Another Nightmare Euthanasia Case in Canada
Makes International Headlines –
“Canadian woman was euthanized ‘against her will’ after husband was fed-up with caring for her,” the Daily Mail reported ... View MoreAnother Nightmare Euthanasia Case in Canada
Makes International Headlines –
“Canadian woman was euthanized ‘against her will’ after husband was fed-up with caring for her,” the Daily Mail reported on January 22.
“An elderly woman was euthanized within hours of her husband claiming she changed her mind after insisting she wanted to live,” wrote U.S. senior investigations reporter Nic White. In Canada, patients can receive “same-day euthanasia” on request, as long as they are approved by a “MAiD assessor” so long as the euthanasia practitioner deems the case urgent.
A report by the Ontario MAiD Death Review Committee, which LifeSiteNews previously reported on here, revealed a number of horrifying cases that constituted “questionable deaths” (virtually all of the terminology surrounding so-called “medical assistance in dying” is profoundly Orwellian).
“One case study was that of a woman in her 80s referred to as ‘Mrs B’ who had complications after a coronary artery bypass graft surgery,” wrote White. “She went into severe decline and opted for palliative care, and was sent home from hospital with palliative support and her husband caring for her. But as her condition got worse, her elderly husband struggled to care for her even with the help of visits by nurses.”
According to the family, Mrs. B said she wanted euthanasia. Her overworked husband contacted a “referral service” immediately. Mrs. B, however, changed her mind when the assessor arrived, stating that she “wanted to withdraw her request, citing personal religious values and beliefs.” She said that she wanted inpatient hospice care instead.
As is so often the case, in-patient hospice care was unavailable and the family’s request denied the following day. Her husband “was experiencing caregiver burnout,” and despite his wife being assessed as stable by physicians, requested an “urgent second MAiD assessment” that same day. The new assessor stated that she was eligible for euthanasia, even though the original assessor, when contacted “as per protocol,” disagreed.
“This MAiD practitioner expressed concerns regarding the necessity for ‘urgency’ and shared belief for the need for more comprehensive evaluation, the seemingly drastic change in perspective of end-of-life goals, and the possibility of coercion or undue influence (i.e., due to caregiver burnout),” the report stated. The assessor asked to meet Mrs. B the following day, but this “was declined by the MAiD provider as ‘the clinical circumstances necessitated an urgent provision.”
In short: the euthanasia practitioner rejected delaying killing the woman even by a day, claiming, despite doctors assessing the woman as stable, that it was an “urgent” situation.
A third assessor was called in and signed off on the second assessor’s eligibility finding. The woman was killed that same evening.
“Ontario MAiD Death Review Committee members raised concerns about how Mrs B’s case was handled, in the report released by the Office of the Chief Coroner,” White reported. “Many members ‘believed the short timeline did not allow all aspects of Mrs B’s social and end-of-life circumstances and care needs to be explored.’”
These included ‘the impact of being denied hospice care, additional care options, caregiver burden, consistency of the MAiD request, and divergent MAiD practitioner perspectives’.
‘Many members brought forward concerns of possible external coercion arising from the caregiver’s experience of burnout and lack of access to palliative care in an in-patient or hospice setting,’ the report noted.
Members were also concerned that Mrs B’s spouse was the main person advocating and navigating access to MAiD, and there was little documentation that she actually asked for it herself. The MAiD assessments were completed with her husband present, which raised additional concerns that she felt pressured to go along with it.
Coercion is an increasing reality in Canada’s euthanasia regime; last month, a BC judge had to intervene to prevent a husband from carrying out a “double-euthanasia” death plan for his wife, who had been deemed non-eligible for euthanasia due to her dimension. The husband had planned to kill his wife himself in a “do-it-yourself” euthanasia and then end his own life. A judge removed the woman from her husband’s guardianship, but critics pointed out that even the judge treated the situation not as a murder plan but as a violation of MAiD protocol.
“‘Euthanized against her will’ = cold blooded murder,” wrote former Alberta premier Jason Kenney in response to the news. “This is the inevitable result of Canada’s dystopian ‘medical assistance in dying’ regime. When I predicted this outcome over years of debates in Parliament, pro-euthanasia advocates would dismiss it as ‘fear mongering.’ It turns out that fear of desacralizing human life is entirely rational.”
-- LifeSite News
THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
January 25, 2025
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
... View MoreTHE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
January 25, 2025
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
OUR OPENING HYMN: 412 “The People That in Darkness Sat”
Lutheran Service Book
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Page 184-185
THE INTROIT – Psalm 22:27-31; antiphon: Ps. 22:22
I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
Congregation: And with thy Spirit.
OUR COLLECT PRAYER –
Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities and stretch forth the hand of Your majesty to heal and defend us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son; our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
OUR BIBLE READINGS Old Testament: Isaiah 9:1-4 Psalm 27:1-14 (antiphon: v.1) Epistle: Romans: 1st Corinthians 1:10-18 Gospel Reading: Matthew 4:12-25
THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192
HYMN OF THE DAY: 839 “O Christ, Our True and Only Light”
THE SERMON –
“The Light Has Dawned: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand”
Brothers and sisters, grace, peace, and mercy be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
When Jesus begins His public ministry, Matthew tells us something very specific about where and how it begins.
It starts not in Jerusalem, nor at the temple, nor among the powerful or elite, but in Galilee of the Gentiles.
It begins in a place long marked by the darkness of sin, invasion, and loss.
Matthew is careful to tell us this is no accident.
It is the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah's words: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
Galilee is not merely a geographical detail.
It’s a theological confession.
It is the promise fulfilled that God’s saving work begins where human hope has failed.
Isaiah spoke these words centuries earlier to a people crushed by Assyrian domination, a people who knew what it meant to live in the shadow of death.
Yet into that darkness the Lord promised light, not the light of human strength or political power, but the light of His own saving grace and presence.
Now, in Matthew Chapter 4, that promise is fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Light of Christ has dawned.
And the first words that come from the mouth of this Light are not sentimental or vague.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Repentance isn’t a message we naturally want to hear.
It confronts us with the truth that something is wrong, not only out there in the world, but here, within us.
Yet repentance is not the opposite of the Gospel.
Sorrow over sin is what happens when the light shines into the darkness and exposes what has been hidden.
Martin Luther writes in the Heidelberg Disputation that, “the law says, ‘Do this,’ and it is never done; grace says, ‘Believe in this,’ and everything is already done.”
Christ’s call to repentance is not a demand that we fix ourselves before He comes near.
It is the announcement that the Kingdom has already come near in Him.
Faith is simply receiving the Light that has already dawned.
As Jesus continues along the Sea of Galilee, He calls Simon Peter and Andrew, then James and John.
“Follow Me,” He says, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Notice what Jesus does not say.
He doesn’t say, “Improve yourselves, and then follow Me.”
He does not say, “Be righteous first, and then follow Me.”
He simply calls.
And in that call, He creates what He commands.
As Luther taught, faith is the open hand that receives the Gospel. That hand itself is opened through the Holy Spirit using God’s means of grace, His Word and Sacraments.
The fishermen leave their nets, their boats, even their father, not because they’ve grasped a plan for their lives, but because the Word of Christ has taken hold of them.
This is how the Kingdom of Heaven comes.
Not by human decision or spiritual achievement, but by the effective Word of Jesus.
That same Word that once said, “Let there be light,” now says, “Follow Me,” and new creation begins.
This is deeply connected to what St. Paul addresses in 1st Corinthians.
The Corinthian congregation is fractured, divided by loyalties and personalities.
“I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas.”
Paul’s response is not to offer better leadership strategies or mission statements, but to re-center them on the cross.
“Is Christ divided?” he asks.
The answer, of course, is no.
The Church isn’t founded on human personalities, whether in Corinth or in big box churches and TV celebrities.
The Church belongs to Christ crucified.
“The word of the cross,” Paul says, “is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The same Light that dawns in Galilee is the Light that shines most clearly from the cross.
There, in what appears to be darkness and defeat, God is at work saving the world.
Psalm 27 gives voice to the confidence that flows from this Light.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
Our confidence is not in material objects or circumstances, but in the presence of the crucified and risen Lord who does not abandon His people.
Even when we walk through valleys of uncertainty, illness, grief, or fear, the Light has not gone out.
It has dawned, once and for all, in Christ.
Matthew tells us that Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and affliction among the people.
This is not a different Jesus from the one who calls sinners to repentance.
It is the same Lord, whose mercy meets people in their weakness.
His miracles aren’t mere displays of power.
They are signs that the Kingdom of Heaven has broken into a fallen world.
They are foretastes of the restoration promised in Isaiah, when the yoke of the burden of sin is broken, and joy replaces despair.
Yet even here, we need to be careful.
Jesus doesn’t come to make earthly life necessarily easier.
He comes to make all things new.
And to save for eternity.
That renewal comes through repentance, forgiveness, and faith.
The crowds follow Him, Matthew says, from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
The Light draws people from every direction.
But following Jesus is not the same as just being impressed by Him.
To follow Jesus is be called to repentance each day, and continually given forgiveness.
It is to be shaped, not by the wisdom of the world, but by the foolishness of the cross.
Here, brothers and sisters in Christ, this Gospel meets us.
We, too, live in a world that knows darkness.
Sin, division, fear, and confusion are not strangers to our lives, or to the Church.
Yet the answer is not found in self-help theologies or spiritual fads.
The answer is the same today as it was in Galilee.
“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.”
That Light is Christ Himself, present for us in His Word and Sacraments.
Here, He still says, “Repent,” in the Confession, and here He still says, “Your sins are forgiven” in the Absolution.
Here, He still calls ordinary people and makes them His own.
He gathers us, not around ourselves, but around His cross where He paid for the sin of the world.
Luther once wrote, “Where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Spirit who creates, calls, and gathers the Christian Church.”
But where Christ is preached, there the Light shines, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
May that Light continue to shine upon us.
May it call us again and again to repentance and faith.
And may it lead us, at last, from the shadow of death into the fullness of eternal life with our risen Lord and Saviour.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 198 Post-Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201
OUR CLOSING HYMN: 688 “‘Come, Follow Me,’ The Savior Spake”
THE BIBLE STUDY –
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings for Saturday, Jan. 24, are Joel 3:1–21 and Romans 12:14–13:14.
Epiphany shines with the revelation of Christ.
... View MoreTHE BIBLE STUDY –
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Our readings for Saturday, Jan. 24, are Joel 3:1–21 and Romans 12:14–13:14.
Epiphany shines with the revelation of Christ.
Joel’s prophecy, though, reminds us that the Lord’s final revealing will come with both judgment and deliverance.
Joel Chapter 3 paints a sobering picture: the nations gathered for judgment, human pride exposed, and the Lord roaring from Zion.
Yet for His people, believers, the same day becomes refuge, shelter, and restoration.
The God who judges is also the God who saves.
The Apostle Paul in Romans Chapters 12 and 13, shows how those who belong to this saving God now live in the light of Christ’s appearing.
We do not repay evil for evil; we bless those who persecute us; we overcome evil with good.
This is not the way of the unbelieving world, nor naïve optimism, but the life of those who know the Judge who has already justified them in Christ.
Martin Luther, writing on Romans 13, said, “Faith is a living, busy, active thing. It is impossible for it not to be ceaselessly doing good.”
That living faith, born of the Gospel, shapes our life toward neighbour, even in a hostile world.
Good works are evidence of our faith, but not the means by which we are saved.
St. Paul’s call to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is Epiphany living: Christ revealed to us, Christ reflected through us.
Paul also speaks clearly with great relevance for today about submission to secular authorities. Those whom God entrusts to keep order and protect us in the temporal earthly realm should be respected. Only when they oppose God’s Word and its proclamation should they be resisted.
The day is at hand. The Judge is our Redeemer. Therefore, we walk in the light, confident that the Lord who shakes the heavens is also the One who shelters His people forever.
We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ alone.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, Light of the world, clothe us with Yourself that we may walk as children of the day.
Strengthen us to bless our enemies, love our neighbours, and trust Your final deliverance.
Keep us steadfast until You come again in glory. Amen.
Our Hymn for the Day from Lutheran Service Book is LSB 411 — “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le47mT2HEvw&list=RDLe47mT2HEvw&start_radio=1
THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
January 18, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers... View MoreTHE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
January 18, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
OUR OPENING HYMN: 507 “Holy, Holy, Holy ”
Lutheran Service Book
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Page 184-185
THE INTROIT –
Psalm 66:1-5; 20; antiphon: Psalm 66:4; 92:1
All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High. Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer mor removed his steadfast love from me!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.
KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
Congregation: And with thy Spirit.
OUR COLLECT PRAYER –
Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son; our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
OUR BIBLE READINGS Old Testament: Amos 9:11-15 Psalm 67 Epistle: Romans 12:6-16 Gospel Reading: John 2:1-11
THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192
HYMN OF THE DAY: 408 “Come, Join in Cana’s Feast”
THE SERMON –
“The First of His Signs”
John 2:1–11
God in human flesh attends a wedding.
He doesn’t demand to be served; He acts to provide.
At the same time, He reveals His Divine nature and points forward to His ultimate sacrificial act for humanity and to a sacrament that serves us today.
In the Gospel of John, God reveals who Jesus truly is.
Not all at once.
But through signs — quiet, gracious moments in which Christ allows His glory to be seen by faith.
At the conclusion of today’s text, the Apostle tells us, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.”
Glory is the keyword.
John doesn’t call this event a ‘miracle’ meant to impress.
He calls it a sign — a semeion in the Greek he was writing in — something that points beyond itself to a deeper and greater reality.
The water turned into wine is not the point.
What the sign reveals is.
It shows Jesus as the incarnate Son of God.
It portrays the kind of Messiah Christ is.
And it helps describe how He continues to give Himself to His Church.
Jesus begins His public ministry not in the temple, or a palace, but at a feast.
Here, in the joy of ordinary human life, the Son of God sits quietly among His people.
By His presence, He sanctifies marriage, the union of one man and one woman.
He affirms creation.
And He shows that God’s glory is not opposed to joy, but fulfills it.
When the wine runs out, the joy of the feast is threatened by shame.
Mary mentions the problem to Jesus.
She doesn’t demand a miracle.
She simply entrusts the need to Him.
The stone jars used for Jewish purification rites are filled with water.
John is careful to provide that detail.
The jars belonged to the old order, the ceremonial washing of the Law.
They could cleanse the outside of the body, but not the heart.
Jesus doesn’t destroy them, though.
He fills them.
And He transforms what they contain.
Here, Christ reveals His identity.
As Cyril of Alexandria observed, “He who changed water into wine reveals Himself as Creator and Redeemer, beginning already to show the mystery of salvation.”
The One standing at Cana is not merely a prophet.
He is the Lord of creation itself.
He speaks, and the universe obeys.
That’s why John tells us that this sign manifested Christ’s glory and that His disciples believed in Him.
Faith is born not from spectacle, but from revelation.
Martin Luther wrote that, “Faith does not rest on works or signs, but on the Word of God, which the signs serve and confirm.”
The sign doesn’t replace the Word.
It serves the Word made flesh, who says I am the Messiah, the true Bridegroom who has come for His bride – the Church.
The abundance of wine here is no accident.
It is divine generosity.
Scripture repeatedly associates the coming age of salvation with overflowing wine.
The prophet Amos proclaims that when the Lord restores His people, “the mountains shall drip sweet wine.”
Cana is the beginning of that fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is no longer a promise.
It has arrived in Jesus.
This is why the Church has historically recognized the sacramental character of this sign.
Water becomes wine by the Word of Christ.
Not by human power.
Not by human understanding.
But by divine promise.
As Martin Chemnitz writes concerning the sacraments, “The power is not in the water alone, but in the Word which is joined to the water.”
So it was at Cana.
The water is ordinary.
The Word of Christ is not.
And the result is transformation.
This points us first to Holy Baptism.
There, too, water is joined to the Word.
And in Baptism something entirely new is given—not wine, but new birth, forgiveness, and union with Christ.
But even more clearly, Cana points us forward to the Lord’s Supper.
Wine is chosen deliberately.
Wine that will later be taken up by Christ and declared to be His blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins.
Saint Augustine saw this connection and preached it boldly when he said, “He who made the wine at the wedding feast is the same who makes His blood from wine at the altar.”
Cana is a quiet prophecy of the crucifixion.
Christ’s glory will not be seen most clearly at a wedding feast, but on a cross.
There, His blood will be poured out in abundance.
There, our sin will be fully covered.
There, joy will be secured through suffering.
And yet, the joy of Cana is real.
It is a foretaste.
It anticipates another feast, one greater and everlasting.
The miracle at Cana lifts our eyes beyond Galilee and beyond history itself.
It directs us toward the vision given to Saint John in Revelation, when he hears the proclamation, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
The wedding at Cana is a sign pointing forward to the day when Christ the Bridegroom will return in glory, and His Church, washed and clothed in His righteousness, will be presented to Him without spot or wrinkle.
At Cana, the wine runs out.
At the wedding supper of the Lamb, it will not.
In the heavenly feast, joy is complete and eternal, and death will be no more.
Earthly banquets eventually end.
But the feast that Christ prepares for us won’t, because it’s grounded not in human effort, but in His finished work.
The steward’s wonder that the best wine has been saved for last becomes the Church’s confession.
In Christ, the crucified and risen Messiah has come.
But for now, the Church lives between Cana and Revelation.
Between the first sign and the final fulfillment.
Week after week, we gather at the altar, where the Bridegroom is already present.
There, He gives us that foretaste of the feast to come.
Here, in the Church, heaven touches earth.
Here, the future breaks into the present.
This is Epiphany.
This is Christ revealing Himself.
Not as a distant God.
But as the Bridegroom who draws near.
The sign at Cana shapes the life of the Church today.
Like the servants, the Church trusts His Word, even when it transcends human reason.
Cana is Epiphany.
It is Christ revealing His divine glory.
It’s Jesus foreshadowing His saving work.
It is our Saviour giving a glimpse of the eternal feast in Heaven.
And blessed are those who have not seen, but believe.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 198 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column)
OUR CLOSING HYMN: 514 “The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us”
THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
January 11, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers... View MoreTHE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
January 11, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church,
OUR OPENING HYMN: 839 “O Christ, Our True and Only Light ”
Lutheran Service Book
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Page 184-185
THE INTROIT –
Psalm 2:7-11, 12c; antiphon: Isaiah 42:1a
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
Congregation: And with thy Spirit.
OUR COLLECT PRAYER –
Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Our Bible Readings:
Old Testament – Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 (antiphon: v.3) Epistle: Romans 6:1-11 Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17
THE NICENE CREED Page 191
HYMN OF THE DAY: 405 “To Jordan’s River Came Our Lord”
THE SERMON –
Why does Jesus come to the Jordan to be baptized?
That question stands at the heart of today’s Gospel passage.
John the Baptist himself asks it, though not with words alone.
When Jesus steps into the waters, John is troubled.
He knows who stands before him.
He knows his own calling and human nature. And he feels that this moment isn't right.
“I need to be baptized by you,” John confesses, “and do you come to me?”
John recognizes what we so easily forget. Jesus is not a sinner demonstrating repentance.
He is the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But Jesus insists.
“Let it be so now,” He says, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
With those words, Christ reveals what His baptism is truly about. It’s not about His need. It’s about ours.
To “fulfill all righteousness” doesn’t imply that Jesus lacked something before this moment.
It means He willingly places Himself under everything God requires of fallen humanity.
Jesus enters the waters not to be cleansed, but to consecrate those waters for sinners.
He steps into the Jordan as the obedient Son, the Servant of the Lord foretold by Isaiah.
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”
The voice from Heaven echoes those very words. This is no accident.
The Baptism of Jesus is a public declaration that He has come to be the Servant who bears the sins of all. In His baptism, Jesus is set apart — He is anointed, approved, and sent.
The Spirit descends on Him. The Father speaks from heaven.
The Son stands in the water. Here, at the Jordan, the Holy Trinity reveals itself for the sake of our salvation.
This is not simply a beautiful moment. It is a saving one.
Martin Luther understood this event with striking clarity.
He saw that Christ’s baptism is not just an example, but an exchange.
Luther wrote, “Christ accepted it from John for the reason that He was entering into our stead, indeed, our person, that is, becoming a sinner for us, taking upon Himself the sins which He had not committed, and wiping them out and drowning them in His Holy Baptism.”
These are bold words.
They’re meant to be.
Luther dares to say what the Gospel itself proclaims. Jesus becomes what He is not, so that we might become what we are not.
He who was without sin steps into the place of sinners.
He who is beloved by God stands where the condemned should be.
And He does this freely.
Willingly.
Joyfully.
John’s hesitation, then, is entirely understandable.
John baptizes sinners.
Jesus is not one.
John calls people to repentance.
Jesus has nothing to repent of.
But John’s baptism was never about worthiness.
It was always about God’s promise.
Jesus submits to John’s baptism because He is submitting to the Father’s will.
He is beginning the great descent that will carry Him all the way to the cross.
The Jordan here theologically flows toward Calvary.
The waters of baptism point toward blood and nails, and a borrowed tomb.
From this moment on, Jesus walks the path of the sacrificial substitute.
The Apostle Paul gives us language to describe this exchange.
“For our sake,” Paul writes, “he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
That is what “fulfilling all righteousness” signifies.
Jesus fulfills it not by demanding it from us, but by giving it to us.
He meets every righteous requirement of God.
He obeys the Law perfectly.
Suffers innocently.
Dies willingly.
And He rises victoriously.
All of this begins here, in the water.
At His baptism, Jesus publicly identifies Himself with us poor sinners.
He unites Himself to His beloved creation.
He places Himself under judgment so that we might stand under grace.
And now we must ask the question, What does the Baptism of Jesus mean for our baptism?
The answer – everything. Because Christ’s baptism is not isolated from ours. It is the foundation of it.
When Jesus enters the Jordan, He binds Himself to sinners.
When we were baptized, He bound Himself to us.
Our baptism is not about our decision, faithfulness, or obedience.
It is about Christ’s.
It’s about His righteousness given as a gift to you and me.
It is about His death and resurrection applied to us.
Paul makes this unmistakably clear in Romans Chapter 6. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”
To be baptized is to be joined to Christ. Not symbolically. Not metaphorically. But truly.
In baptism, you are united with Jesus in His death.
Your sin is drowned.
Your old Adam is crucified.
Your guilt is buried with Him.
And just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we are raised to walk in the newness of life.
This is not poetry alone.
It is promise.
The same Spirit who descended upon Jesus in the Jordan is given to you in Holy Baptism.
The same Father who declared His Son beloved speaks a verdict over you – “This is my beloved child, in whom I am pleased.”
Not because of our merit.
Not because of our progress in holiness.
But because you are in Christ.
The righteousness that Jesus fulfilled is now yours.
His obedience covers your disobedience.
His holiness covers your sin.
His life covers your death.
That is why baptism is not a past event to be outgrown.
It is a present daily reality in the Christian life.
As Luther teaches us, Baptism is something we return to every day of our life through repentance and faith.
The Baptism of Our Lord also teaches how God saves.
And that’s not through asking us to achieve redemption through our own ‘good works.’
Not through a false, self-righteous display in an altar call, declaring we have ‘chosen Jesus’ and deserve salvation.
It is not through spectacle, nor power, as the world understands it.
But through water and God’s Word. Through the suffering Saviour who stoops low.
Christ does not begin His ministry in a palace, but in a river. Among sinners. Placing Himself under judgment.
And He remains with us still.
Meeting us not where we are strong, but where we are weak.
Not where we are ‘righteous,’ but where we are in need of His perfect righteousness.
Through Baptism He is there for you, in His Word, in the Absolution, and in His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper.
Just as He promised.
So, today, as we remember the Baptism of Our Lord, we’re not just recalling something Jesus once did.
We’re confessing what He continues to do.
The One who stands in our place.
The One who continues to lead us through death into life.
The heavens were opened over the Jordan.
They remain open for believers, because Christ has fulfilled all righteousness.
Now and forever. Amen
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 198 Post-Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201
OUR CLOSING HYMN: 402 “The Only Son From Heaven”
THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD
January 6, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Martin Luther's writings and sermons for the Day of Epiphany emphasize that God uses Scripture to reve... View MoreTHE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD
January 6, 2026
Pastor Tom Steers
Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church
Martin Luther's writings and sermons for the Day of Epiphany emphasize that God uses Scripture to reveal His Son to the Magi and to us.
Luther's 1522 sermon for the Epiphany explains why the Lord guided the wise men to Bethlehem through His Word rather than solely by the star.
This approach served to teach adherence to the Holy Scriptures as the source for finding Christ. The Reformer explained, "In them He desires to be found, and nowhere else.”
Our Bible Readings:
Old Testament – Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-15
Epistle – Ephesians 3:1-12
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12
Our Hymn for the Day from Lutheran Service Book is:
398 “Hail to the Lord’s Annointed”
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THE SERMON –
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Epiphany is the feast of God’s shining, a celebration of the great gift of Christ being unwrapped.
It is a commemoration of divine light breaking into a darkened world.
Christ is revealed not only to Israel, but to all people who were far off.
As Isaiah proclaims, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”
That glory is not an idea, nor a philosophy.
It is not a vague, spiritual glow.
The redeeming glory is a Child, truly human, truly divine, born in Bethlehem in humility, yet bearing the salvation of the world.
Matthew tells us that wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”
They had seen His star when it rose, and they had come to worship Him.
Already here we see the great mystery of Epiphany.
God reveals His Christ to those who did not know Him by birth or blood, but by His revelation.
The Magi are Gentiles.
They’re outsiders to the covenants and promises of Israel.
Yet they’re drawn, summoned, guided by God.
A lot of ink has been spent over the centuries on who the Magi were.
Were they astrologers, astronomers, scholars, kings, or priests?
How many were there, and exactly where did they come from?
Scripture doesn’t satisfy our curiosity on these points.
Instead, the Bible directs us to what truly matters.
God revealed Christ to them.
He did so by a star in the heavens, but far more importantly, by His Word on earth.
When the Magi arrive in Jerusalem, the star alone does not lead them to Christ.
It brings them first to the Holy City, not the Child.
For that, God uses His written Word.
Herod summons the chief priests and scribes and asks where the Christ is to be born.
They answer by quoting the prophet Micah, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel . . . .” (Micah 5:2)
This is crucial in the Epiphany account.
These Gentiles have read and followed Holy Scripture.
They know a King worthy of being worshipped by foreigners is to be born in Israel.
The location of the Saviour’s birth, Bethlehem, is foretold in Scripture.
That same Word speaks of His eternal nature, “whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
This is how the Almighty continues to work today.
God doesn’t reveal Christ to us by signs in the sky or internal feelings, but by His Word.
As the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians, this mystery “was made known to me by revelation.”
And that mystery is this: “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”
The Epiphany Good News is not merely that Christ exists.
It is that Christ is given.
Given to all nations.
Given through the Word entrusted to and proclaimed in the Church.
Martin Luther, preaching on this text in his 1522 Church Postil, makes this point with great clarity.
He says the star was a servant, but the Word was the true guide.
Luther wrote, “The star does not remain, but the Scripture remains and must guide them.”
The Reformer explained, “God does not wish to lead us by new revelations, but by His Word.”
This is a deep, comforting truth.
Our faith doesn’t depend on fleeting signs or extraordinary experiences.
It rests on the sure and true, inerrant Word of God.
The same Word that pointed the Magi to Bethlehem, now leads us to Christ.
That Word is found where God has promised.
In His Church, in the means of grace.
In the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, through which the Holy Spirit works faith within us.
In the waters of Holy Baptism.
In the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us.
The Magi, once directed by the Word, rejoice with great joy.
They find the Child with Mary, His mother.
They fall down and worship Him.
They open their treasures and offer gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
These gifts are not payments.
They’re confessions.
Gold confesses Christ as King.
Frankincense confesses Him as God.
Myrrh confesses Him as the One who will suffer and die.
Even here, at Epiphany, the shadow of the cross is present.
The light that shines in Bethlehem will one day shine from Calvary.
The Child revealed to the nations is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
Psalm 72 echoes this Epiphany joy when it declares, “May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render Him tribute.”
And Isaiah foretells it when he proclaims that nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
All of this finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
Yet there is a sober warning in this Gospel as well.
Herod hears the same Word the Magi hear.
He’s reminded of the prophecy.
He now knows where Christ is to be born.
But instead of worship, he responds with murderous hatred.
The same Word that creates faith in the Magi hardens Herod’s heart.
This reminds us that Epiphany is not only revelation, but also division.
The light of Christ exposes what lies in the darkness.
Some rejoice.
Others resist.
Yet God’s purpose is not thwarted.
He warns the Magi in a dream, and they return home by another way.
They carry the light they’ve received back into the world from which they came.
So it is with us.
Having seen Christ by faith, we are sent back into our vocations bearing His light.
Not as saviours.
But as witnesses.
We do not reveal Christ by our cleverness or holiness.
We reveal our Lord by pointing to His Word.
By confessing what has been revealed to us.
Luther beautifully summarizes this Epiphany faith when he writes that the Magi, “allow themselves to be taught, not by their own thoughts, but by the Scriptures.”
That is the posture of the Church.
We receive what God reveals.
And we worship the Christ whom the Word makes known.
It shines in Christ.
It shines for Jews and Gentiles alike.
For sinners.
For us.
We have not seen His star in the sky.
But we’ve heard His Word.
And that is enough.
For in that Word, Christ Himself comes to us, forgives us, and leads His forgiven children to eternal life.
To Him be glory in the Church, now and forever. Amen.
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