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(This devotion was first shared in April of 2022)

 Philippians 2:5–11 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

For many years of my ministry, Palm Sunday was Confirmation Day. The students who had completed two years of Catechism Instruction would publicly profess their faith in Jesus as part of the worship service on that day. Many times I used the Epistle Lesson as part of my address to those being confirmed: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”

While that was my charge and instruction to many students, I must admit that I can’t do it. I have not had the same attitude as Jesus in my life. I’ve tried. I spent a lot of time studying about Him and sharing the message of who He is and what He has done for us. I have celebrated with those who come to faith and tried to comfort those who have lost loved ones who died with faith in Jesus. I have tried to show acts of acts of kindness to friends and strangers. I have helped build homes with Habitat for Humanity. I have volunteered with lots of organizations. I have worked with Disaster Response teams after tornadoes and hurricanes. I have tried to be a humble servant.

However, my attitude is often very far from that of Jesus. My sin takes over. I get frustrated with those I try to help and become critical of them. I think and act selfishly.  I’m not enough like Jesus.

A song by Chris Tomlin has this refrain:

Nobody loves me like You love me, Jesus
I stand in awe of Your amazing ways
I worship You as long as I am breathing
God, You are faithful and true
Nobody loves me like You

I am not enough like Jesus, so I thank Him that He was Him. He loved us completely. He did the work we needed, the work we could never do in our fallen condition. He humbled Himself to a death on a cross that would pay for all my shortcomings and allow me to be forgiven. That same is true for you.  So even though you and I will fall short of having the attitude of Jesus, in our forgiven condition we have the motivation to keep on trying to have the same attitude He did. I am still working on that in my life each day.

(This devotion was first shared in October of 2021)

We arrived home safely from our camping trip, and it was a wonderful trip. There was, however, one casualty. After two extended trips with our new and larger camper, it became apparent that my 11-year-old pickup was not up to the task of towing that thing any longer. We never broke down completely, but there were enough “minor” problems over the last few days to let us know that it is time for me to get a new truck.

When I bought that truck new in 2010, it was the first (and only) pickup I ever owned. I had wanted one most of my life, but it didn’t make sense with our family for me to have one. We needed room to haul people. My vehicles were used not only for my wife and three daughters, but also for taking church kids and adults to various functions. So I had a VW Vanagon for 12 years, and then a used Suburban for 9 years after that.

Once all the girls were out of the house and on their own, I finally splurged and bought my truck – with my wife’s blessing, I might add. I intended to keep it forever. I have a history of keeping vehicles for a long time. But the time has come for new wheels, and the shopping starts today. There is an excitement about getting a new truck, but there is also the reality that it is a costly endeavor. Getting something new costs a lot. It is a reality.

That made me think about the one who said “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). He gave me a new life and has promised a new heaven and a new earth. Talk about costly! It cost Him everything, His entire life. Having lived a perfect life without sin, and deserving nothing but praise and honor and glory, He gave it all up and paid the price for the sins of the world. He did that so that you and I could have the “NEW” at no cost to us. This is not like those commercial come-ons that tell you something is free, but there is a catch once you call in or sign up online. What Jesus offers and gives is truly free for us because Jesus made it “paid in full.”

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The New Life Jesus earned and gave to me will last a lot longer than any vehicle I have owned or will own. It will last forever.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

John 8:48–59 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”   “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.   I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.   I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”   At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.   Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”   Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.   Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”   “You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”   “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

When I read or hear passages like this, I am sometimes incredulous as to how the very ones through whom and for whom the Messiah came refused to see Him for who He was and is. He was right in front of them, but they could not and would not recognize Him as the Promised One. But then I remember that I have the advantage of hindsight. It can be very difficult to grasp things at first.

For example, consider this verse from the passage above: “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews here did not think Jesus was God so they had not intention of listening to Him. But even those who knew there was something special and different about this guy would often misunderstand what He was saying. That is because we have the attitude, “just tell me what I have to do” with the emphasis on our effort, our activity. The same thing happens with this verse:

Luke 11:28 “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

While obeying God’s Word does result in blessings in the lives of believers, that is not how many hear these words. They think the blessings, including forgiveness, come as a result of their obedience, which is the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us.

The one who came to save us, God Himself who took on human flesh, has done everything necessary for us to be forgiven. He accomplished our salvation. He did all the work. All we have to do is believe that His death paid for our sins and His resurrection guarantees us entry into life eternal. All of Scripture points to Jesus as the way to life everlasting. Jesus said that Himself.

John 5:39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.

One of my favorite passages to share with people who misunderstand what Jesus meant when He said “keep my Word” or “obey” it is this:

John 6:28–29  Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The “work” we must do is believe in the one the Father sent: Jesus. When your put your faith in Christ and Christ alone, you will be blessed. You will receive everything He earned for you. It is His doing, not your own. That is why you can have the confidence that you will “never see death.” Physical death will come to us all – unless our Lord returns first. But eternal death is averted, having been conquered by Christ.

Those of you who follow these devotions on Facebook are familiar with the Memories feature. It will pop up posts and photos from previous years on today’s date. It is fun to see those people and places. Sometimes you see a friend or family member who is no longer with us here on earth. Those memories stir up a variety of emotions.

You don’t need Facebook to have memories. Photo albums provided reminders for previous generations. And before that, it was letters. And before that, your thoughts and keepsakes would conjure up a memory. The Apostle Paul speaks of memories at the beginning of his letter to the believers in Philippi:

Philippians 1:3–6 I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

I wonder if people will remember me with thanks and joy? I know not everyone will! But hopefully some will. I try to live in a way that shows the love of Jesus to others, even though I know I don’t always do so. When I pray, I ask God to cover up my shortcomings with the merits of Jesus, confident that for His sake, I am forgiven. That renews me to face each day with a new resolve to live for Jesus.

I mentioned that sometimes letters spark memories. Paul wrote about believers being letters from Christ:

2 Corinthians 3:2–3  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 

I want to live like a letter from Christ that causes others to remember me with joy. Not for my sake, but so that more people will see the difference Jesus has made in my life. Lord, help me to do this.

On this Sunday in Lent, reflect on this Lenten Hymn with me.

In the Cross of Christ I glory, Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time.
All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o’er take me, Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the Cross forsake me; Lo, it glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming Light and love upon my way,
From the Cross the radiance streaming Adds more luster to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, By the Cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure, Joys that thro’ all time abide.

(Lutheran Service Book #427 In The Cross of Christ I Glory)

John 6:60-69 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

When I was attending Seminary in St. Louis, my wife got a job teaching on the Illinois side of the river. We moved over to the little town of Worden – less than 900 people – which is about 45 miles from the seminary. I made the commute to class three or four days a week, depending on my schedule that term. For the most part, the drive wasn’t too bad, except when you came to the bottleneck at the Mississippi River bridge. In order to keep the number of days I had to drive into class to a minimum, I took one or two night classes each term, since those classes only met once a week. During the winter term, Mondays were tough. I had classes at 7:30, 8:30, 12:30, 1:30, then a class from 3-6 and another from 6-9. Those were long days. On one of those Mondays, I looked out the classroom window around 5:00 p.m. and noticed that it was starting to snow – big, fat, wet flakes. During my 6-9 class, it was really coming down. By the time class was over that night, there was over two inches on the ground and it was still coming down. I was not looking forward to that drive home.

Going through St. Louis wasn’t too bad, even going across the river. It was slow going, but there had been enough traffic to keep the lanes clear. However, once I crossed the river, the roads were pretty bad, and the snow was really coming down. I was driving a little Dodge Colt, which made a Volkswagen look big. Determined to make it home, I slid in behind a semi and stayed in his tracks. This was working well. We were moving slow, visibility was low, so I just kept my eyes on his taillights and made my way up Interstate 55. Everything was fine until I glanced off to the right and saw that I was about to pass my exit! I bounced across the snow mound and made it off the Interstate. It took me 20 minutes to go the last four miles. Those roads had no tracks on them at all. I’m not really sure how much of the time I was on the road and how much I was driving in the ditch or through a corn field, but with God’s help, I made it home.

You have to be careful who you follow. I was doing fine following that truck, until I realized he was leading me to someplace I didn’t want to go. If you follow the wrong person, you will not end up in the right place. That should be obvious. And if that is true in earthly matters, it is even more critical in the Spiritual realm. There are a lot of false prophets out there that have people following them to a dead end. There is only one Savior you can follow who will lead you to forgiveness and hope and life and salvation.

In John 6, the people are asked to consider who they followed. Jesus has said some things that were hard to understand. He spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He called Himself the living Bread that came down from heaven. The people listening to Him were shocked and confused by His words. As this chapter began, Jesus fed more than 5000 excited followers. At the end of the chapter, He is down to 12 confused disciples.

Most of the crowd were really fans, not followers. They left when His words became too hard to understand, accept and believe. As long as He was feeding them and doing miracles, they were curious. But when Jesus started talking about His intentions, and the responsibility that went with being part of His kingdom, they began to drift away and lose interest. Jesus was not what they were expecting. They were hoping for someone to liberate them from the Romans, a breath of fresh air that would make everyone feel good, someone who would free them from hunger and work, and that wasn’t Jesus. He didn’t give them what they wanted. So they complained, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And slowly but surely they started leaving. As the last of the fair-weather-followers were leaving, Jesus asked a question. He was looking for followers, not fans. He wanted disciples, not spectators. So our Lord turned to the 12 and asked, “What about you? Are you going to leave, too?” Peter’s response might sound familiar: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”

Good answer! Keep following Jesus.

After many failures, the Wright brothers were finally successful in getting their flying machine off the ground. In December of 1903, they telegraphed the good news to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”

Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper, showing him the message she had received. He quickly glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He totally missed the big news–a human being had taken flight!

It is all too easy for us to “miss the point” of things. I think that happens to a lot of folks as far as Lent is concerned. The season of Lent is designed to help us remember that Jesus died. Not only that, but that He died because of what we have done. His very real death was to pay the very real penalty our sins deserve. That is why He chose to die in our place.

Celebrating Easter without remembering that Jesus died and why He died is missing the point. There would have been no Resurrection if there had been no crucifixion. Remembering the death of Jesus enables us to celebrate His victory over death in the proper context.

His death was our death for sin. He then gives us His resurrection as our victory over death. Faith grabs hold of what He did for you. Baptism is an extra added assurance that we have been joined to what Jesus did.

Romans 6:3–5 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Remember and reflect on the life and death of Jesus during this season of Lent.

I really like my pastor. I think he is doing a great job. And he likes to joke around as part of his normal conversation with people. Recently he has taken to calling me “Pastor Emeritus” in Bible Class. “Emeritus” is an honorary title given to someone who has retired from a position but is allowed to keep using the previous title, such as “Pastor Emeritus.” He was doing it in a good-natured way and I appreciated it, but I quickly quipped back that I would be more correct to call me Pastor A-meritus.

He smiled, because he knows that in Greek (and sometimes in English) the prefix “a-“ negates the meaning of the word. For example, a theist is someone who believes in God. An atheist believes there is no God. So when I said I should be called “A-meritus” I was saying I had no merit in myself. I was making reference to Luther’s explanation to the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

 What does this mean?

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true.

 God is a loving Father who pours out His blessings on “A-meritus” people like me. He gives me more than I need to support my life here on earth. And He has given me the greatest blessing of all in the gift of Himself as my Savior. God’s love led Him to offer Himself in payment for the sins of the world so that we could be reconciled with Him, be forgiven, and have eternal life. Jesus went through unimaginable agony in the process of paying for sin, but did so willingly to spare us that torment and restore us to the position we now enjoy as God’s dearly loved and ransomed children. His merit did this, not ours. Without any merit or worthiness in me.

I agree wholeheartedly with Luther: For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.  This is most certainly true.

P.S.  Be sure to pray for your pastor and his family, especially during this busy season of Lent. It is a difficult job that places heavy demands on him and his family. Ask God to guide and bless him as he points us to the cross and the empty tomb.