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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

           

 

 

           

 

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - Mk 7:31-37

 

   Trinity 12

                                                                                                            Mk 7:31-37

                                                                                                            8/23/26

                                                                                                           

 

            The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has a long history of high expectations for the men who are going to serve as pastors in her congregations. The founders of the LCMS arrived in Perry County, Missouri. And the first thing they did was to build a log cabin and start teaching Greek and Hebrew there in order to train future pastors.

            If you are going to be a pastor in our church, you are going to have to learn Greek and Hebrew. Sometimes this is done in college before going to seminary such as with James Peterson or in my own experience. Often the languages are learned in summer Greek or Hebrew, and in an intensive class during the school year such as was the case with Josh Schiff and Joe Musolino.  Sometimes it’s a combination of these such as Chris Atlee who learned Greek at college, but did Hebrew at the seminary.

            When learning to read Greek or Hebrew there is one thing that every student dreads: the hapax legomena. This is a Greek phrase that means “being spoken once.” It is a term that is used to describe a word that occurs only once in the entire Bible. These are the hardest words to know – the ones you often have to look up – because you never see them.

            Not surprisingly, the next worst thing for the same reason is a word that only occurs twice. It turns out that we have one of those in our Gospel lesson today.  It is the word translated as “had a speech impediment.” It only occurs twice in all of the New Testament and the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. This unique word in these two places in Scripture leads us to recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promised end time salvation.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning we learn that Jesus had been in the area north of Galilee along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  He had been in the region of Tyre and Sidon – an area that had historically been pagan.  Now he had returned to the Sea of Galilee and was in the area on its east side – a region known as the Decapolis. This name is Greek for “ten cities,” and these were cities that had been founded under very strong Greek influence.

            The Lord Jesus engaged in a ministry of teaching and healing. In the previous chapter we learn about how when he had sailed across the Sea of Galilee the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.  Mark tells us, “And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.”

            Jesus had arrived in this region of the Decapolis and so once again people brought individuals in need of help to our Lord. We learn that they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. The man is described as being deaf and having difficulty speaking. We don’t know the exact relationship between these two physical issues, but being deaf and having difficulty communicating was obviously a great hardship in this man’s life.

            We note that the people had a specific request. They begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man. They asked Jesus to touch him. Jesus’ touch brought healing during his ministry. It did for the leper who knelt before Jesus and asked to be made clean. People wanted to touch Jesus in order to be healed. And they came and asked Jesus to touch those in need. Jairus had approached the Lord and said, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.”

            In our text they asked Jesus to lay his hands on the man. The Lord did this … and more. Mark tells us that Jesus took the man aside from the crowd privately. Then he put his fingers into man’s ears. After spitting he touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said in Aramaic “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.

            Jesus charged them to tell no one. We’ll talk about that in a moment. However, the more he told them not to do so, the more they proclaimed what he had done.  Mark tells us, “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

            The crowd marveled because the deaf man heard, and the one who had been mute spoke. These concluding words point us back to the description of the man that Mark had used: he was deaf and had a speech impediment. As I mentioned earlier, the latter is the translation of a very rare Greek word – a word that only occurs twice.  It is found here in the New Testament and it is also found in Isaiah chapter 35 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament – the text that was essentially the Bible of the Greek speaking Church of the first century A.D.

            In the previous chapter Isaiah had spoken about the judgment of destruction on the nations. But in chapter 35 he speaks encouragement to Judah as he says, “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 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.”

            Isaiah described God’s end time salvation that would arrive. The Hebrew word for “mute” in this text was translated into Greek using the exact same word that is rendered “speech impediment” in our Gospel lesson. The only place it occurs is our text and Isaiah 35. And so we are being told that Jesus’ healing miracles are a fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. We learn that Jesus himself is the presence of God’s end time salvation.

            Jesus heals the man. But then he does something that seems strange. We learn that our Lord charged them to tell no one about what he had done.  In fact we get the picture that he engaged in an ongoing effort to get them to stop, but to no avail. Why doesn’t Jesus want people to hear about the miracle that he had done and the manner in which he had helped the man?  Isn’t this good news about Jesus that everyone should learn?

            The answer is to be found in the nature of the ministry Jesus was here to carry out.  Our Lord announced that he was the presence of God’s reign that was coming into the world. He began his ministry by saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus’ miracles like the one in our text today were the demonstration of this fact. It was the reign of God overcoming the ways that sin has harmed life in this world.

            But the miracles were easily misunderstood. They made people think about victory, glory, and greatness. And Jesus had not come to be that kind of Christ. He didn’t want people to be spreading a message about him that was misleading.  Instead, he wanted to define the ministry on his own terms. For Jesus had come to bring victory by going through the cross.

             In the next chapter at Caesarea Philippi Jesus will ask the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They will reply with answers that identify Jesus as some kind of prophetic figure: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. Then he will ask them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter will answer, “You are the Christ.” Immediately after this Mark says, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

            Jesus was the presence of God’s end time salvation described by Isaiah. But his great action to free us from sin did not take place through things that looked like victory, glory, and greatness. Instead, it occurred through his suffering and death on the cross. There Christ received the judgment against your sin. There he won forgiveness for you.

            In our text Jesus touches the man as he gives healing.  As Johann Gerhard commented, this action shows us that for the incarnate Son of God the assumed flesh is a life-giving flesh and an instrument of salvation. Jesus’ body was nailed to the cross as the means by which God has saved us from all sin.

            On Good Friday the dead body of Christ was taken down from the cross and buried. But God’s saving reign was present in Jesus to free us from death itself. God raised Jesus from the dead with a body transformed so that it can never die again. Now as the risen Lord he is the first fruits of our own resurrection.

            In our text Jesus gives the man ears that hear and a tongue that speaks. Now through his Spirit he has done this to you.  He has given you ears that hear the Gospel in faith, and a tongue that confesses Jesus as Lord. When he preached on this text Martin Luther commented, “Only these two organs make a difference between Christians and unbelievers, because a Christian speaks and listens differently and has a tongue which praises God’s grace and preaches that the Lord Christ is the only Savior.”

            The Spirit did this through the Word. Paul told the Romans, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” He did it through the water and the Word of baptism by which the Spirit works new life. He continues to strengthen you in faith for the Word he inspired is the Word through which the Spirit is still at work. It is through his Word that he enables you to believe, confess, and be saved.  As Paul told the Romans, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

            In our text Jesus touches the man as he brings God’s end time salvation described by Isaiah. This salvation has arrived by Christ’s death and resurrection. It is now. And it will reach its consummation when the Lord Jesus returns in glory to raise and transform our bodies to be like his own. As Paul told the Philippians, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

            The Lord Jesus continues to touch us as he brings the end time salvation described by Isaiah. He will do so in the Sacrament of the Altar this morning. In our text Jesus touches the man’s tongue. He will touch your tongue with his true body and blood. He will do so with the promise, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is his body given into death on the cross and his blood shed on the cross – the very price he paid for your forgiveness and salvation. He gives it to you – into your mouth – so that there can be no doubt that it is forgiveness and salvation for you.

            The Sacrament is for those who have been baptized into Christ. It is for those who believe in Jesus and confess that he is Lord.  It is for those who believe that his word does what it says – that he gives his true body and blood to eat and to drink. And even as it is received in faith, it is the gift that strengthens faith.  It is food for the new man by which we are sustained in faith so that we can go forth and live in Christ.

            The Sacrament is the miraculous touch of Christ. And just as Jesus’ touch in our Gospel lesson brought bodily healing to the man, so also Jesus’ touch in the Sacrament provides the guarantee that we will receive the full and complete healing of our bodies. In the Sacrament we receive the body and blood of the risen Lord.  Christ gives us this gift with the promise that that bodies which receive it will be raised on the Last Day. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

            In our Gospel lesson Jesus touches the man’s ears and tongue as he provides healing. This action demonstrates that Jesus is the presence of God’s reign which brings his end time salvation. By his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead Jesus has rescued us from sin and death. Sustained in faith by his Word and Sacraments we eagerly look for his return in glory on the Last Day. For on that day the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled completely in the resurrection: “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.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

           

           

 

 

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity - Eph 2:1-10

 

   Trinity 11

                                                                                                            Eph 2:1-10

                                                                                                            8/16/26

 

            If you look into the data regarding our national government’s debt, you aren’t going to find anything good. Today the United State government’s debt is 40 trillion dollars. That is about $117,000 per citizen of the United States

            It’s a frightening figure. And what is worse is the fact that it is growing rapidly. The debt grows by three billion dollars each day just on the interest the federal government is paying. In the early 1980’s the debt reached one trillion dollars for the first time in the nation’s history. By 2000 it had grown to 5.7 trillion. A mere twenty years later it had ballooned to 27 trillion. And in the last six years since 2020 it exploded to 40 trillion dollars.

            There does not seem to be any answer. Cutting the budget and the size of the government itself is unpopular because many people do not want the hardships it would entail. Increasing income through more taxes may bring in additional money, but the government just turns around and finds more ways to spend it.  Politicians keep kicking the can down the road and ignoring the problem. I am no economist but you have to think that this can’t go on forever. A day of reckoning will arrive, and not going to be pretty.

            In the same way, if you look into what Scripture has to say about the spiritual nature of man since the Fall, you aren’t going to find anything good either. Now to be sure, things in the beginning were very good. God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And so God created man in his own image. He created him to be like God. Man knew God as he wants to be known. He lived perfectly according to God’s will.

            But the devil tempted Eve by saying that God was holding out on them. The father of lies told her that they could be God if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the one tree of which God had told Adam they were not to eat or they would die. Adam ignored God’s command and abandoned his role of headship as he listened to Eve and ate as well.

By their action sin entered into the world. This sin perverted all that God had made to be very good. It brought death. God told Adam that now he would “return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And this reflected the fact that a profound change had occurred in man. He had lost the image of God in every way that mattered.

In our Old Testament lesson from Genesis chapter four we see how sin and death immediately manifested themselves in Adam and Eve’s children as Cain kills Abel. Then chapter five provides us with the book of the generations of Adam as Scripture begins to describe the line through which God would provide the Savior. And there we hear a striking statement of the profound change that has occurred as Moses tells us that Adam “fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”

From the moment of the Fall, you don’t find Scripture saying anything good about man’s spiritual abilities. David confesses his sinfulness as he says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” He confesses that he has been sinful since the beginning. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He said that sinful fallen nature brings forth more sinful fallen nature. And Paul told the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” He said that as born, a person cannot understand and accept the things of the Spirit.

That same bleak assessment of man’s spiritual abilities is what we find in our epistle lesson today.  Paul begins by saying, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” The apostle says that the Ephesians were spiritually dead and under the power of the devil. As those controlled by the devil they were sons of disobedience.

Now we might be inclined to think that Paul is only saying this because they were Gentile unbelievers. But he immediately discounts this by including himself along with all people in this same category. He goes on to refer to the sons of disobedience as he adds, “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” 

Paul says that all people are dead in their trespasses and sins. All people are sons of disobedience and under the power of the devil. All people are by nature children of wrath – those who will receive God’s eternal judgment. There are no exceptions here for age or anything else. It is yet another example of the recurring truth found in Scripture. It is the truth summarized earlier in the Rite of Holy Baptism when it said, “The Word of God also teaches us that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as his own.”

You will be hard pressed to find a more brutal and ugly description of the spiritual condition in which we are conceived and born. And that fact makes the apostle’s next statement all the more incredible as he says: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Paul has been clear that there was absolutely nothing loveable about us. But he tells us that God is rich in mercy.  He describes the great love with which he loves us. And for the first of three times in our text he says that God saved us by grace – by his unmerited loving favor. He describes a God who loves the unlovable. He is the One who acts to save those who do not deserve it in any way because that is simply his gracious character.

God acted to save us by sending his Son in order to provide the answer to sin and all that it had done to us. The incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, was in our world to receive the judgment against our sin by his death on the cross. Paul says in the previous chapter, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

But what God did in Christ was not only about forgiveness. God had told Adam that sin would bring death. Jesus Christ came as the second Adam who passed through death in order to defeat it forever. God raised Jesus on the third day as the beginning of resurrection life that will be ours. Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Paul says that when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In his letter to the Colossians that was written around the same time as Ephesians and shares much language in common with it we learn how this happened. There Paul writes, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

            Through the waters of baptism you were buried with Christ – you shared in his saving death.  Baptized into Christ, you have been united with Christ. You now live in Christ, and so Paul says that you have been made alive with Christ. You have been raised in Christ. He can even say in our text that you have been seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ.

            The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and so baptism into Christ takes place through the work of the Spirit. Life in Christ is new life worked by the Spirit. Jesus said that to receive the kingdom of God a person must be born again, and then he added, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Paul told Titus that baptism is “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

            That is what God has done to you. That is what God did to Leo, Rex, and Ara this morning. In saying this we are not denying that the Spirit had already called them to saving faith through the Word. But our God is the Gospel God who surrounds us with his gifts. Through baptism the Spirit works regeneration that deepens faith. Through baptism we receive blessings that Scripture only ascribes to baptism. And Jesus has told us a disciple is made through baptism and teaching.

Baptism is an objective act by God – the application of water to our bodies with the Word. It is a onetime event that defines our whole life as Christians. God has given us his promise about what he did in baptism and he calls us to believe and trust in what he did through this gift.

God’s gift of baptism is something that is done to you. You can’t baptize yourself. And this fact underscores that salvation is God’s gift. Paul emphasizes this in our text when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Here, as in Romans chapter four, Paul defines faith as the opposite of doing. Faith is simply trust in God’s promise. It is the open hand that receives what God gives.

We are saved by grace alone. We are saved by faith alone. But since faith is the creation of the Spirit it can never remain alone. The apostle goes on to say at the end of our text, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

In baptism you have been born again of water and the Spirit. You have received regeneration. Paul told the Corinthians, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The apostle says in our text that we are what God has made. The Spirit who has made us a new creation now prompts and leads us to live out our faith. God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works.

God has made you for good works, and he has placed you where you are to do good works. He has placed you in callings in life – in vocations. He has made you a husband or wife; a father or mother; a son or daughter; an employer or employee. You don’t have to go looking around to find where you are to serve. God has already put you there, and believe me, there is plenty to do.

These are not actions that the world will acknowledge and praise. They look mundane. But God has placed you there as the instrument through which he cares for your family, friends, and neighbors.

So spouses, support and encourage one another. Do that thing which isn’t your job, but will make the other’s life easier. Fulfill the sexual needs of one another because that is the responsibility in marriage that God has given to both of you.

Parents, you probably don’t need to be told to put your children ahead of yourself. But recognize that the most important thing you will do is to teach your children the Christian faith. Games and tournaments won in sports will soon drift away into meaninglessness.  But the spiritual welfare of your children is eternal. So bring your family every Sunday to the Divine Service and establish that as the pattern that your children think is normal. Read Scripture and pray with your family in devotions – you’ll find a pattern for that in the bulletin and on the church website every week.

Kids obey your parents. Do what they tell you. Don’t make them ask twice. Better yet, don’t make them ask at all. Do those things at home that you know are your jobs. Do things the way they are supposed to be done. And look for ways to do things that help your parents.

Employers treat those who work for you in ways that are fair and honest. Show towards them the same thing you would want to receive if you were the employee. And employees, recognize that you are the means by which God provides for those around you.  He is working through you. So do a good job. Be helpful. As Paul told the Colossians, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

In our text today Paul describes how we were unlovable – we were under the power of the devil and by nature children of wrath. But God who is rich in mercy loved us in Christ. By his death he redeemed us from sin, and by his resurrection he has given us life. Baptized into Christ, through the work of the Spirit we now live in Christ. We have been saved by grace through faith apart from any works. But in Christ God has made us new creation for the purpose of doing good works where God has placed us to serve.