The Lutheran Hour

"A Savior Almost Seen"

#77-20
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on January 24, 2010
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Luke 4:22

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The angel’s words are true and they set aside our doubts. God’s Son has given His life so all who believe on Him may live forever. Now in glorious victory Jesus invites all who are confused, all who doubt, to look closely and see Him for who He is. He is: the Defeater of death, the world’s risen Redeemer. God grant we see Him clearly. Amen.

Ludvig Nobel was a great man. The first successful oil tanker – that was Ludvig’s idea and design. Pipelines to transport oil, – that was pretty much his idea, too. Improvements in refineries, Ludvig put together a scientific think tank to make that happen. So successful was Ludvig that, at one point in time, his company was responsible for 50% of the world’s output of oil. But Ludvig was more than a brilliant businessman and inventor. Ludvig was also a humanitarian. The men in his factories worked 10 1/2 hours when every other employer was demanding a backbreaking 14. To help his people, Ludvig fitted his factories with billiard rooms and rooms where speeches could be given. Goodness, Ludvig went so far as to share business profits with his employees – an unheard of concept in the 1800s.

When he died in the French city of Cannes in 1888, the world should have mourned the passing of a great man. Somewhere, somehow, somebody in a reporting office reached into the file to get Ludvig Nobel’s pre-written obituary. Even now obituaries for famous people are the kind of thing news companies like to keep at the ready. This time, rather than grabbing Ludvig Nobel’s obituary, the fellow grabbed the file which contained the death notice of Ludvig’s little brother Alfred.

The next day the paper headlines screamed out, “Le marchand de la mort est mort.” If your French is rusty, the words mean ‘the merchant of death is dead.’ Now that’s the kind of headline which is going to attract some readers. One of those readers was Alfred Nobel. Can you believe it? Alfred Nobel had the opportunity to read his own obituary; he could see what people thought of him; he could get a glimpse of how he was going to be remembered when he was dead. Many of the things said in that story did not please Alfred, the man who had invented dynamite. You can understand why. After all, what civilized individual wants to hear himself being described as the man “who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before…”? That is what the article said. In all probability it was reading his obituary, this case of mistaken identity, which caused Alfred Nobel to create the prizes named after him. He figured being remembered for handing out a yearly Peace Prize would be a better legacy than having history call you a ‘mass murderer’ and ‘war profiteer.’

Mistaken identity. Sure, we’ve all heard stories about legal mistaken identity, you know when someone is convicted of a crime and then, months, years, decades later is found to be innocent. Thankfully that kind of confusion is relatively rare. On the other hand, I’ve come to believe there are times in our lives when mistaken identity is an incredibly common occurrence. Mistaken identity has probably touched your life. Here’s a familiar example. How many of you have voted for a political candidate because he was honest, upstanding, had a vision for the future, was going to cut your taxes and improve your standard of living? How many of you have voted for such a man and then found out that, when he was elected, he was just as bad as the fellow you voted out? See, that was a case of mistaken identity. You thought he was a crusader, a Superman, a breath of fresh air, and, well… he wasn’t.

Do you know a place where mistaken identity really shows up? Go to a wedding. No, it doesn’t make much difference what kind of a wedding you go to. Big or small, expensive or less expensive, you will, almost always, and pretty much without exception, be able to find a case of mistaken identity. Here, let me place a groom in front of you. As you can see, this groom is cleaned up as good as his bride and his family can make him. He has been polished, waxed, buffed, and detailed in every way possible. Ask the bride what she sees when she looks at this fellow and she will say something like, “My little lamby-kins? My dumpling-wumplin? He is so, very, very precious. He is my Prince Charming, the handsomest and the smartest and the most considerate and… ” Now if you ask the father of the bride to describe this guy, you will hear different adjectives being used. Lamby-kins and dumpling-wumplins will not come out of father’s mouth. You don’t really want to know what father thinks about Lamby-kins, the fellow who is stealing his little girl. Amazing, the father and the daughter are looking at the same fellow, but they see him two completely and two totally different ways. Somebody is wrong here, yes, maybe both of them are wrong. Either way, for at least one of them, this is a case of mistaken identity.

Would it surprise you to find out that Jesus Christ also had some serious difficulties with mistaken identity? In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke we’re told about one such case, a case which occurred early on in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ public work had been going only a short period of time. He had begun by going to the Jordan and been baptized by His cousin. After that Jesus had disappeared into the wilderness for more than a month of first-class temptations by the devil. This was followed by a miracle where He turned water into wine and the selection of His closest disciples.
Even though He had been working for a relatively short period of time, Jesus’ teachings and miraculous workings had already given Him quite the reputation. The disciples were pleased with their new status and great crowds were following Him, eager to hear every and any word which came out of His mouth. Things were looking good for Jesus’ ministry, they were looking very good. Of course the rising of Jesus’ star had not escaped the eyes of the curious and the cronies, the onlookers and the observers, the Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau of Nazareth. The citizenry of His hometown, the place where He had spent His formative years, would have been proud to say things like, “I knew Him when He was just a little lad” and “I changed His swaddling clothes” and “You know, we gave Him His start. I’m not saying He owes everything to us, but it wouldn’t hurt for Him to come back here and show us a bit of appreciation, would it?”
Actually coming back to His hometown was on Jesus’ checklist of things to do. It didn’t take too long before the Local-Boy-Who-Had-Made-Good returned to Nazareth. What a day that must have been. Jesus returned home to Nazareth where He was warmly welcomed.

Then Saturday, the Sabbath day, arrived. Jesus, as was His custom, went to the Synagogue. When He entered, you can almost hear the Welcoming Committee start in: “Jesus, how good it is to see You. Your old classmates, Your family friends, the pillars of the community, they’re all going to be here. Since they’re here to see You and not us, we’re wondering if You would honor us by doing the readings and the preaching for today?” Jesus agreed and the scroll of God’s Word was given to Him. Deliberately, respectfully Jesus opened it to a selected chapter and verse from Isaiah (61; 1, 2). The people listened carefully as He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The crowd would have been smiling at Jesus’ choice. Those words were Messiah words. Jesus said He was coming to give good news to the poor… and what’s better news to the poor than the promises of riches and wealth? He said He was going to give liberty to the captives? That has to mean He’s going to free us from Roman rule. Of course, when He gets to power, He’s going to need some people to help run the country, and it’s only natural that He’d call on us. Who else would He ask, He’s known us forever. What was that last part Jesus said? He was going to give sight to the blind. Oh, that’s good, that’s very good. If He does some healing miracles here in Nazareth like He’s done in other places, the world is going to beat a path to our door. Jesus, this Fellow who had read and preached like nobody else they had ever heard, was going to put Nazareth on the map; He was going to make sure their ship was going to come into harbor.

And it was right about then that the people of Nazareth had a reality check. They took a second look at Jesus. They leaned over and asked each other, “He’s the Messiah? Did I get that right? Did He say He was the Messiah?” Look, I’ve known the family for a long time. Nice people, good workers. But they’re not exactly Messiah material, are they?” Yes, the people of Nazareth had a change of heart, they did a reality check. How is Jesus going to kick out the Romans? With this handful of disciples, those ignorant fishermen, or the political activist, or the tax collector, or the guy who tends vines. I just bet the sound of the Romans shaking in their armor is going to be deafening.

And the people of Nazareth began to question, and they doubted and they concluded this had been a case of mistaken identity. They began to turn against Jesus, and Jesus knew they were turning. That’s when He told them that the Messiah could; that the Messiah would be reaching out to other folks, folks that weren’t from Nazareth, or Galilee, or who hadn’t descended from Abraham. When the people heard that, they went ballistic. I could tell you what happened, but Luke says it better. This is what he wrote: “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.”

And that was the last time Jesus ever spoke to the people of Nazareth. Never again did He come back to tell them of how much God loved them and had sent Him, the Son of God, to take their place. They would never witness Jesus’ miracles. Their blind would never see, their lame would never walk, their deaf would never hear, their lepers would never be healed and sent home. Jesus would never tell them that He was going to give His life so they could repent and be forgiven of their sins and saved. They would never hear from His lips how the heavenly Father was using Him to liberate them from their arch enemies of sin and the devil and death and their own nasty natures. Their hearts would never be unburdened of those special sins which are so painful, so pitiless In their reminders.

It was a case of mistaken identity. They had almost seen the Savior. They had almost believed on the Messiah. They had almost followed the Redeemer. Almost. Instead they had seen only Jesus, little Jesus running through the streets. Jesus the Boy, the Teen, the young Man. They could go no further. Mistaken identity. They had come so close, so close to salvation, and then they had allowed it to slip through their hands. No, that’s not right; they had opened their hands and deliberately let it fall away. They had opened their hands and brushed away Jesus and everything which He said and everything He stood for and all that he was trying to do. How incredibly sad Jesus must have been that day as He walked past that crowd of friends and Boyhood companions. How sad.

Almost as sad as He must feel today as He walks through the many, many millions who are turning their backs on Him. It is quite possible that you know some of them; know them, but I pray are not one of them. When Jesus spoke to the people of Nazareth, they had to judge the truth of His words on whether He was fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. That Jesus did so flawlessly and faultlessly is only one proof that He was the sinless Son of God. But what excuse does our generation of doubters, deniers, and detractors have? In Holy Scripture they have the Savior’s entire story. We know how He successfully avoided every temptation; how He kept every Commandment; how He was betrayed, beaten, and condemned for crimes He had never committed. We have eyewitness accounts of His death and just as many who declared they had seen Him alive in resurrection victory. We have the blood of the martyrs and apostles who sealed their witness by choosing death rather than deny what they had heard and seen.

Still, what do Jesus’ critics do? They say we believers are victims of mistaken identity. They say we are wrong in what we believe about Jesus the Christ. Looking at Jesus from their distant vantage point, with imagined authority say, “Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God” when the fact is, Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) They say Jesus never physically rose from the dead, but they ignore the disciple Thomas who, having touched Jesus’ hands and side, could not contain his overawed response: “My Lord and my God.” Today’s critics rip through the words of the Savior like a chainsaw. “This thought Jesus stole from the Persians”, they say. “This idea was first spoken by the Hindus”, they claim. These things they say, even as they forget every Today a living Lord Jesus Christ says, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, (to offer) sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ What, I ask you, is so terrible in those words, so offensive, so wrong, so cruel, so hurtful that the world with its unbelievers feels compelled to silence them? What is so repulsive and revolting in what Jesus says that people prefer to listen to the voice of anyone who would deny or denigrate the Savior? What is so unbelievable, so intolerable about Jesus’ story of salvation that people shut their ears to Jesus, but are willing to embrace any story, every story, no matter how impossible, illogical, and nonsensical that story might be?

Do not be mistaken as to Jesus’ identity. No matter what this world’s multitudes may say, no matter what alternatives they may promote, no matter what the courts may decree, no matter what laws a legislature may pass, Jesus remains the sinless Son of God who entered this world to love you. He was born loving you; and He died loving you. And now, even now, He still loves you. So you might be released from the pain within you; so you might be freed from the sin that condemns you, He took your place. Under the law, under the whip, upon the cross, He took your place. Do not be mistaken as to His identity. He is the Christ who has ripped open the gates of death’s dark grave and He shows the way to life for all who will follow. Do not try to put Him back in that tomb. He is no weakened wraith who will disappear at the approaching of daylight. He is the Son of God. He is the light of the world. Do not be mistaken as to His identity. Today He is your Savior, but the time will come He will be your judge.

Which is why today Lutheran Hour Ministries says this: if you are confused about the Christ; if you are tired of listening to those who detract from what He has done, if you are looking for answers, please call us. We would love to help you see Jesus for who He really is: your one-and-only living Savior. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
January 24,2010
Topic:Sad Sack Christians

Announcer: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.

Klaus: Hi, Mark. And what is our topic?

Mark: Well, I think you could say it has to do with attitudes. We received a letter from a Christian businessman. He does a reasonable amount of traveling. And, whenever he’s on the road over the weekend, he tries his best to attend a local church. In his experience, the vast majority of churches where he worships, he says the people look really sad all the time. And when the greeters greet him at the door, they look sad and uncomfortable, as if they’re thinking, “Do we really know this guy? Should we introduce
ourselves?”

Klaus: You know, that really is a frightening thing for a lot of greeters. They don’t want to embarrass themselves by welcoming someone as a stranger and then find out that the guy’s been a member of their church for over 50 years.

Mark: You know, that would make a good Q&A topic in itself, how to welcome people to church when you don’t really know them.

Klaus: I can make a note of that. There are ways to get around that fear of putting yourself on the line.

Announcer: At any rate, our writer continues. “The people in the pews look sad; the preacher looks sad; when the folks go to the Lord’s Supper, they look sad, and when they come back from the Lord’s Supper they still look sad. And they look sad when they walk out of the church. ”

Klaus: I’m not entirely sure here, but is our writer suggesting that Christians look sad?

Announcer: You might be on to something there. Anyway, he concludes: “Is this what Klaus: I think the man gives us a clue in the last line of his letter: “We look like our best friend has died.” In one sense, that’s exactly right. Our best Friend has died. Jesus, God’s perfect Son, was born into this world to save us. His entire life was dedicated to redeeming us and He died. He died on the cross, accepting the punishment which should have come to us. So we might live forever, Jesus died.

Announcer: OK, but that’s only half of it, because Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose again. So, that means we should be happy, right?

Klaus: Yeah. Before I say anything else, I should lay this foundation. Worship is a respectful thing. We, the forgiven, are in the presence of the Lord, who has done everything to save us. Yes, we need to be respectful and reverent.

Announcer: How about sad?

Klaus: No, not sad. It is proper to go to Communion reflecting and repenting of sin, but in the Lord’s Supper God delivers to us His forgiveness. That ought to prompt an appropriate response. I’m not saying going to worship should be like going to the circus or a comedy club. On the other hand, there is a word which appears in the story of Jesus’ life, and echoes throughout the history of the early church. Here, let’s see if you can guess what it is, we’ll not make it hard. When Jesus was born the angels said, “Fear not, for we bring you good news of great….”

Announcer: Joy.

Klaus: Very good. When the Wise Men saw the star that took them to where Jesus and His family was staying, they were filled with …

Announcer: Joy.

Klaus: And on resurrection Sunday, the women who went to finish Jesus’ burial were met by an angel who told them the Savior had risen. It says that those women left Jesus’ grave with fear and also great…

Announcer: Joy.

Klaus: Not regular joy, not a little joy, but a big joy. If you read through the book of Acts, more than once you will find it says, ‘the disciples were filled with joy.’
If you read through the history of the martyrs, you will find it often says that when their sentence was pronounced, they were filled with joy. When they went to die, they often died singing joyful hymns.
Indeed, one of the marks of the early church, one of the things which really impressed the unbelievers was how Christians died in a different way than those unbelievers did. Christians died with joy.

Announcer: And how would you sum all of this up for us today?

Klaus: I would say there’s no law that says you have to paste a silly grin on your face which stretches from ear to ear. That kind of smile looks fake in a beauty pageant, and it looks even worse when Christians do it. On the other hand, Jesus is good news of great joy, and if we understand the forgiveness we’ve been given, it will most likely reflect out of us in a joyful way.

Annou ncer: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a joyful presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Music selection for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“We Believe That This Is Jesus” arr. Mark Sedio. From Safe in God’s Faithfulness by Laudamus of Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 2007 Concordia Seminary Chorus)

“O Word of God Incarnate” arr. Charles Callahan. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC