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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Do you ever feel out of place in the world? Among your friends? Do you ever feel disconnected from the conversation? When people are talking about what matters to them, what’s important, what their goals are, what they want in life? Good. I know we all want to fit in, to have people like us, to act in ways that maybe don’t fit who we really are, but this world, as it is, is not your home. You are no longer of this world, or of the flesh.

            Paul says that we do not consider anyone or anything “according to the flesh.” We do not think or act according to the flesh. We once considered Christ according to the flesh, but not anymore. What does it mean, according to the flesh? Even Paul uses those words in different ways throughout his letters. It can mean, on the one hand, just the way things go, the way things are in the world, the way human beings do things. So he can talk about Israelites “according to the flesh,” that is, those who are genetically Israelites, or genealogically descended from Abraham. He can talk about Jesus being descended from David “according to the flesh.” So that is simply the general way of human beings. But then he can also talk about the sinful flesh, our sinful nature, and acting or thinking or speaking “according to the flesh.” That is not just the way of humanity, but the way of sinful humans.

            And both are true here. We do not consider anyone or anything in the same way anymore. Nor do we consider Christ in the same way, either according to the general way of people, nor according to unbelief. Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, or another prophet. Clearly, the people saying those things are not atheists. They believe something about God and what Jesus is doing related to the Scriptures or to John’s message. But they are thinking according to the flesh. They’re putting the pieces together, trying to figure it out. But what does Jesus say to Peter when he confesses Jesus to the be the Christ, the Son of the living God? He says, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah; flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.” This is not according to the flesh, but according to the revelation of God Himself. People might think Jesus is a source of self-help or good advice or a general admonition to be nice and love everyone. That’s according to the flesh. But it’s also sinful and unbelieving, because it does not believe what Jesus actually says, and whom He actually claims to be.

            For you who have believed in Him, it’s not just Jesus whom you consider differently, which is especially clear to you if you have faith in Him now, and you did not before. But it’s everything. Everything is different. You see and think and know things differently than you did. And it’s not just that now you’re an independent thinker, not subject to the “this or that,” “either-or” thinking of our current political and social landscape. It’s not just that you are “thinking for yourself,” or staking out some territory where no one else is. People can do that without Jesus. This isn’t just a third way, or a middle way, or an alternative. There is only “according to the flesh” and “not according to the flesh,” and the reason you do not consider Jesus, or anything or anyone else, according to the flesh is because, Paul says, you have already died. How could you see things the same way anymore? Because Christ died for all, all have died. And from now on, you see everything differently. Because Christ died, and rose from the dead, you who have been buried with Him into death have also been raised to new life. Since you are in Christ, you are a new creature. The old has gone away, the new things have come.

            It’s true, of course, that the old keeps creeping up, creeping back, holding on, trying to pull you into old ways of seeing, and old ways of thinking; trying to make you see and think about things and people the way you used to, and the way they still do. Trying to make you walk around in the flesh, and think the things of the flesh. But this new creation life of Christ is like the ocean, a universal, baptismal flood that keeps crashing against the rocks of your old, sinful flesh, until they are entirely destroyed, eroded, undone, dead. This is the ministry of reconciliation which has come to you and still does come to you. God was in Christ reconciling the entire world to Himself; reconciling you to Himself. You have been reconciled to God, and now you don’t see anything the same way. You have died to this world, and its unbelief and sin; you have died to the flesh, and are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

            So of course you don’t fit in. Of course you don’t find important what everyone around you finds important. Of course you know that the things of this world are going the same way as all flesh, and so what matters is Christ and His life. Of course you judge all things differently than the unbelieving human world. And the more He conforms you to Himself, the less you will feel at home here. And the more He imprints His image on your heart, the more the things of earth will grow dim in the light of His glorious face. For our sake, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And this message that has made you strange to the world is also for those around you. God has entrusted to His Church, and to you the members of it, the ministry of His full and free reconciliation. By me and by you, He is making His appeal to the whole world: be reconciled to God. Come and die. Hear Christ, not according to the flesh, but according to His Spirit. Come and live.

            In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 3/29/25