Sermon for the Feast of St. James the Elder (July 25)
Romans 8:28-39 + Matthew 20:20-23
James and John, through their mother, made a big request of Jesus in the Gospel: Let these two sons of mine sit in your kingdom, one at your right hand, and the other at the left. It was a foolish request, a prideful one, even a shameful one, assuming that they could convince God to agree to such a grand plan, seeking glory for themselves (or for one’s children), as if they deserved it simply because they were the first ones to be so bold as to ask. Jesus’ response taught them and teaches us an important lesson, that the path to Christ’s kingdom is paved with suffering like the suffering that Christ Himself suffered. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I will undergo? You will indeed… If you want to be My follower, My disciple, then you will suffer because of it, just as I will suffer. The disciple must walk the path of His Teacher. But that also means that the disciple will be glorified, just as the Teacher is glorified. James and John and all who remain faithful unto death will be glorified in Christ’s kingdom.
But just how each one will suffer, just how each one will serve, which opportunities will be given to each, and what kind of glory each will have in Christ’s kingdom—that has already been determined by God the Father; it’s all part of His own grand plan, and it’s for Him alone to know. As Jesus says, But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give; it will be given to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. James wasn’t supposed to know how, in a few short years, he would suffer and die by the hand of King Herod, the first of the apostles to be martyred and to be glorified by his death. John wasn’t supposed to know how he would serve the Church for the next six decades and then enter his glory. The Father had prepared all that ahead of time in His own grand plan, and the Father alone knew how it would go for them.
The Apostle Paul talks about the Father’s plan in Romans chapter 8 as well. Most of it is unknown to us, what the Father has prepared for each one. But certain parts of the plan have been made known.
The plan goes all the way back to eternity, before the world and the universe were made. It’s behind all the world’s history. But our point of contact with God’s grand plan is the call, that is, the spoken invitation that went out to each one of us, according to God’s predetermined plan, at some earlier point in our lives to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. As a result of that call, some have believed. You and I have been called and have believed, and so the promise of God’s grand plan applies to us, that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
How do we know that all things work together for good to those who have been called? Because that call is part of God’s great purpose and plan which begins with His foreknowledge and ends with the elect sitting with Christ in His kingdom in glory. Paul outlines the plan for us in Romans 8: For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
God’s foreknowledge sees everything all at once, all of history, all of time, every action, every thought, every occurrence. He knew from the very beginning everything He would do, just as He knew what each person’s actions would be, and how He would respond to their actions, and how they would respond to His actions, etc. And He molded His plan accordingly, taking everything into account, forging a plan that accomplished certain all-important purposes while making sure that everything worked together to accomplish those purposes.
Right off the bat, for example, He foresaw mankind falling into sin and dooming our race to death. But His all-important purpose was to redeem fallen mankind, and so He designed just how He would do it, to redeem mankind from sin, death, and the devil. He would send His Son into human flesh to redeem fallen man by His perfect life and innocent death. All of history revolved around accomplishing that purpose. He also included in His plan that He would work through Word and Sacrament to call sinners to faith in Christ, that He would justify believers and sanctify them in love, and offer them all the help they would ever need to overcome temptation, to remain firm and steadfast in the faith, and to make it all the way through this life still clinging in faith to Christ. That was all part of His all-important purpose.
As He looked ahead at the Gospel being preached in the world, as He saw sinners believing the Gospel and not stubbornly resisting the Holy Spirit, as He saw those believers using the help His Holy Spirit would provide and remaining faithful unto death, He predestined them. That is, He chose them, He elected them to eternal salvation, and then He mapped out when and where He would actually call them by the Gospel, bring them to faith and justify them by faith, how exactly He would sanctify them in love and help them along the way to glory. He also mapped out all the opportunities they would have to serve Him, all the ways in which they would be molded into the image of Christ, including suffering like Him, and being glorified like Him.
The plan is big; it’s grand, to say the least. Huge. Enormous. Far bigger than any human being can comprehend. And God has only revealed a small part of it to us, the outline, as it were, the most important things for us to know. The rest He has kept for Himself, most of the answers to the questions of “how” and “why” and “how long.”
How do you know that you have been included in this grand plan of salvation, where all things work together for your good? Because you have been called by the Gospel, haven’t you? You have been baptized, haven’t you? You have believed, haven’t you?, that God sent His Son into the world to die for the sins of the world, and that He truly rose again from the dead. You are, right now, using the means God has provided to keep you in the faith—prayer and preaching. And you’re committed, aren’t you?, to keep using these tools, to walk in daily repentance and faith, and to stay close to this God who planned out your salvation in eternity.
Do you need proof all things will work together for your good? You have it! He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not, along with him, freely give us all things? What’s more, God has promised that nothing can separate you from His love in Christ Jesus, that you will and must finally overcome and be a conqueror of every hardship, every temptation, every disaster, and every enemy, not by yourself, not on your own, but through Him who loved us.
So don’t be foolish. Don’t ask if you can sit at Jesus’ right or left hand in His kingdom. It’s a petty request, when you think about it, given the magnitude of God’s grand design. And don’t ever doubt God’s love for you or His plan for you. Instead, rejoice that God has called you out of darkness into His wonderful light, that He has brought you to faith and justified you by faith, that He is right now molding you into the image of His Son and giving you all that you need to grow into that image and to remain in Christ Jesus. Yes, rejoice that everything that happens in your life—the good, the bad, and the in between—must serve your Father’s grand plan to bring you to glory, to the glory that He has prepared for you since before the world was made. Amen.
