“Yahweh Blesses You with His Bloody Name”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord [Amen.]
“To this temple, where we call You,
Come, O Lord of hosts, and stay;
Come with all Your lovingkindness,
Hear Your people as they pray;
And Your fullest benediction
Shed within these walls today.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
909:2)
Old Testament Reading............................................... Numbers
6:22-27 (esp. 22-23, 27)
22The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
Thus you shall bless the people of Israel … . 27So shall they put my name
upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Prologue: With the stroke of midnight last night another
calendar year ended and a new one began. As the door closed on 2014 and
opened to 2015, many people partied hearty and excitedly celebrated their
hopeful anticipation that this New Year will usher in more and better
blessings than the previous one that’s now history.
Speaking of blessings, there’s a most meaningful and important
part of the Divine Services that, sadly, some people miss out on by leaving
early. It’s the Benediction, an English word that, like so many of our
churchy words, comes from the Latin language. It means, literally, a word
of well-wishing, that is, a spoken desire that good things will come upon
those over whom it’s being spoken.
In the Divine Service setting it’s a message from God, who, as I
emphasized in my sermon this past Sunday, always has the last word. And
that last-word message is that He loves you dearly, will always love you
dearly, and dearly desires for you to have not just good things … but the
best things He has to offer. Those best things are none other than the
forgiveness of all your sins, spiritual healing and restoration, and
everlasting life with Himself in His glorious heavenly mansions that Jesus
gained for you with His holy life, innocent suffering, crucifixion death,
and majestic resurrection from the dead.
Although you most often hear that benediction at the end of the
Divine Service, today you also hear it at the beginning of this New Year
2015. And what you hear is the wonderful message that …
“Yahweh Blesses You with His Bloody Name.”
The liturgical church year calendar designates January 1 as “The
Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.” Having once again formally
celebrated His incarnate birth last Thursday, today we celebrate His initial
shedding of blood to atone for mankind’s sins and His name “Jesus” which
communicates that He entered this sin-infested world to save sinful people
from eternal separation from God in the torments of hell’s fiery abyss.
Today’s brief Gospel Reading stated it this way: “And at the end of eight
days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the
angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (St Luke 2:21 ESV) That initial
small shedding of blood was a prelude to the massive shedding of blood that
He would experience from the beatings that immediately preceded His
crucifixion … and that crucifixion itself when He would “bleed out” unto
death.
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah wrote that “with His stripes we
are healed.” (Isa 53:5 ESV) The apostle Peter wrote that “you were ransomed
from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable
things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like
that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-20 ESV) And, the
apostle John wrote that “the blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all
sin.” (1 John 1:7-8 ESV)
So, in order to gain a fuller benefit of that bloody name
blessing … and to discover what lies ahead for you in this New Year 2015,
let’s briefly examine each of its three statements. After all, the glorious
essence of this divine benediction is that it’s a Trinitarian blessing that
presents Yahweh as the God who is merciful and gracious as well as just and
righteous. He’s the God who proclaimed Himself to be “The Lord, the Lord, a
God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's
children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex 34:6-7 ESV)
“Because the words of this benediction so clearly present God as
the God of free and faithful grace, this blessing is also gladly used in the
New Testament era. As Christians we choose this blessing to close our
worship services.” In so doing, “[you] can appreciate the truth that the
triune God acts on [your] behalf. As each of the divine persons carries out
his work, the triune God reaches out to bless all those who believe in the
Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. All three [persons of the Godhead] are
involved in our salvation.” (Paul W. Kuske in People’s Bible Commentary:
Numbers. Copyright © 2005 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page
61.)
So it is that the first statement tells you that …
I. God Claims You As His Personal Possession. (24)
24The Lord bless you and keep you; ...
Note well that “The first phrase refers especially to the work of
God the Father. The blessing from the Father includes all aspects of [your]
life. Wherever [you] look, [you] can see how the Lord blesses [you] through
the physical, material possessions that he gives [you].” It’s an Apostles’
Creed First Article thing about which “Luther’s explanation … summarizes
these blessings very concisely … .” In addition, “our heavenly Father
blesses and keeps [you] as he answers [your] requests when [you] pray in the
Lord’s Prayer, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”
As a matter of fact, He so very often “keeps [you] by preventing
problems and dangers from overwhelming [you]!” At the same time, “how
loving the Lord is when he allows tests to come into [your] lives, for he
promises that he will also make a way of escape and that all things will
work together for good to those who love him.” Of course, “the richest way
in which the Lord blesses [you] is that he keeps [you] faithful to the
gospel to the end of [your] lives” at which time “he will deliver [you] from
this present evil world into the perfection of his glory in heaven.” (Ibid.
Pages 61f.)
Following close on the heels of that first statement, the second
statement tells you that …
II. God Looks Upon You with Gracious Grace. (25)
25the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; ...
Turning our attention now to the second phrase of this benediction
we discover that it “addresses the fact that human beings are sinful. By
birth man is in rebellion against God. The only hope for such lies in the
fact that God is gracious to [you]. How clearly [you] see God’s love for
[you] in the work of [your] Redeemer, Jesus Christ.” After all, it was His
humble birth, holy life, innocent suffering, crucifixion death, and majestic
resurrection from the dead in victory over sin, Satan, and death itself that
atoned fully and completely for your transgressions of sinful thoughts,
desires, words, and deeds.
You see, the Apostles’ Creed’s Second Article confesses that “God
is gracious to [you] in Jesus.” In fact, “God’s grace—God’s undeserved
kindness to [you]” flows forth freely and generously. “For in Christ, God
shows his love to [you]—a deep, profound love that loves [you] also when
[you] deserve it least because of [your] sin.” Yes, “Just as the face of a
proud, new mother radiates love, so God looks at [you], covering all [your]
sins with the perfect redemption that Christ has purchased for [you].”
(Ibid. Pages 62f.)
And following close on the heels of that second statement, the
third statement tells you that …
III. God Generously Gives You Precious Peace. (26)
26the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
That brings us to the third and final phrase of this benediction
in which “the work of the third person of the Trinity: God the … Holy
Spirit” is communicated with words that indicate “that the Lord gladly
looks upon each of [you] as individuals.” It’s absolutely amazing “How
wonderful this work of the Holy Spirit! He turns rebels into his children
by leading them to faith in Christ Jesus! He makes the blind to see by
leading them to Christ, the Light of the world. As the giver of life, he
gives life to those who are dead in trespasses and sin. Every believer is a
miracle of the Holy Spirit!” (Ibid. Page 63.)
As if that’s not more than enough, “In the miracle of conversion,
the Holy Spirit gives [you] peace because [you] know that through Christ
[you] are reconciled to (reconnected with) God. [You] also know with the
certainty of faith that as long as [you] are right with God through Christ,
everything in [your] life will also work out right for [you].” Because of
all that and more, you possess a God-given peace “that stands up in the
fiercest trials—yes, even in the face of death” itself. “What peace there
is to know that whether [you] live or whether [you] die, [you] are the Lord’s.”
(Ibid. Pages 63f.)
It’s a peace that flows forth from the divine promise in today’s
Gradual, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I will remember
their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” (Heb 10:17 ESV) That means
that absolutely nothing can separate you from Him who comes to you in and
strengthens your faith through the reading and hearing of God’s Holy Word,
the blessed rescue of Holy Baptism, the reassuring comfort of Holy
Absolution, and the certainty of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life
that you receive in Holy Communion. “Angels proclaimed this peace [to the
migrant shepherds] at the first Christmas Eve: ‘Peace on earth, good will to
man.’ Jesus promised the peace from the Holy Spirit when he said, ‘Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give you’ (John 14:27).” (Paul W. Kuske. Pages
63f.) And many pastors end their sermons with the Philippians chapter 4,
verse 7 reassurance, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil
4:7 ESV)
In conclusion, therefore, give thanks for and revel in the fact
that on this first day of this new year 2015 and throughout it, …
“Yahweh Blesses You with His Bloody Name.”
As you do so, let the words of today’s Introit Antiphon guide your
thanksgiving and revelry: “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the Lord!’” (Ps
40:16 ESV) After all, since New Testament Baptism is the circumcision of
your heart, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as
many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s,
then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3:26-29
ESV)
That’s the significance of what we prayed in today’s Collect:
“Lord God, You made Your beloved Son, our Savior, subject to the Law and
caused Him to shed His blood on our behalf. Grant us the true circumcision
of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins … .” And that’s
the blessed assurance God gives you when you hear the Benediction. So rest
in complete confidence that, in contradiction to you making New Year’s
resolutions that you most likely can’t and won’t keep, the Benediction is
God’s ongoing everlasting resolution to you that He can and does keep. For
it’s the divine resolution in which with absolute certainty …
I. God Claims You As His Personal Possession. (24);
II. God Looks Upon You with Gracious Grace. (25); and
III. God Generously Gives You Precious Peace. (26)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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