Mark's thoughts: Jane Doe and the Cornell 7 - A window into our sexual culture and how we got here

 

In recent days the news has been filled with accounts about the incident that occurred at a Cornell University fraternity in October 2024. A woman currently identified as Jane Doe engaged in sex with multiple men as all were under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs. Almost three weeks later she told the police that she had experienced sexual assault. The ensuing investigation did not reveal that a crime had been committed, and so no charges were brought against the men. Then in September 2026 she filed a civil lawsuit against the seven men, Cornell University, the fraternity where it occurred, her own fraternity, and a local bar.

 

The sordid details of the woman having sex with five men in repeated sexual threesomes, and drugs being consumed off of naked bodies, leave no doubt that all involved acted in a reprehensible fashion. However, a reading of Jane Doe’s own account leaves no doubt that rape did not occur. Under New York state law sexual assault occurs when there is a lack of consent due to: 1) forcible compulsion by the actor, 2) mental incapacitation of the victim, 3) physical helplessness of the victim.

 

The District Attorney notes there was no “forcible compulsion” present because “The facts provided by Jane Doe’s statement do not allege that any person used physical force to compel Jane Doe to engage in sexual conduct.” There was no “mental incapacitation” because “The facts provided by Jane Doe’s statement do not allege that she was either rendered incapable of controlling her own conduct or that any drug was administered to her without her consent.” There was no “physical helplessness” because “there is no evidence in the statement that Jane Doe was unconsciousness or unable to communicate.” It was found that, “Finally, there is no evidence in Jane Doe’s statement indicating that she clearly expressed that she did not consent to the act. According to the statement, each time Jane Doe asked to stop the sexual conduct, the sexual conduct stopped. Thus, with no evidence of a ‘lack of consent,’ criminal charges simply could not be sustained.”

 

Jane Doe herself said that there was no rape. On the day after the incident, one of the individuals texted her to apologize about how events had occurred. She replied, “At the end of the day non of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly i really liked being w u and matt” [sic]. In the days that followed as news about the incident spread among students on campus, the man encouraged her by saying it would all pass over. Jane Doe replied, “you’re right it’ll get better and u think everyone’s j jealous of us.. but also like everyone needs to grow up cause sexuality and sex and sh*t is changing and stuff like this is going to become more common,, i’m also really open minded tho. i luv u king” [sic].

 

The incident occurred on October 20/21. As a Halloween party at the fraternity approached one of the men assured Jane Doe that she was still welcome at the fraternity and their upcoming Halloween party. Jane expressed that she was pleased to hear this and would be there. It is very difficult to understand why Jane Doe wished to return to the fraternity for another party if she had just been gang raped there. In the end, the fraternity president contacted Jane Doe to say she was not invited to come to the party. This action seems to have been the catalyst for Jane Doe’s reevaluation of what had happened and subsequent filing of a police report on November 8.

 

The Cornell incident provides a window into two important questions about the culture in which we live. First, how have we arrived at the point that men and women are willing to act in these ways sexually? Second, why would a woman change her evaluation of what happened when all the evidence indicates that the sexual encounters were consensual?

 

To understand how we got here, we need to understand from where we have come. As Kyle Harper describes in his masterful work, From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity, in the Greco-Roman world a married man could only commit adultery by having sex with a free born woman who was the legal wife of a Roman man. A married man was permitted to have sex with slaves or prostitutes, and it was assumed that he would do so (for a summary of Harper’s research, see The early Church challenges a world of fornication). The wife on the other hand could only have sex with her husband.

 

Christianity said instead that sexual intercourse could only occur between husband and wife in marriage.  Sex with anyone else was sin against God.  This was a radical change in the way men were expected to behave. It was a change in culture that did not happen overnight.  It took more than two hundred years from the time Christianity became legal and began to be favored by the Roman government until prostitution was officially outlawed.  The Church challenged a fornicating world for five hundred years before society officially adopted a Christian view of sexual conduct.

 

Around 51 AD Paul wrote to Corinth with this instruction about how Christians were to deal with sex:

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. (1 Corinthians 7:2-9).

Paul recognizes that not all have the gift to be single (7:7). Instead, he says that because of the threat of sexual immorality, man and woman are to be married. Their sexual needs are to be met by one another (7:3-4). In a letter that contains very strong statements about the headship of man based on the ordering of creation (1 Corinthians 11:3, 7-9), this language of mutuality in marriage is striking and has important implications.

 

Paul’s statement is Christian, but it reflects the truth that man has recognized throughout history. Men and women are different. Men have a greater sex drive and want to have regular sex. Sexual intercourse entails far greater risks for women than for men. The man has his orgasm and can walk away. The woman can be left pregnant with a child she will have to raise.  A society cannot exist in which men have sex as they please and women are left with no support. Such an arrangement would be the destruction of the family upon which society is built.

 

So the acknowledged ordering has been that women set a very high bar of commitment in order for men to have sexual access. The man will have exclusive sexual involvement with the woman, and she will be the one who meets his sexual needs. In return, the man commits to the permanent bond in which he supports the woman and the children they produce. The “transactional” nature of this arrangement is simply a reflection of how God has ordered his creation in such a way that the woman is the helper corresponding to the man – the one without whom life is not good (Genesis 2:18).

 

For nearly 1500 years the West lived on basis of the sexual morality set forth by the New Testament. The cultural expectation was that sex took place in marriage, and marriage produced family. And then in a little more than fifty years, it was almost completely undone. There have been two factors in this. The first and most important, is the “sexual revolution” that began in the 1960’s as oral contraception (“the pill”) allowed people for the first time in history to separate sex from procreation easily and reliably. If contraception failed, the Roe v. Wade decision meant that from 1970’s the widespread practice of abortion guaranteed that sex did not have to result in a child.

 

This same period saw the emergence of pornography as a growing cultural force. Pornographic movies made the transition from theater settings to videocassettes with distribution to private residences. The internet age has brought the most graphic content to the phone in a person’s hand. Youth today grow up exposed to pornography in ways never seen before.

 

The result is that today our culture does not believe that moral judgment can be directed at any sexual activity (more on this in a moment). “Hook ups” are normal, and sexual intercourse is simply part of dating. Cohabitation is widely accepted,  and  the chaste couple that chooses to marry sooner rather than later is considered unusual.

 

The second factor which has produced this situation is feminism. An ideology that declared women are equal to men has taught women that they should act in the same way as men – and that includes sex. Women have been indoctrinated to believe that being sexually active outside of marriage is “empowerment.” As the sexual revolution led people to believe that there can be no moral judgments about sex, feminism taught woman that they should use sex freely just like a man.

 

So how do you get men in a Cornell fraternity who engage in this kind of sexual activity? They have been raised in a culture which says that there are no moral limits on sex of any kind. The culture has turned men loose to do whatever they want sexually. And because men are men they want to have sex. They are having sex in ways that are informed by the pornography they have been watching.

 

How do you get a woman in a Cornell fraternity who engages in this kind of sexual activity?  She too has been raised in a culture which says that there are no moral limits on sex of any kind. She also has been formed by feminism to be believe that being a true woman means acting like a man.  She should freely use her body for sexual pleasure, for she is an autonomous individual who is not limited by the constraints of patriarchy.

 

The culture has rejected all moral limits in the use of sex. But it recognizes that there still must be some kind of controlling factor and so it has based everything on consent. Two adults can do whatever they want sexually, as long as both consent.

 

This emphasis on consent brings us to the second question we are considering: Why would a woman change her evaluation of what happened when all the evidence indicates that the sexual encounters were consensual? The sexual revolution has declared that there are no moral limits on sex. Feminism has told women that they should freely engage in these sexual activities because they are equal to men and therefore they can do the same things as men.

 

But in the last fifty years the culture has forgotten what everyone else in the history of the world has understood: men and women are different. They are different in sex drive, and different in the biochemical responses generated by sex. Certainly, casual sex is harmful for both men and women. But it is exceedingly harmful for the woman who was created to be bonded to the man who is the father of her child produced by sex.  The repeated sexual unions with different partners in casual sex is emotionally and psychologically corrosive for women.

 

Women aren’t men. When they engage in sexual activity that leaves them feeling uncomfortable or bad, there is no moral category by which they can explain this. They have been shaped to believe that all sex acts between consenting adults are completely acceptable. The only category left to explain what they are feeling is consent. The event must then be reimagined in a way so that what they experienced was not really consensual. A term has been coined to describe this phenomenon: regret rape.

 

Feminism has taught women to act like men when it comes to sex. But this is a losing proposition for them. When women act like men in sex, men gladly take sex without having to give commitment. Ultimately all suffer as this is detrimental for marriage and family.

 

It is helpful to recognize the factors that have produced the sexual culture in which we live.  We are thereby better equipped to see why it is so important to teach the truth of God’s Word about his gifts of marriage, sex, and family. God’s way is always the best way, even if it means opposing the world around us.   

 

 

 

 

  

 

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 22:34-46

 

   Trinity 18

                                                                                                            Mt 22:34-46

                                                                                                            10/4/26

 

 

In last Sunday’s Gospel lesson we saw that there was a confrontation when Jesus went to the house of the ruler of the Pharisees for a meal on the Sabbath.  The conflict was entirely predictable because the Pharisees were persistently opposed to Jesus about issues that related to the Law of Moses and how it should be interpreted.

Last week Jesus asked the Pharisees about whether it was permitted to heal on the Sabbath. At another time when Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath and a man with a withered hand was present, another group of Pharisees asked our Lord that same question. On that occasion Jesus answered that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath and healed the man.  Then Matthew tells us, “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”

Questions about keeping the law continued as we learn in Matthew’s Gospel that the Pharisees and Scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat?” The Pharisees were attacking Jesus because his disciples were not following their interpretation of the law - what they called the “tradition of the elders.”

This conflict reached a crescendo during Holy Week. The Pharisees and the Sadducees – groups in Judaism who were opposed to each other – found a common enemy in Jesus. First the Pharisees plotted how to entangle Jesus in his words by asking him about whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Then the Sadducees asked Jesus a question about the resurrection.

Next we learn in our text, “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.” There is no doubt about what is happening here. The question by the Pharisee is not a request for information. It is an attempt to set a trap for Jesus. It is a question asked in the hopes that Jesus will say something that can be used against him.

At first glance, the question does not sound all that threatening. The Pharisee asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Judaism was indeed focused on the Law of Moses. We know that discussions about how to rank the commandments occurred. But still, it seems difficult to understand how the Pharisee thought this was going to generate an answer he could use against Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ had repeatedly stated, “You have heard it was said … but I say to you” as he corrected common interpretations of the law that were present in his day. So maybe the Pharisee hoped that Jesus would pop off with some kind “but I say to you” statement they could use against him.

If this was the intention of the Pharisee’s question, then he was greatly disappointed. Jesus answered by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus identified Deuteronomy 6:5 as the great and first commandment. This was part of the Shema, the statement “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” that was spoken by faithful Jews every day. And then our Lord added a second commandment, the statement from Leviticus 19 about loving the neighbor as yourself. The pairing of these two thoughts can be found elsewhere in Judaism and was hardly objectionable. But then Jesus added, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

First century Judaism was focused on the Law of Moses. How could it not be? After all, this was the law God had given to Israel at Mt Sinai when he brought them into his covenant. It was the law in which God told Israel how to live in the covenant with him. Israel knew that all of this was a matter of God’s grace. God had called Israel to be his people in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had rescued them from Egyptian slavery in the exodus. The gift of the law was a matter of God’s grace, just as the covenant of which it was a part. The law was a good thing. As the Psalm 119 says, “When I think on my ways I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.”

The Jews never forgot that salvation was based on God’s grace. Only that made it possible. But over the centuries a shift occurred. There was an increasing confidence in a person’s spiritual abilities. There was an ongoing tendency to focus on the importance of what the person did in keeping the law and the role this had in being saved.  You can hear it in the rich young man’s question to Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And then there was the fact that although the law itself promised life, the history of Israel demonstrated that their continuing failure to keep the law brought only judgment.  

The Pharisees believed that the requirement to keep the law included their interpretation of the law and the things that it had added – the “tradition of the elders.” But in his answer Jesus casts all of that aside. For that matter he says nothing about circumcision, or food laws, or the Sabbath. He says it is very simple.  Love God with all that you are – the first table of the Ten Commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself – the second table of the Ten Commandments.  And the Lord says that this is what everything the Old Testament says to do is really all about: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus strips it down to the basics: Love God with all that you are. Love your neighbor as yourself. He says that’s really what it is all about. And in this we begin to recognize that if doing the law is going to be involved in any way with why we are saved, then we have a huge problem. For there are so many things that we put before God – our sports, our hobbies, our money and wealth, our need to be approved by our culture.  These are the things we often value most. And we find so many ways to put ourselves before our neighbor. I am going to focus on my needs and desires before my spouse, children, parents, or friends because I come first. After all, I deserve it.

St Paul tells us that in dealing with God, the way of the law – the way of doing – is a non-starter. It is because as fallen people sin is a power from which we cannot free ourselves. He told the Romans, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” And because this is so, the way of doing the law can only bring God’s curse and judgment. Paul told the Galatians, “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 Pharisee wanted to focus on the interpretation of the law. But then Jesus asked them a question that shifted the center of the conversation. He said, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” The answer seemed simple. They said to him, “The son of David.” Everyone knew that the Christ – Messiah promised by God – would be a descendant of King David.

Then Jesus asked, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” Jesus quoted the first verse of Psalm 110. The available evidence indicates that the Jews of this time didn’t normally consider this to be a Scripture that spoke about the Messiah. Jesus was taking this text and interpreting it in a way they didn’t expect.  He was using it in his own way. Matthew tells us, “And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”

Jesus shifts the focus away from the Law of Moses to himself. In doing so, he shifts things from law to Gospel. And he points to himself as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament says – both the law and the prophets.

Jesus tells us that David was led by the Spirit of God to speak about the Christ as his Lord. Jesus is the son of David because Joseph took him to be his own son.  But Jesus is not only a man.  He is also the Son of God, the Creator of the universe. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus is the One whom David and all people must call Lord, for he is God himself.

The angel announced to Joseph that Jesus would save his people from their sins. He did this because all people, Jew and Gentile alike fail to keep God’s law. This law is God’s ordering of creation that expresses the will of the Creator for everyone. Paul said about the Gentiles – about you, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.” It is this law that we all break as we sin against God.

But the Son of God entered this world and took on humanity in order to bear the wrath and judgment of God against your sin. As Isaiah said, “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.” God condemned your sin in Christ when he died on the cross.

Then God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead and defeating death. And what is more, he exalted Christ in the ascension as he was seated at the right hand of God in fulfillment of Psalm 110.  For as David wrote, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”

Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through faith in the crucified and risen Lord you are justified. You already know the verdict of the Last Day. You know that when you appear before the judgment seat of God he will declare you not guilty – free from sin and able to live in eternal fellowship with him.

Since you are already justified now by faith in Christ, it means that doing the law has nothing to do with your status before God. It simply can’t. So what does this mean for about how we view the law as we live in Christ?

Let us begin with the Law of Moses itself as we find it in the Old Testament. You will notice that Jesus never talks about circumcision and foods laws in the Gospels. He only talks about Sabbath keeping when attacked, and then only to say that things can be done on the Sabbath. In our text today he says that we are to love God with all that we are and love our neighbor as our selves and then concludes, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” He says that this is what the Old Testament is really all about.

The specific details of the Law of Moses – its ceremonial aspect - was the command for God’s people until the coming of Christ. But now that Christ has come it no longer is. Christians are not in any way obligated to keep the Sabbath or follow the food laws. So enjoy that bratwurst if you want to. After all, we are going to have them at our upcoming Octoberfest.

Many Jews in Jesus’ day had fallen into the trap of thinking that their actions were part of the reason they were saved.  This is not surprising because it is temptation that always confronts fallen man. We understand the way of the law. You must do something to get something. It makes sense to us and that is the reason that every religion in the world apart from Christianity works in this way. This appeals to the old Adam because if I have some role to play, then I also get some of the credit.

The history of Christian theology demonstrates how enticing this is. It happened in the medieval period and continues to exist in Roman Catholic theology where God’s grace enables a person to do their part in that work that leads to salvation. Here it is not faith alone, but faith plus our works.

But it also continues to be found even in settings that confess faith alone. It happens when faith is defined as my choice – the thing I have done. Here the assurance of salvation is found in my choice – my act of believing. So by giving one’s testimony, or of going up for another altar call, or of being rebaptized the person recalls and renews the fact he really did it.

It happens when a sanctified life becomes the proof of salvation. How do I know I am a Christian and am saved? It is because of what I do – the holy ways in which I live. The source of assurance then is what I do, and so the true focus of the Christian seeking salvation becomes one of works.

Christ does not point us to the law. He points us to himself, for he alone is the source of forgiveness and life. He is the One who gave us new life as his Spirit was at work in baptism. He has called you to faith. And he continues to sustain that faith through his Means of Grace. He draws you to his Word and his Sacraments for through these means he gives forgiveness and nourishes faith by the work of the Spirit.

The apostle Paul told the Galatians, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Faith acts in love, because that’s what faith does. It is the fruit of the Spirit. It loves and cares for the neighbor in all the vocations where God places me – for my spouse, child, parent, congregation member, and friend.

Faith seeks to love God with all that we are. It seeks to love the neighbor as oneself. It does so because we are in Christ.  Or as Paul told the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 14:1-11

 

   Trinity 17

                                                                                                            Lk 14:1-11

                                                                                                            9/27/26

 

            There are two wedding seasons in life. The first is around the time when you graduate from high school and college. This is the time in life when many people get married. There are weddings to attend for siblings and friends.

            The second wedding season is when your children and your siblings’ and friends’ children are getting married. Amy and I are in that season now as preparations are made for Abigail and Timothy to get married in 2027.  We just attended two weddings in August as my niece, and then best friend’s son were married.

            As I attend these weddings I have been reminded that while it is nice when the wedding has seated you with family and friends that you know, that’s not really what I care about. My primary concern is where my table is located in relation to the order that people are able to go get their food. After attending a wedding and waiting while pictures are being taken, I don’t want to be stuck at the wrong end of the wedding reception where I have to wait forever to eat.

            In our text we learn that in Jesus’ day there was also concern about seating at a wedding banquet.  However, here the concern was not about getting food. Instead, it was about status and honor. Our Lord observes how this was playing out, and this becomes the occasion when he speaks words that address a matter far more profound than mere social etiquette.

            Our Gospel lesson begins by saying, “One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.” This a charged statement of confrontation. Jesus and the Pharisees have engaged in disputes about conduct on the Sabbath. They have had confrontations in the settings of meals. So when Jesus goes to the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, for a meal, on the Sabbath, you know there is going to be conflict. And sure enough, we are told that the Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully.

            We learn that there was a man present with dropsy – that is, the swelling caused by the accumulation of fluid in the body. Our Lord responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”  The Sabbath was a day of rest – a day when work was not to be done. But was it permitted to heal on the Sabbath – was it permitted to help this man?

            The Pharisees remained silent. They didn’t answer Jesus. So the Lord healed the man and sent him away. Then he asked the Pharisees, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Jesus’ question assumes that the Pharisees would help the son or ox. And if they were willing to do that on the Sabbath, how much more it was clear that it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath.

            Luke tells us that the Pharisees could not reply to what Jesus said. He had caught them in the fact that the law supports love. Love and God’s law are not in conflict. As Paul told the Romans, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

            The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. But our Lord was watching them as well. He noticed how they were trying to get the places of honor at the meal. The first century world was very focused on honor and shame. It prized being accorded honor – the status that a person had based on how they were viewed by others. The seating arrangement at a meal presented a social ranking system. Naturally, everyone wanted the best seat possible.

            However Jesus said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.”  To choose a place of honor, and then be told by the host to move to a lower spot in front of all the guests would be an occasion of great shame.

            Instead, the Lord gave this advice: “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.” Then he added, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

            On the surface, it sounds like Jesus is giving good advice to avoid social embarrassment such as we find in our Old Testament lesson from Proverbs which says: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”

            However the tension at the beginning of our text between Jesus and the Pharisees signals that Christ is doing far more. He is criticizing the manner in which they approached life as they sought honor for themselves at the expense of others.  Instead, Jesus sets forth a very different way of doing life: His way. He says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

            We recognize the way the Pharisees were doing things. It comes naturally to us. Our tendency is to look out for ourselves. We are interested in what is best for us – what is easiest for us.  If achieving this means ignoring others or even climbing over them, then so be it.

            But Christ teaches us that his way is very different. It is the way that he walked because we are selfish sinners. He is the One who humbled himself in order to save us. St Paul told the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

            The Son has eternally existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit as the trine God – the Holy Trinity. He was active in the creation of the universe. But he did not consider equality with God something to be held onto. Instead, he emptied himself and took the form of a servant. This emptying was not denial of his divinity. It was not the fact that he took on a human nature in the incarnation as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Instead, it was the fact that he did not use his divine power to serve himself. To be sure, he displayed his divine power as a demonstration of who he is. But Jesus always used his power to help others, such as we see in our text.

            Paul went on to say, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Christ humbled himself in obedience to the Father’s will. He had entered our world to bear the sins of all – to bear your sins. He took them as if they were his own and was obedient to the point of death – even the shameful and humiliating death of the cross. By his death he won forgiveness for you as he freed you from sin. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            Christ humbled himself for you. And then the Father exalted him. He raised Jesus from the dead on Easter, as he vindicated Christ. And in the ascension he exalted him to the right hand of God. Paul went on to tell the Philippians, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

            Jesus says this morning, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” These words describe what Christ has done for you. And they also describe how you now receive the forgiveness that Christ won on the cross.

            God’s Law confronts the sin in your life. It is the mirror that reveals your false gods – the things you place before him and his Word. It reveals all of the selfish ways by which you put yourself before your neighbor. In the face of this you confess your sin.

            You repent, and turn again in faith toward your crucified and risen Lord. You return to your baptism through which you have shared in Christ’s saving death. You believe our Lord’s promise that in baptism your sins have been washed away. Through repentance and faith in what Christ does through baptism you humble yourself and are exalted as the forgiven child of God.

            Christ humbled himself for you, so that you can be exalted in forgiveness and eternal life. Through his Spirit he has given you new life – you have been born again in baptism. You now live as those who are in Christ, and so Christ’s Spirit strengthens you to live as Christ towards others.

            This life in Christ serves others. It is one in which we humble ourselves. Jesus told his disciples, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  This way of humble service is the way of love. Paul told the Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

            This means that rather than being focused on ourselves, we look out and care for others. Paul told the Philippians, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 

So do this in your home as you care for your spouse, and as you support and help your parents. Do this as you assist other members of this congregation. Paul told the Romans, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

We follow Christ by humbling ourselves in service towards others. We walk the way of faith as we have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus. Yet we do so in the confidence that the way of humility and service leads to exaltation. We know this because Jesus Christ has been exalted in his resurrection and ascension.

Already now we know that we too will share in our Lord’s resurrection when he returns on the Last Day. Paul told the Romans about baptism, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” As Paul told the Corinthians we know that “what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” God will raise up our bodies through the work of the Spirit. Already now, the presence of the Spirit within us means that we will be raised. Paul went on to say, “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection our lives are guided by his words this morning: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

 

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.”