Concordia, Jesus-Style

And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.'

By Rev. Joel Fritsche

Look how those wonderful children of Israel responded when God gave them the Law, the Ten Commandments, together with all the rules and statutes of the covenant by which they were to show themselves as His people. WITH ONE VOICE they spoke. Concordia! Harmony! In agreement! But that didn’t last. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). No graven images. No gods of silver. No gods of gold. It didn’t take long before Aaron and the boys forged a calf of gold from all the jewelry they pillaged from the Egyptians. “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4) Aaron built an altar. The people feasted. They rose up to play, so quickly forgetting their covenant with God, exchanging the concordia that the Lord had made with them for their own corrupted version.

Thankfully, concordia with God is not merely one-sided. It’s more than just man’s promises. Concordia is actually bloody business. How would you like to have been an Israelite in the Old Testament? Burnt offerings. Peace offerings. Butchered oxen. Bowls of blood. Blood on the altar. Blood splattered all over the people, ALL OVER YOU. “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:8). That’s concordia, Exodusstyle. But that blood allowed the people to be in God’s presence. Then they could see Him and live. Then they could eat and drink with God and live. And so they did. How cool is that? When the covenant was ratified, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel… they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9-11).

But even that feasting was something temporary. Wavering between covenant and coveting so much more, the children of Israel wandered the wilderness. When they were hungry, God gave them manna and quail. When they were thirsty, God gave them water from rocks. He turned bitter streams sweet. He led them forward, never abandoning them, even though they so often ran from Him, whining, complaining, rebelling. Yet for forty years God kept them on the path to the Promised Land, where they would be His people forever. They made it, but it was still more of the same. Concordia with God? No! Let’s have concordia with the world, with the nations.

Does that sound familiar? Well, you’re just like them. You make promises that you can’t keep—promises to God, promises to your neighbor. Like the Israelites who were brought out of Egypt with God’s mighty hand, high on God’s mighty works, promising to keep His covenant, to love Him and one another, you do the same. What did you pray in the psalm a moment ago? I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1). You’ll come home from this conference HIGH. It’s California, after all. But let me rephrase that. You’ll come home from this conference energized, rejoicing in the gifts, singing hymns, and hungry for more of the gifts of God. But how long will all of that really last? School starts back up soon. Activities resume. Things go back to normal. Life goes on. You forget. Concordia. Meh. As much as I hate to say it, even this conference isn’t lasting. It’s only temporary, like all things in this world. And soon you’ll be back to chasing the world’s idea of concordia.

Jesus told the Jews, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died” (John 6:49). The wages of sin is death. Everything in this fallen world decays and dies. You and I are no exception. So, with death inevitable, let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32). Eat what you want. Build your altar. Make your golden calf. Follow your gods. Live how you want. Make your own concordia. NO! Repent! The Lord wants to do His concordia with you! He has something better for you and His stuff lasts. His doing counts.

Jesus says to you: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and NOT DIE. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:48–51). “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:54–56).

Concordia is indeed bloody business. It’s built on the blood of the One who came down from heaven FOR YOU, to give His flesh on the cross FOR YOU, to shed His blood there FOR YOU, and for the life of the world. Concordia is all about eating and drinking, feasting on HIM and with HIM, with Jesus, the Bread of Life. For sure, you’ll leave this conference HIGH on Jesus. But it’s not really about some kind of spiritual high. It’s about real food and real drink. It’s about real life. It’s about true and lasting concordia, God’s doing, rejoicing in who you are in Him, His baptized child, to live with meaning and purpose as you receive forgiveness and life from His hand and go forth to love and serve your neighbor.

Dear Christian, that’s exactly what our Lord provides for you in your local congregation, where His concordia with you is lived out as you receive Jesus, the Bread of Life, from your pastor as from God Himself. It’s a reality in His precious means of grace FOR YOU—the Absolution, the preaching, the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. There’s not necessarily a high. In fact, you often arrive on a spiritual low, entering into God’s presence with all your sin, your unkept promises, your collapsed commitments, your corrupted concordia. And the blood from the altar— the blood of Jesus, the blood that’s better than that of bulls and goats, the blood of the eternal covenant, shed for you at Calvary—is sprinkled upon you as you eat and drink of Him. And God does His concordia stuff with you, again and again, abiding in you and you in Him. He makes you ONE with Him and with your neighbor. That’s Concordia—Jesus-style, God’s way, true and lasting, eternal, forever.

Rev. Joel Fritsche serves as an LCMS missionary in the Dominican Republic and is the board secretary for Higher Things. This article is adapted from his Higher Things Concordia 2019 sermon preached at Concordia-Irvine.