Matthew 18:21-35
Trinity 22

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    In the Lord’s Prayer, we’re used to saying, “Forgive us our trespasses. . .”  Trespass is another word for sin, crossing over into some area God has told you not to go; that’s how Jesus gives this prayer in the Gospel of Luke.  But in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  I imagine that language hit home with Matthew the tax collector.  Sin is debt.  You owe something to the one you’ve sinned against, whether it’s God or your neighbor or both.  

    It’s helpful to have this in mind when we talk about forgiveness.  Forgiveness is not just about brushing off the offense.  “It’s OK; forget about it.”  If sin is a debt, then there’s something much more real and tangible going on when forgiveness is given.  As an example, if you owe your parents or the bank or the government $40,000 that you borrowed for your college education, and they forgive that amount, it’s not as if the debt just vanished.  It may have for you, but somebody had to pay it–the taxpayers, the bank shareholders, Mom and Dad–someone had absorb that cost.  And in the same way, to forgive sin is to say, “I’m willing to pay the price for what you did without me getting any payback.  I release you from that. I won’t make you cover the cost.”  

    Someone always has to pay.  Forgiveness simply means that the one who incurred the debt, who did the wrong, doesn’t have to pay the price because someone else is willing to pay the price for them.  This is true of money debt; it’s true of sin debt.  One way or another, though, the debt gets paid.

    I’ve been asked a couple of times–and perhaps you’ve wondered this yourself–why was it necessary for Jesus to share in our flesh and suffer and die and shed His blood?  Why couldn’t God simply forgive everyone’s sins simply with a wave of His hand?  Couldn’t God have just said of our sins, “Don’t worry about it” and leave it at that without all the blood and death?  The answer is, “No, not if His justice and mercy are real and true.”  

    To sin is to offend against the justice and righteousness of God.  It is to rebel against His commands in favor of doing things your own way.  Your sin is not just the equivalent of getting a few parking tickets, a few minor misdeeds.  According to Scripture, your sin is treason against the King of the Universe.  It is the act of a traitor who wants to take over the Lord’s throne.  In the end someone has to pay the price for that.  A just God and Lord doesn’t simply say, “Oh, whatever.”  Such sin, such sinners cannot stand in His presence.  His very nature requires that it be dealt with.  It is written in Hebrews 9, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”  So the question is, who’s going to pay that price?  Is it you, or is it someone else who is willing to cover it for you?  Someone’s got to pay.

    In the Gospel reading, the first servant owed the King an enormous debt, 10,000 talents.  Just one talent was worth about 6,000 denarii, and each denarius was about a day’s wage for an ordinary laborer.  So to pay off a debt of 10,000 talents would take the equivalent of 60 million days of work.  How this servant got into such debt we don’t know.  But his claim that he could pay it off if he was given enough time is just laughable.  There’s no way he could ever climb his way out of that hole he had dug.

    This first servant is a picture of each of us.  We have run up such a tab against God with our thoughts and desires, words and deeds, that we can’t even begin to grasp how big it is.  Even if we spent the rest of our lives trying to make ourselves right with God again, even if we entered into a monastery or convent and devoted every possible moment to making up for our sin and trying to become righteous, it wouldn’t be enough.  All we can do is throw ourselves at the King’s feet and humbly beg for mercy.

    And thanks be to God, He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He’s not in the business of payback.  The Lord has taken pity on you and canceled your debt.  He didn’t just reduce what you owed and put you on an interest-free payment plan.  The debt is completely erased.  It’s gone.  You are debt-free.  You are forgiven.

    Now understand, the debt still had to be paid; just not by you.  The debt is very real; and so the payment must be very real.  Just like the king in the Gospel lost 10,000 talents by forgiving the servant, someone had to absorb your debt.  And that person is the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Our Lord became a human being in order stand in for us and pay what we humans owed.  But since He is also God, the payment He earned was infinite, even as God Himself is infinite.  Jesus took on Himself your debt, your sins, and they were crucified with Him.  By dying in your place, Jesus settled your account with God forever–not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  And by rising again to life, He earned eternal life for you and restored your relationship with the heavenly Father.  All this God has done without any merit or worthiness in you but only because of His fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy.  You are free from the power of sin, free from hell, free from being afraid of God.  Overflowing forgiveness has been given to you.  Like the servant, you’ve been given a new life, a new start.

    Since that is true, since God has answered for all sin at Calvary–for everyone–since it’s all covered and paid for by Jesus’ blood, who are we to act otherwise?  Who are we to hold onto what God has let go of and dealt with and done away with, whether it’s our own sin or somebody else’s?

    The first servant in the Gospel failed to understand this.  He didn’t seem to see the connection between how his debt had been forgiven by the mercy of the king, and how therefore he was also to be forgiving toward others.  And so he went out and grabbed his fellow servant by the throat and demanded, “Pay me what you owe!”  How could that servant behave the way he did?  It seems to me the only way he could act like that was if he didn’t really trust that his debt was actually forgiven.  Still in the back of his mind he was thinking, “This can’t really be true.  Sooner or later, the king’s going to be coming for me, and I better build up as much in the way of assets as I possibly can, so that maybe I’ll have a little bargaining power.”  Do you see?  If the servant truly believed that the debt was forgiven, he would have been like a renewed Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Day, a new man, giving away and passing on with cheer the same compassion he himself had received.  Instead he didn’t believe it; he didn’t walk by faith.  And so he put himself outside the king’s mercy and ended up suffering the king’s judgment.  

    Jesus issues a very clear warning to us here.  To insist on payback with others is to invite God to get payback with you.  To refuse to forgive others is to refuse to be forgiven by God.  After all, you can’t be on your knees before God and angrily at one another’s throats at the same time.  The attitude of humility before God seeking His mercy is the same attitude we should have toward others in giving mercy.

    Someone’s got to pay.  Either you can spend your life making sure other people pay for their sin-debts against you and be consumed by your anger and bitterness and efforts at making them pay for how wrong they were and how much they hurt you.  Or you can pay using Jesus’ account.  You have this limitless resource that Jesus has earned, that covers all sin–including those terrible sins that have been done against you.  Forgiveness is not a denial of how horrible those things are.  Rather, it is a way of living which acknowledges that Jesus paid the price for all of it.  With that abundant overflow of His mercy toward you, you are made able to forgive the debts owed to you by others.  Because You have full access to Jesus’ account, you are given to say to others, “I’m going to treat you without a desire for revenge, without a desire for payback, without you having to make it up to me.  I’ll take the hit, since the hit was already absorbed by Christ for both of us.  I release you from your debt to me.  I forgive you.”

    Through Jesus God has paid for the sins of every single human being, even those who won’t repent and believe and be saved.  So also in Christ we forgive even those who won’t say they’re sorry or be reconciled to us.  Forgiveness is not dependent on the repentance of the person who committed the sin but on the actions and the attitude of the one who was sinned against.  That’s how Erika Kirk could forgive her husband’s killer.  You can forgive someone even if the other person hasn’t changed.  Isn’t that how it is with God?  God has forgiven the whole world’s sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It’s all covered.  People may still reject that and refuse to believe that and live outside of that forgiveness; but that’s on them.  If they are eternally condemned, it’s because of their own unbelief.  But what we are given to do is to stand with Christ and offer His mercy.  No sin is greater than God’s forgiveness; and it is by His forgiveness that we forgive others.  When someone does us harm, we remember, “Jesus paid for that sin, too. And if He paid for their sin, it’s no use for me to behave as if He didn’t.”

    Real forgiveness like that will always be hard.  But all the truly hard stuff was done by Jesus.  All the sin-debt was transferred to Him–atoned for, punished, taken away, released and gone.  Period.  So when you find it difficult to forgive, or when you find yourself feeling unforgiving again toward a person you’ve once forgiven, the way to deal with that is to return to the cross.  You can’t forgive someone from your heart when your heart is empty.  Fill it with the merciful, debt-releasing words of Christ in Scripture.  Fill it with the sanctifying flood that flows to you from your Baptism into Christ the crucified.  And be filled once again with Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all sins.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Luke 14:1-14
Trinity 17

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    The Pharisees in today’s Gospel reading seem awfully silly, don’t they?  It’s easy for us to mock how ridiculous they are.  None of us would think for a minute that it would be bad for someone to be healed on the Sabbath.  God was obviously not forbidding that when He told us to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  Why would it be OK for someone to get a trapped animal out of a pit but not OK to help someone trapped and afflicted with some disease?  To us that just seems absurd.  It’s easy for us to justify ourselves and think that we certainly would have done better than the Pharisees.

    But don’t just dismiss them.  It’s worth asking, why is it that they were thinking that way?  What did they wrongly believe that led them astray?  They were thinking that the way they would be counted as good and righteous in God’s sight was by how well they kept His commandments.  That’s still a common belief to this day, isn’t it?  And keeping the Sabbath was a particularly important commandment.  Every seven days they were to stop their work, just like God did on the seventh day of creation.  In their mind, it was an offense against the Creator to do any work at all, even if it was something good like a healing; there were six other days for that.  Especially someone who was a rabbi like Jesus should know better, they thought.  If He was a true prophet of God, He would be setting an example which showed how righteousness comes through obeying God’s Law. 
    
    Now as Lutherans, we think we’re pretty well defended against the Pharisees’ false teaching.  We’ve rightly had it drilled into us that we’re saved not by our own works, but by grace alone and what Christ alone has done for us.  However, we sometimes then fall into the opposite error of the Pharisees.  I mean, why is it that so many Christians are tempted to just disregard the 3rd commandment?  Why are so many gone from church for weeks at a time–sometimes even months at a time–and are not remembering the Sabbath day? Is it possible that we actually have the same root problem as the Pharisees?  Here's what I mean:  If people believe they can do without the preaching of Christ and the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, there’s only two possible reasons for that: either they don’t think they have any real sins that need to be forgiven–which is a big problem–or they think that they already know enough of this stuff, and so their own private belief and efforts at being a good person are enough to merit God’s favor.  In both of those scenarios, Jesus’ words and sacraments become basically non-essential, just something maybe for Christmas and Easter.  Do you see?  In the end it’s the exact same sin as the Pharisees, thinking that righteousness comes by what we think and do, apart from Christ’s divine service to us.  Those who purposely skip church are trusting in their own works instead of Christ’s works, just like the Pharisees.

    Now of course, there will be times once in a while when you simply can’t make it to divine service because of sickness or an unexpected work obligation and the like.  We don’t want to descend into Pharisaic legalism here.  But imagine if people treated the other commandments the way they do with “Remember the Sabbath Day.”  Think of how ridiculous it would sound: “I refrain from murder except when I have to work.”  Or “I refrain from adultery at least two weeks out of every month.”  Or “I don’t steal except when the weather’s really nice.”  All those statements sound completely idiotic.  And yet, that’s the way even many church members talk about remembering the Sabbath day, as it if it were merely a suggestion that we could sometimes safely ignore based on our plans and desires.  “You skipped church?  Oh, well. I’m sure you had a good reason.”  Even if we thought we didn’t need church, even if we thought it was completely pointless, still simply because God has commanded it we should be eager to hold preaching and His Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

    And here’s the thing: it truly is a glad thing to remember the Sabbath day, because it’s not about trying to merit God’s favor by your good church attendance, chalking up points with Him; that’s not why you come to divine service.  It’s about receiving God’s favor dished out to you as a free gift in Christ’s preaching and supper.  “Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life!”  The Sabbath day is all about us stopping our work so that we can focus on God’s work and receive His work for us in Christ.  That’s where real Sabbath rest and peace is to be found in this world that is so restless and lacking peace.  This commandment, like all the commandments, is given for your good, not as a burden but as a blessing.

    When Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, He was showing precisely what the day is all about.  We gather around the Great Physician to receive His healing mercy and forgiveness and His wise counsel.  What the Pharisees failed to see was that in Christ God was the One doing the work here.  Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.  And the Sabbath work that He does saves us and redeems us in both body and soul.  Again, remembering the Sabbath day means that we stop our work and all the activities and the running around and the sports–good heavens, the sports!–and all the busyness of our life to dwell upon God’s work for a couple of hours and receive His divine service to us in Christ.  We focus not on our performance but on what He performs and does for us through His words and sacraments.  And we then respond with glad thanksgiving and praise that confesses what He has done.

    Now it is true that this commandment applies to us in the New Testament differently than it did in the Old Testament.  Back then, the day of rest had to be the 7th day of the week, Saturday.  But with Christ’s coming the Law was fulfilled so that the requirement to worship on a particular day no longer applies.  Colossians 2 says, “Sabbaths are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”  The Old Testament day of rest pointed us forward to Him who Himself is our rest and our peace, namely, Jesus.  Why focus on all the Old Testament shadows when the One who is casting the shadow has come!  

    Just consider how wonderfully Jesus fulfilled the 3rd commandment for us in order to save us.  Not only was it his custom to be in the synagogue each Sabbath where the Word of God was preached and taught (and He certainly knew it all and still showed up); not only did He love being in His Father’s house, meditating on and talking about the Scriptures; but He redeemed and renewed the days of creation, including especially the seventh.  

    Think of Holy Week as a new creation week.  On the first day, Palm Sunday, the Light of the world entered into Jerusalem to do His Father’s business and carry out the mission He had been given.  He taught and He labored throughout that week.  On the sixth day He suffered and died to redeem man whom He had created from the dust of the ground, triumphantly declaring, “It is finished!”  His work was very good.  And what did He do on the seventh day?  He rested in the tomb, sanctifying our graves and making them a holy place of rest from which we shall rise again on the Last Day.  Finally, He brought into existence an eternal 8th day, an unending Easter by conquering death for us.  His bodily resurrection has ushered in a new creation, free from the curse of sin, rich with mercy and divine life.  That is why Sunday is called “the Lord’s Day” in Scripture and is the church’s primary day of worship.  Divine Service can happen on any day of the week, of course, but at its center is always the Word of the risen Savior who said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  

    Since the Sabbath is all about God’s work, what Jesus is doing, it is necessary that we come before Him with an attitude of humility.  It’s not about us and our works.  This is His show, His teaching, His meal.  Our place at the table is not something for us to achieve for ourselves but for Him to give.  We all come before God as beggars, without any right to exalt ourselves in His presence.  Whatever we are is a gift of His grace.  

    So instead of jockeying for the places of honor and glory, Jesus says, “When you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’  Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.”  So humble yourself before God.  Acknowledge your sin in true repentance; hope in His mercy.  Do not come to assert your spiritual rights based on your works, but come recognizing that it is the Lord’s place to bestow honor and glory, and it your place simply to receive whatever His good and gracious will gives.  Those who love and honor the Lord in humble faith will be exalted by Him and brought to everlasting glory in the presence of the whole creation.

    This is Jesus’ way.  He put Himself in the lowest place, the place of death, in order to save you.  He bore your shame on the cross to restore your honor.  And now Jesus is exalted to the highest place at the right hand of the Father.  And the good news is that He has raised you up with Himself.  By your baptismal faith you are united with Him in such a way that you share in His exaltation as members of His body.  If Jesus the bridegroom is honored, then His Church, the bride, is also honored with Him.  It is written in Ephesians that you who believe are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.  

    That heavenly place is here for you today.  Jesus is here among us at the head of the table.  To every penitent heart He says, “Friend, move up higher.”  “Come, ascend these steps to this holy place.  Share in My honor by receiving My own body and blood.  Be filled with My forgiveness and My life.  Here is your Sabbath rest and healing.  Here is the foretaste of the Last Day, the day of resurrection, the day when you will move up higher forever.”

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

Matthew 9:9-13
St. Matthew

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    In a way, it’s really a bit strange that when we hear the word “Pharisee,” we automatically think of something negative and bad.  For in their day, the Pharisees would have been regarded as good people, the ones who were in worship every week, who were trying to apply the Scriptures to everyday life.  And it’s equally strange that when we hear the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” we tend to think of that more positively.  For those sinners would have included prostitutes; and a tax collector would be like a CEO who profited by working with foreign countries at the expense of American workers.  Would you rather have Pharisees or tax collectors and sinners come and sit in the pew with you and your family?

    A Jewish tax collector–such as the one we now know as St. Matthew–he had paid a large sum of money for the right to collect taxes for the Romans from his countrymen.  Matthew, in a very real sense, was a traitor; he had joined the side of the foreigners who were ruling Israel and was a part of their oppression.  The Romans expected to receive a certain amount of money from Matthew on a regular basis.  The difference between that amount and what Matthew actually assessed was his margin of profit, his income.  Therefore, there was a strong incentive for Matthew to assess high and tax his countrymen for all they were worth, especially since he was already hated by them anyway for doing this job.

    St. Matthew Himself records honestly for us what sort of life he led before Christ called him away from it all with the Gospel.  However, Matthew leaves out, unlike Mark and Luke, the fact that his Hebrew name was Levi.  And we can understand why Matthew might choose to neglect that little detail.  Levi was the name of the tribe from which all of Israel’s priests came.  A Levite received no portion or possession of land like the members of the other eleven tribes.  Rather, a Levite was to rely on the Lord as his portion and upon the gifts of his fellow Israelites, who were to honor the Lord by supporting the Levite priests.  Well, our man Matthew-Levi here had decided not to wait upon the Lord but rather to go out and get hold of his own lucrative portion by becoming a tax collector for the Romans.  “Matthew” means “gift of God,” but this Matthew-Levi was no gift to his people.  In the same way that a prostitute sold her body, a tax collector sold his soul for money.

    And so it is somewhat understandable when the Pharisees speak to Jesus’ disciples and ask with righteous indignation, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  You can imagine what a group of Matthew’s friends gathered for a party might have looked like.  However, to this question the Great Healer of sin-sick souls replies that it is not those who are well–or who think they are well–that have need of a physician.  It is rather those who are sick and diseased and who know it.  If you don’t believe you’re sick, you’re not likely to be seeking out a doctor.  It’s generally only when your health fails that you do so.  So it was with these Pharisees.  Though they had sinful, ill, self-serving hearts like everyone else, they thought that they had no sin-sickness, that they were spiritually healthy.  And so they saw no need for Jesus and were repulsed by the company He was keeping.  But many of the tax collectors and other sinners had come to know very well that things were all wrong with them.  They knew they needed help.  And when the Great Physician came to them, many received His healing medicine.  Moved by His mercy and love, they repented, they turned away from their sin–which is key–and they believed in Christ’s words of life, rejoicing in the fellowship of eating with Him in His presence.  Like a skilled and caring doctor ministering to the sick in a third world country, Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost.  And Matthew was one of those whom Jesus sought out and recovered and redeemed.

    Jesus continues by telling the Pharisees to go and learn what the Scripture means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”  Jesus is referring there to a passage from the Old Testament prophet Hosea.  Hosea had been instructed by the Lord to go and marry a prostitute, a woman named Gomer.  That action was meant to be a living parable of God’s steadfast and faithful love to His people–Israel which continually went whoring after false gods.  God was saying to His people, “I desire to show you My mercy and loving-kindness far more than to receive your half-hearted and inconsistent sacrifices.”  God wanted them to know Him as Savior and live in His mercy; not that that they should pridefully try to work out their own salvation.

    This beautiful Gospel of God’s undeserved grace toward His people was the living message of Hosea to Gomer.  She was unable to free herself from her sin and her prostitution, but out of sheer mercy God gave Hosea to rescue her.  Hosea literally bought her out of that life.  Matthew, too, was entirely unable to free himself from his sin; he was all caught up in his money-grubbing covetousness.  But out of sheer mercy, Jesus came to him, forgave him, and set him free from that old way of living, calling Matthew to follow him on the path of true life.

    And the same thing is true for you, too.  For you also are in bondage and cannot set yourselves free from your lost condition.  As we heard Hosea say last week, our faithfulness to the Lord is like the dew that burns away early; it’s there and then it’s gone.  One minute things look good, and the next we’re straying away from God to adulterate ourselves with other pleasures and priorities.  But our Lord Jesus does not turn away from you or forget you.  Rather, He calls you out of that and calls you back to Himself.  He has literally bought you out of your enslavement to sin and death and the devil.  This He has done not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  That is the price your heavenly Groom willingly paid to purchase your freedom and to have you back with Himself.  Matthew may have sold his soul, but Jesus bought it back–and He bought yours, too.

    Just as Jesus came to Matthew, He came to you personally and individually in Baptism.  He called you one on one to be His disciple, washing away your sins by water and the Word and setting you on the path of life in Him.  Just as Matthew arose and followed Jesus, so also through Jesus’ Gospel call your soul has been raised from the death of sin.  Just as Matthew left his former life behind him forever, you have been given to live a new life.  Let the old ways pass away; you are a new creation.  Baptized into Christ, you disciples are given to follow Him through death into the resurrection of the body on the Last Day.  

    In fact Jesus’ mandate to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching is recorded for us in Matthew’s Gospel.  Matthew himself is one of the eleven apostles who was first given this charge.  This, too, is a sign of God’s great grace, that when the Lord calls certain men to be apostles and evangelists and pastors, He even puts into His service messed up and prideful sinners like Matthew and Paul and Peter and me.  Matthew was converted by grace from one who takes to one who gives.  Once a thief by trade, now it was his calling to freely dispense the mercy of God to the undeserving.  This is the calling of every pastor today, to go about just like Christ, dishing out to repentant sinners the overflowing forgiveness of God in baptism, preaching, absolution, and the holy supper.

    Matthew once extracted taxes for Rome from the Jews; but now we have in Matthew’s Gospel the Gospel written specifically for the Jews, that they might receive their long-promised Messiah.  That’s why Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any other Gospel.  This man who had sold his soul for money was redeemed by Christ and made into a physician of souls for others. The words St. Paul wrote about himself, then, could certainly also be applied to Matthew, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”

    When we see the calling of Matthew by our Lord Jesus, we see the truth of those words for us.  If God can save someone like Matthew–and even make him an apostle and writer of the first Gospel–then certainly He can also save people like you and me and use us for His kingdom.

    You also are given to rise and follow Christ in the vocations and callings that God has placed you into.  You may not be called to preach, but you are called to confess your faith in Jesus and to be ready to give a reason to others for the hope that you have within you.  That may mean leaving some things behind; it may cause a certain degree of difficulty or suffering for you.  We have seen in recent days with the murder of Charlie Kirk how some people simply hate the Word of God and anyone who openly professes faith in Christ.  But to follow Christ is to bear the cross and to walk with Him through death to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

    One last thing: St. Matthew is not only an apostle and evangelist, but also a martyr.  According to tradition, Matthew was killed on the orders of the king of Ethiopia while celebrating Holy Communion.  The king had lusted after his own niece and wanted to marry her.  Matthew rebuked him for this and called him to repentance.  In his anger, the king sent one of his soldiers who thrust Matthew through during the liturgy.  Matthew had recorded these words of Jesus in his Gospel, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  

    Let us, then, lose our lives for Jesus’ sake and give up trusting in our own righteousness.  He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.  To repent is to die.  But to die with Christ is to live.  For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  And as He did with Matthew, and these tax collectors and sinners, Jesus came into the world to share a meal with you, His own body and blood given and shed for you for the entire forgiveness of all of your sin.  

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Stephen Wiest)

Luke 18:9-14
Trinity 11

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    When you hear today’s Gospel reading, it’s easy to think that you and the Pharisee have really nothing in common.  For he seems to be sort of an exaggerated caricature as he prays in his own self-absorbed, self-righteous way, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men . . .”  And so it’s easy, therefore, to think that Jesus isn’t really addressing you with these words but somebody else.  After all, you’ve never been so brash as to pray like that before!

    But let’s be honest with ourselves.  We may know we’re not all perfect and righteous, but when it comes right down to it, we don’t think our flaws are all that serious, either.  Or if they are, well, we’ve got a good excuse for why things are the way they are for us.  It’s not really our fault.  We say, “Hey, I try my hardest to do what’s right, and when I mess up, God’s not going to send me to hell for that, is he?  I mean, come on, I go to church, I give offerings, I volunteer for things.  Compared to a lot of others in this society, I think I’m doing OK.  God, I thank you that I’m not like those transgender crazies and those criminals who openly flout the law and those weird people on reality TV and my neighbors who don’t take good care of their property and who have gotten themselves in way over their heads into debt.  God, I thank you that I’ve made much better choices in my life.”

    See, that’s where the real problem comes in.  We always want to make it about us.  In one sense there’s really nothing wrong with the Pharisee giving thanks to God for keeping him from becoming an adulterer or an extortioner–and that he had done some outwardly good things like giving tithes and offerings.  It is good to give thanks to God for restraining the sinful desires of your heart and mind and flesh, that God gives and enables you to do good works.  But the truth, of course, was that the Pharisee wasn’t really giving thanks to God at all.  He was the star of his own show, “God I thank You that I am not like other men . . .”  It all comes down to who you trust in.  “Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”  Note how those two things go together–self-trust and despising others.  The Pharisee thought the difference between himself and the tax collector was his own righteous efforts and his superior spiritual living.  The Pharisee thought it all came from within him.  His faith was centered not in God but in himself.  

    If you don’t think that being righteous and right with God is a gift from Him out of His pure grace, if you think being right with God is about what you do or don’t do, then it’s always going to be a spiritual measurement game for you, religious score-keeping.  And then you won’t be able to stop looking down on those who aren’t scoring as well as you.  And if others are scoring better, well, then they’re probably pious snobs.  You may be able to hide your contempt most of the time.  But in your heart, you will see others simply as a point of comparison by which you usually come out a little superior.  When you don’t trust entirely in God’s undeserved love but insist on playing the merit game, then you won’t be truly free to love your neighbor either without conditions.  

    What the Pharisee needed to learn was that he and the tax collector actually had the exact same sinful nature.  They may have looked different outwardly, but they had the same root disease that only God could cure.  The tax collector’s symptoms were obvious; the Pharisee’s were a little harder to diagnose.  For he looked healthy.  His sin-sickness had been driven deep within by his zealous religion.  Jesus called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs–outwardly they looked clean, but inwardly they were full of death.

    We also should learn the lesson of the Pharisee.  If you come to church and can’t think of any real sin that you need to confess–no greed or gossiping or lust or envy or disrespect or gluttony or laziness or any breaking of the commandments–then by all means confess your sin of blind pride and self-righteousness.  We all have the same fallen human nature.  That, I believe, is the basis for the phrase, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  The difference between me standing the pulpit or lying in the gutter is only the grace of God.  The difference between you sitting in the pew or sitting behind bars is only the grace of God.  There is no reason for us to boast about anything, as the Epistle said.  Rather, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

    “By grace you have been saved.”  It has to be the grace of God, because by nature you were dead in your sins according to the Apostle Paul.  And the spiritually dead can only produce spiritually dead works, which is what the Pharisee and all his contemporary counterparts offer with their performances that draw more attention to themselves than to God.  That, by the way, is one of the  problems with so-called contemporary worship.  It’s all about the stagecraft and the performers (including the preachers) and the music that creates the right mood and the consumer-oriented focus on giving people what they want.  Though God’s name may be frequently used, beneath the surface it’s worship that is centered in man rather than God.

    No, the tax collector’s worship is the right kind of worship, that of humble reverence before the Lord.  The only attention the tax collector draws to himself is to his spiritual sickness, that he might be cured by the Great Physician.  His faith is not in himself but in the Lord’s grace and mercy.  He doesn’t presume that he has the right to draw near to God on his own merits.  He stands afar off with his face not even lifted up to the King of kings.  He beats his chest in sorrow as if to say, “What have I done?”  And his only prayer and plea is, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

    That may not be the kind of worship that draws crowds and makes you feel all tingly, but it is the kind of worship that Jesus seeks and that He praises here.  For Jesus says that it’s the tax collector who goes down to his house justified and right with God.  For the tax collector came before God with repentance and faith.  This wasn’t just a show to make himself look good.  This was very real.  He knew his sins were serious.  But he also clung to the belief that the Lord was a God of mercy who would not forsake even him, who would forgive him and raise him up.  

    That’s why he came to the temple.  This wasn’t a synagogue.  This was the temple, where the sacrifices were made that God appointed and where blood was shed to atone for sin.  When the tax collector prays “God be merciful to me . . .” the word he uses for mercy has to do with those sacrifices, all of which pointed forward to the coming sacrifice on Good Friday.  So as the tax collector offers this prayer, God is already answering it for him there in the animals being offered on the altar which the Lord attached His promise of mercy to.  The tax collector trusted in that promise, and he longed for the day when the Messiah would come and bring all of these things to their fulfillment.

    So let us also then learn the lesson of the tax collector and take our place with him.  Come before the Lord with humble reverence, with sincere repentance and faith.  For it is written, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”  If you know the burden of your fallen nature, if you’ve made some poor choices in life or just don’t feel like you’re worth much, if this world at times wearies you to death, if you feel humiliated, then the Lord Jesus is for you.  Pray “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  And He is, and He will be, and His mercy endures forever.  For He has made the sacrifice for you in the temple of His body on the altar of the cross.  There the Lamb of God was offered up once and for all.  Through His sacrifice your sin has been fully atoned for; you are released and forgiven.  You are freed from all the religious score-keeping and comparison games that divide you from your neighbor.  Just as the blood of Abel covered the ground, so the holy blood of Jesus covers you who are made of dust.  By it you are reconciled you to God, as it is written, “You who once were far off (as the tax collector stood far off) have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

    Now you are given to lift up your eyes and see heaven opened through Jesus.  It is opened because Jesus lived up to His own words here, Jesus humbled Himself even to the point of death on a cross.  He didn’t say to His Father, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men”–even though He very well could have said that.  Instead, He made Himself to be like other men–like us–and bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, having died with Him to sin, might live for His righteousness.  And now God the Father has exalted the risen Jesus to the highest place and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.  And if Jesus is exalted, then so also are you who take refuge in Him.

    All of you are given the highest worth in Jesus.  For by His sacrificial love He sends you down to your houses justified and righteous today–not because of what you have done for God, but because of what He has done for you.  “It is by grace you have been saved through faith” in Christ, who is your righteousness.  This is “not of yourselves,” from within you, “it is the gift of God” from outside of you, “not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  You are God’s own workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God Himself prepared beforehand for you to walk in.  So walk in them, freely and gladly. For the Lord has turned you from a child of wrath to a child of grace.  He comforts you now with His words of mercy and feeds you His own true body and blood, like a holy medicine, to cure your sin-disease and to prepare your bodies for the resurrection to life everlasting on the Last Day.

    You are justified, right with God in Christ.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, that He may lift you up in due time.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(Artwork copyright Edward Riojas, Two Men Went Up to Pray)

Luke 19:41-48
Trinity 10

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    The nation of Israel has been in the news frequently over the last year or two.  There was the attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and the ensuing military response in Gaza; and then there was the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites followed by Iranian missiles being launched into Israel.  Thankfully, things have quieted considerably over the last months, and there is good reason to hope for peace and order going forward (which I am counting on for my Holy Land trip next April!).  But when we hear about things happening over there, many Christians may wonder how this connects to our faith and to the Bible.  Israel and the Jews are obviously central to the Biblical account of salvation.  But what should our attitude be toward what’s going on with Israel and the Middle East today?  

    There are some supposedly Christian preachers and authors who want to make a big deal out of current events.  They see current happenings in the Middle East as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  They view the nation of Israel as a key player in the end times.  They believe that before Christ can return, a whole series of geopolitical events must play themselves out, including the rebuilding of the temple.  But all who preach and believe such things are mistaken and in error.  For they are failing to see that all prophecy centers on Christ and is fulfilled in His life and death and resurrection.  All prophecy that is not centered in Christ and fulfilled in Him and His church is false prophecy.  This is especially true when it comes to the prophecies pertaining to Israel.  

    The people of Israel were indeed the chosen people of God.  They are descendants of Abraham, to whom God gave the promise that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him.  But that promise came to life in the birth of the Israelite Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.  Through Christ the blessing of the forgiveness of sins comes to all the nations.  All that God gave to Israel, from the tabernacle to the sacrifices to the Sabbath all pointed forward to a culmination in Jesus.  Even the prophecies pertaining to the land of Israel, that geographic territory, were all given so that there might be a particular place where the promises of God might come to pass in Christ.  What makes the holy land holy is not that the ground itself is sacred, but rather that God Himself walked that ground in the person of Jesus and there accomplished our salvation by His holy cross.

    And so today in this New Testament age, the true Israel is no longer a reference to a nation or a territory.  It is rather a reference to the church, to those who are the people of God in Christ throughout the world. Romans 9 says that not all who are Israelites according to the flesh are the true Israel, but rather “the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”  In other words, those who are believers in the promised Messiah are the true Jews, the real Israel.  Jesus is the whole people of Israel embodied in one man.  And so when we believe and are baptized into Him, we ourselves become Israelites, God’s chosen people, children of God in Him who is the Son of God.  

    So when we are praying the Psalms and refer to Israel, we are not referring to a nation–which has rejected Jesus as Messiah–but to the church, to the faithful of the Lord.  And when we refer to Jerusalem, as we will be doing in today’s closing hymn, we are referring not to a temporal, passing city, but the heavenly new Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God’s redeemed believers.  

    So to get back to where we started, when it comes to events in Israel and the Middle East today, we have no theological stake in what the outcome is.  It doesn’t affect our Christian faith one way or the other.  Our country may have a strategic or political stake in the matter, but that’s an entirely different story.  The only thing the turmoil in Israel and the Middle East and throughout the world should remind us of as Christians is that in this world we will find no lasting peace.  That is to be found only in Christ.  Wars and rumors of wars, the persecution and killing of Christians in Muslim lands–all of that is meant to alert us to the fact that Christ will come again soon, and that we should be praying daily for His return to bring our salvation to its completion.

    In today’s Gospel, Jesus mourns what will become of Israel and of Jerusalem in particular.  The name Jerusalem literally means “city of peace.”  But when the Prince of Peace had come to her, she refused Him.  Like a rejected groom, He weeps for her and her fate.  Just forty years after this Gospel, Jesus’ prophetic words will be fulfilled.  Jerusalem will be attacked and laid siege by the Romans.  Thousands upon thousands will be killed in utterly horrific fashion.  Above all, the temple will be utterly destroyed and laid waste.  All that is left of the temple still today is one portion of an outer foundation wall, the wailing wall, which still calls to mind Jesus’ weeping.

    This was very clearly the judgment of God.  The Romans were His instrument in executing the sentence.  For Israel had spurned the Messiah.  They did not know the time of their visitation, when God Himself visited them and walked among them.  It was their day, and they missed it.  The things that made for their peace with God were hidden from their eyes by their own unbelief.  

    And it’s not as if they weren’t religious.  St. Paul says in the Epistle that they were passionate for God, but they tried to get right with Him on the basis of their own keeping of God’s Law.  They foolishly trusted in their own obedience rather than humbly and penitently relying on the grace of God revealed to them in Christ and receiving His righteousness as a free and undeserved gift.  And so they ended up rejecting the very one their Law prophesied.  All their religious passion was for nothing.  They wanted something flashier and more glorious than this lowly Jesus.  In fact it offended them to think that’s how God would visit them.  They stumbled at this stumbling stone of the Gospel, and so the stones of the temple and the city were demolished around them.  The weeping of God eventually becomes the judgment of God for those who will not repent.

    This is a clear and sobering call to repentance for you still today.  For the Jews had it all, everything they needed to recognize and receive the Messiah when He came.  Don’t we also?  In fact, we have even more!  Let us not, then, take these things for granted and stumble as they did.  What happened to Jerusalem in the 1st century is a miniature picture of what will happen to all the unbelieving world on judgment day.  Consider, then, how things stand with you.  Are you relying on the fact that you’re a good person to get you into heaven rather than on Christ alone?  Then your religion is like the false religion of the Jews, and you must repent.  Do you look for God primarily in mysterious signs or supernatural occurrences instead of in His humble but sure Word?  Is divine service something you can do without for weeks at a time?  Then you are like the Israelites who did not know the time of their visitation, and you must repent.  Are you one who wants to use religion as a way of gaining earthly blessings?  Then you are like those who bought and sold in the temple, and you must repent.

    Turn away from all that, and turn to Him whose heart still weeps out of love for His people.  Trust in Him who continues to cry out, “If you would know, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!”  Christ is your Peace, who still visits you humbly–in water and words, bread and wine.  He is the One who brings reconciliation between you and God, the One who gives the peace that passes all understanding.  This is your day, right now, the day of your visitation, as it is written,  “Behold, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.”  This is the moment in which Christ is coming to you in His Gospel sounding in your ears.  Believe in Him; trust in what He has done; seek His righteousness.

    For our Lord has cleansed the temple.  When Jesus drove out the moneychangers in righteous anger and purified the temple as a house of prayer, that was a sign of what He was about to do at Calvary.  For there on the cross Jesus Himself experienced the righteous anger of God against the world’s sin and drove it out in the temple of His body.  Jesus made Himself unclean in your place.  He took all of the greed and the self-righteousness and the callousness and every other sin and made it His own dirty mess.  And by His holy suffering and death He cast it out and away from you forever.  He buried it all permanently in the grave.

    Jesus had said of His body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  Though the temple in Jerusalem remains destroyed, Jesus could not remain in the grave.  He is now bodily raised in everlasting glory and honor, the new and eternal dwelling place of God for you.  Jesus is your temple.  The risen body of Christ is full of holiness and righteousness and cleansing.  Baptized into Him, those things are all yours.  The Church is the body of Christ.  And therefore you are the temple of Christ’s Spirit, who dwells in you through your baptismal faith. You are safe from divine judgment.  For you are in Him who took the judgment for you.

    “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”  Brothers and sisters in Christ, you who are the true Israel of God, this is your day; this is the time of your visitation.  Don’t miss out because you’re looking for the wrong thing,  or because you’ve got more important things to do.  Here are the things that make for your peace, the body and blood of Christ, offered up for you for the forgiveness of your sins, for your peace, for your rest, for your restoration to the Father.  God grant you all to be like that faithful remnant in the Gospel that was hanging on Jesus’ words, so that by His grace you may be brought to dwell eternally in the new Jerusalem.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Matthew 5:17-26
Trinity 6
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we have passages like today’s Gospel, where Jesus teaches the full meaning of the Law.  True righteousness, a true keeping of the Law involves not only our outward behavior but also our inward thoughts and motivations and desires.  It’s not only a matter of the hands but also a matter of the mind and heart.  Anger=Murder, Lust=Adultery, Greed=Stealing, and so forth.  And this is a message that we need to hear.  For too often we think of ourselves better than we ought to because most of us haven’t robbed a bank or committed adultery or engaged in physical violence against our neighbor.  We feel self-satisfied and even a bit self-righteous about that; we’re good people.  Sure, we’re not perfect and we’ve made a mistake here or there.  But all in all, we’ve done well, definitely above average, we think.  And so we need Jesus’ teaching here to remind us that in fact there isn’t a single commandment that we haven’t broken.  We are all murderous, adulterous, lying, covetous thieves.  And that doesn’t even take into account the most important commandments, the first three that have to do with our relationship with God.  Jesus preaches this Law to us so that we might not become like the scribes and Pharisees, trusting in their own goodness and their own supposedly clean living.  We need the Law to drive us away from trusting in ourselves to trust in Christ Jesus alone.  The Law is good, but it cannot give us eternal life.  It’s an abuse of the Law to try to do that.  Only Jesus can save us and give us life.

    But there is another more subtle way we can abuse the Law, too, which perhaps is more common for us Lutherans.  We say to ourselves, “Well, since it’s just as much a sin before God if you do it inwardly or outwardly, then it really doesn’t matter if you go ahead and commit the sin with your body since you’ve already done it in your heart.”  We try to justify our behavior by saying that since everyone breaks the commandments in their sinful hearts, then it’s no worse to be guilty of engaging in the outward behavior.  All sins are the same, we say.  But that is wrong and false.  We abuse Jesus’ teaching here by trying to use it make our own outward sins seem not so bad.  

    Our Lord Jesus teaches us in Scripture that all sins are not equal or the same.  God’s Word teaches that there are different types and different degrees of sin.  What we have done in many cases is that we have taken the correct theological principle that all sins are equally damning, that all sins make us subject to judgment by God–which is true–and then we conclude that all sins therefore are the same and equal.  But that’s clearly not the case.

    For instance, 1 John 5 speaks of sins which lead to death and sins which do not lead to death, faith-destroying sins and those which do not destroy faith.  Sins of weakness are not as damaging to faith, though they still should be considered to be quite dangerous.  Deliberate sins are the worst, when we plan to sin, when we delight in sin, when we know exactly what we’re doing and don’t care.  Jesus Himself said to Pontius Pilate, “Those who delivered me over to you have the greater sin.”  So there are greater and lesser sins.  Or 1 Corinthians 6 speaks of how sexual sin is different because it’s a sin against one’s own body.  Greater damage is inflicted to yourself through such sin.

    It’s a selfish idea to think that since all sins are damnable, therefore there is no difference if you do it in your heart or if you do it externally.  But sinfully coveting your neighbor’s wealth is not as terrible as actually going and robbing someone of their life’s savings.  The consequences to your neighbor are vastly different, and the danger to your faith is different.  All sin is dangerous and damnable, but all sin is certainly not the same.  Our bodily behavior matters.  So we may not be able to stop a flash of anger or lust from arising within us from our sinful nature, but we can according to the new man stop ourselves from dwelling upon it, from scheming for revenge or engaging in sinful daydreams; and we most certainly can control ourselves from doing someone harm or from watching pornography and engaging in sexual immorality.  And thanks be to God that He is at work through the curbing influence of His Law, which restrains us from ruining our own lives and the lives of our loved ones and others.  Even here we see God’s mercy, that He keeps the effects of our sin in check, so that it doesn’t do all the earthly damage to us that it could.

    So let us, then, not abuse the Law in either of these ways–whether to try to justify ourselves because we’re so good, or to try to excuse our sin as not so bad.  Jesus said, “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”  St. Paul said in the Epistle, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” God’s forgiveness is not a  license to sin, it’s freedom from sin.  It’s the taking away of sin.  Why would we willingly want to embrace again the very things which once condemned us to hell?  Since the old Adam still hangs around our neck, tempting us to think lightly of sin, the Law is still in force in this fallen world.  Not one dot or iota will pass away from it till all is fulfilled at Christ’s return.  The commandments still apply to every single one of us, calling us to repent.

    And here’s where the good news kicks in.  Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus came not to undo the Law but to bring it to fulfillment and completion in Himself.  He is our only hope and our only help.  For only in Jesus do we receive an inward righteousness before God, the righteousness of faith, where we despair of our own goodness and instead rely on Christ alone.  We prayed it in the Introit, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.”  Only in Jesus is there deliverance from the judgment of the Law.  For only Jesus has kept the Law without fault or failing.  And all of this He did for you and in your place.  So Jesus isn’t only your example.  Rather, He keeps the Law completely and perfectly on your behalf.  Through faith in Him, His righteousness is counted as yours.

    It is written in Hebrews, “He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.”  Not only did Jesus not do the things that the commandments forbid, He also did do everything the commandments demand.  Not only did He not murder or steal or have impure thoughts, but He also perfectly loved His Father in heaven and His neighbor on earth, showing compassion, healing, doing good and teaching the truth to all.  Our Lord lived a holy life as our representative and our substitute, so that our unholy lives would be redeemed.

    And Jesus also fulfilled the Law by completing all of the old ceremonial requirements regarding the Sabbath and the sacrifices and all the rest.  Through His holy death and His rest in the tomb, Jesus Himself became your eternal Sabbath rest; and so He says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  “I will release from the crushing weight of the Law; I give you the peace of being reconciled with God.”  And by His once-for-all, final sacrifice as the Lamb of God, Jesus cleansed you from your sin and purified you.  All the Old Testament Jewish rules and regulations found their goal in Jesus, who put that all to an end in His crucified body, that the Law might no longer condemn you.  You’ve been put right with God again.  That’s what Jesus was declaring on the cross when He said, “It is finished.”  It is accomplished, completed, perfected, fulfilled.  All has been done, as Romans 10 declares, “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

    That’s how the words of Jesus which seemed to be impossible are now, in fact, true in Him:  “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”  By faith in Christ, your righteousness actually does exceed that of the Pharisees, for it has been given to you freely by God’s grace.  You have received the perfect righteousness of Jesus as your own.  The Father has declared it to be so.  He didn’t just demand that you straighten out your life, when you were baptized He gave you a whole new life, the life of Jesus that is full and complete and perfect and everlasting.  Through Christ you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  In fact you have already entered it by faith in Him who is the King of heaven and earth.  

    So whether you struggle with sins of weakness, or whether you have willfully sinned and rejected and turned away from God, you are not without hope.  Return to faith in Christ; return to the Lord, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  Our Lord has brought you through the Red Sea of baptism, out of the house of bondage.  Your old selves were crucified with Christ, that you should no longer be slaves to sin.  Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  That’s what’s real.  For just as you have been united with Him in His death, you will surely also be united with Him in the resurrection of the body when He comes again.  To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all worship, honor, glory, and praise, now and forever.  Amen.

(With thanks to David Petersen for some of the Law exposition above)

Matthew 16:13-19
St. Peter and St. Paul

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  That was the question Jesus asked the disciples in Caesarea Philippi.  Most people thought of him as an important figure, a great prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah, or perhaps even the beheaded John the Baptist risen from the dead.  

    It’s really quite noteworthy that the people made those particular connections to Jesus.  For each of those prophets was known for speaking strong words, even to people in powerful positions, proclaiming the wrath of God on the ungodly, calling Israel back to faithfulness.  Elijah announced a famine at the time of the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel; He preached against the false religion of Baal and mocked their priests.  Jeremiah preached against kings and the corrupt use of the Lord’s house; he prophesied the fall of Jerusalem.  And John the Baptizer called the religious leaders a brood of vipers; he preached to everyone that they must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

    So let this be a reminder to you not to embrace popular caricatures of Jesus.  His preaching was not just that everyone should be nice and fair.  It was deadly serious stuff dealing with saving souls from the very real judgement of God.  Jesus said His words would divide families (Matt. 10:34-36).  He called for real repentance and holy living and offered real mercy and grace (John 8:1-11).  Jesus’ preaching was manly and authoritative; it reminded the people of an Old Testament prophet. 
    
    Of course, there was much about Jesus that the people didn’t understand, just as it is to this day.  Most people also today think of Jesus still as an important figure; even non-Christian religions try to co-opt Jesus in some way and claim Him as their own–Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, you name it.  Almost everyone has nice things to say about Jesus.  But you’ll note that most see him as just a man–perhaps a great man and teacher, but still just a man.  Just as it was in Jesus’ day, the people’s understanding of Jesus falls short of the truth.  So yes, Jesus gives you wisdom for living in this world, but He is not merely your life coach guru helping you to be your best self.  Yes, Jesus speaks truth to power, but He is not merely there to promote your favorite political causes or wrap Himself in the American flag.  Yes, Jesus fulfills the Law, but He is not just a great moral teacher.  We need to be on guard against seeing Jesus merely in our own human terms.  He is fully human; but there’s so much more to who He is and what He taught and did.

    Jesus then turns the question to His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”  That is the fundamental question of life, isn’t it, one that every single person will have to answer in the end.  “Who do you say that Jesus is?”  How would you answer that question?  If you’re ever talking with an unchurched friend or family member about the faith, this is a great question to discuss.  Because if you’re talking about Christ, then you’re talking about the heart and center of the Christian faith.  It’s best not to get bogged down in details about controversial questions right away.  Just keep the focus on Jesus, who He is, what He said and did.

    A good way to answer this question would be to quote the catechism, the meaning of the 2nd article of the Creed: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”  That’s who the real Jesus is–not just a great man, but also the great God in the flesh, who became man in order to become your Lord, the One who rescues you out of bondage to Satan and death and who brings you into His kingdom of light and life, so that you may serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

    That’s exactly the way Peter answers here with his great confession.  He says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The title, “Christ” means “the Anointed One.”  It’s the Greek version of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”  Prophets, priests, and especially kings were referred to as the Lord’s anointed, like king David of old.  So Peter here is referring to Jesus as the promised Messiah King–but not merely an earthly king.  For Jesus is also the Son of the Living God.  Jesus is King of all creation, who has come to redeem all creation in His holy flesh and blood.  He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, who for us and for our salvation was made man.

    And please pay special attention to Peter’s words here, that Jesus is “the Son of the living God.”  Caesarea Philippi was a pagan area north of Galilee, full of all sorts of idols and false gods.  The pagan Caesar was honored in the city name, as was Herod Philip who rebuilt and enlarged it.  In particular, Caesarea Philippi was known for its worship of the God Pan, that flute-playing, goat-legged, horned god of the wild and of flocks you may have learned about.  When we were in Israel a few years ago, we went to this location, a nature area where you can still see the remnants of the old pagan idols like Pan and large altar areas in cave grottos and carved into the rocks.  So now picture the scene in today’s Gospel: in the presence of all these dead gods, which are nothing more than demonic illusions, Simon Peter says to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Here in Jesus is the true God, the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Peter confesses here that every other god is nothing; worshiping them leads to death.

    That’s still how it is.  All the false gods that you are tempted to idolize–possessions, power, pleasure, the praise of people–giving your life to those things only leads to death.  For either they offer demonic illusions and false hopes, or the things that they give only last a short time.  What false gods offer is temporary; what the living God gives is eternal.  Remember what the psalm says: “Their idols... have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear...  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115).  That’s an important principle to keep in mind: You become like what you worship and give yourself to; you become like your G/god.  Worship dead idols, you die.  Attach your heart to the passing things and people of this world, you too will pass away eternally.  Worship the Living God, and you will have real life.  Receive His eternal gifts in Christ Jesus and you will share in the blessings of the new creation with Him forever.  You become like what you worship and devote yourself to.  Worship Jesus, and you will become like Him, sharing fully in His image, partaking of His divine life.

    In response to Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus calls him blessed, because this truth was revealed to him by the Father.  It was a divinely given insight.  And then Jesus goes on to say, “On this rock, I will build My church.”  Roman Catholics have tried to suggest that Jesus was referring to Peter himself, that the church would be built on him as the first pope, since the name Peter means “rock.”  But if you know anything about Peter, or any other fallen human being for that matter, building the church on that foundation would be building on sand.  No, of course, Jesus was referring to Peter’s rock-solid confession of faith in Him.  That’s what the church is built on, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 3, “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  Built on that Rock, the church shall stand.  Christ is our cornerstone.  On Him alone we build, on the foundation of the words of His apostles and prophets in Holy Scripture.

    There’s one other thing to note from the Gospel about Caesarea Philippi, and that is the reference to the gates of hell.  At this place where the god Pan was worshiped there was a spring of water flowing out of a cave.  When the ancient people tried to see how deep the spring was, they found that they could not reach the bottom, no matter how long of a line that they let down into it.  This was a mysterious and fearful place for them.  They considered it to be a sort of gateway to the underworld, the place of Hades, the god of the dead.  And so when Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, that would really resonate here.  Even this deep, mysterious place, even Hades and every other demonic false god, indeed even the devil himself could not prevail against the church.  For the Lord Jesus conquered every dark, pagan power and crushed Satan’s head in His death on the cross.  Christ went to the place of the dead and broke down the gates of hell.  And He arose again bodily in triumph on the 3rd day, in victory over every enemy that stands against you.  The gates of Hades and the depths of death cannot swallow you up.  You are safe and secure in Christ’s Church where you have taken refuge in Him.

    Today is the day when we rejoice in the ministry of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Both of these men, in the confidence of Christ Jesus, engaged in battle against the gates of hell in their preaching and teaching.  Paul in particular would be the apostle to the pagan Gentiles, traveling through the territory of the Greek and Roman gods, indeed all the way to Rome itself preaching Christ the crucified.  Peter, too, would conclude his ministry in pagan Rome.  Both of these men faithfully led the church to confess that we are saved by faith in Christ alone apart from the works of the Law.  You heard how there were some who wanted to make the keeping of the Old Testament ceremonial Law necessary for salvation.  But when the church in Jerusalem heard from Paul and Barnabas how the Holy Spirit had been given also to the uncircumcised Gentiles, Peter confirmed the truth of the Gospel by saying that circumcision was not necessary.  For those ceremonial rules and food regulations and sacrifices had all been fulfilled by Christ.  It is through faith in Jesus alone that we are saved.

    This is the faith that Peter and Paul proclaimed and lived for.  This is the faith that Peter and Paul died for.  According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down for his preaching, insisting on that since he didn’t feel worthy to die the same way that Jesus did.  And Paul was beheaded in Rome, likely under the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero.  This is in keeping with what Jesus said to the disciples and to all of us right after Peter’s great confession of faith, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

    Let us all then take up the cross in our daily vocations, dying to ourselves in this world, that we may share in Jesus’ resurrection in the next.  For the Lord has purchased and saved your soul at the price of His holy, precious blood.  As God’s baptized sons and daughters, let us confess together with Peter and the whole Church the saving truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit