Confession

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Presentation of Our Lord

Small Catechism Review: Confession

Before we get to our Catechism theme, let’s say a word about the theme for today’s celebration. It’s 40 days after Christmas today. 40 days after an Israelite woman gave birth to a male child, she was to take an offering to the priest, either a lamb and a turtledove, or two turtledoves if she couldn’t afford a lamb, and he would make atonement for her flow of blood from childbirth, and she would be clean. So Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to make the required offering for Mary’s purification, and also to present her firstborn Son to God as belonging to Him. Now, the Israelites normally redeemed their firstborn son with an offering, but St. Luke only mentions the offering for Mary, not any for Jesus, and that is probably significant, because Jesus was not bought back from God the Father to live a normal life. He was consecrated to God the Father for life, and He would be the one to redeem all the sons of men from sin, death, and the devil.

Then there was that famous encounter in the temple with Simeon, one of the few Israelites who was consciously waiting for the Christ to be born, who had been informed by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died. Somehow, the Holy Spirit guided Simeon to recognize baby Jesus for who He was, and also inspired him to speak or sing that famous song we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

We sing it at the end of our Sunday service, and appropriately so, because in the Sacrament of the Altar that we’ve just celebrated, our eyes have seen His salvation, too, the very body and blood of the Son of God, who redeemed us by His blood shed on the cross, so we’re also ready to “depart in peace.” And it’s because of our faith in that redemption that we dare to approach God at the beginning of the service to make confession of our sins.

And so we come to Fifth Chief Part of our Small Catechism on Confession.

Confession consists of two parts. First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.

Now, the first confession a person makes is really in connection with Holy Baptism, and Baptism itself is the first absolution a person receives. The baptized believer walks and lives in that forgiveness every day of his or her life.

What about the sins a believer sadly falls into every day, all the time? What about the sinful nature that is always with us, always desiring the wrong things and sometimes successful in getting us to do or say or think the wrong things? As long as a person remains penitent and believing, those sins don’t remove the forgiveness of sins that was given to us in Baptism. They don’t remove a person from God’s kingdom.

But how can a person be certain he is penitent and believing? What about the sins that weigh heavily on the heart of a believer? Well, just as a doctor examines a patient to diagnose his physical condition, so the minister is charged with diagnosing the spiritual condition of a person, and the same word of Jesus that gives ministers the authority to forgive sins the first time through Holy Baptism also gives them the authority to pronounce forgiveness repeatedly to the baptized believer.

But the minister can’t just assume that repentance is there in a person’s heart. Christians sometimes fall into sins that they are not sorry for, that they intend to keep committing. We call those “mortal sins,” deadly sins. So the sinner who is sorry for his sins confesses his sins to the minister, and his sure hope for forgiveness in Christ, and his intention not to go on living in sin. Then the minister knows that this is a person whom he ought to absolve.

Now, our experience with this is almost exclusively in that public, Sunday morning setting, where a group of Christians makes a general confession of sins, and a general absolution is pronounced to everyone, “upon this your confession.” You’re all familiar with that. Of course, there’s nothing to stop any visitor, any atheist, or even an impenitent Christian from simply saying those words, without meaning them, and from thinking that the absolution applies to him as well. That’s one of the downsides of a public confession. In an attempt to avoid any confusion, let me share with you the words of a public confession and absolution that Martin Chemnitz suggested back at the end of the 16th century, adding a very explicit warning to the end:

I, a poor sinner, confess to God, my heavenly Father, that I have sinned gravely and in many ways, not only with coarse outward sins, but much more with innate inner blindness, unbelief, doubt, despair, impatience, pride, evil desires, greed, secret envy, hate, discontent, and other sins; that I have in many ways, with thoughts, with actions, words and works, transgressed the most holy commandments of God, as my Lord and God recognizes in me, and I sadly cannot entirely recognize. They grieve me and cause me sorrow, and I yearn from the heart for God’s grace through His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and ask that He would grant me His Holy Spirit that I may amend my life.

Then the Absolution:

The Almighty God has had mercy upon you and, through the merit of the most holy suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, He forgives you all your sins. And to all of you who truly repent and, through the Gospel, place all your trust in the sole merit of Jesus Christ and intend to order your life according to the commandment and will of God, I, as an ordained minister of the Christian Church, announce the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. However, I say to all the impenitent and unbelieving, on the basis of God’s Word and in the name of Jesus Christ, that God has retained your sins against you and will surely punish them.

So much for public confession. There is certainly a place for it in our service, as long as you’re thinking about and meaning the words you say week after week.

In most of the Church’s history, including that of the Lutheran Church, there has also existed private confession, where a Christian goes to his or her pastor or priest, and confesses his or her sins, so that the pastor knows that this person individually recognizes his sins, is sorry for them, believes in Christ Jesus for forgiveness, and intends to mend his ways. Then the minister knows, this is a person whom God commands me to absolve and forgive in the name of Christ.

There’s certainly a benefit to that, to private confession. Actually, more than one benefit. First, it allows a Christian to reflect on specific sins, to recognize specific faults in one’s words, in one’s behavior, in one’s attitude, even in one’s sin-tainted personality, so that a person knows what he or she needs to work on, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what he or she needs to be conscious of in one’s daily life, what one needs to amend or change.

Another benefit of it is the assurance that, when the pastor speaks the absolution, it isn’t just to everyone else in the room. It’s to that individual, as the pastor hears the penitent confession, the faith in Christ, the faith in Christ’s promise to forgive sins through the voice of His called servant, and the sinner’s intention to mend his ways.

Luther offers a neat little model of what making private confession to the pastor might look like. (I won’t read through the whole thing. I encourage you to open your catechism later and read through it.) Luther offers some basic questions a Christian can ask himself, to examine himself. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, or servant? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you hurt anyone with words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent or careless, or caused any harm? Then he offers a scenario of the dialogue between the pastor and the one making confession.

I, a poor sinner, confess before God that I am guilty of all sins. In particular, I confess before you that … I am sorry for all this, and I ask for grace. I will mend my ways. Then the minister should say: God be gracious to you and strengthen your faith! Amen. Do you also believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness? Answer: Yes, dear pastor. Then let him say: As you believe, so may it be done to you. And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen. Go in peace!

Now, if a person had fallen into mortal sin—that is, unrepented, willful sin—but then is brought to repentance by the Word of God, and he then confesses his sin and receives absolution from the pastor, then with that absolution he is brought back into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of the devil. But if a person has not fallen into mortal sin, but is simply confessing the daily sins of weakness of all Christians, then with that absolution he is confirmed in faith within the kingdom of God, comforted with yet another word of forgiveness for faith to cling to, and fortified with the Holy Spirit to truly go away refreshed, renewed, and empowered to change the things that were sinful and hurtful.

And finally, Luther writes that for those whose consciences are heavily burdened or who are troubled and afflicted, a father confessor will know well how to comfort them with other passages [of Scripture] and stir up their faith. Yet another advantage of private confession. An actual conversation can take place between the pastor and his member with specific advice and counsel from God’s Word.

We don’t have a confessional booth for this purpose, as Roman churches often do, but, as I’ve said before, if at any time, anyone wants to schedule a time for private confession, my office is just as good a place as any for such a conversation to take place.

Whether the confession and absolution are individual, or general in the Sunday morning service, our Lord has given us this gift of the ministry and the opportunity to confess our sins, not only to God in prayer, but to the man whom He has placed among us to hear and to forgive sins on earth, even as God promises that He is thereby forgiving those sins in heaven. Give thanks to God for this gift, and use it often! Amen.

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Why are you so fearful?

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 4

Romans 13:8-10  +  Matthew 8:23-27

Our Gospel today deals with senseless fear, something we can all relate to, something we continue to witness around the world almost two years into the COVID pandemic, as many, many people are just as fearful of that tiny little virus now as they were in the beginning. For the one who believes that God doesn’t exist or that God doesn’t trouble Himself with our human affairs, who believe that this life is all there is and so must be preserved at all costs, that fear may not be senseless. It’s cowardly, still, but not without some rational basis.

But for disciples of Jesus, fear of disease, fear of disaster, panic in the face of danger, truly is senseless. And yet it’s also common. And so the Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ own disciples on a day at sea when they all fell into that senseless fear in the presence of Jesus. And He gives us this glimpse, not only to show again the divinity and power of Jesus, but also in order to strengthen the faith that is sometimes so little. Jesus’ question to His disciples is also His question to us: Why are you so fearful?

Now, you may say, the disciples were in real danger, so they had something to be fearful about. There was a very real storm raging around their boat. That’s true. There were real waves crashing into it and over it. That’s true. Christians can still die; being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t make you immune to dying in a storm. That’s true, too. No one is denying the reality of the storm or the mortality of the disciples.

But what else needs to be factored in? Well, there’s the fact that all three Evangelists who record this event make it clear that Jesus is the One who instigated this journey across the Sea of Galilee. The disciples followed Him into the boat. Or as Mark and Luke record, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake!” Should we imagine that Jesus made a mistake in setting out to sea that evening, unaware that a storm was coming? Well, that doesn’t make sense. Jesus is the Son of God. He knows all things. Should we imagine, then, that He was intentionally leading the disciples to their doom? That doesn’t make sense, either. God is not playing games with us, toying with us in order to watch us suffer, in order to watch us trust in Him only to be disappointed in the end so He can have a laugh over it.

What else needs to be factored in? Well, by this point in His ministry, Jesus had already called these very men to follow Him, at which time He promised them that He would make them fishers of men, that is preachers who would bring the Gospel to the world. Had that happened yet? No. Could Jesus have been lying to them? Also, no. Could they perish before the word of Jesus was fulfilled? Absolutely not.

This account reminds me of Abraham and Isaac, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. And the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham was willing to do it, for the very reason that God had already promised Abraham that he would have descendants through Isaac. Well, Isaac hadn’t given him any descendants yet, so Abraham reasoned, even if Isaac dies, he must be brought back to life, in order for the word of the Lord to be fulfilled.

So, too, in our Gospel, the Lord had given these disciples His word that they would become His ministers in the world. So no matter what storm or danger they faced before that time, they had every reason to believe that they would be kept safe.

And finally, we should also factor in the fact, while the storm was certainly real, God is also real, and He was, at that very moment, sleeping right there in the boat with His disciples. This man who had changed water into wine with a word, who had healed all sorts of diseases with a word, this man whom they believed to be the promised Christ, was right there with them, not far away, but very near, sleeping through the storm, because He had entrusted all—His very life—to His Father’s care.

And so finally, after exhausting all their own best efforts to no avail, as a last resort, the disciples woke their God from His peaceful sleep. Lord, save us! We are perishing! St. Mark tells us something else they added. Don’t you care?

And Jesus gets up and deals first, not with the raging storm, but with the disciples’ senseless fearfulness. Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith? And then He told the wind and the waves to be quiet, be still, and they immediately obeyed Him. Now, in the calm after the storm, the disciples can pause to ponder what had just happened. What kind of Man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!

But you supposedly already knew what kind of man He was! You’ve seen great miracles, even raising a young man from the dead by this point, if St. Luke’s chronology is in order. And some of you have already confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

But such is the sinful nature of each one of us. No matter what we know and believe about God on the New Man side, the Old Man always distrusts God, pretends He isn’t real, always has to figure out how to save himself, to deal with earthly problems in an earthly way. The Old Man convinces a person not to go first to God in faith, but to rely on oneself, to focus on the wind and the waves, and when human efforts aren’t enough, to despair. And with despair comes fear and timidity and cowardliness—things that are just the opposite of what the Holy Spirit is striving to produce within the Christian.

The fact is, God is real. He really sent His Son to live among us some 2,000 years ago. He really calmed storms at sea, and He really gave His life on a cross for the sins of the world. And then He really rose from the dead. And He really sent His Gospel to you and brought you to faith and saw to it that you were baptized in His name and adopted as His child. And while He has not promised to rescue us physically from every disease or storm or disaster, He has promised that all things must work together for good to those who love Him, and that every hair on your head is numbered.

So. Do not have faith in things God hasn’t promised. None of us has any reason to believe we’ll live through the day, because God hasn’t promised that in the same way that He had promised His disciples they would survive to become His preachers. He hasn’t promised to keep you from getting COVID or from dying from it. But He has promised to guard you, to guard your life, to guard your going out and your coming in. So if He allows some storm to come through that guardian protection, you know He must have a very good reason for it. And if He has a good reason for it, and if He is in control of it, then why be fearful? Fear is senseless, while faith—faith has a firm foundation in the faithfulness and power of God. So when disaster strikes and fear starts to rise up in your heart, as it surely will, go to your God as the very first thing you do, not in panic, not in despair, but in faith. And receive the peace and the strength He offers in His Word and in His Sacraments, and in His history of faithfulness and perfect salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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The Ministry of the Keys

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of St. Titus

Small Catechism Review: The Ministry of the Keys

Sometimes, we can make Christian theology a little too complicated. It doesn’t have to be. It didn’t start out that way. Yes, there are portions of Scripture that are harder to understand, and fine distinctions that sometimes need to be made, and clear doctrines of Scripture that must be defended against false teachers. But the core of the Christian Gospel is so simple, summarized again by St. Paul in the First Lesson this evening from the book of Acts: Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that’s not the whole message of Scripture, but it is the core message.

That message is also summarized very simply in the Fifth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, entitled “The Ministry of the Keys and Confession.”

Confession is the only part that was actually in Luther’s Small Catechism and in the Book of Concord. We’ll focus on that part next week. But one of the assumptions of the part on Confession is that there is such a thing as a ministry that God Himself has established on earth, a position to which God calls certain men so that they can act on His behalf. St. Titus, whose day we celebrate today, was called into that ministry and appointed directly by the Apostle Paul to appoint others as ministers in Crete.

The words printed on the back of your service folder are not found in Luther’s Catechism, but they confess very simply what the Bible teaches about “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” and how God has commanded ministers to act in His place, both toward the penitent and believing, and toward the impenitent and unbelieving.

What are the words about the ministry of the keys?

The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained.”

What does this mean?

I believe in what the called ministers of Christ do among us, by His divine command—especially when they exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and when they absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways—that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

First, there is ministry established by Christ to which men are called. As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 4, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Scripture uses various titles for those whom Christ has given: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, ministers, bishops (that is, overseers), elders, and deacons. The apostles were called directly by Christ, but the rest are called indirectly: by Christ, through the Church.

As we saw, it was the Apostle Paul, as a clergyman in the Church, who appointed Pastor Titus to his position in the Church in Crete, and it was Titus who was to appoint others there. We heard in the First Lesson how it was the Holy Spirit who had made the ministers of Ephesus overseers, to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood,” and yet the Holy Spirit hadn’t done it directly, but through the call that Paul and the churches gave to those men. So we have every confidence that, when a group of Christians issues a call to a man to their pastor, commending the decision to God in prayer, it is God the Holy Spirit who is actually calling that man to carry out the duties God has assigned to ministers.

In St. Paul’s epistle to Pastor Titus (as well as to Pastor Timothy), he lays out the chief qualifications and duties of ministers: A man must be blameless, the husband of one wife, (Yes, being a man is one of the Scriptural qualifications; Paul says, “the husband of one wife” and doesn’t add “or the wife of one husband”), having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

So ministers are called to preach, teach, administer the Sacraments, correct, rebuke, encourage, comfort, and shepherd God’s people, “holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught.” They are stewards of the mysteries of God, as Paul says to the Corinthians, and ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf (or, “in the stead of Christ or in the place of Christ”) be reconciled to God.

The authority to do those things is summarized in the phrase, “the ministry of the Keys.” Now, the “keys” aren’t mentioned in John 20, when Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained. But that command of Jesus is synonymous with what He said to Peter in Matthew 16: I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we speak of the “binding key,” that is, whenever a minister declares to any impenitent sinner that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, that he is locked out of God’s kingdom for his sins and for his refusal to repent and believe in Christ. But for those within the Christian Church we usually speak of the binding key as a synonym for excommunication, namely, when the called ministers of Christ exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation. It’s when a minister declares to a baptized member of the congregation who has fallen into sin and refuses to repent that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, in spite of his previous Baptism, that he has broken away from Christ, and therefore no longer has Christ to answer for his sins, but will have to answer for them himself.

What’s the purpose of this binding key? It’s a stern preaching of the Law, the hammer of God’s Word with which God seeks to wake a person up before it’s too late, to drive him to righteous fear of falling into the hands of an angry God, to drive him to repentance and to Christ, so that he doesn’t perish eternally.

But then we also speak of the loosing key, that is, when the called ministers of Christ absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways. To “absolve” means to release, in this case, to release a person from his sins, declaring to him that he no longer has to answer for them, because Christ answered for them on the cross, and this person is seeking refuge in Christ, who will never turn any sinner away who comes to Him for mercy. The loosing key is used both for the daily sins all Christians commit without falling away from grace—that’s the absolution I pronounce to you every Sunday at the beginning of the service—and also for those grave mortal sins that have separated a sinner from the Church and from God’s grace, sins that a person once refused to repent of, but that now a person has been brought to recognize and to reject, looking to Christ again for mercy and forgiveness.

When a minister uses either key, in accordance with God’s Word, we are to believe that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself. Does he correct you? It’s as valid and certain as if our dear Lord Christ corrected you. Does he warn you? Does he encourage you? Does he baptize you? Does he give you the Lord’s body and blood? Does he comfort you? Does he counsel you? Does he remove you from the Church? Does he absolve you and welcome you into it? It’s all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

That is what we mean by the Ministry of the Keys, and even as we give thanks to God today for St. Titus, we should all give thanks to God for every faithful minister and for the Office of the Ministry itself, because it’s the way God has given us to be certain of what He does in heaven. We can’t see God acting. We can’t hear God condemning or forgiving or teaching or guiding. But because He has established this ministry on earth and has bound Himself to it, we have a sure and certain connection to Him, and a firm foundation for our faith, until we need no more ministers, until Christ Himself comes, the Good Shepherd Himself, to take over the duties of the pastors whom He has temporarily left in charge of His house, who will gladly hand over the keys at that time to their rightful owner. Amen.

 

 

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A God of goodness, mercy, and love

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 3

Romans 12:16-21  +  Matthew 8:1-13

As I work through the Psalms in the original Hebrew, there’s a word that comes up again and again as one of God’s chief traits or attributes. The word is hesed. It’s often translated as “mercy.” Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Mercy is a fine translation, but it doesn’t capture the whole thought of the word. No English word really does. Some translate it with the word love. Others with the phrase steadfast love. Luther chose a word in German that means goodness or kindness. “His goodness endures forever.” Mercy. Love. Goodness. These are characteristics of God. And in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus revealing those characteristics in Himself as the Man who is God, yet another epiphany, a revelation of His divinity and of what that divinity is like. He is a God a goodness, mercy, and love.

Jesus had just finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7. Now, coming down from the mountain, Jesus would put into practice the things He had preached, first in His encounter with the man with leprosy, and then in His encounter with the centurion.

As he was coming down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Somehow, somewhere, this man whose skin was mottled with sores had heard of Jesus, had heard of His goodness, mercy, and love, and also of His power and authority over sickness and disease. And what he had heard had already sparked faith in his heart, faith so confident in Jesus’ goodness, that he simply lays his case before Jesus. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. A much better way of approaching Jesus than we heard from St. Mary in last week’s Gospel. “They have no more wine,” with the implication, “You’re going to do something about it, right?” Whereas this leper starts with the perfectly submissive, “If you are willing,” leaving everything to Jesus to decide in His perfect goodness, mercy, and love.

And goodness, mercy, and love are exactly what we see from Jesus in His response. He touched the leprous man, which in itself was an act of great compassion, because the Jews were not to touch anything unclean unnecessarily, and lepers were ceremonially unclean. But as a caring physician touches his patient in order to diagnose and heal him, so Jesus wasn’t ashamed to come into contact with this man. He touched him and said, I am willing. Be cleansed!

Notice, He demanded nothing of the man. The man had already been humbled before God by his disease and the ceremonial restrictions that went along with it. If he had been clinging to sin or exalting himself before, then Jesus would have rebuked him. But since he came in humility and faith, Jesus was quick to comfort him and heal him, for free! Such is the goodness, mercy, and love of God for us poor sinners. And by that healing, so simple, so authoritative, Jesus revealed His divinity: to those who witnessed it, and to us who have read about it.

Jesus did give the man one instruction after healing him, though. See that you tell no one; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. Here’s Jesus, again, practicing what He had just gotten done preaching in the Sermon on the Mount. In that sermon, He had said this: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. The Law of Moses commanded lepers who had been healed to show themselves to the priest, who would examine him and declare him to be clean. This man’s miraculous cleansing would be a testimony to the whole priesthood that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Then, the Law of Moses also required the cleansed leper to offer a special offering. Jesus’ instruction to the man to do what the Law commanded would also be a testimony to the whole priesthood, that Jesus wasn’t some rogue preacher, trying to start a new religion. No, He was the very Christ whom the Law and the Prophets had been pointing to all along. His ministry would not be in opposition to the Law. He would fulfill it, to the letter. And only after everything was fulfilled, after everything was “finished,” only then would the ceremonial commands of the Law give way to the freedom of the New Testament, and the office of the Old Testament priests would be replaced with the High Priesthood of Jesus the Christ, sitting at the right hand of God.

Then we come to the second part of today’s Gospel as Jesus dealt with the centurion. This Roman centurion, as we’re informed by St. Luke, was a friend of the Jews. He had even built them a synagogue for their worship. So he had been paying attention to word about Jesus that was going around Capernaum. He came to Jesus and presented his case before Him. Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” Again, we see the Lord’s readiness to help, even to help this Gentile soldier. And we see how Jesus dealt differently with each one, giving him exactly what he needed. He offers right away to go with the centurion to his house, to heal the man’s servant. At around the same time in Jesus’ ministry, in roughly the same place in Galilee, a Jewish nobleman had come to Jesus begging Him to come and heal his son. Come! Come quickly! You have to come with me to my house! And in that case, Jesus refused to go with the man, teaching him the importance of believing in Jesus’ word alone, without having to see anything.

But in this case, Jesus was the one offering to go to the centurion’s house, and the centurion was the one telling Jesus it wasn’t necessary. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. And then he compared his authority over other soldiers with Jesus’ authority over—over what? Over the bodily functions of everyone on earth. He confessed Jesus’ power to speak a word, commanding a body to be healed, and the body would simply obey, as a soldier obeys his commanding officer.

It’s astonishing faith, and Jesus was astonished. The Jews had been hounding Him for signs to prove His authority to them. They were slow to believe His word, and most never did. But here is a Gentile, a Roman soldier, who has simply believed the report about Jesus, that He was full of goodness, mercy, and love, that He was both willing and able to help in any need.

When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Truly I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel. And I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and will sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go now. And as you have believed, so let it be done to you.”

St. Matthew is especially the writer to the Hebrews, to the Jews. And the Holy Spirit used Matthew to reach out to them more than any other Evangelist did. Look, people of Israel! You were slow to believe in Jesus as the Christ, and the Gentiles were quick! God’s judgment against the Jews is just, and so is His inclusion of the Gentiles in His kingdom. So wake up! You are the original children of the kingdom! Repent before you are cast out for your unbelief, even as the Gentiles are welcomed at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! You were the original recipients of God’s goodness, mercy, and love! Don’t forfeit all that you’ve been given! If you do, it won’t be God’s goodness, mercy, and love that fail. It will be your impenitence and unbelief that get you thrown out into the darkness.

And so today’s Gospel is yet another appeal on God’s part to all who hear. Our God is a God of goodness, mercy, and love. He has proven it time and time again, most notably in giving His Son into death on the cross for the sins of the world. We are sinners who don’t deserve to be in His kingdom at all, and the moment you start thinking you deserve a place in God’s kingdom, that your sins aren’t that bad, or that Jesus isn’t good, merciful, and loving enough to help, that’s when you’re on the brink of perishing eternally.

So you who have come into God’s kingdom from the West, just as others have come into His kingdom from the East, through Baptism and faith in Christ Jesus, see again Jesus’ goodness, mercy, and love in today’s Gospel. See how He helps those who come to Him in humility and faith, who trust in His will, who trust in His word. And be one of those who approach Him in such humility and faith. Trust in His goodness, mercy, and love toward you, and then show that same goodness, mercy, and love toward everyone you encounter today and throughout the week. May God grant it by His Holy Spirit! Amen.

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Baptism: Fourth

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Small Catechism Review

Baptism: Fourth

In Baptism: First, we confessed what Baptism is: the water included in God’s command and connected to God’s Word. In Baptism: Second, we confessed what it does: It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. In Baptism: Third, we confessed both what it is and what it does: It is a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, with the Word of God and faith as the things that make Baptism effective. Finally this evening, in Baptism: Fourth, we confess what Baptism signifies. In other words, it not only does something. It implies something. It points to something. It pictures something. It signifies something.

What does such baptizing with water signify?

It signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires, and that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

Where is this written?

St. Paul says to the Romans in chapter six: “We were buried with Christ through Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in a new life.”

So, again, what did Baptism do? It united us with Christ. It clothed us with Christ. And, therefore, it washed away sin, as a bath washes away dirt and grime. It regenerated; it gave new birth. It worked forgiveness of sins, delivered from death and the devil, and gave eternal salvation to all who believe this. Baptists and other Evangelicals deny that Baptism does anything. To them, it’s man’s work done for God, only a symbol, only a sign of a regeneration and salvation that supposedly takes part entirely apart from Baptism. So we emphasize the first three parts of Baptism and mustn’t yield an inch on what Baptism truly does.

But there is also something symbolic, something figurative about Baptism, something that is pictured, namely, death, burial, and resurrection. We don’t usually bury a person under water for our Baptisms anymore, also known as Baptism by “immersion,” but there was a time when it was common practice in the Church, though never the exclusive practice. (Anyone who tells you that the Bible requires Baptism by immersion is either ignorant or lying.) But since the Evangelicals have come along with their insistence that Baptism must only be by immersion for it to be a valid Baptism, since they insist that Baptism is only a symbol, we usually refuse to baptize by immersion, as a confession against their error, and to keep people from being deceived into thinking their Baptism was “better” if it was done by immersion.

Still, the picture of being “buried” under the water and “rising” up out of it again is both Scriptural and meaningful, because regardless of the manner in which we were baptized, we were actually buried with Christ through Baptism into death, as Paul says in Romans 6.

But what does that picture of death and resurrection signify? What does it point to? What is it supposed to remind us of on a daily basis?

First, it should remind us that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires. The Old Adam is the same thing as the Old Man, Original Sin, the sinful nature with which we’re all born, which we inherited from fallen Adam and Eve, which is always hostile toward God, never truly loves or believes in God, and is full of evil desires.

It’s providential that we heard the lesson this evening about Sodom and Gomorrah, because it really helps us to understand what we’re talking about here. You and I and every human being naturally born carries around with him or her an Old Adam that is no less wicked than the men of Sodom were. People hear of an especially egregious sin, and they wonder how people can be so evil. Well, the symbol of Baptism cries out to you, “You have that same evil growing inside of you!” You may control it better—or hide it better. But we all carry the same strain of disease.

In the Sermon on the Mount, part of which we also heard this evening, Jesus lays bare the thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions within us that must be drowned and die: Murder. Adultery. Theft. Pride. Malice. Deceit. Lovelessness. Selfishness. Whether those sins burst forth on the outside or whether they are only harbored as desires and attitudes on the inside. For these there must be daily contrition and repentance.

And we’re talking about the baptized here, not the unbaptized and unbelieving. We’re talking about the daily putting to death of the Old Man in the believer, daily allowing the Law to “crush” you (that’s what “contrite” really means) and make you sorrowful over your sin, daily “repenting,” turning away from sin in your heart, saying “no” to it, recognizing it for the repulsive evil that it is, instead of something you want to keep nurturing and obeying.

But, since we’re talking about the baptized, the believers in Christ, that daily exercise doesn’t end in despair. It ends in fleeing in faith to Christ for refuge, for forgiveness, and firmly trusting in His merits and in His promise of full and free forgiveness.

Then, on the other side of repentance are the fruits of repentance, the rising to life of the New Man, the one who was born of water and the Spirit. Baptism also pictures that as the baptized “comes up out of the water under which he was buried,” a picture of rising from the grave, of rising from the dead, to do, what? To sit around? No, but to live! To live one’s life. To live it now as a new person, with godly motives, godly attitudes, and godly purposes. Baptism signifies that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

So each day, remember your Baptism, both what it did for you, and what it pictures for you, how it urges you each day to repeat that process of drowning the Old Adam and getting up again as the New Man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. Because you who are baptized and believing are the true born-again Christians. And you were born, not to wallow in sin, but to walk in a new life. Amen.

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