Living in daily contrition and repentance

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the First Day of Lent

Jonah 3:1-10  +  Psalm 51:1-19  +  Joel 2:12-19  +  Matthew 6:16-21

Let’s take a moment this evening, at the beginning of Lent, this season of focused repentance, to discuss mortal and venial sins. All people are sinners. That includes believing Christians. As St. Paul writes, All have sinned. As St. John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. All sins offend God. All sins need to be paid for by the blood of Christ and washed away through Baptism and faith in Christ, if a person is to be forgiven for them and admitted into God’s kingdom. But not all sins are mortal sins.

Mortal sins are sins against God’s commandments, committed knowingly, intentionally, and stubbornly, where repentance does not follow the sin. They often cause grave offense to others as well. They drive out faith and the Holy Spirit and place a person outside of Christ and His Church. And so they are sins that “lead to death.” Mortal sins are the sins in which the tax collectors and public sinners lived before they heard the Gospel of Christ and repented. They’re the sins in which the Pharisees lived who stubbornly rejected Christ. In fact, all people are born in a state of mortal sin, and everything that an unbeliever does is mortal sin, because “without faith it is impossible to please God.” But when the Law of God is preached and sinners are brought to repentance, to grieve over their sins, when the Gospel is preached and sinners are brought to faith in Christ, then mortal (deadly) sins become venial (forgivable) sins. Those are the sins that we commit every day, in fact, every moment as penitent believers in Christ. We’re never rid of our sinful flesh and its sinful desires in this life, and sometimes, in our weakness, the sin of our nature erupts into our thoughts, words, and deeds. Those things are still sins, and they would condemn us eternally if we strayed outside of Christ. But as we live in daily contrition and repentance, as we live in Christ, we also live in daily forgiveness.

As we’ve discussed before, Ash Wednesday got its name from an ancient practice in the early Church of placing ashes on the heads of Christians who had fallen into mortal sin, causing great scandal and public offense. The ashes were a public symbol to the Christian community that the sinner had repented and had, therefore, been accepted back into the communion of the Church. It was a custom, neither commanded nor forbidden by God, but it served a practical purpose of highlighting the danger of mortal sin and the need for repentance in order to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with Christ and His Bride, the Church.

At some point over the centuries, that custom changed. And the Church started urging all the faithful, who were guilty only of venial sins and were already living in daily contrition and repentance, to have ashes put on their heads once a year. Luther and the Lutheran Reformers didn’t think the practice was very helpful, and so, although some Lutheran churches participate in the ashes of Ash Wednesday, we don’t here.

But it is still essential that we live in daily contrition and repentance, that we avoid falling into mortal sin, or that we turn to repentance if we do fall into mortal sin. It’s important that we learn the lessons the Holy Spirit teaches in all the readings of Ash Wednesday. So let’s see how they all fit together tonight to lead us on the right path of contrition and repentance.

Let’s start with this evening’s reading from Jonah. Jonah, the prophet of Israel called to leave the land of Israel to preach to the heathens in Assyria, in the city of Nineveh. Those Gentiles were living in mortal sin, without repentance and faith in the true God. So Jonah (after he finally agreed to go, after spending a few days in the belly of the whale) preached a stern warning from God: “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be destroyed!” And by the power of the Holy Spirit, working through that word, the Ninevites were brought to repentance. They fasted. They put on sackcloth. They sat in ashes, as an outward sign of their inward repentance. And God spared them, because He doesn’t delight in the death of a sinner, but that all should come to repentance.

Next, consider the reading from Joel. Joel preached repentance to the impenitent Old Testament people of Israel, who had fallen (again) into idolatry and persistent mistreatment of their fellow Israelites. Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God! But he also gave them hope that, if they would repent from the heart, God would keep His covenant of forgiveness with them, for the sake of the coming Christ. For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and quick to be moved to grief over punishment.

Some did repent at that time, and at other times. But mortal sin would eventually overtake most of the nation of Israel, so that, by the time of Jesus, He could pronounce the terrible judgment: The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed one greater than Jonah is here.

That has applications for the New Testament Church. We, like Israel, have been called into a covenant of God’s grace. But sin is our constant companion, too, and if we grow proud and stubborn, as they did, if we think we can go ahead and break God’s commandments freely, without consequence, then we will be overtaken by mortal sin, as they were.

If that happens and we fall away from faith, as king David once did after committing adultery with Bathsheba and plotting the murder of her husband, then God still cries out to us through His ministers to come back, to turn to God in repentance and live. That’s what Psalm 51 is all about, which we heard earlier this evening. David wrote it after he had been called back from mortal sin through the prophet Nathan. This Psalm is a confession of sin as well as a confession of faith in the God who “washes me clean of iniquity and cleanses me of my sin,” even mortal sin, when we acknowledge our sins and confess them to God. As St. John writes, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? On what basis? Because, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. And how is His propitiation or atoning sacrifice applied to us? Through Holy Baptism. Through the pastor’s absolution. Through the Sacrament of the Altar. And always, through faith.

That same Jesus who is our Advocate and Propitiation has something to teach His disciples in the Gospel you heard this evening from the Sermon on the Mount. He’s addressing penitent believers in these verses, those who are certainly guilty of venial sins, but not of mortal sins—not at the moment. But since the devil is always seeking a way to lure us into temptation and sin and impenitence and death, Jesus provides some guidance.

As you live in daily repentance and produce the fruits of repentance, you may choose to fast, to go without food for a short time. Observing a fast is not a form of worship, since God has not commanded it. Observing a fast is not a form of righteousness; it can’t earn you either God’s favor or God’s ear, since Christ alone has earned God’s favor and God’s ear. But Jews in the Old Testament and Christians in the New have sometimes found it to be a useful discipline, as even Jesus embarked once on a forty-day fast that we’ll hear about on Sunday. It may give you extra time or extra focus to pray, or to read or to ponder the Word of God, or to be of service to your neighbor.

But if you fast, Jesus says, don’t tell anyone you’re fasting. Don’t broadcast it. Don’t publicize it. Don’t do it so that other people can see. Only let God see. Only let His opinion matter. Only let His reward matter, His heavenly reward.

Let heavenly treasures be the only treasures you store up, not the earthly treasures that moth and rust destroy. Notice, Jesus doesn’t say to secure for yourself a place in heaven or to earn a place there for yourself. You can’t. Eternal life is a gift, not a wage. No, He says to store up things for yourself for when you get there, like God’s favor and the goodwill of the saints, like the rewards God has promised to give for a life lived in devotion to Him and to our neighbor and, specifically, to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

What exactly will those rewards be? Scripture doesn’t say much. But it will include perfect joy, perfect relationships, perfect communion with God, with the saints and angels, an inheritance described by St. Peter as incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by God’s power, through faith, for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

And how do you store up those treasures in heaven? By doing things that last beyond this life. By learning and growing in knowledge of the truth, hearing and pondering God’s Word, using the Sacraments, praying, confessing the faith before men, resisting temptation, struggling against your sinful flesh, fulfilling your vocations, bearing the cross with patience, devoting your days to serving one another with kindness and in love.

That’s practically the whole Christian life, isn’t it? It is! And it can be summarized with one phrase: living in daily contrition and repentance. Living as baptized children of God, who live in this world, but not for this world, whose hearts and minds are fixed, as Paul says, on the things above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. So set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Amen.

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Listen, believe, wait, pray, and follow

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Quinquagesima

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  +  Luke 18:31-43

Sometimes the ways of the Lord are clear as crystal; the pieces of the puzzle all seem to fit together; the things going on around you make sense. But sometimes the Lord’s ways are about as clear to us as mud. As He says through the prophet Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

What do you do in times like that, when the way ahead seems fuzzy and dim? We learn that lesson from today’s Gospel, both from the disciples and from the blind beggar, all of whom had trouble seeing at first. The pattern we’re taught from their example is simple: Listen, believe, wait, pray, and follow.

As Jesus made His way through Judea to Jerusalem for His final Passover, He began to spell things out for His twelve apostles. See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that were written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be fulfilled. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And they will scourge him and put him to death. And on the third day he will rise again. For His part, Jesus saw everything clearly. He knew exactly who He was—the Christ, true God and true Man; He knew where He had come from—from God the Father; and He knew exactly why He had come: that the world through Him might be saved—saved from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He even saw clearly the path to get there, both because He was the Author of the plan, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and because it had been revealed, although somewhat obscurely, in the Old Testament Scriptures. He would go to Jerusalem at the Passover and allow Himself to be betrayed by His own friend, and by His own people, arrested, falsely accused, condemned, tortured, and killed. He would do this willingly in order to make atonement for the sins of the world. And then He would rise from the dead on the third day, ascend into heaven, and work, by His Spirit, with the preachers whom He would send out into the world to bring men to repentance and faith for the forgiveness of sins.

While Christ didn’t reveal every bit of that directly to His apostles at this time, He was very direct about His imminent suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus shined the light on the path for them, but they were like blind men who couldn’t see, even in the light. We’re told that they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them. How can that be? It can be that way, because, when it comes to the ways and the things of God, only the Spirit of God can truly enlighten the mind, and sometimes He has a reason for keeping even the faithful in the dark.

In the case of the apostles, it wouldn’t work out the way it was supposed to if they had perfect understanding of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection before the fact. They had to be kept in the dark for a little while longer, for their own sake, for our sake, but also for Jesus’ sake, so that He could suffer more. You see, it lessens a person’s suffering to share it with friends, with those who can sympathize and understand. On the other hand, it increases a person’s suffering to go through it alone, without the understanding of family and friends. And Jesus had to suffer alone.

What did they do when they didn’t understand? Well, first they listened. Then, even though they didn’t understand, they believed in Jesus. And then they waited. They didn’t walk away from Jesus. Instead, they followed, waiting for the details to be made clear along the way. And in a matter of weeks, it would all be made crystal clear.

So search the Scriptures and listen to God’s Word, if the path ahead seems blurry or dim. Sometimes the answers are staring you in the face right there in the Bible. Believe what you read and hear from God’s Word. Wait for the Spirit’s enlightenment. Pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment. But also, be satisfied with what the Spirit gives and keep following Jesus, as the apostles did, whether you see clearly at the moment or not. The Lord has His reasons for not making everything clear to you now. Not that He has hidden His plan or His works from you. He has revealed more than enough of it in Holy Scripture to bring you to trust in Him and to preserve you in the faith. But you may not always “get it.” Sometimes He needs you to go along with Him, even to follow Him “blindly” for a while, without understanding why the things are happening that are happening.

You already know and understand far more than Jesus’ apostles did at this point in their following. You know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ better than they did. You know how far He went to become the sacrifice of atonement, how much He suffered, and how willingly He suffered it. You know how He would fulfill His promise to build His Church throughout the world. You know that He did rise from the dead.

If you confess Him as Lord, as the apostles did, then listen, wait, pray, believe, and follow. Everything was eventually revealed to the apostles, in the Lord’s good time. So go along with the story now, as it unfolds. Follow along with Jesus. You won’t be disappointed in the end.

Then in our Gospel we encounter a blind man. Actually, two blind men, according to Matthew, but they believed as one and called out to Jesus as one. Mark reveals the name of one of them: Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. The fact that his name is known likely means that he became a well-known Christian over the next several years. He had no physical sight. He was reduced to begging, and the Lord hadn’t revealed to him why it had to be this way. For that answer, he had had to wait, perhaps a very long time.

But Bartimaeus’s physical blindness, and his blindness to the Lord’s plan, didn’t hinder him one bit from listening to the word about Jesus or from being enlightened by the Holy Spirit and brought to faith. As soon as he hears that Jesus is passing by, he cries out to Him, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! His prayer shows that he had been listening! Listening to the Old Testament Scriptures about the coming Son of David, the Christ. Listening to the reports about Jesus, both His identity as the Son of David and His power and His mercy on those who sought it from Him. He listened, and by the Spirit’s enlightening, he believed. Then he waited until he had an opportunity to cry out to Jesus. Then he prayed to Jesus directly. Lord, I want to receive my sight!

And what happened? Jesus said, Receive your sight! Your faith has saved you. Jesus granted his request freely, willingly, gladly. Not only that, but he praised Bartimaeus’ faith as that which led to his healing. Not because faith had the power to heal, but because faith brought him to Jesus, who had the power to heal. The blind man’s eyes were opened, enlightened, just as his mind had already been by the Holy Spirit. His sight was restored. And then, what? He followed Jesus, glorifying God.

It’s really the same lesson as with the apostles. If you confess Jesus as Lord and Christ, as the apostles did, as the blind beggar did, then listen, believe, wait, pray, and follow. You don’t have to understand everything now. Go along with the story now, as it unfolds. Follow along with Jesus. Do the things He has given you to do, the things you know to do, because His Word has clearly revealed those things. Listen. Believe. Wait. Pray. And follow. You won’t be disappointed in the end. There will be a cross. But there will also be a resurrection and a glorious future in the kingdom of God.

So listen to the Word of Christ. And believe in Him who willingly and intentionally suffered and died for you, whether or not you fully understand. Wait for the Lord to act and to reveal things in His time. Pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment and for the Lord’s strength as you wait. And as you listen, believe, wait, and pray, also keep following the Lord Christ, wherever He goes, wherever He leads, knowing that your Shepherd will never lead you astray. His path is the path of the cross. But if we suffer with Him in shame, we will also reign with Him in glory. That’s the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment in today’s Gospel. Amen.

 

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Take care how you hear the word of God

Posted on February 7, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Sexagesima

2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9  +  Luke 8:4-15

Do you want to know God? Does it matter to you? Do you want to have eternal life in His presence? Do you want to enter His kingdom? And, once you’ve entered it, do you want to remain there, and be productive citizens there, and still be found there in the end, at the hour of your death, or on the Day of Judgment? There is only one way. Jesus reveals it in today’s Gospel, in the parable of the sower and the seed.

Now, Jesus often spoke in parables in order to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, how things actually work in God’s kingdom, or how God Himself works behind the scenes. But sometimes the parables themselves remained mysterious, and intentionally so, as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. In other words, the mysteries of God are intentionally hidden from those who would rely on themselves and their own reason, from those who are not interested enough to actually search God’s word or seek Christ Himself for answers. But Jesus’ apostles were interested and did seek Him for answers, and they got what they were looking for.

In answering them, the Lord answers us, too, if we care enough to listen. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! So don’t sit there this morning daydreaming or thinking about something else. The way to enter God’s kingdom and the way to remain there and be productive citizens there is this: The word of God must be preached in your ears like seed is sown in the ground. Faith comes by hearing. But take care how you hear! Because today Christ reveals the mystery of how God’s word works, and the sobering reality revealed in the parable is that God’s word, though always powerful, is often impeded and hindered, so that, much of the time, it doesn’t produce living and fruitful citizens of Christ’s kingdom.

The very notion that God’s word can be impeded calls for consideration. When God spoke the universe into existence, that word couldn’t be impeded or hindered. When God said, “Let there be light!”, there was light. When Jesus called out to the dead man Lazarus, “Come out of the tomb!”, he couldn’t remain dead. Whenever God speaks according to His omnipotence, from His almighty, irresistible power, it simply happens.

But here Jesus reveals a mystery to us, how God’s word works when He speaks to sinful human beings, when His word is sown into their ears to produce faith in the heart, to strengthen and preserve faith in the heart, and to produce good works that grow out of faith. And it isn’t done from His omnipotence. He allows people to resist it.

How does it work then? Well, it works, in some ways, like sowing a seed. The word of God goes out. Not a single word like “the” or a phrase like “when a large crowd had gathered together.” The word of God that is sown in man’s heart is the promise that always centers on Christ and comes back to Christ. It may include all the rest of Scripture, because all the Law and the Prophets point to Christ. But, in a few words, the word of God that is sown is the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ Jesus.

And it’s always powerful. It’s always living and active, just as a healthy seed is always powerful to produce the plant or the tree that it’s intended to produce. The word of Christ that is preached is always powerful to germinate and sprout and grow and produce. There are no dead words of God.

But what happens when that preaching goes into men’s ears?

We’ll note, first, that it does have to go into men’s ears. The word of God has to be sown in our ears. Faith comes by hearing. The notion that you can commune with God or grow in faith by sitting out there in the desert, or by a lake, or under the stars, is ludicrous. The word has to be preached, and people have to hear it in order for any plant to grow in their hearts. So Jesus’ parable is not about the unbelievers out in the world who haven’t heard the word of God. It’s about those who do hear it, and that should make you perk up your ears, because the parable describes what happens in churches around the world. And it’s largely an indictment against many who call themselves Christians.

So, again, what happens? Sometimes, when God’s word is preached, it’s like seed that falls on a walking path. It quickly gets trampled and run over. It just sits on top until the birds find it, and then it’s gone. Those along the path are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. No one has the natural ability to believe God’s word when it’s preached. But even the conscientious unbeliever can use his external capacity to pay attention to what he hears, to ponder it, to think about it. But how many do even that? As for the Christian, who has been born again, in whom a New Man has been created by the Holy Spirit, we have been given the inner capacity to apply ourselves to the word we hear, to love the word, to be guided by it, and to pray for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and strength. But how often do we just let the devil come and take away the word from our hearts by not really listening to it, by neglecting it, by apathy and indifference? Take care how you hear the word of God!

Sometimes, when God’s word is preached, it’s like seed that falls on rocky ground. It sprouts. Faith is created. But its roots are shallow because of the rocks, and the roots lack moisture, so that when the blazing heat of the sun shines on it, it withers and dies. Those on the rock are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy. But they have no root; they believe for a while, and in the time of temptation they fall away. The problem isn’t with the seed. The problem isn’t even the hot sun. The problem is with the rocks preventing the roots from going deep enough to get moisture, to feed the plant. There will always be sunshine; there will always be trials and temptations and persecutions. They don’t have to destroy the plant. In fact, just as a healthy plant flourishes under the sun, so a healthy Christian flourishes even in the midst of trials and temptations—not that the trials are ever enjoyable or easy to endure, but faith in God, and love for God and our neighbor, can still thrive if we’re firmly grounded and rooted in God’s word. A superficial faith, on the other hand, won’t last long, because it isn’t getting the constant feeding it needs from the word of God, which is not only the seed from which faith springs, but is also the “pure, spiritual milk,” as Peter writes, the living water that feeds and sustains our faith. If we neglect ongoing instruction in the word, if we neglect the Sacrament of the Altar, if we fail to pray for God’s help and strength, then what will we do when the world hates us because we’re Christians? What will you do when speaking the truth, when confessing Christ will get you fired from your job? Or mocked by your friends or teachers? Or shunned by your family? Or cancelled from society? Or thrown into prison? No, if our roots are shallow, then trials and temptations will overcome us, and faith and love will wither away and die. As Jesus warned the apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane, Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Sometimes, when God’s word is preached, it’s like seed that falls among thorns and weeds. It sprouts. Faith is created. But as it starts to grow, the weeds move in and the young plant is crowded and choked and overtaken by the weeds. As for that which fell among thorns, these are the ones who hear and, as they go along, are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity. You know how this works. You know how important it is to keep hearing God’s word and to keep gathering to receive His Sacraments. And you know how important it is to live a Christian, godly life, a life of love, a life of service, a life of obedience to God’s commandments, a life of prayer. But…COVID. But…work! But…politics! But…sports! But…family time! But…sickness! But…fun stuff! And the word of God gets crowded out of your thoughts and your heart and your life. Now, you can’t get rid of the cares of this life. And riches will always dangle out in front of you a promise of comfort and security and relief. And the pleasures of this life will always be pleasurable and enticing. So, what? Will you just give in to it? Let your faith die? Let eternal life pass you by, because you had all these fleeting things to care about or to enjoy? No time for God’s word. Oh well.

There’s a better way. Some fell on good ground; it sprang up and bore a hundred times as much fruit. These are the ones who hear the word with a good and noble heart, hold fast to it, and bear fruit with patience. This, obviously, is the kind of hearer God wants you to be, one who is not hardened like the walkway, or shallow and easily dried up by temptations and persecutions, or too engaged with earthly concerns to focus on God’s word and a godly life. God wants you to be the kind of hearer who hears and heeds His warning to watch out for all those things, the kind who prays earnestly that God would open our hearts, by His word, to His word, that we may believe it, hold fast to it, and always, every day, put it into practice.

And all this, with patience. With “endurance.” It’s a daily, ongoing process, to hear God’s word, to grieve over your sins, to run to Christ in faith for the forgiveness He promises to all the baptized, to commit each day to walking in God’s commandments, to pray for His strength and help, and also to give thanks. Every day, growing a little more, every day, producing a little more fruit. Patiently, slowly, continually growing into the saints that God has already declared you to be through faith in Christ Jesus.

All of that happens only by hearing. The fact that you’re listening now, if you are listening, is also an indication that the word has fallen in a good and noble heart. Not good and noble in the sense that you’ve earned God’s favor; you haven’t. Christ earned it for you all by Himself. But good and noble in the sense that you’re paying attention, and now, maybe a little more than before, you’re on the lookout for all those impediments Jesus has warned you about in the Gospel. May God, by His Holy Spirit, produce an abundant crop within you! Amen.

 

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Learn a lesson from Israel’s pride

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Septuagesima

1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

For these next three Sundays, including today, before Lent begins, the Holy Spirit has some powerful, focused teaching for us in the Gospels, and also some powerful warnings.

In today’s Gospel, we’re presented with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. It’s a parable that teaches us something important about how covenants work and about God’s grace. But there is a powerful warning at the end, and in the Epistle, too, to watch out for that deadly serpent’s seed of pride. Combining those two thoughts, we’ll give today’s sermon this heading: Learn a lesson from Israel’s pride!

I mention Israel because the nation of Israel is like the first set of workers who were hired by the master of the household at the beginning of Jesus’ parable. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a household who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on a denarius for the day, he sent them out into his vineyard. God brought Israel into a covenant with Himself early in the day, before any other nation. It was the covenant of the Law on Mount Sinai, and it was a two-sided covenant. God approached Israel, after freeing them from slavery in Egypt, and offered them something on His part, but also required them to obey His commandments on their part, including the commandments to have all their males circumcised and to keep the Sabbath Day and all the ceremonies and dietary restrictions and ritual cleansings in the Law of Moses. It was going to be hard work, but they agreed with God on these terms. All the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.” Like the landowner who agreed with the workers on a denarius for the day.

What was the denarius? What was it that God agreed to give Israel, that ended up being the same thing He gave to everyone who was “hired” later? (Since, at the end of the parable, we learn that the last workers hired received the same thing as the first workers who were hired.) In a word, it was Christ. Among all the benefits God promised to give to Israel, none was greater than that the Christ Himself would be sent to them, sent from them, given to them to make atonement for their sins, given to them to rule over God’s people forever and to give them the gift of eternal life. That covenant was agreed upon by the Israelites, and they went to work, generation after generation, observing the Law of Moses.

Today’s parable doesn’t have the landowner inspecting the work of the workers at all. If the Lord were to inspect the obedience of Israel, what would He find? You know. Long stretches at a time of turning away from the Law of Moses entirely, idolatry, sorcery, and all kinds of evil. Even those in Israel who tried very hard at keeping the Law found it impossible. Peter later describes what living under the Law as an Old Testament Jew was like: It was a yoke on the neck… which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. If the Jews were honest with themselves, they had to confess that they weren’t actually keeping up their end of the bargain. They should have realized that they could never earn God’s grace or the salvation that the coming Christ was coming to bring.

So much for Israel. The Lord of the vineyard wasn’t satisfied to have just the Israelites working for Him. He went out at various points in the day to bring other workers into His vineyard, into His Church. At the third hour, at the sixth hour, at the ninth hour, and even at the eleventh hour, just an hour before quitting time, He went out and found others. But instead of making a two-sided covenant with them, where they both agreed on the terms each would fulfill ahead of time, the landowner simply tells them, You also, go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.

And they did. Gentiles like Naaman the Syrian, whose leprosy the prophet Elisha cleansed. Jewish tax collectors and sinners at the time of Jesus who hadn’t been working very hard at keeping the Law of Moses. And Gentiles, non-Israelites, who were being invited into God’s kingdom, too, not on the basis of any works of the Law they had done or who they were descended from. Purely on the basis of God’s grace toward them.

What happens at the end of the day reveals the main purpose of this parable. At the end of the day, the landowner orders those who were hired last, who did practically no work in the vineyard, to be paid first. And they were each given a denarius. All those who were hired later in the day received the same thing, a denarius, and the first workers noticed that. The lord of the vineyard wanted them to notice that. The Lord God wanted the Israelites to see that His grace isn’t earned. It’s a free, generous gift. That the Christ had been sent to Israel, not because Israel had earned His coming by all their hard work over the centuries, but because the end of the day had come, the end of the Old Testament era, and the time had finally come for God’s greatest gift to be given: His own Son, the Savior of the world. As Paul wrote to Titus in chapter 3, But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Instead of rejoicing in God’s grace to all and in the coming of the Christ, the Israelites, in their pride, grumbled against God, as the first workers grumbled against the lord of the vineyard. These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and heat of the day. “We’ve worked so hard, and they’ve hardly worked at all. We deserve more than this lousy denarius. We deserve more than this lousy Christ.”

The lord of the vineyard was not happy with the first workers. He answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I give you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

Yes, Israel was given much work to do. But it wasn’t without its advantages. As Paul writes to the Romans, What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. God spoke to them through the prophets and gave them His written Word. Also, Paul says, to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of them are the fathers and from them, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Israel had many advantages as the first workers who were hired in the vineyard and given the covenant of the Law of Moses.

But they were supposed to understand that, no matter how many works of the Law they did, they were still sinners. They would all be condemned, if God were to inspect their work and judge them on the basis of it. They could never earn God’s grace. The Christ and His salvation were pure gift. And that very same gift would be given to the Gentiles and to those who didn’t spend even one hour working under the Old Testament Law. The gift of Christ has been given to all, even to the Israelites who rejected Him. He came to Israel. He died for Israel. The denarius was given. But then unbelieving Israel heard the horrible words, Take what is yours and go. Their pride had cut them off from Christ and from the salvation He came to bring.

Of course, some of Israel believed. Peter spoke for them in the book of Acts: We believe that we shall be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles: through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You believe that, too, don’t you? That’s the faith into which you were baptized and brought into God’s covenant of grace. Christians believe, not that we’re the greatest workers in the world, but that God has saved us, through faith, apart from our works, through Christ and His work on our behalf. The Christian Gospel isn’t, “Whoever works the hardest or whoever obeys enough of God’s laws gets to heaven.” The Christian Gospel is, “You have not obeyed God’s Law. You have earned only wrath and eternal condemnation for your sins. But God, in His grace, wants you to be saved and has given the Christ into death for your sins. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins!”

Yes, you have believed and have been brought into God’s covenant of grace. So now the warning in today’s Gospel also goes out to you, especially to those who haven’t spent their lives in open wickedness and disobedience and idolatry. It’s a warning to those who have worked the hardest at being good Christians, at keeping God’s commandments, a warning to those who were baptized early in life.

Were you called into Christ’s kingdom early in life? Good! Many are called! But few are chosen, chosen to remain in the kingdom at the end of the day. And why are the few chosen? Because, at the end of the day, they were found still trusting in God’s grace, still hoping in Christ, not claiming their own goodness or their own works. They are last in their own hearts, and so God has made them first. And why aren’t many chosen? Because many end up relying on their own works instead of on God’s grace in Christ Jesus. They are first in their own hearts, and so God has made them last.

Did you make a good beginning in the Christian faith? Were you baptized early in life? Good! The Israelites who left Egypt also made a good beginning, as Paul says in the Epistle, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Have you been faithful at attending church, zealous to keep God’s commandments? Good! So were the Pharisees, and you know how they turned out. The longer they spent working hard under the Law, the more their pride grew and the more their desire for grace diminished. Their pride and their despising of God’s grace in Christ made all their other works meaningless, and they perished in unbelief.

So learn a lesson today from Israel’s pride. Being called by the Gospel and enlightened with the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the Christian life. But “being sanctified and preserved with Jesus Christ in the true faith” is the continuation of the Christian life, and you have to make it to the end of the day still relying on God’s grace alone, if you would remain in God’s kingdom for the next life. So work hard in God’s kingdom! Use the means of grace! Pray! Obey! And bear the heat of the day! But also, keep beating down the serpent’s seed of pride, so that you stay with Christ, so that you always hope to be saved only by grace, never by your works! This is how you run the race, as Paul said in the Epistle, in order to win the prize. May God keep you in His grace all the way to the finish line. Amen.

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Glory that lights up the way of the cross

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

I must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day… If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. That’s what the twelve apostles heard from Jesus about a week before the events of our Gospel took place.

Now, things are admittedly bad in this world. But do you think you have it worse here than Jesus did? Or than His apostles did? Do you really think that you’ve reached or almost reached the height of human suffering? When it feels that way, and sometimes, honestly, it does!, go back and get some much-needed perspective. As an old professor of mine used to say, the symbol of our religion is the cross, not the couch. The way of the Christian—the only way that leads to life—is the way of the cross, which is not a symbol of comfort or of a relatively easy life, but of suffering, pain, and death.

But since that way of the cross seems dark and daunting, God also knows that you need some light along the way. And He provides that much-needed light in His holy Word, which, as you heard in today’s Epistle, is like a light shining in a dark place. Today that light shines literally as we hear the account of Christ’s Transfiguration, perhaps the greatest of Christ’s epiphanies, which happened just a week after the apostles heard from Christ just how dark the way was going to get, first for Him, then for them, and now for us.

We note right from the beginning that Jesus only took along three of the twelve for this epiphany. They didn’t all need to see it, just as you and I don’t have to see it with our eyes to believe it. Only three were there with Jesus—Peter, James, and John—so that “every matter may be established by the mouths of two or three witnesses.”

What did they witness? They witnessed Jesus’ “transfiguration.” The German word for that is the same as the word for “glorification,” to be made glorious, to be made brilliant. His face shone like the sun. It was the brilliance of His divinity, revealed to human eyes in the form of light, since, as John says in his first epistle, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, and from John’s Gospel, He was the true Light which gives light to every man.

This visible glory also included whiteness. Not whiteness of His skin, but of His clothing; it became white like the light, symbolizing purity, sinlessness, no stain or blemish or spot, no dirt or taint of evil. This was the glory of which Jesus says in John 12, now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. It was His all along, but for 33 years, from the time of His conception through His death and burial, what we refer to as Christ’s state of humiliation, it was concealed from sight. What was the purpose of revealing it here for a few moments? First, so that the apostles might know that the glory belonged to Christ, even as He was about to step into darkness, in the way of the cross. Second, so that they might see that the promise of Christ’s resurrection from the dead was real. And finally, that we might all know that the promise of that same glory is real, that that same glory is waiting for all who follow Christ in the way of the cross.

This vision also included Moses and Elijah, who were talking with Jesus. Why those two Old Testament prophets? We recently came up with all kinds of reasons in Bible class. First, it showed that Christ really was the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament and the religion of the Jews. Moses didn’t teach one religion and Christ another. Moses and Elijah were pointing to Jesus the Christ all along. Second, it showed that Jesus wasn’t just “a” prophet, but “the” Prophet. He wasn’t talking with Moses and Elijah as their equal, but as their Lord, as the one who had sent them, as the One whom the Father was about to glorify even further.

For today, let’s just focus on this comparison between Jesus and Moses and Elijah: Moses met with the Lord on a mountain once before, long ago, to receive the Law. He saw the Lord’s glory there, and it shone from Moses’ own face afterward, and Israel was amazed. But Moses died before entering the Promised Land. We heard just this morning in Sunday School how Elijah also met with the Lord on a mountain once, in dejection and despair at how bleak things appeared in Israel. He didn’t see God’s glory at all. But He heard God in a still, small voice, and the Lord comforted him with the reality that He had secretly, in a hidden way, preserved 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to the idol Baal. Shortly afterwards, Elijah was taken up to heaven, not dead, but alive.

Surely the apostles thought back often on all these things and made the appropriate connections, just as we do. Like Moses, Jesus died and was buried. But like Elijah, Jesus ascended into heaven very much alive. Like Moses, we may sometimes get to see a glimpse of God’s glory. Or like Elijah, we may never get to see it. But we can hear God’s voice in the Gospel and know that He works to preserve His Church until the end of the world.

We’ll say more about Moses and Elijah another day.

In the midst of this glorious vision, Peter is the one who speaks, though he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Lord, it’s good to be here. I’ll put up three shelters for You, Moses, and Elijah, so that we can stay! It’s really no different from what Peter had said to Jesus just a week earlier after Jesus had predicted His suffering and death: No, Lord! This will never happen to you! What would you have said? “Oh, Lord, this is just too glorious here. Let’s go down and find that cross you talked to us about!” Wouldn’t you, like Peter, suggest to the Lord that He allow things to remain glorious here, or that He would cause glory to be restored, say, to our country, instead of letting it fall further into darkness? Would you suggest that He replace the cross, as the symbol of our religion, with the couch, or with the crown?

Jesus didn’t have to answer Peter. The Father’s glory and voice gave him the answer he needed.

This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased! Spoken in eternity, spoken at Jesus’ Baptism, and spoken again now. Whether you see Him in glory, or whether you see Him in humility, it doesn’t change the reality: This is the beloved Son of God. And if He does it or says, it must be right. It must be good. It must be necessary. Because He is well-pleasing to His Father. If He appears in humility, He’s doing the Father’s will. When He appears in glory, He’ll be doing the Father’s will. Everything about Christ is pleasing to the Father. Even the cross.

Now, what to do? What to do? What to do? Oh, look! God, the Father Almighty, tells us what to do: Hear Him! Listen to Him! That’s what you do now. That’s what you do during this time of the cross. You hear Jesus, not whispering in your ear, but speaking to you through His own inspired word and through the preaching of that word that He Himself instituted.

And what is it that you hear from Him? You hear Him talking about the cross, first His, then yours. But you also hear a promise that accompanies the cross, a promise of glory, first for Him, then for you who follow Him and remain with Him.

You hear Jesus mark you who are baptized with the same seal of God’s approval that He received when He was baptized. He who believes and is baptized will be saved! You hear Jesus, through the Apostle Paul, describe you who are baptized as wearing the same pure, white garments He was clothed with in the Transfiguration: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

You hear Jesus pointing to the inspired Holy Scriptures, that light shining in a dark place. When you walk by that glorious light, you don’t walk in the darkness of ignorance any longer, and you don’t have to keep groping in the dark for what’s true and what’s not true, since His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. And you hear Jesus telling you to take and eat; this is My body. Take and drink, this is My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

You hear Jesus telling you Christians that you are the light of the world. Men will see your good works and will glorify God because of them. Your love will stand out in contrast with the world’s hatred. Your patient endurance of suffering will stand out in contrast with the world’s bitterness and vengefulness. Your mercy will stand out in contrast with the world’s selfishness and readiness to condemn. And your courage will stand out in contrast with the world’s fear. You will shine as lights in this dark world.

You hear Jesus telling you that in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. You hear Him telling you that He rose from the dead and reigns at God’s right hand and that He will come again in glory. And you hear Him telling you that, if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.

These words of Jesus, everything recorded in Scripture, this sermon you’re hearing today is your God-given light, your God-given glory, for today, for this week, to get you through to next week, or to the next opportunity you’re given to “hear Him.” The way of the cross is always dark; the valley of the shadow of death is always dim. But the glory of Christ, hidden from the eyes, still shines brightly in His word. It will light up the way of the cross for you in this world, until you reach the endless glory of the world to come. Amen.

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