being a spouse, a parent, a Christian.  In doing such things, we alienate ourselves even from God. No matter how big or small the sin, a sinful life, a life lived according to the flesh is nothing but living as though God were dead, as though He were no longer our Father and we were no longer His children.  If we do not recognize ourselves in the prodigal son, then we really need to wake up and put ourselves in the place where we can begin the journey home to the Father. Otherwise, we will end up in a pig sty of one kind or another, enslaved to our sins and with no dignity, no joy, no place in the family of God.  There is no place in the family of God for those who live in persistent, unrepentant sin. There is no “welcome home” sign for those who reject the Father and want to play by their own rules.

As we journey through Lent, we learn from this parable that our sin separates us from God and from one another. Yet, we also learn that there are no limits to our Lord’s mercy, no restrains on His compassion or forgiveness for those who humbly take the journey home.  We must not avoid repentance out of fear that God will reject us, that we alone are somehow so wicked that He would never welcome us back.  Your sin is not so great that God will not forgive. Remember that the Father is not a harsh, stern, hateful judge who is out to get us.  Likewise, the Son did not come to condemn and punish but to save.  In Christ, God welcomes all who believe in Him and approach in humble repentance.

St. Paul puts it this way in our Epistle for today, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

While we may be wandering sons and daughters, Christ is the perfect Son of God and for His sake we are reconciled to the Father.  For while we deserve to live in the pig sty, Jesus was forsaken by the Father upon the cross that you and I might be welcomed home by Him through faith. While we are tempted to revel in our own debauchery and think that God would never welcome us, Christ died to forgive poor, miserable sinners.

We now have this message for the world – this good news of God’s reconciliation of the world to Himself by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. No matter the sin, no matter how far one has strayed, no matter how often and deeply rejecting God, when a repentant sinner turns from his sin and believes in Christ, the Father welcomes him with open arms for the sake of Christ. Come home to our Father through faith in Jesus Christ.

On March 7, in the year of our Lord 203, two young women along with three others were executed for breaking Roman law.  The Roman Emperor Septimus Severus forbade conversions to Christianity, though tolerated those who were born to Christian families. Among those disobeying that edict were Perpetua, a 22-year old married noblewoman and mother of an infant, and her pregnant maidservant Felicity. Both converted to Christianity, knowing that it could lead to persecution.  Shortly afterward, Perpetua’s father was frantic with worry and tried to talk her out of it. We can easily understand his concern. At 22 years old, this well-educated, high-spirited woman had every reason to want to live -- including a baby son who was still nursing. Perpetua's answer to her father was simple and clear. Pointing to a water jug, she asked her father, "See that pot lying there? Can you call it by any other name than what it is?" Her father answered, "Of course not." Perpetua responded, "Neither can I call myself by any other name than what I am – a Christian."

Now, this answer so upset her father that he attacked her. Perpetua reports that after that incident she was glad to be separated from him for a few days, even though that separation resulted in her arrest. Because of their defiance against breaking the law and amidst the claims of atheism for refusing to worship the Roman gods, these young women were jailed in their hometown of Carthage in North Africa.

There they awaited their death sentence. Because of Perpetua’s kind disposition and by the work of two deacons who ministered to the prisoners, her mother and brother and child were brought in to visit, easing some of her pain. 

Meanwhile, Felicity was also in torment. When she was arrested, she was 8 months pregnant and worried about the life of her unborn child.  Now, it was against the law for pregnant women to be executed. The Romans knew what our culture has forgotten. Life begins at conception, and to kill a child in the womb was the murder of an innocent.  She records that her concern was that she would not give birth before the day set for the death and her companions would go to martyrdom without her.  As it happened, two days before the execution, Felicity went into a painful labor. The guards made fun of her, insulting her by saying, "If you think you suffer now, how will you stand it when you face the wild beasts?" Felicity answered them calmly, "Now I'm the one who is suffering, but in the arena Another will be in me suffering for me because I will be suffering for him."  Shortly afterward, she gave birth to a girl who was adopted and raised by one of the Christian women of Carthage.

Then the day arrived, March 7, 203.  Five Christians were led into the arena to be met by wild beasts in front of a crowded stadium eager for bloody entertainment.  The men were attacked by bears, leopards, and wild boars.  The women were stripped of their clothes to face a rabid heifer. But when the crowds saw that Felicity had recently given birth, their were horrified, but only to point that the women were to be clothed first before thrown back into the arena.  Tradition holds that one of the guards was so impressed by the faith of these women as they faced death that he drew his sword to kill them quickly rather than to leave them to fate of the wild animals. Yet even in this, he could not bring himself to end the life of this noble woman.  Perpetua, staring into the face of an immanent death, showed mercy to her captors by falling on a sword after speaking her last words, “Stand fast in the faith and love one another.”  Then the other Christians had their throats cut before the blood thirsty crowd.  Apparently because of their faithfulness and their witness to Christ while imprisoned, their jailer likewise broke the law and converted to Christianity.  The story of their martyrdom has been told ever since as an encouragement to persecuted Christians, being so popular in the early centuries of Christianity that it was sometimes read during the liturgy.

We, thank God, are not likely to face such persecution and death for the Christian faith.  But that does not mean that our enemies do not attack, or that the way we face the great wild beast of death doesn’t matter. For it does. It matters not just for our sake, but it matters for the sake of others who are watching, who are hearing, who are witnesses to the hope that is within us, the hope of Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus faced the sentence, the imprisonment, the ridicule of death and a blood thirsty jeering crowd upon the cross. He looked the enemy of death in the face, kicked it in the teeth, and swallowed it up forever.  Death is overcome by life, and life flows from the love and mercy of God in Christ–all given to us as a free gift, all spoken to us to bear witness, all handed over to us as a treasure to hand over to the world, to friend and foe alike – for the sake of the salvation of many.

Every time a person comes to faith by the calling of the Holy Spirit through the Word, Satan is beaten down. Each time a sinner repents, each time the words of absolution are spoken, each time temptation is foiled by God’s Word, and each time a Christian rejects revenge and instead acts in love – even love for one’s enemies, God is to be praised.  As Jesus says in Luke 6, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you… But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:27-28, 35-36.  So we pray tonight, “Lord, have mercy.”  And He does have mercy on sinners.

This victory over the cross and the arena, over sin and the grave, over Satan and the sinful flesh is the very essence of the Christian life. It is why we are here tonight.  That victory is ours through faith in Jesus, and Perpetua’s final words in this life as words of encouragement: “Stand fast in the faith and love one another.”  By faith, may we stand with the One who suffered for us upon the cross, in the sure and certain hope that will one day stand with the same One who rose from dead in the eternal marriage feast.