Sometimes things happen that make you stop dead in your tracks and re-evaluate everything you thought you knew about something. One of those “sometimes” happened this week.
This past Wednesday, students at Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana were in the cafeteria eating lunch. All of a sudden a 14-year-old student walked up behind a 17-year-old classmate. He grabbed the 17-year-old by the hair of his head – pulled his head back – and cut the boy’s throat with a large knife that he had brought to school that day. The injured boy, who was bleeding heavily from his wound, went running from the cafeteria. The boy with the knife ran from the cafeteria, too – chasing his victim. Students who were in their classrooms could hear the screams of the injured boy – and could hear the loud laughing of the boy with the knife. Eventually the boy with the knife was knocked to the ground and disarmed by another student – who happened to be the attacker’s older brother. The attacker was taken to jail, where he is being held under psychiatric supervision. The boy who was attacked underwent surgery to repair his wounds – and other than some possible nerve damage, is expected to fully recover.
One of the reasons why this affected me so strongly is that Sharon and I have good friends who have two daughters attending that school. One of them would have been in the cafeteria eating lunch – she would have seen the attack take place – if she had not been delayed in a classroom by some testing. The other daughter was away from the school with a vocal group that was singing at a funeral – but if she had been at school, she could have been seated at that same table with other members of the school band.
Whenever these incidents of violence happen at schools, we’re always shocked and dismayed and saddened. But remember – this isn’t just any school. This is a Lutheran high school, a highly respected Lutheran high school that has been providing a quality Christ-centered Lutheran education for almost 75 years. It is one of the largest Lutheran high schools in the United States – with almost 700 students. Many of the students are sons and daughters of Seminary professors – or sons and daughters of Seminary students. The 14-year-old who tried to kill his classmate graduated from a Lutheran grade school. We like to think – we like to convince ourselves – that Lutherans are good people, and good Lutherans don’t do things like this.
In retrospect, there had been signs of trouble. The boys were in the drum line of the school band, and recently there had been rumors of problems. On Tuesday, these two boys had been involved in what was later reported to be a serious verbal altercation – or in simpler terms, they had argued about something. The night before the attack, the 14-year-old posted something on his Facebook page saying that something big was going to happen at noon on Wednesday in the Concordia High School cafeteria. There were signs of trouble – but no one paid any attention to those signs. And the result was a tragedy that will affect the students and the parents the faculty of Concordia Lutheran High School for a long time to come.
Now you may very well be thinking, what does this event – as terrible as is was – have to do with today’s Gospel lesson? When Mary told Jesus that the wedding had run out of wine, He responded to her, “What does this have to do with me?” What does this violent attack last week in Fort Wayne have to do with us gathered together this morning in Pana?
Today, according to our liturgical calendar, is the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. “Epiphany” is an ancient word that literally means a revealing of something that lay hidden, something that was unseen by the world. During the season of Epiphany, the Church focuses on the revelation of Jesus as God in the flesh – true God and true man. This season, like no other season in the Church year, meditates on the divine nature of Christ in His life, in His teachings – and in His miracles. Our focus during Epiphany is learning just who Jesus is – because until we understand the identity of Jesus, we can’t fully understand and appreciate what Jesus has done for us during the seasons we will soon celebrate of Lent and Easter.
Last Sunday’s “epiphany” or “revelation” focused on the baptism of Jesus. The testimony of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the Father as a voice from heaven both witness to Christ as God made manifest. This one event testifies to the importance of all that Jesus does and says as the visible image of the true God. The “epiphany” described in today’s Gospel lesson focuses on the miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana. As we heard, John concludes our lesson with these words: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
We’re all familiar with the miracles that Jesus performed during his time here on earth. The changing of water into wine was just the first – and it would be followed by many, many more. Casting out demons, healing people of their illnesses and diseases, feeding thousands of people with just a few small fish and loaves of bread, walking on water and stilling great storms with a simple command – even raising the dead back to life – yes, we’ve heard them many, many times. We’ve heard them so often that we almost take them for granted. We look at them as just a lot of unrelated events – drive out demons yesterday, walk on water today, feed the 5,000 tomorrow. Yes, they’re all miracles. Yes, Jesus did a lot of miracles. Yes, Jesus helped a lot of people.
But we don’t stop to think about why Jesus performed the miracles that He did. Every miracle that Jesus performed was a sign revealing Him as the only-begotten Son of God. Every miracle that He performed revealed that Jesus truly was and truly is the Messiah promised to God’s people since their fall into sin. Every miracle that Jesus performed revealed Him to be the true Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. Not only the sins we commit, but the sinful condition – the original sin – that has been the curse of every man and woman who has ever been born on this earth. “In sin did my mother conceive me,” King David wrote in Psalm 51. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans.
As I think back on the events that took place in Fort Wayne last week, my initial reaction went something like this. I thought to myself, these things aren’t supposed to happen at Lutheran Schools. Lutherans don’t do things like that. A Lutheran boy at a Lutheran school doesn’t try to murder another boy. We like to think – we like to convince ourselves – that Lutherans are good people, and good Lutherans don’t do things like this.
But even the best Lutheran is a sinner, through and through. We sometimes try to categorize sins, trying to convince ourselves that one sin is greater than another, but that’s not how God sees it. In God’s eyes, every sin is worthy of condemnation to hell. Telling a tiny little fib about something is every bit as damning as theft or adultery or murder – or even the attempted murder of a schoolmate.
Martin Luther once wrote that the Bible is a closed book without the knowledge of sin. But thanks be to God, we open the Bible not only to learn about our sin – but to learn about our Savior. To learn about what our Savior has done for us – for each of us individually and all of us collectively. Scripture is opened to us so that we may read, learn and believe that Jesus died for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead so that we, too, would be freed from the curse of sin.
When that 14-year-old boy tried to kill that 17-year-old boy in Fort Wayne last Wednesday, many saw what happened as a sign of our times. They saw it as a sign that our schools are failing to meet the needs of our children or as a sign that teachers and school officials don’t pay enough attention to warning signs of possible trouble. Some saw it as a sign that school administrators need to be more pro-active and provide better support for our teachers. Some saw it as a failure on the part of the boy’s parents, who should have seen the signs that something was wrong and taken action before something serious could happen. Some saw it as a sign that an expensive parochial school education is no better than the education provided by our public schools.
But ultimately, in my opinion, what happened is a sign – one of many, many signs – that we sinners still need a Savior. A Savior who loves us so much that He was willing to suffer and die for our sins. The signs of our time always have and always will point to us, revealing the depth of our sin. But the signs of Scripture point us only and always to Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we recognize and understand those signs not to be just accounts of random miracles – but the revelation that Jesus is our Savior from our sins.
In the second chapter of his Gospel, St. John wrote: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Near the end of his Gospel he wrote these words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
As horrible as those events were in Fort Wayne, I hope you’ll keep both that young boy and his victim in your prayers this week. Pray for the physical recovery of his victim. And as for the attacker – pray for his spiritual recovery. As the writer of hymn number 611 so beautifully wrote:
Chief of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed His blood for me,
Died that I might live on high,
Lives that I might never die.
As the branch is to the vine,
I am His, and He is mine.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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