Much can be and has been said of the second of Jesus’ seven last words. “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” The focus is almost always on the word “Paradise.” The penitent criminal acknowledges Jesus for who He is, an innocent man and the Lord, and begs to be remembered when He comes into His kingdom. Jesus speaks the second of His seven last words, and the masses think that Jesus told the criminal that he would be in heaven that day.

Paradise is rightly equated with Eden. Eden, that garden of ancient times wherein the first man was placed to live and to tend, is said by some to have a name that is related to the Greek root hedonism. At the core, hedonism is the teaching that pleasure or happiness is the highest good, and, by extension, this pleasure or happiness is enhanced by a lack of clothing, much like Adam and Eve were in the Garden naked and not ashamed. There, in Eden, Adam and Eve lived in perfect bliss and harmony with God and all of creation. Eden was, for all intents and purposes, a God-made and planted paradise.

Jesus has made His way from Stone Pavement to Skull. There, the nails are driven into His hands and feet. The cross is fitted into its post hole, and the Son of God is on display for all to see die. He, along with two criminals, are dying for their crimes.

The two criminals are justly being executed for their crimes. Robbers or insurrectionists, they were considered enemies of Rome, worthy of being crucified and not simply jailed for a time. Jesus is dying for His crimes, too, though He did not originally commit them—in and of Himself, He is innocent. His crimes He assumed into His flesh from all flesh, for He has taken the sins of the world and made them His own in order to die with them as the lambs slain at the temple—“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Otherwise, Jesus is an innocent man, proclaimed as much by Pilate himself before having him beaten.

If the agony of the nails piercing His skin wasn’t enough, Jesus also bears the marks of having been scourged and crowned, skin and flesh ripped from bone, the prick of thorns on His brow, scabs and blood all over the place. Behold the man, the teacher who trained as a carpenter, brought low and frail by the stripes of Roman punishment. Then, as He was nailed to the cross, it is dropped into the post hole. The pain must have been excruciating.

What is Lent? This season we are entering is a time when, as the Maundy Thursday liturgy reminds you, our Lord calls us to “intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil.” Easier said than done, for the harder you work at this, the bigger your failure will be. What can you do to struggle against sin, death, and the devil?

The struggle against the devil is a done deal. Oh, he still prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (cf. 1 Peter 5:8), but he’s a conquered lion. He will bite at you, perhaps take a small bit of flesh and injure you, but he’s a lion with dull or no teeth. His head is crushed, he has no dominion over you. Therefore, your struggle against the devil is this: Jesus has conquered him and given you the victory. Scowl fierce as he will, he can harm you none; one little word fells him: It is finished!

The struggle against death is also a done deal. Death is a conquered enemy now in service to God as the gateway to life eternal. To struggle against it is a futile struggle; should Jesus not return in your lifetime, death will get the better of you—you will take your last breath and be laid in your grave. Remember, “All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust,” (Ecclesiastes 3:20) “For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19c) However, there is still a struggle against death for you. This intensified struggle against death is exemplified in constantly being reminded of your baptism. There, at the font, you were drowned, joined to the death of Jesus, which is your death to sin, only to be brought forth from those waters a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for eternal life. So, how do you struggle against death? By being reminded that you are alive in Christ through Holy Baptism.

The struggle against sin, though, is different. Why are you dust that will return to dust? What did you have to die with Christ in order to live with Him? Because you are a sinner. And for as long as you remain on this side of eternity, you will continue to struggle with sin. That’s what Lent is; an intensified struggle against your sin.

“Then [Jesus] took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.’”

We have come to the last Sunday before Lent. We have exited the season of Epiphany in which we witness Jesus revealing Himself to the nations. The Magi have visted, Jesus was Baptized, and Jesus was Transfigured before His inner circle of disciples. These last few Sundays—the Gesima Sundays—we have taken a look at a couple of Jesus’ parables which illustrate the workings of the Kingdom of God in the lives of the faithful and unfaithful, that show that God is an unfairly generous God who scatters the seed of His Word without concern for where it lands.

Now, as the church turns toward the season of Lent, preparing to recognize Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus tells His disciples this third of His passion predictions. Jesus and His followers are making their way to Jerusalem—the temple city—whereat Jesus will give His life as a ransom for all. All that was written of Him by the prophets will be accomplished. He will be delivered by the Jews into the hands of Gentiles who will torture and crucify Him. He will die, giving His life that others may live. And the third day He will rise again. The Kingdom of God is come, and the Lord has staked His claim on you on the cross.

When St. Luke wrote his Gospel, the recipient he had in mind was Theophilus. It’s an odd name—odd, in that it’s very rare name, not often, if ever, found in any historical records—outside of Luke’s writings, there is hardly anyone named Theophilus, especially anyone not connected to the Church. The name means “friend of God” or “one who loves God,” and for that reason, some surmise that Luke’s recipient is not a specific person, the epithet “most excellent” aside (as perhaps referring to a government official), but any person who is a friend of God or who loves God; as they might explain it, Luke’s Gospel and Acts are written for the believer—he wrote them for you, dear hearer.

To what end did Luke write to Theophilus? “[T]hat you may know the certainty of those things in which you were [catechized].” (Luke 1:4) Theophilus was someone who had been catechized—prepared for Holy Baptism in the ways of the ancient church—and Luke was writing to the catechized friend of God so that he would know for certain the reliability of the words by which he had been catechized. It’s a stated purpose in several places in the Scriptures that the Word of God is given in order that faith would be created in an individual. (cf. John 20:31) And in fact, God’s desire is that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4) In essence, these are all the same thing: God wants all men saved, to that end, He sent His Son and gave His Word in order to redeem mankind and give them faith.

“For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

Here we are, just one week removed from hearing about the heavens opening up for Jesus after coming out of the waters of the Jordan, and the voice from heaven thundering, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) Now, we advance just under three years later in the span of a week, and Jesus, Peter, James, and John are at the top of a mountain where Jesus is transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah join them. Peter, enraptured with everything going on, wants to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. He is interrupted by the voice thundering from heaven once again: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

As they come down the mountain, Peter, James, and John hear Jesus tell them not to tell anyone what had happened. They were to wait. Jesus still had to suffer for the sins of the world. He still had to die on the cross. He still had to be placed in a grave and announce to the souls in prison His victory. (cf. 1 Peter 3:19) And He still had to rise from the dead. Jesus’ three disciples would know that they could tell everyone about their mountain top experience once they had seen Jesus again after His resurrection. What you heard from today’s epistle is St. Peter doing just that.

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.”

There was a time in the past, before Jesus came up out of the waters of the Jordan, when the windows of heaven were opened. At that time, when heaven opened, the wrath of God was poured out, in a very literal sense. At that time, YHWH had seen “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And YHWH was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) God had resolved at that point to start over, essentially. He was going to destroy everything that He had created on the face of the earth, expressing regret at having created that which he had, just a few generations previously, called very good.

On this day after the Twelfth and last day of Christmas, we observe and celebrate the Epiphany. Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God, God-with-us, is revealing Himself to the nations. He is bringing news of salvation to the Gentiles, just as He promised. (cf. Isaiah 49:6) And He is doing so by bringing some Gentiles to Him, having given them the sign they were waiting for in the heavens.

But, how did they know to equate this sign with the birth of the King? We have to go back about 600 years before Jesus was born. At that time, Judah was taken captive by Babylon. It was the third year of the reign of the king Jehoiakim, and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Jerusalem.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego. (Daniel 1:2-7)

There was a very ingenious reason for Nebuchadnezzar to appoint these four young men and others among the Judean men to their positions. As was just read from the book of Daniel, they possessed knowledge and understanding, they were gifted in wisdom, which made them suitable to serve in the king’s palace. In order to rule over the Hebrews effectively, Nebuchadnezzar would need to surround himself with Judeans who were popular and able to be taught the ways of the Chaldeans.

After all the ooohing and ahhhing over a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, the Church reminds her members that the season of Christmas—these 12 days counting from December 25—is a bloody season.

• The second day of Christmas is St. Stephen, often referred to as the first martyr. It was shortly after Jesus ascended that Stephen was martyred, stoned to death for proclaiming Christ and Him crucified, shedding his blood for the sake of the faith into which you also were baptized.
• The fourth day of Christmas is the Holy Innocents, the first to die because of Christ. The Church often refers to them as martyrs, but they didn’t die because of what they proclaimed or what they did, but simply because they were young enough to be mistaken for the Infant King and Priest, Jesus.

After the First Day of Christmas, the day that Jesus’ nativity is observed and celebrated, the rest of the season points to the bloodshed that Jesus’ coming has brought.

As Jesus is being led to His trial before the temple priests, Peter followed, probably at a distance, as does another disciple, whom many think to be John. John was known to the high priest, so he was able to enter the courtyard with Jesus, but Peter could not. John spoke to the servant girl and brought Peter in. This servant girl thought she recognized Peter and pressed him, “You are not also one of this Man's disciples, are you?” Peter replied, “I am not,” and with that denied Jesus the first time. (cf. John 18:12-17)

Twice more, Peter denied knowing Jesus—denied His God and Savior. Then, the rooster crowed. Peter remembered Jesus’ words, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” He went out from the courtyard and wept bitterly. (cf. Matthew 26:75)