The partying over, it is now Lent, a season of the Church year which goes against almost everything that the world out there, given over to Satan, wants to teach. Here is a season of somber reflection and contrition. Here is a season dedicated to mourning over sin. Here is a season of sacrifice. All the while, the rest of society would want to fill your heads with thoughts that everyday will be happy and carefree. It is given over to the doctrines of gluttony and greed.

And lest anyone think that this is something new, the world has always held to these doctrines, from the time that the serpent tempted Adam and Eve through to today. And it will continue for ages to come, until Christ returns.

That’s why you hear the prophet proclaim in this evening’s Old Testament reading, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.; Return to the LORD your God…” Sackcloth and ashes are fine, but the point is introspection which leads to a God-given contrition—rending of one’s heart. After all, as it is stated in tonight’s Psalm: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Such introspection should be heartbreaking, gazing upon the things that you have done but should not have and the things that you should not have done but did. For such introspection, according to the Word of God, will reveal your sin—that dirty, little word, as the world out there wants to think of it, if it has to think of it at all. If you are not heartbroken, then you are only deceiving yourself, and the truth is not in you. (cf. 1 John 1:8) “If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:10)

Today’s text is just past halfway through St. Matthew’s Gospel, and it has reached a turning point. Jesus has begun to teach His disciples that He must suffer many things and be rejected, that He will be killed and in three days rise again. And He said this: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) In other words, death and resurrection is the only way.

Peter, the man who had just confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (cf. Matthew 16:16), responded with rebuke. That’s no way for the Messiah to talk. He’d rather not hear about death and resurrection. His words are every man’s words, every man who prefers miracles and signs—mountain-top experiences as it were—to the simple, weak-appearing, seemingly ineffective Word and means of God.

Jesus attention has turned to Jerusalem, however, fixed on His own death and resurrection for His disciples…for the world. They weren’t sure what to make of it. This wasn’t the kind of thing they left their lives behind for in order to follow Jesus. Maybe more signs and miracles would have been nice.

Today’s text is a continuation of last week’s, part of the Sermon on the Mount, where you heard Jesus speak the Beatitudes, “Blessed are you…because of me.” You have life; you are at peace with God through His Son, through His death and resurrection. Jesus has given Himself to you. He is your Savior; He has forgiven you for all of your sins.

My dearly sainted father professor, whom many see as the human epitome of the Gospel, myself included, would often ask this question with regard to a Biblical text, especially in preparation for preaching or teaching: “How does this text give us Jesus?” With a text like this, it’s a good idea to ask Dr. Norman Nagel’s question: “How do the Beatitudes give us Jesus?” It is Jesus speaking them, part of His Sermon on the Mount, so how does Jesus give Himself to you in this text?

The simple answer is found right at the end where Jesus proclaims to His listeners, and you can include yourselves in that bunch, “Blessed are you…”

It might not be evident that He is speaking to those to whom He has given faith. And again, you can include yourselves in that bunch. “Blessed are you,” Jesus says, “when a bunch of really bad things happen to you because of Me—because of Me, because of what you are in me; you can rejoice in the midst of these bad things, in the very face of these bad things, because you are being numbered among the prophets who were before you and persecuted before you, who spoke of Me, and were blessed because of Me.” “Blessed are you,” Jesus says, “because of Me.” No one can be blessed unless they are numbered among the faithful—unless they are among those who have received and not rejected the faith God has to give, a faith which clings to the Christ and the great work He has accomplished for the salvation of the world by His death on the cross. No one can be blessed, except because of Christ, and that blessing can only be received from and through Christ.

His was a life seemingly filled with setbacks and continual difficulty. And it all started while He was still in the womb.

Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, who was pledge to be her husband, was filled with doubt and confusion. “She’s pregnant, but I didn’t do it. What will the people think if I take her to be my wife while she’s pregnant? Or, better yet, what will they think if we get married and the baby is already here?” So, he sought to divorce her quietly. How could he take Mary and the baby to be his own?

Next, after Jesus had been born, and while He was still an infant, there was a call for his life. Herod demanded the lives of all newborn males in order to keep his power on the throne. So, off to Egypt does this trio ventured, Joseph having overcome his doubt and confusion by a vision from God. “[O]ut of Egypt I called My son,” (Hosea 11:1) the prophet declared. Word fulfilled.