Holy Cross

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Num 21:4–9; 1 Cor 1:18–25; Jn 12:20–33; Ps 40:1–11; antiphon: v. 13   –     9/13/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Gospel reading for today, Holy Cross Sunday, comes from what appears to be the evening of Monday of Holy Week, before sunset. In just under five days Jesus will be arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin to be judged for claiming to be God. As He nears the end of his time among His disciples Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. He speaks both of His own death, but also of the lives and deaths of all who would follow Him, of all who ask like those Greeks asked, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Very soon for the disciples and for the Greeks they will see Jesus set on a pole, as the bronze serpent of old foreshadowed, and they will see how any who look at Christ on the cross in faith will be saved.

Of the twelve disciples—Judas betrays Jesus and is later replaced by Matthias—eleven of the men die martyrs at the hands of enemies of the Church The writer of the Gospel, John, alone dies of old age in exile. None of these faithful twelve loved their lives more than Christ, each man happily laid down his life for Jesus, and through those eleven martyrdoms the Holy Spirit caused the witness of the cross of Christ to spread across the world. Even John, who did not die a martyr, treated his life as though he hated it, willingly risked his life, suffered imprisonment, mockery, beatings, torture, starvation, exposure, and who knows what else. For all intents and purposes John died to the world long before he breathed his last, and through that death many believed in Christ. Each man suffered and died because he looked upon Christ and believed and loved Christ more than his own life. Imitate these men as they imitated Christ.

How are you to hate your life, though? Remember the quote I gave you last year of St. Augustine. Jesus is not commanding us to kill ourselves, but rather when there is persecution and we have no way out other than to recant and deny Christ, then we must rather treat our lives as though we hate them and gladly suffer torture and death rather than deny Christ. We are not in a time of such persecution, however. We must change the question to our circumstances, then. How are you to train yourself so that you hate your life rather than deny Christ? That is a more immediate question for us right now. In answer, you have a tool right before you which is intended to be the foundational teaching of the Christian life in the home: Luther’s Small Catechism. This book was never intended to be the workbook of Confirmation, as we use it today, but instead be the foundation already constructed in the home before any education in the faith by the pastor. For today, please open up your hymnals to page 328 and 329.

Here you see two sections of the Small Catechism: The Table of Duties and the Christian Questions With Their Answers. The first contains Bible verses related to all walks of life, and the second is a tool for self examination before receiving the Lord’s Supper. Each teaches about who you are, what your responsibilities are, and what your needs are. Right now “What the Hearers Owe Their Pastors” and “To Parents” and “To Children” are the primary guides in the Small Catechism. When you go home, please find the verses that apply to you and read them, then ask yourself the Christian Questions. What you will read is your obligation to your neighbor, and what you will discover by examining yourself is your weakness and need for the Lord’s Supper.

The practice of hating your life begins by learning to set aside your earthly wants and needs for the needs of your family, your church, your friends, and your neighbors. Parents, when you set aside work, the game, or a hobby to help a child with the most mundane of tasks, you parents are practicing hating your own life, you are dying to yourself and living for Christ by serving that child. Workers, when you work diligently, carefully, and do more than is expected at your job so that your fellow laborers and your boss benefit, you are practicing hating your life, dying to yourself and living for Christ by showing His live to your coworkers. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and laid down His life for her—she is God’s gift to you that you may encourage her in the faith and serve her. But that is just what God expects of you, so think of how you may do more for her than this minimum, in that way you will die to yourself. Wives, love and obey your husbands as the Church loves and is submissive to Christ—he is God’s gift yo you that you may encourage him in the faith and support him. But that is just what God expects of you, so think of how you may do more for him than this minimum, in that way you will die to yourself. Children, set aside your play, stop thinking of your stomachs, and think rather what you can do around the house which you don’t do so that you can lighten the burden of your parents, in this way you die to yourself and live for Christ through loving your parents. These are the sorts of ways you should think when studying the Table of Duties, how you are to practice hating your life because you love your Savior Jesus more. Living like this also means that you are witnessing to Christ for the ones you serve.

Now, in this moment, consider your life and ask yourself if you have ever done what I just told you. (Pause) Have you done it in the last year? The last month? The last week? Yesterday? For my fellow ordinary Christians who cannot answer this well, we must repent that we loved our lives more than Christ, and have not done even this little thing as we should have. Now, another question, will you do it today? Will you make a practice of dying to yourself, and living to Christ through those about you?

It is not always easy to see what we should be doing, or the best way of loving those about us. For some help that Jesus gives us, please open your Bibles to Matthew 25:31–40: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

When you look at your children, your wife, your fellow workers, do not see only them, but see Christ as well. Do not look at your good works, look to Christ When you mistreat another, you mistreat Christ, why? Because that other person is also someone for whom Christ died. When you bless another, you bless Christ, why? For the same reason. Therefore, always do unto others as you would do for your Savior Jesus. Note also how the faithful sheep in this story don’t remember doing these things. Why is that? Two reasons. One is that the work should become habitual. Once something is a habit we tend to cease noticing we are doing it. Two is that the Holy Spirit makes all the works of the Christian pleasing in God’s sight and Himself moves us toward doing them. These sheep don’t know because it was the Holy Spirit working through them both to do good and make a habit of it. They simply heard the Word of God, believed and obeyed because they looked upon Christ who was sacrificed for them in love.

He is our light, our life, our salvation, thus we read following the last verse of the Gospel, So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (34–36) Christ was that light who guided the way of the twelve Apostles. He is the light to Whom they looked through all their suffering. And He is the One Who welcomed them into eternity when they died, not having loved their lives more than death for Him. We are not yet at a state where we will be martyred like these men were, yet their examples should guide us all the more to love Christ with everything we are. They knew that He has the words of eternal life, He alone leads on the narrow path, He alone lights the way for sinners to the heavenly kingdom.

Thus David would call them blessed. He says, Blessèd is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. We are blessed, not because of what we have done. We are blessed, not because of what we will do. We are blessed because Christ loved us first and gave His life for us. He is that first grain of wheat that perishes in the ground, and we who believe are the harvest of fruit. For our failings as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, workers, and employers, for our sins against God, our unbelief and our rebellion, Jesus was raised up on the cross. All who look to Christ on the cross by coming to the waters of baptism will be saved just as every Israelite who looked at the bronze serpent were healed. For to remember your baptism, to look to the cross, is to love the light. St. Augustine says, “if you would preserve your life in Christ, fear not death for Christ.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John 51.8f) In faith and love for God we are to lay down our lives for others in the name of Christ so that they may also be a harvest of good fruit.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen