Trinity
13
Lk
10:23-37
8/25/24
“Measure
twice, cut once.” It is a wise saying
that always guides me anytime I am working with wood or any material where I
have a limited supply. It is better to measure carefully and make sure you are
right, than make a mistake. Cut something too long, and you will have to go
back and cut again. Cut something too short, and you have a piece that is of no
use and you have wasted material.
“Measure
twice, cut once.” It appears that would
have been good advice for those in the past who chose our Gospel reading for
today. The texts in the lectionary are
known as “pericopes” which comes from a Greek word that means to “cut
out.” Each is a piece of Scripture that
has been cut out of the whole for consideration on a Sunday.
It
turns out that our text was cut out a little too long. In it you hear the lawyer approach Jesus with
his question, and this then leads into Jesus’ famous parable of the Good
Samaritan. But before that we have two
verses in which Jesus says: “Then turning to the disciples he said
privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell
you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not
see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
These
words having nothing to do with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Instead,
they are the conclusion of the events that began at the start of chapter
10. Yet this pericope that is “a little
too long” gives us some extra material to work with, and invites us to consider
what has just been happening in the Gospel.
In
the previous chapter the disciples had been marveling at all that Jesus was
doing. So he said, “Let these words sink
into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of
men.” For the second time, our Lord
predicted his passion. Then a little later we read: “When the days drew near
for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Our Lord begins to make his final trip to
Jerusalem – the one that will result in his suffering and death.
As
Jesus and the disciples began to make this final trip, our Lord sent out
seventy two of his disciples ahead of him as a kind of “advanced team.” This is
a reminder that the company of disciples who followed Jesus from Galilee was
larger than merely the twelve apostles and a few women.
Jesus
instructed them that they were to travel light and quickly. He provided this instruction: “Whenever you
enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.
Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The
kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
As we discussed in last week’s
sermon, Jesus declared that in his person the kingdom of God – the reign of God
had come near. He was the presence of
God’s reign turning back the forces of Satan and sin. He was traveling to Jerusalem to suffer and
die on the cross. He was going to be
numbered with the transgressors in order redeem us from sin. And then he would rise on the third day as he
defeated death and began the resurrection of the Last Day.
That saving reign was present in the
ministry of his disciples. They were bringing his word. They were bringing his
healing. Jesus said, “The one who hears
you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who
rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Our
Lord assured them that they were sharing Jesus’ word, and that ultimately any
rejection was a rejection of Jesus, and of the Father who had sent him.
The disciples needed to hear this
because they would encounter rejection.
Jesus told them, “But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive
you, go into its streets and say,
‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our
feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of
God has come near.’”
This
is something that we need to hear as well.
The Gospel – God’s Word – is always doing something no matter how
it seems to be received. It brings the
reign of God. This is true no matter whether this is received in faith as a
blessing, or whether it is rejected and brings judgment. Our only job then is to speak the Gospel
to others. We can do so in the
confidence that God’s Word is always active and at work no matter what response
we experience.
When
the seventy-two returned they were excited.
Luke tells us, “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even
the demons are subject to us in your name!’”
Jesus replied about their ministry, “I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven.”
Our Lord’s words remind us about the
spiritual conflict that exists in our world.
There are only two Lords. Either
Jesus is Lord over a person’s life, or the devil is. The act of proclaiming the Gospel brings
God’s reign. It rescues a person from
the devil’s power as the Spirit of God works faith in Jesus Christ – as Jesus
becomes that person’s Lord.
This is something that the devil
desperately wants to prevent. He uses
all the forces of our culture in order to work against this. He inebriates people with the mundane – the
music and entertainment, the sports, the socializing and recreation – so that
they ignore the ultimate spiritual questions.
He convinces people that they are just too smart to believe in that
ancient stuff. He persuades them that they are “spiritual” people who don’t
need “religion” as in fact they follow the religion of their own creation.
Just before our text Luke tells us:
“In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I
thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden
these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little
children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.’” We recognize that we cannot by our own reason
or strength believe in Jesus Christ.
Instead, the Holy Spirit has called us through the Gospel. We receive the Gospel as those who are
dependent on God’s grace. We are children – we are the spiritually helpless who
have nothing to offer, and instead have received salvation as a gift.
Finally Jesus said, “All things have
been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son
is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and
anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” It is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that
the Father is revealed to us. The Father
sent the Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of
the virgin Mary. In the death and
resurrection of Jesus, the Father has revealed his love and forgiveness. We have no access to God, except through the
Son.
The text from our Gospel lesson
concludes the response to the return of the seventy two disciples. Luke tells
us: “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ‘Blessed are the
eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings
desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and
did not hear it.’”
Jesus tells the disciples that they
are blessed to be living in that moment.
They are experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises as God’s saving
reign was present in Jesus Christ. They
are hearing and seeing what prophets and kings of Israel had hoped to
experience, but did not.
Our Lord’s words are just as true
for us. We are those who have received
the reign of God in Jesus Christ. We
know about the incarnation of the Son of God – that the Creator of the cosmos
entered into our world as he became man without ceasing to be God. We know about his saving death on the cross –
that in love for the Father and for us he received God’s judgment against our
sin. And we know about his resurrection
– that God defeated death in Christ and began the resurrection that will be ours
on the Last Day.
So Blessed are you! You know that you are living in the Last Days
– that God’s end time salvation has begun.
As Paul told the Corinthians, we are those “on whom the end of the ages
has come.”
Blessed are you! God has revealed to you the fulfillment of
the Scriptures in Jesus Christ. As Peter
wrote: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the
grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what
person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was
revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in
the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the
good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into
which angels long to look.”
Blessed are you! God’s reign that arrived in Jesus Christ
continues to be present through the Means of Grace. Jesus says to you “I forgive you all your
sins” in Holy Absolution. The risen and
ascended Lord comes to you in the Sacrament of the Altar as he gives you his
true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
Blessed are you. But are you living like one who is so
blessed? What role does Jesus Christ
play in your daily life? Do you take
time to read God’s Word – the word through which you receive God’s reign in
Christ? Do you turn to him during times
of prayer? Do you think about Christ and
what he means for you?
Blessed are you. But does that blessing become a blessing to
others? Do you forgive others because
God has forgiven you in Christ? Do you
serve and help others because Jesus has served and helped you? Do you speak about Jesus Christ to others, so
that they too may receive his saving reign?
In our text today, Jesus says, “Blessed
are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and
kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you
hear, and did not hear it.” God’s saving
reign has come to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are blessed because the Spirit has called
us to faith in Christ. Now we hold onto
that blessing as we receive our Lord’s Means of Grace. And we share it with
others by what we do and say.
No comments:
Post a Comment