Matthew 25:31-46
Trinity 26

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

    Why should you do good works?  There are two very simple reasons: God has commanded them, and your neighbor is served by them.  Sometimes we become complacent as Lutherans because we know that we’re saved by God’s grace alone, and so we draw the false conclusion that the 10 Commandments are now just the 10 Suggestions.  Remember the Sabbath Day–if you can fit it in and if you feel like it.  Don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony–unless you’ve got a really good reason.  No, God’s commands are still in full force.  The grace of Christ doesn’t do away with the Law, it fulfills the Law.  Believing in Christ, we learn to love His commands, and we are awakened to the need for works of faithfulness and love.

    What’s important is that you shouldn’t do good works to gain some sort of reward for yourself.  That turns a good work into selfishness.  And besides, any good that you have the ability to do came from God in the first place, right?  So why would He owe you if you do what He created you to do?  The Lord doesn’t owe anyone anything.  

    It’s worth repeating: God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.  All you have to do is look around for two seconds to see that this world is full of need that is to be met with works of love–and not only charity, but the ordinary, day to day fulfilling of your callings, at work and with your family and friends.  Today’s Gospel reading shows us where our good works are to be directed–not up to God as if to earn a merit badge, but down and out toward your neighbor, even toward “the least of these My brethren.”

    All that is needed for heaven is faith–the empty hands of faith that receive the works of Jesus for you and that cling to Him and His cross alone.  But then, with hands filled with the mercy and goodness of Christ, all that is needed for the neighbor is love which passes along Christ’s mercy and serves the neighbor in need.  And those two things are connected and go together.  Faith in Christ gives birth to deeds of love.

    Though faith is unseen, and love often goes unnoticed, all will be revealed for what it is on the Last Day.  When Jesus comes in glory with all His angels, He will judge both the living and the dead.  And His judgment will reveal who are the sheep and who are the goats, who are the believers and who are the unbelievers.  What is now hidden will be uncovered.  That’s actually what the word “apocalypse” means, the uncovering, the revelation.  The private will be made public.  Everyone will be revealed for who they are, and all our works will be revealed for what they are.

    In some ways that’s a scary thought, can’t it?  The Bible says very clearly, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. . . so each of us shall give an account of himself to God” (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:12).  Your works matter; your bodily deeds are important.  But, thanks be to God, there is something else that comes first, before your works.

    The first thing that will be revealed and uncovered on the Last Day is not what you’ve done or left undone, but who you are and what God has done for you.  The first thing that happens on the Last Day is that Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats.  Sheep on His right.  Goats on His left.  To the sheep:  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”   To the goats:  “Depart from me, you who are cursed.”   To the sheep:  “Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”  To the goats:  “Depart … into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

    Right now your life as a baptized believer is hidden before the world.  Colossians 3 says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  And Romans 8 says that “the entire creation groans and eagerly waits for the sons of God to be revealed.”  So that’s a good way to think about what’s going to happen on the Last Day–it will be a revelation, the curtains pulled back.  Everyone will be seen for who they are in God’s sight, the faithful or the faithless, a sheep of Jesus’ flock or a goat.

    Notice, though, that the separation of the sheep from the goats comes before any talk of their works. The sheep are not at the Lord’s right hand because of the works they have done, but because of who and what they are in Christ by His grace.  All this had been prepared long before their works, from the very foundation of the world, it says.  So it can’t be based on works.  Salvation is by God’s election and doing, not ours, as Ephesians 1 says, “(The Father) chose us in (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.”

    On the Last Day, once the sheep and goats are divided up, then their works will be judged and evaluated by the Lord.  And the works of the sheep will give evidence of the fact that they are indeed the blessed children of God through faith in Jesus.  For works are good before the Lord when they flow from faith in Him.  No work is good in God’s sight without faith in Jesus, for it is written, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).  And it is also written, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).  See, not only does Jesus’ blood cleanse us and take away our sins, but His blood cleanses even our imperfect good works, too, and makes them holy.  In Jesus all that is bad and unclean is taken away, and only what is good remains.  Those good works provide evidence of our faith in Jesus, that we are among His baptized believers.  

    And yet even that will not be fully revealed until the Last Day. This is a very important point.  Even this evidence of our faith, the evidence of good works, is something that finally only Jesus the Judge can see right now as we live before Judgment Day.  So right now we should not look to ourselves and our good works as proof that we are sheep.  It is a dangerous thing to look to yourself for the assurance that you are saved.  After all, unbelievers do humanly good works and acts of charity, too.  It’s faith in Jesus that makes all the difference.  Always remember, the life of the believer is hidden until the judgment, and creation eagerly awaits the revelation of who God’s people are!

    So, in the meantime, Christians live in this world side by side with unbelievers.  And most of the time you can’t tell a huge difference, especially if you only look at what they do in the world.  There is no “Christian” way to deliver the mail, fix a flat tire, or plow a field.  You would hope Christians would be more ethical and hard-working and loving; but pagans can be ethical and hard-working and loving, too–though the ultimate motivation for that will be different.  The difference is internal, and it is the difference between faith in Jesus or unbelief in Jesus.  On the Last Day, Jesus, who judges the heart, will reveal the faith or the unbelief.   And the only works that will be judged good before Jesus are the ones that flow from faith in Him.

    Faith in Jesus is a divine work in you that transforms your hearts and minds.  Good works come so naturally to faith that the Christian most often does them without even recognizing them.  Notice that the sheep are surprised to find out that the food and drink they served to the hungry and thirsty was actually a meal served to the King of kings and Lord of lords,  or that the sick neighbor they helped was actually Jesus Himself hidden in that neighbor.  “Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”

    And remember this, too.  Even the good works you do were prepared for you by the Lord.  Ephesians 2 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  It’s all God’s grace; it’s all what He has done for you and given to you in His Son Jesus.

    Good works are done best when we become forgetful of having done them. Our works become a problem when we’re all self-aware about them, wanting to drag them with us into heaven as if they are a bargaining chip to use in a salvation negotiation.  No, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all that is needed for heaven.  All our good works are to be left down here, for our neighbor in need.  In our neighbor who is sick or hungry or in prison, we learn to see Jesus, who fasted for us, who was arrested and afflicted and stripped of his clothing for us to fully redeem us.  The eyes of our faith are always and fully on Christ the crucified.  His works alone save us.  Living in that faith, we see Jesus also in our neighbor and show our love for Him by loving them.

    On the Last Day our faith will finally give way to sight.  We will see Jesus as He is, the crucified and risen Savior of the world.  To Him every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the everlasting joy of the sheep, to the everlasting shame of the goats.  On the Last Day, it will be revealed who you are.  But, of course, you don’t have to wait until the Last Day to know.  After all, the Judge comes here every Sunday in the divine service as His Word is proclaimed.  And He speaks His Word to you, saying, “All your sin is forgiven!  I put my Name on you in your Baptism!  You are my sheep.  Have no fear little flock.  I am your Good Shepherd.  I laid down my life for you.  I was raised from the dead for you.  And I live and reign to give you life and peace and joy forever.  I see you and know you and love you.  You are mine.”

    Jesus and His cross is always the dividing line between the sheep and the goats.  The same Jesus who was crucified between a believing sheep and an unbelieving goat on Good Friday feeds you with His own body and blood at the foot of the cross, setting you apart from the unbelieving world.  

    Every divine service is a little judgment day where Jesus judges you to be forgiven.  Every week He is here with all His holy angels as we gather around His altar to receive His gifts of grace.  On the Last Day you surely will hear Him declare:  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

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

(With thanks to Brent Kuhlman)

Exodus 32:1-20
Trinity 25

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

    The people of Israel got impatient waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain.  It had been more than a month that he was gone.  They gave up on him, even though the Lord had chosen him to lead them.  They decided that the Word of the Lord spoken to them wasn’t enough; they wanted to have a god or an image which they could see to go before them, something more like what they were used to from their Egyptian background when they were slaves.  They grew bored with the mighty acts the Lord had done for them in the Passover and the Red Sea.  They wanted something visually stimulating that fit in more with the culture of the day, something that met their needs right now.

    Aaron gave in to the will of the people.  He wasn’t a faithful pastor.  He told them to bring their gold earrings to him, he melted the gold down, and made a golden calf from it.  A golden calf was a sign of fertility, of growth and success.  Then the people said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”  This was the kind of worship they liked.

    Aaron knew deep down, though, that this wasn’t right.  So he tried to make things kosher.  He built an altar before the golden calf and made a proclamation: “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”  In other words, he tried mix two things together, using this calf as part of the worship of the Lord.  He had what you might call a blended service.  He wasn’t abandoning the faith, he thought; he was just combining the faith with what was socially acceptable.  His plan was to use the style of the image, but godly substance.  He tried to please the people and to please the Lord at the same time.

    But that didn’t work too well, did it?  It says here that the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.  The “play” that is mentioned is the kind of play you would expect to have in the presence of a fertility god like the golden calf, indulgence leading to sexual immorality.  That’s one way to keep the people happy.

    We are of the same stock as the children of Israel.  We have the same fallen nature that they did.  And so we also can be tempted to grow impatient as we wait for the Lord to come down from heaven, to return for the final judgment on the Last Day.  We too can begin to wonder if it’s ever really going to happen, and in the meantime to grow bored with the mighty acts the Lord has done for us in His death and resurrection and in the sacraments.  “Yeah, I’ve heard all that stuff before.  Boring.”  The Scriptures urge us to wait on the Lord and to devote ourselves to His teaching and preaching.  But we want something immediately gratifying, that will make us feel the way we want to feel and get us where we want to be in life and meet our needs right now.  We want church to be something we’re comfortable with and entertained by.

    And so pastors and congregations can be tempted to try to mix the church and the world in their worship.  But we learn from Aaron’s experience here that even though you call it the worship of the Lord, in the end it turns out to be idolatry.  For instance, mix the teaching of Jesus with political ideology–progressivism, capitalism, libertarianism, communism–and you end up with idolatry, where the true God becomes less important than social agendas or national unity or material prosperity.  The Lord isn’t the focus then, but merely a means to achieve those ends.  Or mix the teaching of Jesus with pop psychology, and you get pastors whose main desire isn’t preaching the truth about sin and the cross but telling humorous stories and delivering sermons about “7 steps toward better relationships” or “Biblical dieting” or “How to be the best version of yourself.”  Again, the Lord isn’t central but just part of the formula for some other goal.  Or mix the true worship of the Lord with the ways of cultural media, and you end up with screens in church that inevitably distract from the cross and the altar, with performances and singers who give the impression that the front of the church is a stage rather than a holy space where God is truly present in His words and sacraments.  The goal is not communion with the true God, but achieving spiritual and religious “feels.”  That’s really our cultural idol today, anything that gives you all the right feels and “vibes.”  Like the children of Israel, we tend to want what we’re used to in the world; the emphasis is more on visuals than on the Word, on emotion than on truth.  That’s what we’re willing to give up a little gold for.  Some Lutheran substance may be OK, but give me a little worldly style.  The problem is that in the end, the worldly style almost always drowns out the Word of truth.

    We all would do well to pay attention to what happened when Moses came down from the mountain and saw what was going on.  He became hot with anger, ground the calf which they had made into powder, scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.  Their false god was destroyed, and they were forced to drink up and share in that destruction.  So it will be also on the Day of Christ’s return for all those who have turned their hearts away from Him to other things.  They will have to drink the cup of eternal judgment that is fitting for their idolatrous loves.

    Let this portion of the Scriptures, then, be a call to repentance for all of us.  For whether it has to do with worship or other aspects of our lives, we all know the temptation to go along with the crowd like Aaron did, to conform to the world’s ways of thinking and doing things.  Let us rather be transformed by the renewing of our minds, setting our hearts on things above where Jesus is, seated at the right hand of God.  Let us not simply focus on what is temporary but on what is eternal, what lasts for all times and places and even beyond time.  Seek the treasures of Christ, which cannot be ground to powder or destroyed but which are indestructible and endure forever.

    Those treasures of Christ are the real and proper focus of divine service.  Church is meant to be not like the culture and the world, but like heaven.  Church is where heaven and earth intersect, where Christ Himself is truly present among us in His preaching and body and blood.  That’s why in the liturgy we sing the songs of the angels.  Going into church is to be like stepping into another world.  And that occurs not primarily through what we see but through what we hear, as it is written, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  That Word of Jesus, the Lamb who was slain and raised again, is the constant center of our attention in worship.  

    Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’  For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”  Faith isn’t all that impressed with what can be seen with the eyes; faith relies on the ears.  We don’t put our confidence in what is visually appealing, but what appeals to the hearing of faith, the true and pure Word of God.  The kingdom of God is truly in our midst because Christ the King Himself is truly among us right here, even though He remains unseen to ordinary sight.  The kingdom of God is wherever the flesh-and-blood Jesus is–wherever He is speaking His words to His people and giving Himself to them in order that they may have His forgiveness and share in His life.  Being joined to Christ through faith, we have entrance already here on earth into the heavenly kingdom of God.

    Jesus brings to perfect fulfillment for us what Moses did for Israel on the mountain.  Remember that God’s wrath was burning hot against the Israelites because of their idolatry, and He said to Moses that He was going to destroy them all.  But Moses spoke up and interceded for Israel.  He called to mind God’s salvation of Israel and the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses stepped in the way of God’s wrath in order to save Israel.  And the Lord relented from the harm and the disaster He was going to do to His people, and He did not do it.

    Isn’t that exactly what Jesus has done for you?  When God’s wrath was burning hot against you and the whole world because of sin, the Son of God stepped in the way of that wrath and took it all for you in His own body on the cross.  When Jesus was crucified, He suffered hell for you so that you would be spared and set free.  In Jesus God the Father relents from giving you what you deserve and instead gives you forgiveness and life through faith in Him.  

    Even now Jesus is still stepping in and interceding and speaking up in your defense.  He is your greater Moses, pointing to the blood He shed on your behalf that declares you “not guilty,” calling to mind the divine promises that have been applied to you, that the name of the Holy Trinity is upon you, that you believe and are baptized.  It is written in I John, “If anyone sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  And Romans 8 says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

    So let us then wait patiently for the return of Christ, even if it seems like it’s taking forever.  Let us look forward to the Last Day, not dreading it as a day of doom that we need to fear, but as something to look forward to and eagerly desire.  For our judgment day already occurred almost 2000 years ago at Calvary.  God took care of your judgment on the cross.  It’s over and done with.  Believe in that truth.  All that remains for you now is mercy and life.  Jesus tells you to look up and lift up your heads and watch for His return.  For your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.  You who are baptized are not those of the golden calf; you are those of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

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

John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28
Reformation

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

    “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  Martin Luther knew well the meaning of those words.  He knew what it was like under the old papal system to feel enslaved to the Law, to be in captivity to his sins and unable to set himself free.  The thing he most felt was the burden of an angry God on his back, driving him, demanding a holy life and penance for sin.  So much did he want to escape his slavery that, instead of a becoming a lawyer like his father wanted, he thought becoming a monk might do the job.  If he just devoted himself fully to being righteous and worshiping God, perhaps then he could break free and the shackles would come off.  But things didn’t get better; in some ways constantly being reminded of the demands of a righteous God, constantly going to confession under the requirement of confessing every single sin only caused him to feel his chains all the more.  This attempt at righteousness by his own efforts and works became a torture.  “Whoever commits sin a slave of sin.”

    The same thing is true for us, too; only we tend to experience this in an opposite way.  In our culture, the wrath of an angry God isn’t what runs the show.  For us it’s the absence of any wrath at all that’s runs things, spiritual permissiveness, being free to do and express ourselves as we please.  And that supposed freedom is where we experience our slavery.  For the sins that we enjoy promise us freedom and happiness, but they only ensnare us and bind us and imprison us in the long run.  Our desires and passions end up ruling us.  The technologies that make us feel like we’re lords of our own lives end up being what we serve, what we chain ourselves to for hours a day.  Gluttony enslaves us to our belly and our food, as does alcoholism to drink.  Lust enslaves us to our passions, to pornography, to adulterous behavior that tears people apart.  Laziness enslaves us in a cycle of dependency and pessimism and excuse-making and blame.  Gossiping enslaves us to the never-ending game of one-upsmanship, and really only ends up tearing everyone down, including the gossiper.  Greed enslaves us to our possessions and all the things we have to do to get and hold on to our stuff.  Pride chains us to having to keep up our image and prop up the facade, when deep down we know it’s just hypocrisy.  And on and on it goes . . .  We may not be running for the monastery like Luther, but we, too, often find ourselves grasping at straws because we know that things aren’t right with us, that we’re not truly free.  “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  And the wages of sin is death.  

    Repent.  God doesn’t just accept your best efforts as being sufficient to make yourself right with Him.  He doesn’t just say, “Try your hardest, be sincere, do what is in you, and that’s good enough.”  What does His Word say?  “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”  It is a misuse of His Law to try to justify yourself.  We can often be successful in justifying ourselves and our behavior before others in this world.  But that just won’t fly before God.  Besides, if you’re trying to do a good deed so that you can get some sort of reward from Him–in this world or the next–is that really a good work at all in God’s sight?  What did the Epistle say?  It said the purpose of the Law is “that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”  You can’t free yourself from the slavery of sin by your own doing.

    So what is our only hope of being saved and set free?  St. Paul writes in the Epistle, since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Pay close attention to those words.  You are justified as a gift–freely!  God grant that we never lose our gratitude for that!  It’s a gift of God to you, without any strings attached.  That’s what grace is, an undeserved gift of love.  God justifies you, He declares you righteous, He puts you right with Himself solely and completely based on the works of Christ Jesus His Son–not what you have done for God but what Christ has done for you.  

    And here is in particular is what Christ has done for you: the Epistle says that the Lord Jesus redeemed you, which means that He bought you back.  He found you in your slave chains, being driven and abused by sin and Satan, and He asserted Himself as your rightful owner, your gracious Master.  He purchased you out of your slavery with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  He went so far as to trade places with you.  He allowed Himself to be enslaved, captured and condemned as if He were the sinner, guilty of every wrong that’s ever been done and every failure to do what’s right.  He was your stand-in on the cross to set you free, so that you stand in His place in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).  Through His death, Jesus conquered your slave masters so that they have no eternal power over you any more.  In the Son of God, Jesus, you are truly free–released, forgiven, alive–as Jesus Himself said, “If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed.”

    Martin Luther puts it this way in the Large Catechism: “The Lord Jesus has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For before, I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.  For when we had been created by God the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and deserved.  There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us.  Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.”

    This is where Martin Luther finally found his liberty.  Before, he had understood the righteousness of God to be referring to God’s righteous demands on us, what we must do to get into God’s good graces.  But then, when studying the Scriptures, he came to understand the truth of the Gospel in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . .  for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.”  In other words, the Gospel makes known the righteousness of God, not as demands on you, but as a gift to you.  God gives you His righteousness, so that through faith in Christ, you are clean and guiltless in His sight.  Believe that.  God declares it to be so through Jesus and what He has done for you.

    That understanding of the Gospel, which had largely been lost, made all the difference for Luther.  And so began the Reformation and the restoration of the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church, a heritage we are beneficiaries of down to this very day.

    We summarize this belief with the four so-called “solas” of the Reformation: Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, and Christ alone.  Eternal life and a right relationship with God are a pure gift of His grace alone, not because of anything we have done.  We receive that grace by faith alone, apart from our decisions and spiritual efforts.  Our faith is in Christ alone and in no one and nothing else.  And God brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith through His life-giving Word alone and not by anything that comes from within us; all our teaching comes from Scripture and not man-made wisdom or tradition.  To put it most simply, all the glory for our salvation belongs not to us but to God and His abundant mercy.  All boasting on our part is excluded.  Romans 3 states, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [in Christ] apart from the deeds of the Law.”

    So hear the Word of God to you this day clearly: you have been set free in Jesus.  And remember, then, what you have been freed for: You are freed from slavery to sin so that you might have a new life, the life of Christ in the household of God.  Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  To abide in Jesus’ word is to continue to receive His Word in the many ways that it comes to you and find your life in it.  It is to live in the gift of your baptism, where the Word of God was applied to you with the water, drowning the old Adam and bringing you forth to a new life.  It is to hear the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, by which the Word is applied to you and its gifts are given to you.  And it is to receive the Lord’s Supper, where the Word made flesh is truly present, giving you His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  Our freedom from sin’s slavery is freedom for life with God.  That’s what we set our hearts on; that’s our goal: to be with the One who made us and redeemed us, to live in fellowship with Him, to bask in His presence, to glory in His gifts to us, to worship Him forever.

    The Reformation was about standing against anything that stood in the way of that: whether it’s the Pope with His man-centered works-righteousness, or whether it’s radical reformed churches that reject the words and promises of Christ in the sacraments and instead make it all about man-centered personal spiritual experiences.  False teaching on both sides had to be rejected.  No, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  The Word in the water, the Word proclaimed from the pulpit, the Word in the bread and wine.  Abide in this, continue in this, trust in this, and you are Christ’s disciple, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free–free children of God who will abide in His house forever.

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

John 4:46-54
Trinity 21

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

    Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”  And sometimes we wonder, why should we? Why should we believe and risk playing the fool without signs and wonders?  What good is faith if it doesn’t deliver?  If it doesn’t move mountains, shouldn’t it at least make sickness go away?  Where are the miracles we hear about in the Bible?  Why were signs and wonders given to them while we are rebuked or left in silence?  Why must we leave our children to die in Capernaum instead of drinking wine in Cana?

    The nobleman had left the bedside of his dying boy to travel 18 miles and bring home a miracle worker.  That took some faith, some real hope and belief that Jesus could help.  But the miracle worker who turned water into wine would not go with him.  He would not leave Cana.  The official’s authority was not enough to command Him and only earned him a rebuke.  It must have seemed as though his faith and hope, his desperate prayers had all been for nothing.

    Jesus here does not seem like he’s being a very good pastor. In the face of this desperation He speaks not comforting but harsh words.  For He sees that faith is still lacking, still imperfect, and He will not pretend that it is good enough or that He is impressed.  He will not be winsome or polite.  He will not kindly meet felt needs.  He sees into the man’s heart by the man’s words.  He rebukes.  He brings faith to its knees.  He makes the father come to full desperation and forget his nobility and official power.  And then He commands: “Go your way,” and all he adds is “Your son lives.”  But what does that mean to a father full of fear?  Does it mean that his son lives in heaven?  Does it mean he lives right now but will die within the hour?  Or does it mean, does he dare to hope that the fever has left him?  The official is not told.  Nothing is explained.  No promise is made.  It is not “Your son will live.”  It is a simple declaration in the present tense: “Your son lives.”  That is it.  Nothing more.  Take that and go on your way and trust in Me.

    The miraculous thing is, that mysterious sentence changes the official.  He had at first tried to command Jesus.  He did not ask.  He commanded: “Come down before my child dies.”  That’s the way he was used to talking to people.  But Jesus simply said: “Your son lives” and everything changed.  In a way, you might say that it was no longer the nobleman who believed.  It was simply the man, the father of the son.  His nobility was stripped away.  Up to this point in the Gospel, he had been called a an official.  But after Jesus says: “Your son lives” he’s not referred to in that way any more.  He’s simply called anthropos in the Greek, the man, who believed.  The Word of Jesus changes him.  He goes on his way.  He obeys and believes as a simple man, stripped of pretensions, no longer glorying in his official human standing, no longer making demands of God, but resting in the Word of Jesus.  He still doesn’t know just what it means, but Jesus said it, and that is good enough.  That is how faith lives between Cana and Capernaum without signs or wonders.  Faith trusts that the word of Jesus is true, and that it is sufficient.  It is more than enough.

    God seeks to teach us these same things through today’s Gospel.  These things were written for our learning.  For many of you, it was not an easy task to get here today, whether that’s for physical or emotional or other reasons–to come to this place where Christ is present for you in His words and in the Sacrament.  But still you seek Him out, week by week, month by month.  You look to Him for help and mercy and deliverance and comfort–and not just for yourself, but also often for the needs of others.  And yet very often it seems as if you’re hearing back a rebuke from Him, as did the official in the Gospel.  You’re already feeling broken, and still something else comes your way that seems to break you down even further.  Learn from today’s Gospel that it is not because our Lord does not care for you, or even worse, that He wants to be rid of you.  Just the opposite–He wants to strip away all of the earthly titles and honors and things which you are still clinging to and putting your trust in, so that your faith may be fully in Him and His Word alone, so that you may have full and real life with Him forever.  His purpose is to do you true and everlasting good that far outweighs your troubles, which are but for a fleeting moment.

    What are those things that you are anchoring your hope in for the future apart from Christ?  What gives you a sense of nobility and pride about yourself that keeps you from glorying in the Lord and humbling yourself before Him?  Repent of it.  It’s time to stop being the nobleman who comes with his own merit and standing, and kneel as the plain man or woman before Christ.  We can’t command Him.  All we are given to do is trust in His Word, even if on the surface it doesn’t seem sufficient or we can’t understand it entirely.  Because with the Lord it is always more than enough.

    The official wanted Jesus to come back with Him.  He thought Jesus needed to be visibly present to do His work.  But all that was necessary was Jesus’ Word.  For this was the One through whom all things were created; His words do what they say.  And words are simply heard, not seen.  Faith has nothing to do with what you see.  As it is written, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Faith relies entirely on what Jesus says.  

    “Go your way; your son lives.”  By the Holy Spirit of Christ, the man believed the words that were spoken to him, and he went his way.  By all appearances he was returning with nothing more than he left with.  But by faith he was returning with the greatest treasure of all, the healing words of Jesus.  He traveled those eighteen miles back home trusting in what Jesus had said.  

    The nobleman’s faith was not in vain.  On the way back, before he arrived home, his servants met him with good news about his son which showed the wonderful power of Jesus’ words.  What are the first words out of the mouths of the nobleman’s servants?  “Your son lives,” the same words that Jesus spoke.  It was at the seventh hour of the day before that the son had gotten better; and it was at the seventh hour of the day before that Jesus had said to the nobleman, “Your son lives”–the number seven, the fullness of creation and life.

    Jesus speaks, and it so.  For He is the very Son of God through whom all things were created.  He is the Word of the Father who calls things into being out of nothing and who gives life to the world.  He says, “Let there be light,” and there is light.  He says, “Your son lives,” and he lives.  

    Don’t ever forget: the Word of God is not merely print on a page.  It is the living and powerful voice of the Lord.  The Word of God is the extension of Christ into this world to bring light out of darkness and life out of death.  When He speaks, what he says happens.  His words contain within them the power to create what they declare.

    So it is still today.  The same God who said, “Let there be light” and “Your son lives” is still speaking.  Now He is calling Christians into being by the power of His Word in the water.  To every parent at Baptism He says, “Your child lives.”  Now the Lord is speaking the absolution, “I forgive you all your sins.”  And it is so.  Now the Son of God is saying, “This is My body; this is My blood.”  And by the power of those creative words, the bread and wine truly are His body and blood, so that eating them with firm faith, you are filled with His healing and share in His resurrection.

    In fact, since Jesus Himself is now raised up from the dead, we say to the heavenly Father, “Your Son lives!”  Christ our Lord, who suffered on the cross at the seventh hour to take away your sins, who Himself received no miracle to deliver Him from death but suffered the full tortures of hell in order to break its claim on you–this Jesus is alive forevermore to bring you into the new creation to come, in which there will be no more sickness or sorrow or death.  For the old order of things has passed away.  

    So as you leave this Cana and go back to your Capernaums and to your everyday life in this world, God strengthen you and encourage you on the way.  May He grant you the fervent, confident faith of the nobleman.  Cling to the words of Jesus as you make that sometimes difficult and lonely trek.  His living words will see you through.  In the end your faith will not be in vain.  Go your way in peace.  For by the grace and mercy of God, just as His Son lives, so also you live in Him.

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

(With thanks to David Petersen)

Genesis 28:10-17
Trinity 19

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

    “Where is God?”  Many would answer by saying that, “God is in heaven,” or “God is in my heart,” or “God is everywhere.”  Those answers are certainly not wrong; and yet, they are not the best answers that we can give as Lutheran Christians.  For a god who is just everywhere is a god who in practice is really nowhere.  A god who is merely everywhere is nowhere in particular for me.  I’m no closer to him in one place than in another.  OK, He’s everywhere, but how do I have access to Him?  How do I see Him and hear Him and relate to Him?  It’s like He’s always just two feet away but on the other side of a solid brick wall, and there are no doors to get through.

    We learn from passages like today’s Old Testament reading that our God is One who is not merely everywhere but One who puts Himself somewhere, in specific places for His people.  He’s not just “out there,” above and beyond us; nor is He “in here,” coming to us from within ourselves.  Rather, God has made Himself accessible in particular, identifiable places for us and for our good.  He’s not above locating Himself right where we’re at.

    In the Old Testament account, Jacob was on a last-minute trip out of the country.  He took this trip for two reasons.  First, he was escaping danger.  He had just deceived his blind father Isaac into thinking that he was the older son; in this way Jacob had stolen the family blessing from his brother Esau.  You may recall how Jacob used the goat skin on his arms and wore Esau’s earthy-smelling clothes to accomplish the deception.  Hairy-skinned Esau was furious about this and consoled himself by making plans to kill Jacob.  However, while Jacob was putting some distance between himself and his brother, his parents had directed him to go to the land of his mother’s family and find a wife.  For Jacob’s parents didn’t want him to marry one of the local pagan Canaanites.  So Jacob was making this journey with a mixture of emotions–both with fear for his life because of his brother, but also with some degree of anticipation because he was hopefully about to get married and establish his own household.

    Jacob, then, is a lot like us.  For the fact of the matter is that as we walk the journey of our lives, few of us have it all together.  Rather, our lives are generally more like Jacob’s–a mixture of good things and bad.  We move through life trying to make the best out of what we’re confronted with.  In some ways we’re running from our past with a little bit of fear of what might happen to us.  In other ways we’re looking forward to the future with anticipation.  Our lives, too, are usually a little more mixed up and complicated than we’d like them to be.

    And quite honestly, like Jacob, we are often the cause of our own problems.  Deception is an art that we also can practice.  We too know how to put the goatskin on our arms, so to speak, to use manipulation and subtlety to make things go our way.  But there are times when that subtlety backfires on us and things happen that we didn’t foresee.  That’s how sin works–it brings consequences that we are blind to.  Our lives are often muddled because, like Jacob, we are fallen human beings, unable to know God rightly or even take one step toward Him.  A great canyon lies between us and God that we are incapable of crossing.

    However, God still graciously came to Jacob, even in the middle of his mixed up life.  During the night God gave Jacob a special vision in which he saw a ladder or staircase extending from heaven down to where he was.  And please notice that this ladder wasn’t for climbing!  The only ones on this ladder were angels ascending and descending.  The whole point of the ladder is that God and God alone bridges the gap between Himself and sinners.  He comes all the way to us, because we’re incapable of moving even one inch towards Him.  

    God came down to Jacob and gave Him two wonderful promises.  First of all, the Lord confirmed to him the same promise that was given to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, namely, that all the earth would be blessed through him and his offspring.  And we know that God kept that promise.  For in about 14 years God would give Jacob another name, Israel, and out of the descendants of Israel came Him who is the promised offspring and Seed, our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.  Through Him all the world is indeed blessed.  

    And God made a second promise to Jacob for the meantime–to be with him wherever he went, to protect him, and to bring him safely back home.  The Lord said, “I will not leave you.”  God broke into Jacob’s world, then, to comfort him and put his mind at ease–not because Jacob deserved it, but because of God’s awesome mercy in using even ordinary fallen people like him to carry out His plan of rescuing mankind from sin and its grave consequences.

    And the good news for us is this:  God has broken into our world in an even greater and more decisive way for our good.  Listen to John 1, where Jesus spoke about Himself: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Jesus purposefully used the very imagery of this Old Testament reading to describe Himself and His mission.  Jacob’s ladder is a prophecy of Christ.  For Christ is the true ladder between heaven and earth.  He is the One who has bridged the gap between God and us.  He is the One who, being true God, came down right to where we’re at and took on our human flesh in order to rescue and comfort us.  The omnipresent, everywhere God located Himself for us in Jesus Christ, the descendant of Jacob.  He stood with you by living a sinless life in your place; He rescued you by being executed on a cross, receiving your punishment as your stand-in.  God Himself not only came down to where you are at and bridged the sin-gap in Jesus Christ, He became the sacrifice that covers our sin.  He is the scapegoat, the lamb that was slaughtered so that we would receive the blessing of the Father and be a pleasing aroma to Him.  The risen and ascended Jesus has completely delivered you from judgment.  Through Him you will be received bodily into His glory on the Last Day.  Where is God for you?  In Jesus.

    Note how Jacob responded faithfully, receiving God’s promises for what they were, and worshiping Him there.  Jacob understood what a wondrous thing God had done in stepping into the world in that place.  And so He set up the stone which was at his head as a pillar, and he called that place “Bethel,” which means, “House of God.”  God wasn’t just everywhere for Jacob.  He was in that particular location for him.  Jacob rightly said, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

    Just as it was with Jacob, so also it is for you.  God comes to you to calm your fears and ease your minds, even in the middle of this mixed-up life.  He provides for you; He protects you.  And He continues, even today, to put Himself in particular places for you, to help and comfort and guide you.

    God spoke to you at the holy font as He did to Jacob, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go . . . I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”  The Lord is there for you holy baptism.  For when He commanded it, Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the close of the age.”  “I have called you by name; you are mine.”  You have been robed in the garment of your older brother, Jesus; covered in Christ, the Father treats you as the firstborn.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is truly present in that water to choose people as His own, to create faith and forgive sins.  Whenever a pastor baptizes someone according to Christ's mandate, you can say with certainty, “There is heaven’s gate!”

    The Lord is also truly present in His words.  The Scriptures aren’t just some nice history book with a few teachings about morality.  Rather, they are the living words of Christ through which the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance and grants us saving faith in Christ.  Wherever God’s Word is, wherever it is preached and taught rightly, you can say without a doubt, “I heard the voice of God today.”

    And God is truly and literally present in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Christ’s very body and blood are there under the bread and wine.  Through this Supper God brings you forgiveness and life and strengthens you to live as His own dearly loved people.  It was angels that ascended and descended on Jacob’s ladder.  And we join with them here to laud and magnify God’s glorious name.  As we gather around the Lord’s altar, we can say the words of Jacob with complete assurance and boldness, “The Lord is in this place.”

    All of this is nothing more than a restatement of Jesus’ words, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”  God is not just everywhere.  He has located Himself where we gather around His preaching and supper.  Sure, you can pray to God at home or in your place up north.  But it’s only in divine service that the Lord is here in the flesh for you. As a wise pastor once said, “Water is everywhere in the air.  But if I want a drink, I must go to a well or fountain.”

    Jacob said, “‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’  And he was afraid.”  So it is that you are called to have that due sense of fear and reverence that comes with being in the very presence of your Maker.  Where is God?  He is in Christ for you.  And where is Christ?  He is in this place, in His words and sacraments.  This is the Portal through which we hear and come into contact with our Lord and receive His grace.  Therefore, we say together with Jacob, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

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

St. Michael and All Angels
Matthew 18:1-10; Revelation 12:7-12

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

    We don’t usually give the angels a lot of attention.  And they’re actually OK with that.  Angels are generally given by God to work unseen, in the background; they want us focused on Him, just as they are.  But we do refer to them every week when we gather for church.  The most obvious place is right before communion when we join together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise our Redeemer God.  But we also refer to them in another less obvious place in the liturgy.  You speak of the angels in the creed when you confess that God is the Maker of all things, visible and invisible.  Human beings are the top of the visibles; the angels are the top of the invisibles–two distinct types of creatures; never one becoming the other.  Humans are physical beings with a spirit who look for the resurrection of the body; angels are purely spiritual beings without a body.

    On this St. Michael and All Angels day, we take time to pay special attention to the angels and to rejoice in these warrior hosts of the Lord who do His bidding.  The word “angel” means “messenger”; and that is their primary task.  They preached the good news of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds in Bethlehem; they announced Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to the women on Easter morning.  Angels are also the protectors of God’s people, as it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”  We see this even in the life of Jesus–after his temptation and in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is written that the angels came and ministered to Him and strengthened Him in His bodily weakness.

    Now, believing in the existence of angels may seem a little bit childlike.  But Jesus reminds us today that when it comes to heavenly things, that is good.  He says, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  A little child is entirely dependent on his parents and receives everything with trust.  We adults, on the other hand, are always questioning everything and asserting our rights and our independence.  And so we need to turn, to repent and humble ourselves like a little child and trust in our heavenly Father, that He is good and merciful through Christ His Son, and that what He says is true.  That is what faith is about: to believe His Word and hold onto it simply because He is the One who said it, and He is trustworthy.  That is what defines greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  It is only with the humility and wonder of a child that we can rejoice in the angels or any of the gifts of God.

    To doubt the angels is to doubt the Lord of the angels.  To fail to take seriously their existence is to fail to take seriously that there is a real spiritual battle going on in this world.  For remember, there are some angels who turned their faces away from the Lord, who wanted to do their own thing and serve themselves and make themselves the greatest–fallen angels, namely the devil and his demons.  In the reading from Revelation today we are given a picture of what happened when Michael and his angels waged war against them.  “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”  That’s good news–for no longer can the devil accuse us before God in heaven.  But it is bad news for the earth.  The devil and his demons are loose, and they know that their time is short.

    The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, the Scriptures say, looking for someone to devour.  He wants to consume you with his lie that you don’t have to be like a little child.  You can make yourself big, be like God, grab what He has not given you.  The work of the devil is to take your eyes from the Lord, where the angels are turned, and to turn your eyes to yourselves, to your own wisdom and thinking and spirituality–to get you to believe that all the answers and the truth comes from within.  But there is only One who is the Truth, the One who was lifted up for you on the tree to bring you mercy and life, the One who is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

    Consider again that great scene you heard in the Epistle, that great battle that occurs between Michael and his angels fighting against Satan and his angels.  You might picture it at first like something out of a Superhero Avengers movie.  But angels are not like God’s security forces who have the best technology, so that in supernatural warfare they are a step ahead of the demons.  In fact, angels have no weapons, no elaborate tactics, no power at all except their mouths speaking God’s words.  That’s what their swords on your bulletin cover represent, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  For again, angels are mouthpieces, beings who repeat what the Lord says–both back to Him in praise, and against the devil for the defense and protection of the children of God.  What does Revelation 12 say?  “They overcame them by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony.”

    You see, what we’re in the middle of in this fallen world is a war of words.  Satan and his demons speak deceptions and lies.  And the angels of God speak the Truth.  And not just any true statement, but the Truth who is also the Way and the Life.  By this Word, they overcome the false, misleading, sabotaging words of the devil.  By this Word of Truth, the father of lies is undone.  By this Word which is Truth in the flesh, who offered up His own sacrificial blood, the ancient accuser is overcome.

    Words are what are flying back and forth in the war between good and evil, between demonic and angelic forces, between Satan and Michael.  Lies and deceptions versus the Truth.  Words that give birth to doubt versus the Word of God that engenders confidence and faith.  Statements designed to obfuscate and divide and create chaos versus the Word that unites and clarifies and creates communion.  Sayings that bring death and hell versus the proclamation of Jesus’ sayings, which are the words of eternal life.

    Perhaps this election season helps us to get a sense of this.  While physical fighting and violence do sometimes occur, politics is primarily about convincing you with words–sometimes accurate words, often deceptive and lying words.  It’s a battle of voices and speech for hearts and minds and votes.

    And in a much greater way, that’s what’s going on in the spiritual realm with regard not to votes but to souls.  Ephesians 6 reminds us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  Sadly, many are drawn away from the faith not by an outright rejection of Christ, but by the sabotaging, undermining deceptions of the evil one that attack the faith of those who are not watchful and wary of the devil’s schemes.  

    Words are the weapons in the battle between heaven and hell, seeking to win your mind and heart.  Words are what either create or destroy your life.  The words “I am the Lord your God; I am with you always; I am gracious and compassionate; I forgive you; I am the Alpha and the Omega; I am coming quickly to give you bodily redemption and resurrection”–those words are Life, Christ filling you with Himself by His Holy Spirit.  And on the other hand, the words of the evil one, “Did God really say. . . ?”  “If you are the Son of God. . .”  “What is truth?”–those words not only deflate hope and introduce doubt.  They seek to bring death to you in place of the Life that our Lord gives.

    I hope you are beginning to see now that what the angels do in a heavenly way, the church is also doing in an earthly way.  It’s the very same battle.  Preachers in particular are given to be messengers of the Word.  Revelation 1 in fact refers to the  pastors of the individual churches as the angels of the churches.  Out there, the fallen angels and those who follow them sling their lies at you from every direction and through every screen.  And then in here and in your Bible reading and devotions, the spoken testimony of God’s Word counters and casts the devil out.  The same thing that defeated the devil and threw him out of heaven is what defeats him here on earth and drives him away from you.  

    This is why we need divine service.  This is why Luther once said, “If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.”

    Satan is cast out of heaven and defeated by the preaching of the holy cross of Jesus.  For the power of Satan is sin and death.  But Jesus overcame those enemies of yours by dying in your place.  All the power of sin to condemn you, all the judgment you deserve as a result of your sin, Jesus took in His own body and suffered it to death, shedding His blood on your behalf.  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, your sin included.  Sin and Satan and Death are defeated for you.  You are released from their grip and forgiven.  Believing in Christ, you are more than conquerors through Him who loves you.  

    Satan had been accusing mankind before God night and day.  But now he’s evicted.  God’s not listening to the devil’s accusations.  And that means neither should you.  Think about it.  The only reason the devil attacks and accuses you of being a sinner is because you’re the only audience he has left.  The devil is just a sad sack complainer and blamer, who’s always trying to corner you and let you have it.  But God stopped listening to Satan’s accusations when Christ shed his blood and took your sins away.  And because of that blood, you have the right to do likewise.  Don’t give the devil an audience.  His accusations against you don’t stand.  What stands is the life-giving blood of Christ and His cleansing Word.  

    So cling, then, to Christ and His Word.  Don’t become complacent or lazy in your faith.  For the devil won’t stop trying to attack and accuse.  The victory is won by Christ, but there are a few final skirmishes yet to be fought until the end comes when the devil and the demons and all who reject Christ are cast into the lake of fire.  Satan will try again and again to make you stumble and fall with him.  So be sober and watchful. Love not your lives in this world even unto death, sharing in Jesus’ cross, that you may also share forever in His resurrection in the world to come.

    For God is with you now, and so are His holy angels.  You are never alone.  Even when you feel abandoned, unprotected, vulnerable, what the Psalm says is true, “The Lord of hosts is with us.”  He is wherever His little ones of every age who believe in Him go.  And with Him are His hosts of angels.  Those hosts of angels are here right now–Michael, Gabriel, and all the rest.  For they dwell in the presence of Christ, and Christ is here in His words and in the Sacrament; angels and archangels and all the company of heaven are among us.  Whether there are 20 people here or 200, the truth is that there are 10,000 times 10,000 with us for every divine service, if we would but have eyes to see it.

    So let us rejoice today in God’s gift of the angels–His warrior messengers who rejoiced on the day of your Baptism, who rejoice over every sinner who repents and becomes as a little child before the Lord, who delight in pointing you to the body and blood of the Lamb on the altar.  The angels watch over you at the Lord’s command.  They will gather you to Abraham’s bosom on your last day.  They will keep you safe until the Day of our Lord Jesus, the Day when He comes with His angels to raise you bodily from the dead and give you eternal life in His name.  And then together with the angels, you too will behold the face of your Father in heaven.

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

(With thanks to William Cwirla and John Fenton)

(AI Image of archangel Michael from Pixabay.com, free for use and download)

Luke 14:1-14
Trinity 17

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

    What is the purpose of getting friends and co-workers and neighbors together for a meal?  Usually, it’s simply for the enjoyment of one another’s company.  But sometimes, there can be other agendas at work.  What benefit can I gain from the others here?  How can I impress them and be built up in their eyes?  How can I make use of this occasion and turn it to my advantage?  

    It’s that latter thing that is happening in today’s Gospel.  I’m sure all who were present at this meal would have said they were friends.  But they weren’t truly friends.  For what were they doing?  They were jockeying for position, wanting the top spot, jealous of where the others sat.  In our equalitarian, American culture, seating positions aren’t emphasized quite as much–although everyone does usually want to be at or near the head table at the wedding or the awards dinner.  Usually, though, you’ve got to look for other subtler signs of who’s in the position of top dog and who’s lower on the pecking order.  But the same type of thing still goes on.  

    Jesus accepts the invitation to this Sabbath meal from a man who certainly is no real friend of His.  For it says, they were watching Him closely, scrutinizing Him, looking for some flaw to exploit or for some advantage that they could gain from Him.  

    Now, it would be a tradition at meals such as this to leave your door open for a traveler or a poor person to come in if they wished to share in your meal.  Of course, this act of piety was a nice symbolic thing, as long as some stranger or person in need didn’t take this seriously and actually come in.  We’re all for charity for the poor until the poor are at our own doorstep.  Government elites are all for large scale immigration, as long as it doesn’t affect them negatively in their gated communities. Giving a poor man some food at the bottom place or off in the corner could make him feel uncomfortable and speed up his departure.

    It may well be that one such person shows up at this meal with Jesus.  For a certain man with dropsy is there, a condition involving severe retention of fluid in the bodily tissues and joints and extremities.  Jesus isn’t worried about impressing the others or climbing the social ladder.  In all things He’s there to help the lowly.  And so He says, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”  Is it OK for Me to help this man and make him glad?

    Some there didn’t think so.  Healing was work, and there was to be none of that on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees had jacked up the requirements of what it meant to keep the Sabbath.  The day of rest which God appointed for rejoicing in all of His good gifts they had made into a strict performance–only walk so many steps, only allow certain activities.  By keeping their more demanding Sabbath standards, they could then compare themselves to others and find themselves superior–which was really nothing different than their jockeying for the better position at the tables.  

    And before we mock them for their silly, self-exalting ways, isn’t that exactly what we do if we use our church attendance as a way of trying to earn God’s favor?  We try to exalt ourselves by that good work.  And the reverse is also true.  Some people skip church altogether because they want to engage in other recreational activities, or just to have a little “me time.”  They think that’s where they’ll find their rest, rather than in Jesus.  They think can do without divine service because they’re good enough on their own, by their own works.  Pharisaism can afflict us all.

    In spite of the Pharisees’ objections, Jesus heals the man anyway.  And then He gives them an illustration, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”  “That’s work.  And yet you’d do that.  How much more should I heal this human being who is in the pit of a bodily ailment and pain.”  In the supposedly “higher” exercise of their religion, they were actually treating this man worse than they would treat an animal!  

    The fact of the matter is that what Jesus was doing was actually in perfect keeping with the Sabbath.  For the whole purpose of this day of rest is for people to stop their work to focus on God’s work.  The Pharisees failed to see that in Christ God was the one doing the work here.  And that’s exactly what the Sabbath is all about.  We stop our endless, futile efforts and striving so that we might receive good gifts from the Lord of the Sabbath–and not because we’ve got the top spot at the table or because we’ve earned some sort of reward for ourselves by our better living, but simply because Jesus is good and merciful and revels in giving Himself to us, even to those at the bottom of the table, even to us whose bodies and souls are deformed by sin, to us who are constantly justifying ourselves and exalting ourselves.  He has come to release us from that bondage.

    Colossians 2 says, “Sabbaths are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”  The Old Testament day of rest points us forward to Him who is Himself our rest and our peace, namely, Jesus.  So it’s not about following regulations, it’s about receiving the Gospel Word of the Savior who said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  To keep the Sabbath is to keep and hold on to Jesus and to hear and believe His Word.

    That’s why the meaning to the third commandment in the catechism doesn’t mention anything about a day of the week at all, but rather states, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”  Again, the Sabbath day is about you stopping your work and your to-do list and your errands and your recreation and your entertainment–just stopping it all–and God doing His work on you and for you.  And God’s work is to preach His words of repentance and forgiveness, to lead you to see your sin and to rely on Christ ever more deeply who died to make full payment for your sin.  Coming to church is not your occasion to do something for God; it’s God’s occasion to do something for you.

    For the fact of the matter is that when it comes to spiritual and eternal things, you are like that donkey or that ox that has fallen into the pit and cannot get out.  You are in bondage to sin and death, and there’s not a thing you can do to get up over the edge and free.  Your pawing at the sides only makes things worse.  But Christ comes along on the Sabbath and by the power of His descent into the pit of death, He pulls you out through His resurrection, freeing you through the preaching of His Word of forgiveness and the supper of His living body and blood.

    Coming to church, then, is not a Pharasaical burden but a divine gift.  For Jesus is still exercising His authority to heal and restore you.  It’s no wonder that so many people have such a hard time finding rest and peace in their hearts when they cut themselves off from the source by staying away from divine service for weeks and even months at a time.  They don’t yet know the peace and the rest which passes all understanding and which transcends all the daily troubles of this life.  There is no greater calm that one’s conscience can have than in hearing and believing, “Your sins are forgiven through the shedding of Christ’s blood, you are reconciled to God in Jesus.  He is on your side.  He is with you every day that you must yet live in this troubled and fallen world, and He will surely bring you through the crosses of life to share in His bodily resurrection.”  That’s the sure word of Christ to you today.  That is your Sabbath rest, the work of Jesus for you.

    Only that work of Jesus can create true humility in us, that lowliness and gentleness toward one another that the Epistle speaks of.  We can’t work it up in ourselves.  In fact, even if we would make it our goal to become humble and work at it hard every day, we’d never ever be humble, because then we’d be paying attention to ourselves and our own improvement like the Pharisees, which is the opposite of humility.  Anyone who thinks they’re really making progress at being humble and being a better Christian is bound to be a phony pain in the neck rather than a help to those who have to live with them and deal with them every day.

    Only Jesus, true God, who humbled Himself to be born of a Virgin–only He is truly humble, gentle and lowly in heart.  He gives freely and abundantly to us without calculating what’s in it for Him.  And so humility is to be found only by living outside of yourself in Him.  Only in Christ are you freed from the petty rivalries and the manipulating and using of people to show them real love, to do them good and to be a happiness for them without any calculation of their worthiness or whether or not you’ll get anything in return.  That’s what Jesus is talking about when He says to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to your feasts.  Be free from considering what you’re going to get out of the deal, and simply pass on the good gifts of God for the benefit of others.  By faith you receive the bounty of what God gives, no strings attached.  By love you get to share His gifts with your neighbor, no strings attached.  

    It’s all grace, the undeserved love of Him who took the lowest place on the cross and has now been exalted to the highest place by His heavenly Father.  And He has raised you up with Himself.  It is written in Ephesians that you who believe are seated with Christ in the heavenly places–a reality that will be revealed to all at the close of the age.  This is what Jesus means when He says, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.”  You who in lowly faith follow Christ and share in His cross in this world will ascend with Him in the next and share in His everlasting life.

    Brothers and sisters in Christ, even now Jesus is here among us at the head of the table.  Take the lowest place, that is, come in all humility before God as a repentant sinner.  Come empty-handed as the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, knowing that there’s no way you’ll ever be able to pay Jesus back, and you will be blessed.  For to every penitent heart He speaks warmly, “Friend, go up higher.”  “Come, 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 that Last Day when, in the resurrection of the body, you will go up higher forever.”

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