Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 7:11-17

 

   Trinity 16

                                                                                                            Lk 7:11-17

                                                                                                            9/20/26

 

           

Not all funerals are the same. To be sure, death is always a source of grief. It is always the loss of a person who was a spouse, parent, grandparent or friend. Death was not part of God’s very good creation in the beginning. Instead death has been caused by sin, for as Paul told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.” With good reason the apostle told the Corinthians, “The sting of death is sin.”

Death is always a source of grief. But not all deaths are the same, and therefore not all funerals are the same. Recently we had the funeral for Aleda Doelitzsch. Aleda died when she was 101 years old. She had lived a long and remarkable life in which she had touched so many people. Her entire life was a witness to her faith in Jesus Christ. There was indeed mourning, but at 101 Aleda now had to live in a nursing home. All recognized that the Lord had blessed her with a long and full life and that it was time for him to take Aleda to himself.

The grief and mourning at a funeral is very different when the death is an obvious tragedy. When life is cut short in ways that we don’t ever expect and loved ones are left behind in difficult circumstances all sense the tremendous loss that has occurred.

If a funeral like Aleda’s really is one of family and friends coming together in thanksgiving for her life and that fact that she is now with Christ, then a funeral for a tragedy is family and friends coming together in support of those who have experienced an unimaginable loss. The funeral procession that Jesus encountered at Nain in our text was definitely this latter kind of funeral. It was a funeral that had been caused by a tragedy.

Luke tells us that the disciples and a great crowd were accompanying Jesus as he approached the town of Nain.  Our Lord’s miracles and teaching attracted a crowd wherever he went. These people were following Jesus in expectation of seeing what he would do next.

As they approached the gate of the town, they were met by another crowd that was coming out of Nain. It was a funeral procession heading out of the town. A large crowd from Nain had joined in the procession, and Luke tells us that this was because of the circumstances of the death. It was certainly tragic.

A woman’s only son had died. God’s Word teaches us that children are a blessing. The Psalmist writes, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” On the other hand our world treats children as if they are liability. They are considered to be a cause of unnecessary commitment and expense, and it is common in our world for couples to take steps to prevent children from being conceived at all.

            The world in which Jesus lived had been shaped instead by Gods’ Word. It viewed children as a blessing. The great tragedy for a woman was not being able to have children – to be barren. To have only one child meant that this woman had avoided this status – but just barely. She had only one child, and so this son was incredibly precious to her.

            Now, he had died. This was a great tragedy. But the grief was compounded by the fact that she was a widow. Her husband had already died. The woman had no husband who could provide for her. Now she had no son upon whom she could rely. She was alone, and those around her in the town perceived the heartbreaking circumstances.

            Our Lord is the all-knowing Son of God. When he saw the woman he understood all of the circumstances that were before him. As our Gospel lessons tells us, “he had compassion on her.”  Jesus had compassion on the woman. He saw what sin had done to her life in the death of her son. And he felt deeply for her. The Greek verb used here conveys the sense of something felt in your gut.

            But Jesus didn’t just feel compassion for her. Instead, he acted. First, he said something that seems completely inappropriate. He said to her, “Do not weep.” Who comes upon a funeral procession – a scene of tragedy – and tells the family not to weep?

            Then he stopped the funeral procession itself by doing something shocking. He came up and touched the bier on which the dead son’s body was being carried. A dead body was something that brought defilement – it made a person unclean. But Jesus ignored this as he touched the bier. Those carrying it were certainly shocked by this action. We learn that they stood still.

            Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” The dead son sat up and began to speak. And then Jesus gave him to his mother.  At that moment fear seized all who saw what had happened. They stood in awe and glorified God saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”

            In our text today the people exclaim, “God has visited his people!” They are right. Jesus Christ was the Son of God in this world. He was God visiting his people in order to rescue them from sin and death. He was God visiting you in order to do the same.

            The people see the miracle and say that a great prophet has arisen among them. It’s not hard to understand why.  In our Old Testament lesson we hear about how Elijah raised from the dead the woman’s son at Zarapheth. They are right. Jesus is a prophet. But in this identification we also see that God’s visitation of his people takes place in a way no one expects.

            Immediately after our text we learn that John the Baptist was in prison. John was the “prophesied prophet” – the prophet who was the fulfillment of what Isaiah and Malachi had written. He was the one sent by the God to prepare the way. He declared about the One coming after him, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

            John proclaimed the One who would bring God’s end time judgment. But then John confronted King Herod Antipas about how through divorce he had taken his brother’s wife. And so Herod had John thrown in prison. John sat in prison as he heard about Jesus’ ministry. Jesus was working miracles. But there was no end time judgment and destruction of evil doers. Quite the opposite. Herod sat in his place, while John the Baptist languished in prison.

            So John sent two disciples to Jesus and had them ask this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  Our Lord answered, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

            Jesus answered using words that drew upon Isaiah chapter 35. There Isaiah said, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

            In his answer Jesus announced that he was God visiting his people. He was the coming One - the presence of God’s end time salvation. That’s what was seen as he gave sight to the blind and cleansed lepers – as he raised up the dead. But then Jesus added, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

            Jesus was telling John that things didn’t look like he expected. And the explanation for this is found in the fact that Jesus is indeed a prophet – the prophet like Moses promised by God. Certainly, the prophets did mighty works like we see Elijah carry out in the Old Testament lesson.  But the prophets also suffered.

            In the chapter after our Old Testament lesson, Elijah goes on to win the great victory over the prophets of Baal at Mt Carmel as Yahweh sends down fire and burns up Elijah’s offering. But in the chapter after that Elijah has to flee into the wilderness because Queen Jezebel - the great Baal supporter – is trying to kill him. Overwhelmed by what we would call depression he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” The prophets suffered. And the prophets were killed. As Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”

            It is sin that has caused death. It is sin that brings God’s judgment and damnation. Jesus Christ was God visiting his people to provide rescue from sin and death.  But he had not come to do so by a mighty action of victory that would be praised by all. Instead, Jesus was the Son of God who was here to suffer and die on the cross. As they approached Jerusalem before Holy Week Christ said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

            When Jesus died on Good Friday it seemed that all had ended in failure. On Easter as they walked on the road to Emmaus the two disciples described Jesus as “a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” They spoke of his crucifixion and lamented, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

            As the risen Jesus walked with them he responded, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Jesus had walked the way of suffering and death but in his resurrection we understand that this death has given us forgiveness and salvation.

            In our text this morning we see Jesus raise the widow’s son from the dead. The people exclaim, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” These words teach us that God works in ways that we do not expect – ways that at times seem to be the opposite of God’s work for us. There are times when we face great hardships and difficulties. The circumstances of life seem to indicate that God’s love is absent.

            The apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The reason that we can have confidence that these words are true is because we have seen the way God worked in Jesus.  We know that the cross of Good Friday looked like humiliation, weakness, and failure. But in Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter we see that the cross was in fact God working powerfully to save us. And because we have seen God do this in Christ, we are no able to trust in him no matter what things may look like.

            In our text Jesus touches the bier on which the son’s body was being carried and said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”  Christ raises him from the dead and this action points towards what he will do on the Last Day. For now we often do not understand. But, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the reason that we trust God is at work in our life even when nothing else seems to indicate this. As Paul told the Corinthians, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”

            But we do so in the confidence that the day of sight will arrive. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we will too when he returns in glory. We have this hope that helps us to move forward trusting in God. It is the living hope, because as Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

           

 

 

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 6:24-34

 

   Trinity 15

                                                                                                            Mt 6:24-34

                                                                                                            9/13/26

 

            If you had attended at St Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany on this Sunday – the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – during the 1520’s and heard Martin Luther preach, you would have heard him preach on our text this morning, Mt 6:24-34. If you had attended at Trinty Lutheran in Soulard on this Sunday during the 1870’s and heard C.F.W. Walther preach – the first president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod - you would have heard him preach on our text from Mathew. In fact, if you had attended church most anywhere in northern Europe during the medieval period, you would have heard the priest preach on this text from Matthew chapter 6.

            The lectionary – the assigned Scripture readings of the church year – is one of the many strengths of our catholic heritage (And please note, that’s catholic with a lower case C). The Scripture texts used in the Divine Service each Sunday are not chosen by the pastor. You are not subject to the whims of what I find to be interesting. Instead, they have been chosen for me by the shared practice of the Church that stretches back for centuries.

            I bring this up today in order to make the point that I have not in any way cherry picked our text.  It is there every single year because the Church put it there on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity long before the Reformation even occurred.

            And for that matter, it has not been taken from some obscure corner of Scripture. Matthew chapter six sits right in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Matthew’s Gospel includes five large blocks of teaching by Jesus, and the first of these is chapters five through seven. Right from the start the evangelist gives us the Sermon on the Mount – a portion of Scripture that Christians have always recognized as being a central statement of our Lord’s teaching.

            These are important observations because the subject of our text is something some people don’t want to hear about in Church.  It is something that at times the Church herself is even hesitant to talk about because it seems self-serving. But Paul told the pastors gathered at Miletus that he did not shrink from declaring to them the whole counsel of God. We learn from the apostle that the Church must listen to all that our Lord teaches. Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount. The Church listened to our Lord by setting it before us as the Gospel lesson for this Sunday every year. So today, we consider what our Lord has to say about a subject that truly is of great importance for our life in the faith.

            “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter in 1789. I have always been struck by the fact that the subjects involved here are also the times when we really see the role that God plays in our life. When we or a loved one are faced with the prospect of death, we find out who our God truly is. And the same can be said when it comes to how we deal with money and wealth.

            This morning, Jesus is talking about money. He is very direct in identifying it as a false god that threatens the life of faith. Just before our text he said, ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our Lord says that what we really value is where our heart will be.

            He leaves no doubt about the implications of this as he says in the first words of our text, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Jesus says that God and money are competing lords in our life.

            The First Commandment is, “You shall have no other gods.” The Small Catechism teaches us that this means, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” In the Large Catechism we learn that a god is whatever is most important in our life. Consider what provides you with a sense of security, well being, and stability, and you have found your god.

            It’s not hard to recognize how money and wealth function in this way.  We want to be secure in the fact that we can take care of all our expenses. But of course, those expenses include many expectations about what “must” be in our life. We have expectations about the size, décor, and landscaping of our house. We have expectations about the travel that we will undertake. We have expectations about the clothes, eating out, sports experiences, and new  iPhone that we need. There are so many things that we just can’t do without.

            Jesus teaches us that money and wealth is a spiritual threat. After interacting with the rich young man, Christ said, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were shocked because first century Judaism assumed that wealth was a sign of God’s favor and salvation. But Jesus’ statement was based on the truth found in our text: money and God compete with one another for the place of primacy in our life. In a process of diminishing returns the more we have the less we appreciate what we have, and the more we feel motivated to get more. As the apostle Paul wrote: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.”

            Christ’s promise in our text is that God will provide us with daily bread. He will give us what we need to support this body and life. The Lord says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

            He points to the birds who don’t sow, reap, or gather into barns and yet God feeds them. Jesus asks: “Are you not of more value than they?” If God provides for birds, certainly he will give us food. Christ sets before us the flowers that are clothed in beauty even though they do not work. Then he asks, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

            God promises to provide what we need to support life. However, he makes no promise about all the wants that we have. In fact, quite the opposite, he warns that the drive to obtain the wants makes money into a false god that runs our life. Instead, Scripture teaches us to be content with the blessings God gives to us. St. Paul wrote, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”

            Jesus’ words this morning convict us of all the ways that money acts as a false god in our life. And if you think it does not, then you are lying to yourself. But what he says at the end of our text gives us the comfort of forgiveness. And it also directs us to what Scripture teaches about how are to deal with money.

            Christ says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

            With this statement, Jesus points us to himself. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, was the presence of God’s saving reign – the kingdom of God. He was the presence of God’s righteousness – his saving action to put all things right.

            Because we are people who create false gods all the time, God sent his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. At his baptism Christ took our place – he the sinless One identified himself with sinners. On Good Friday he took our sin and made it his own. He fulfilled the Father’s will as he offered himself on the cross as the sacrifice for sin. Paul told the Romans about God’s action: By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”

            Sin brought death, but in his resurrection Christ defeated death and began the resurrection life of the Last Day. Through his Spirit the Lord has now called you to faith. You have been born again of water and the Spirit in baptism. Your sins have been washed away and in your baptism you have the continuing comfort that you are the forgiven child of God.

            Now, you seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness in the Means of Grace that the risen Lord has given to his church. In the reading and proclamation of his word, through absolution, and through the true body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar God’s reign is present giving you forgiveness and strengthening you in faith. Because of these gifts you know that you have received the saving righteousness of God – that you are justified and have peace with him.

            And in turn God’s word directs us how we are to use our money in ways that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. This is an action that supports the Means of Grace that go on in our midst. And it is also one that orients our use of money in ways that put God first.

            St Paul told the Corinthians, “In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” God’s Word commands his church to provide for a pastor and all of the things necessary for the Means of Grace in our midst. We seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness as we give our offering that enables God’s Word to be proclaimed and his Sacraments to be administered here at Good Shepherd.

            Scripture give us this command. And it also tell us how to do it. Paul told the Corinthians, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” The apostle says that it is to be done on the first day of the week.  God comes first and so we start with God as we use the blessings he gives us. We give to God out of what we have in the beginning, not using what is left over after we have done all the other stuff we want to do.

            The apostle says that our offering is to be “as he may prosper.” It stands in relation to how God has blessed us – it is proportional. It does not matter how large or small this may be. What matters is that it reflects what God has given to us.

            The Church has captured this proportional character with the tithe – with the practice of giving 10% our income to God. The New Testament nowhere commands the exact amount we are to give. But drawing on the Old Testament precedent, the tithe has served as the standard goal of the Christian offering for good reason.

            Finally, later Paul told the Corinthians, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We learn that our offering is to be willing and cheerful. It is a response to the blessings that God has given us, and especially for the salvation we have received in Christ. As Paul said, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

            When God directs us in how to live in Scripture, it is for our good. The command to give an offering is no different. The act of determining and then giving a faithful offering helps us to keep God as the true Lord in our life. It puts money in its proper place in relation to God. It helps us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

This morning Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Our Lord confronts the fact that money and wealth present a great spiritual challenge in life. He assures us that God will provide us with what we truly need. And he calls us to place him and his Means of Grace at the center of our life for in this we are receiving the reign of God that brings forgiveness, resurrection, and justification before God on the Last Day.  

             

             

 

 

           

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

 

Mark's thoughts: Justification Bible study

 

In 2013 I had an article published that dealt with Paul’s language about righteousness and justification (“Rectify or Justify? A Response to J. Louis Martyn’s Interpretation of Paul’s Righteousness Language” Concordia Theological Quarterly 77 (2013): 45-77). Drawing upon this work I have written a Bible study that considers justification. It examines the manner in which ordinary righteousness works, and how this serves as the basis for understanding the extraordinary righteousness that God gives on account of Christ. It grounds our understanding of justification in the context of God’s judgment on the Last Day, while emphasizing the now and not yet character of justification.  It also provides explanation about the three different ways in which Paul uses righteousness language.

Justification takes place on account of Christ. The influence of Gerhard Forde has caused many Lutherans to deny or downplay the significance of the vicarious atonement. In response, the study shows how the vicarious atonement defines why justification can take place on account of Christ. It considers what James 2 says and how this relates to Paul.  Finally, it examines the teaching of the Roman Catholic church on justification in their own words and shows why the Lutheran teaching on justification is just as relevant today as it was in the sixteenth century.

Pastors should feel free to modify the study in any way that they find helpful. There is no need to cite the source of the study: Justification Bible study

 

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity - Gal 5:16-24

 

   Trinity 14

                                                                                                            Gal 5:16-24

                                                                                                            9/6/26

 

 

            During my second year as a pastor at Zion Lutheran in Lyons, IL, a man showed up for Bible class one Sunday. I was, of course, happy to have a visitor with us. But it soon became clear that this individual had come with an agenda. He was looking to contradict what I was saying, and in the conversation that ensued he asserted that as a Christian he no longer sinned.

            Now I knew all about how at the time of the Reformation, various Anabaptist groups made this claim. I knew about John Wesley’s theology of “entire sanctification” and how this had generated the Holiness movement seen in the Nazarene and Pentecostal traditions where people make the claim that they no longer sin. But never in my life had I met a person who stood before me and actually said this about himself. And he didn’t just say it. He obviously believed it.

            Now in the discussion that ensued I used various biblical texts to make the theological argument that this is just not possible. I probed his claims as I tried to show him how he was often simply redefining things in order to avoid calling them sin. Eventually Bible class ended and the man left. It was now time for the Divine Service.

            We were using what is now Setting One in the hymnal – the order of service that we use in the first half of the church year. After the invocation, I spoke the words of 1 John, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And in that moment I realized that I had been so taken aback by the man’s claim – so thrown off my game - that I had been unable to think of the most direct and obvious biblical answer – a verse that I said every Sunday morning!

            In our text this morning, the apostle Paul addresses the reality that sin presents an ongoing struggle in our life. We have not yet been completely freed from its power. And as John reminds us, we are fools to say that don’t sin.  But Paul also urges us to recognize the power of the Spirit in our lives as we live in Christ. We are not helpless against sin.  Instead, the Spirit leads and enables us to live in the ways of the Lord.

            Two verses before our text, Paul had just said, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  This language about freedom and law calls to mind what Paul had been dealing with in the first four chapters of the letter.

In fact, the apostle had just used the word freedom as he concluded that discussion with a final stark exhortation. He wrote “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

The problem at Galatia was very simple. Paul had proclaimed the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ there during his first missionary journey. The Gentiles – those who were not Jews – had believed in Christ. But then other teachers had come to Galatia. These men were Jews like Paul. They said they too proclaimed the Gospel. But they told the Galatians that Paul had not given them the whole story.

Yes, they needed to believe in Jesus Christ. But if they wanted to be part of God’s people, they needed to do what God’s people the Jews had always done. They needed to do the law of Moses – the Torah. They needed to be circumcised and keep the law. That meant observing the food laws of Leviticus, keeping the Sabbath, and the festivals of Judaism such as the Passover.

When Paul learned about what was happening, he could hardly believe it. Instead of his usual statement of thanksgiving at the beginning of a letter, he launched into the matter by saying, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

The apostle recognized that to say that salvation was by faith in Christ plus doing the law of Moses meant that Christ was not enough. This was a denial of the Gospel. As he had told Peter at Antioch, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

The law was not a means to justification before God. As Paul said in chapter two, “for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” Instead, Paul warned that all who thought doing the law was part of being saved would find themselves under God’s curse.  He said, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

The law can only bring a curse because we can’t do it. And Paul left no doubt about why this is the case. He wrote, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” As fallen people, sin is a power from which we can’t free ourselves. It prevents us from living and doing in holy ways.

But Paul announces in Galatians that God has redeemed us from sin and the curse. He has freed us through his Son, Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter the apostle described what God has done as he said, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This redemption occurred on the cross. For as Paul explained, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’”

Now, Jesus Christ who rose from the dead has called you to faith through the work of his Spirit. The Spirit has made you a new creation in Christ. Through faith in Christ you are justified before God. And the life of faith in Christ is one that sets you into motion. Paul says just before our text, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

You’ve been freed from sin in your standing before God. But this doesn’t mean you’ve been completely freed altogether from the power of sin.  This is the reality the prompts Paul to say, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

You live in the now of what God has done for you in Christ. But you also live in the not yet of the continuing presence of the fallen nature – the old Adam. Paul says in our text, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” “The flesh” in our text is not our created body. Rather when set in opposition to the Spirit, it indicates the continuing presence of sin’s power within us. As Paul told the Romans, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Paul acknowledges this reality in our text. But he does so in order to explain what he has just said: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The apostles says that when we walk by the Spirit we will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh – he employs the strongest negative possible in Greek in order to say this. Why is it necessary to walk by the Spirit? Because the flesh – the sinful nature – presents an ongoing challenge.

Now let’s be very clear on this point. Paul is no defeatist. He thinks the Spirit of Christ really does give us the ability to live according to God’s will. But he also knows that this is not something that just happens automatically. Instead, it is something that we must make our goal. It is something to which we must apply ourselves. As he says in our text, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

Being called to faith, and living in the faith are very different. You had nothing that you could contribute in coming to faith. As the Small Catechism says, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” It was God’s gracious act by his Spirit that gave you the ability to believe in Christ.

But now that you are in Christ, the life of faith is something which involves you. When speaking about this, the Lutheran Confessions have no problem using the word “cooperate.” To be sure, it is the Spirit who leads and supplies the power that makes life in Christ possible. But as new man you are able to – in fact you must – apply yourself to living in God’s ways.

The apostle states in our text that it’s not hard to tell who is running the show. He writes, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”

For the most part, these sins fall into two broad categories. Paul emphasizes the importance of sexual conduct in the Christian life. It’s not hard to understand why. The sexual union is foundational to marriage for which man and woman were created. It has the power to create life and families. And because it is central to all these things the devil seeks to use sex to pervert and destroy. The other large grouping involves how sin creates division, strife, and anger. Sin harms relationships and poisons the life we share together.

Paul tells us that these sins are a dire threat. He writes, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now he is not talking about particular instances of these sins. After all, we can all find a number of things in this list of which we have been guilty. But more literally we can translate this as “those who are doing such things.”  Paul describes a pattern of regular behavior. He refers to those who give themselves over to living in these sins. Such a life drives out the Holy Spirit and leads to damnation.

You will find things in this list that appear at times in your life. But because you are in Christ you recognize these things as being sinful. And so, you repent. You confess them as sin and return to the Means of Grace through which Christ gives you forgiveness and strengthens faith. In doing so, you are also going to the source which alone can enable you to bring forth those things in the second list in our text.

Paul goes on to say, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” The Spirit of Christ causes us to live in ways that were true of Jesus. Our life in Christ is one that acts in love toward the neighbor. It knows the joy of sins forgiven and of being a child of God. It is patient waiting for God’s timing, and patient with others. It acts in kindness and gentleness towards those in need. It is self controlled as it refuses the temptations of sin.

The metaphor of fruit describes something which is naturally produced. And this is because only the Spirit can prompt and cause these things in us. But at the same time because you are in Christ the Spirit’s work means that you are new man. You are able to recognize these things as the goal of your behavior. They become things that you are seeking to do. Or as Paul says at the end of our text, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

No, you will never completely cease to sin. Until you die or Christ returns “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Because we face this challenge Paul tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” In Christ you are a new man through the work of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ brings forth the fruits of the Spirit, and helps us as we seek to live in ways that please God.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 10:23-37

 

  Trinity 13

                                                                                                Lk 10:23-37

                                                                                                8/30/26

 

            At some point, many of us have had our house toilet papered. We have walked outside one morning and found a tree – or trees - festooned with toilet paper by pranking youth. Perhaps at some point you have been one of those youth throwing toilet paper all over a tree.

            By contrast, what the Samaritans did to the temple in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the first century A.D. was no mere prank. And they did not use toilet paper. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the Jewish custom at the Passover was to open the temple gates just after midnight. The Samaritans knew this, so they snuck in and spread human bones around the temple grounds. On the occasion of the most important festival of the Jews, the Samaritans defiled the temple.

            This event illustrates the hatred that was present between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans existed because in 721 B.C. the Assyrians has conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and had taken it into exile. In their place, the Assyrians brought in people from elsewhere in their empire.

            These people took up a form of the faith that was very similar to what would become Judaism. It was the same. But it was also very different. They had their version of the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament. They had their own temple that they built on Mt. Gerizim. The significant differences that existed in the midst of the similarities turned Jews and Samaritans into committed adversaries. In the second century B.C. the Jews destroyed the temple of the Samaritans on Mt Gerizim. Under Roman rule, the two groups were always trying to use their rulers in order to gain an advantage over each other.

            It is this background that helps to provide the surprise in out text today – the parable of the Good Samaritan. For the Jew the name by which we know this text would have been an oxymoron. The phrase “good Samaritan” was absurd. Yet in the parable we learn about how God has loved us in Christ. And at the same time we also learn how we are to love others because of what God has done for us.

            Just before our text, Jesus had commented on how the wise and understanding did not believe, and instead those considered to be little children did. Those who believed in Jesus did not have great standing in the world. But in spite of this Jesus says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” The disciples who believed in Christ were blessed because they were seeing the fulfillment of God’s end time salvation. They were seeing what the prophets and kings of Israel in the Old Testament longed to see but never did.

            We immediately then encounter one of those so called wise and understanding people who rejected Christ. Luke tells us, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” This man was an expert in the interpretation of the Law of Moses.  He had come to test Jesus – to try and catch our Lord in something that he said. It’s impossible to miss that his understanding of life with God was based on what a person did. This didn’t mean that he denied God’s grace – almost no one in first century Judaism did that. But it did indicate that the man’s actions had taken on a prominent role in the way he thought about salvation.

            Jesus’ answer was simple. He said, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man replied with the word of Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” So Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

            The lawyer was trying to test Jesus – to catch him in something. Instead, Jesus had made him look silly by revealing the simplicity of the matter. Then Luke tells us, “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

            The lawyer was trying to recover by asking what he thought was a complicated question. Yes, a Jew was to love his neighbor. However, who qualified as a neighbor that was deserving of this love? In other words, who was really a Jew who should be loved in this way? We know that this was a question that mattered to many Jews. The Pharisees didn’t consider other Jews to count in this way. The Jews at Qumran who made the Dead Sea Scrolls thought no one outside their community counted in this way.

            In response, Jesus told a parable. He replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”  The fifteen miles from Jerusalem to Jericho was known as an area where robbers often operated. The robbers attacked the man. They beat him, took away his clothes, and left him half dead.

            The man was fortunate because by chance a priest was going down that road. He was someone who offered sacrifices at the temple and was also charged with teaching the people God’s Word. However, when he saw the man he ignored him and passed by on the other side. Why did he do this? Did he fear that the robbers who had attacked the man were still around? Was he concerned that the man was in fact dead, and touching him would brings about ritual uncleanness that required time and money to remedy? We don’t know.

Later a Levite was traveling on the road and came upon the man. He was part of the group that was responsible for the operation of the temple. But like the priest when he saw the man, he ignored him. He passed by on the other side of the road.

Representatives from two of the most respected groups in Judaism had ignored the poor man. Then Jesus springs the surprise in the parable as he says, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” The one who finally stops and helps the wounded man is a hated Samaritan! The Samaritan bound up the mans wounds, and poured oil and wine on them. He put the man on his own animal and brought the man to an inn where he cared for him. Then he paid the in keeper two denarii so that he would assist the man, and promised to pay whatever more was needed when he returned.

            The lawyer had asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” When Jesus had finished the parable he asked the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” And so our Lord responded, “You go, and do likewise.”

            The great surprise in the parable this morning is that the one who stops to help is a Samaritan. So how are we supposed to understand this, and what is Jesus teaching us? The place to begin is the description of the Samaritan’s reaction. We learn that when he saw the man he had compassion. Prior to our text, this verb has occurred only one time in Luke’s Gospel. This was in chapter seven when Jesus came upon the widow and her dead son as he was being carried out of the village of Nain for burial. There we hear, “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

            After our text it only occurs one more time. In chapter fifteen our Lord tells the parable of the prodigal son. After demanding his inheritance and wasting it in profligate living, the son finally decides that he will return to his father and ask to be received as a hired hand. Then Jesus says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

            The Samaritan in the parable is God who has acted in Christ to save you. He is the One who has had compassion. And if God is the Samaritan, then you are the man who is beaten, stripped naked, and half dead along the road. You are the helpless one.

            Jerusalem was the place where the temple was located – the place associated with God’s presence. The city was built on a hill that is the high point of the surrounding area. Just as in our text, people are always described as “going down from Jerusalem.” The man descends from Jerusalem and the temple to being a helpless figure, bleeding and lying along the road. Many of the early Church fathers took this to be an illustration of our own experience.

            We were created in the image of God and lived in fellowship with him. But in the sin of Adam we were plunged into a sinful and fallen existence. We call it “the Fall” because we descended from this perfect existence with God to one which is ruled by sin and death. The man was helpless by the side of the road. We were spiritually helpless. We were not just half dead like the man. We were dead, and worse than dead, for we were under the devil’s power and hostile to God.

            But like the Samaritan, God had compassion on us. He helped the helpless. He did this by sending his Son into the world in the incarnation as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews. Jesus had come to receive the rejection that led to the cross. In the previous chapter Luke tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Even as we hear Jesus tell the parable in our text he is on his final trip to the holy city where he knows crucifixion awaits him.

Our Lord was in the world as the sinless One who had come to take the place of sinners. At his baptism he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and designated as the Servant of the Lord. He went to the cross as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words about the Servant: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The sin of Adam brought death. But Jesus Christ is the second Adam who redeemed us from sin by his death, and then began the new life of the resurrection when God raised him up on Easter. This new life is now at work in you through his Spirit. You have been born again in the water of baptism. You live in Christ as his Spirit leads and enables you.

And this leads us to recognize that the Samaritan in the parable must be understood in a second way as well. Christ is the Samaritan who had compassion on us when we were helpless and lying at the side of the road. Now as those who are in Christ, through the work of the Spirit we become Christ to those around us. We become the means by which Jesus shares his love with others. We become the Samaritan in the parable.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The Lord Jesus’ service to save us becomes now the pattern for our life.

The Samaritan helped the man who was lying helpless along the road. Christ has called you to help those in need – to help the people the Lord has placed in your life.  These needs do not have to be dramatic like the man in the parable. Instead, it may simply be taking the time to listen to those who are suffering and to encourage them. As Paul told the Romans, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” We show love and care towards others because of what Jesus has done for us.  As Paul told the Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

In our text the Samaritan came upon the man who was stripped and half dead. Because of his condition it was not possible to tell anything about his background. One could not know whether he was wealthy or poor. It wasn’t possible to know anything about his social status. And this is a reminder that the love of Christ that we share includes all people.  It knows no limitations because God’s love for us was not limited in any way. As Paul reminded the Romans, “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.”

The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us about how God has loved us in Christ. Although we were helplessly trapped in sin and death, God acted to save us through the death and resurrection of Christ. He has given us forgiveness and life in Christ – life that will be resurrection life when Jesus returns in glory on the Last Day. And because we now live in Christ through the work of the Spirit, we share God’s love with all those around us