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.”

           

 

 

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.