Christ’s fervent love for His corrupted Church

Posted on August 25, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11  +  Luke 19:41-48

The Gospel takes us back to Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. It’s a sad text as Jesus literally stops and weeps for Jerusalem. It’s also a strikingly violent text as Jesus drives the buyers and sellers out of the Temple in Jerusalem. There’s a powerful message here for Jerusalem and for us. A lesson from Christ’s fervent love for His corrupted Church.

That fervent love reveals itself, first, in His deep sadness over the Church’s demise.

Now, everyone remembers the donkey and the palms of Palm Sunday. Not as many remember the tears. After the crowds sang their Hosanna’s, after Jesus received and defended their praise of Him, His thoughts turned to the even greater multitudes in Jerusalem who wanted nothing to do with Him. As Jesus drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

What was it that caused God to weep over Jerusalem? Its day had come. It had waited a thousand years, from the time of King David who first conquered Jerusalem for Israel. Prophet after prophet had announced this day when God would come to His Temple, when the King would ride into His city on a donkey to save His people. All the Old Testament Laws—the priesthood, the Temple, the sacrifices, the dietary restrictions, the Sabbath Day—all pointed to this, to the coming of Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, not to destroy, but to save His people, His Church, His holy city, the Daughter of Zion.

But she didn’t recognize the things that made for her peace. Those things were repentance—sorrow over her sin and humility before God—and faith in the One whom God the Father had sent into the world to bear her sin, to bear the sins of all people and to earn for them the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Here was the Son of God, at the gates of His beloved city. And she didn’t know Him or desire Him.

Worse yet, even after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection and ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the vast majority of Jerusalem and the Jews would continue to reject Jesus as the Christ and as the Redeemer. That’s the real tragedy Jesus foresaw. Not that they would crucify Him in a few days. For that they could be forgiven. No, He foresaw that they would stubbornly continue in their unbelief and perish eternally for it. And for that, Jesus wept.

He even wept for the earthly judgment that would come upon Jerusalem. He foretells Jerusalem’s destruction in our Gospel, the destruction that took place at the hand of the Roman armies in 70 A.D., about forty years after Palm Sunday. He sees the siege of Jerusalem, just as the Jewish historian Josephus later described it in his Antiquities. He sees the chaos and terror within the city. He sees the food running out and the multitudes dying of hunger, of disease, and by slaughter. He sees the city walls leveled and the temple destroyed, all because you did not know the time of your visitation. They didn’t know that God had visited them in the flesh to speak to them, to help them, and to save them. Not because no one told them about it—they did! —but because they chose not to believe the message. They chose to go on believing the devil’s lie, that they didn’t need a Savior like Jesus, that there was another way for them to be saved. And for all that, Jesus wept.

Learn this lesson from Jesus’ tears: He never wanted the Jewish people to be destroyed. He took no pleasure in it. On the contrary, He wept over it. Even though He knew their every sin, even though the Jewish leaders had already mistreated Him and slandered Him, even knowing the horror of the coming week and of the crucifixion itself, Jesus still wanted them to be saved, still wanted to hold out forgiveness to them. But forgiveness requires faith, and faith comes through the message of Christ, and they just kept rejecting the message.

How does this apply to us today? First, it should terrify those who stubbornly cling to their sins and refuse to hear Jesus. Far too many people today believe the lie that God won’t actually punish the impenitent, that God is far too loving and far too good to bring judgment on people, that He may weep over our backsliding, but He’ll never actually hold us responsible for it. But see, Jesus wasn’t just weeping in sadness over His people’s disobedience. He was weeping because their unbelief would lead to their destruction.

This text should also terrify false prophets within the corrupted visible Christian Church and those who hold to false doctrine, who comfort themselves with the notion that they’re Christians simply because they call themselves Christians or belong to a Christian Church, even though their doctrine is no longer the doctrine of Christ drawn from the Scriptures of the apostles and prophets, even though they don’t actually sorrow over their sins or rely on Christ Jesus alone to be able to stand before God. The empty protest of “We are the Church! See how ancient we are, see how many we are!” will do them as much good on the day of judgment as it did the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem when the Roman armies surrounded the city.

On the other hand, Jesus’ tears over Jerusalem should melt the heart of the wretched sinner as he sees Christ’s compassion and His fervent love for sinners, not wanting them to perish, but eagerly desiring that they come to repentance so that they don’t have to receive their well-deserved punishment, because Jesus has already received it for them and now holds out forgiveness as a free gift.

Now let’s turn, briefly, to the second part of today’s Gospel, as we see Jesus’ fervent love for His corrupted Church in His fervent zeal to cleanse what remains, in the time that remains, so that some might still be saved.

Matthew and Luke simply say that “then,” after weeping for Jerusalem, Jesus went to the Temple and drove out the moneychangers, etc. Mark explains that Jesus went to the Temple on Psalm Sunday, looked around, but it was late. So He returned the next day and did the driving out.

Jesus found the Temple full of non-religious activity. Moneychangers. People buying and selling doves and other sacrificial animals. So He drove out buyers and sellers alike. He overturned the tables of moneychangers. He overturned chairs of those selling doves. My house is a house of prayer, He cried. “My house!” My house! Not yours to do with as you please. Not yours to set up your shops in, and worse yet, to try to steal from one another in, sellers looking to charge too much, buyers looking to pay too little. My house isn’t for any of those things. My house is for prayer. It exists so that people can pray and learn about the true God, watch the ministry of the priests, contemplate sin and grace and the sacrifices which pointed to the true sacrifice of the Christ, who is now here. But instead of that, you’ve corrupted the purpose of the Temple and turned it into something different, into something evil.

And then, with the short time remaining before Good Friday, Jesus began to teach the people in earnest, there in the newly cleansed Temple. And His teaching was heard by many, and believed, if not by many, then at least by some.

How does this apply to the Church today? There is no longer a single temple where God is to be sought and worshiped, and we no longer have the regulations from the Mosaic Law about what the structure of the temple is to be like. What we have is the reality to which the Temple in Jerusalem was pointing: We have Christ, the true Temple of God, and we have the Holy Christian Church throughout the world, where Christ has promised to be present in the ministry of His Word and Sacraments. He hasn’t told us what our buildings are supposed to look like, but He has told what our gatherings are supposed to look like: on the one hand, called and ordained men, reading the Scriptures, preaching the pure Word of Christ, baptizing, administering the body and blood of the Lord Jesus together with the bread and the wine, hearing confession, absolving the penitent, excommunicating the impenitent, teaching, correcting, rebuking, instructing; on the other hand, people gathering, listening, pondering, praying, singing, supporting, receiving the ministry of the Word with meekness, with gladness, and with joy.

Where Jesus comes and sees anything else, anything different, happening in His Church—teaching of false doctrine and error, tolerating false doctrine, practicing sin, tolerating sin and impenitence, Christian churches focusing on social programs instead of on the Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ crucified and risen again, worship practices that are designed to entertain rather than to foster prayer and reverence, practices that detract or distract from the objective truth of the Gospel—where Jesus sees these things, He comes, not with a whip, but with the rebuke of His word. Stop it! The Church is My house! And it is to be a house of prayer, where non-Christians can come and hear the truth about who I am, what I have done, what I command, and what I promise, and so be brought to repentance and faith and baptism. The Church is to be a house of prayer, where Christians can come and be fortified in the truth, and comforted with the forgiveness of sins, and encouraged by one another, and strengthened to bear the cross with patience. Many churches will refuse this cleansing, but some will be cleansed, and the truth of the Gospel will never be entirely buried, because Jesus fights for His Church, and that means that some will yet hear the truth and be saved before the day of judgment arrives.

Jesus still weeps for His Church—for the visible, corrupted Church which includes both true believers and hypocrites on this earth, knowing that many who called themselves by His name on this earth will perish in unbelief. And He continues to cleanse and purify the Church through His Word, never allowing the false, apostate Church to overwhelm the true believers within or to entirely obscure the truth of His Gospel. Let the lessons you have learned today penetrate your hearts. Let the love of Christ for His Church—for you!—instill in you a love for Him in return, and along with it, a constant wariness of the corruptions that led to the demise of Jerusalem. The Church on earth will always have its corruptions. May God mercifully preserve us from them! Amen.

 

 

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Take your stewardship job seriously

Posted on August 18, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 9

1 Corinthians 10:6-13  +  Luke 16:1-9

In the whole chapter of Luke 16, Jesus warns His hearers about getting caught up in wealth. Earlier this Trinity season we looked at the last verses of this chapter—the rich man and poor Lazarus—and we saw how foolish men are to get wrapped up in their wealth, because the temporary pleasure wealth can bring is nothing compared to the suffering of hell. God doesn’t love wealth nearly as much as we human beings do. And it’s God’s estimation that counts. As Jesus said in the verses after our Gospel text this morning, What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Keeping that in mind, we turn to the beginning of Luke 16, our Gospel for today: The parable of the unjust steward. Jesus has a severe warning for His hearers. Remember that you are stewards of God’s things. He is the owner. You are the managers. And you will be held accountable for your stewardship.

The steward in the parable wasn’t a hoarder, wasn’t a greedy man, like other rich men who show up in some of Jesus’ other parables. The steward was a careless man, a thoughtless man, a negligent man. He took his position for granted, which led him to not work very hard or very shrewdly at his job. He didn’t give enough thought to using his master’s wealth wisely, for the betterment of his master’s business. His negligence was so obvious that he was reported to his master. And when he heard that his master was upset, when he finally realized that this was serious, he was about to lose his job, he finally changed his ways and quickly went about doing favors for those who might help him in the end. He reduced their debts in order to endear himself to them. He used his master’s wealth to gain friends for himself, friends who would love him and take care of him when he lost his job. He finally became shrewd, became intentional with his master’s wealth. And there was urgency to his shrewdness. He knew he had little time. He had to make friends quickly. For this his master commended him. Finally he is taking his stewardship seriously!

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. That is, non-Christians are often more shrewd among non-Christians than Christians are with their fellow Christians. How so?

We have been given a place in God’s kingdom, purely by God’s grace. We didn’t deserve to be His employees, His stewards. We deserved everlasting death for our many sins against God. But He went looking for each one of us, found us, had us baptized and catechized, made us members of His family and coheirs of eternal life with Christ Jesus. And while we wait for Christ’s return, God has given us work to do in this world, including more or less wealth to manage.

But what happens sometimes? Christians begin to take their position in God’s kingdom for granted. They know they’re saved by grace, and the devil knows it, too, so he tempts us to laziness and carelessness, as if our stewardship didn’t really matter, and then we begin to neglect the works to which God has called us. Worse yet, even when we’re warned, sometimes people still don’t change their ways.

We have a horrible example of that in today’s Epistle. Paul recounts for the Corinthians how the Israelites of old were given every blessing by God. He had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and brought them safely across the Red Sea. They had been “baptized into Moses” in the cloud and in the sea. God had promised that He would bring them safely into the land of Canaan and give it to them to inherit. And then, at Mt. Sinai, He gave them His holy Law. But instead of being all the more careful to obey the Lord’s newly given commandments, they took His grace and promise for granted. They thought they could do as they pleased. They could grumble and murmur against God with impunity. They could disobey Him securely. They even took their wealth—the gold they had collected from the Egyptians—and used it, not to serve God or their neighbor, not in line with God’s commandments, but to make a golden calf, an idol to bow down to, a direct violation of the commandments God had just given from the mountain.

The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of how God treated His Old Testament people when they became complacent and secure, because the Corinthians were in danger of doing the same. He says, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Many of the Israelites never did correct their errors, never did admit their sins and turn from them. But the unjust steward in today’s Gospel did take the warning and finally took his job seriously.

Jesus would have you do the same. Today’s Gospel is a call to repentance, not so much to the unbeliever as to the believer who has begun to take his duties in God’s house for granted. It is possible to fall from grace. That happens when you think you stand firm and could never possibly fall. So hear Jesus’ warning and flee to Him, the Throne of Grace, for mercy. He forgives you for your negligence and neglect. He forgives you, freely, for not taking your duties as Christians seriously.

And now He gives you yet another chance. He restores you to His service. It’s not too late to become shrewd. It’s not too late to pour your heart and soul into serving God faithfully in all the duties He’s assigned to you, including this duty of managing His wealth for the benefit of your fellow servants.

What does He tell you in the Gospel? I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. Make friends for yourselves. It’s OK to use money to be kind to your fellow man, especially your fellow Christian. It’s more than OK, it’s shrewd. It’s wise. Go ahead and be generous and purchase the favor of your brothers and sisters. It should matter to you, what your fellow Christians think of you. You should have it as a continual goal to make them like you, not by groveling, not by flattery, but by showing kindness, in tangible and intangible ways. Because whether or not they can repay you in this life, they will be waiting in the next life to thank you for the help you gave.

So learn today from both the Epistle and the Gospel. You have been baptized into Christ. Good! Through faith in Christ, God has forgiven you your sins and has promised to lead you safely into the next life. We are citizens of heaven and are journeying there. But we’re not yet home. This earth is not our goal. The Lord has given us directives about how we are to live during this pilgrimage here below. Take his directives seriously. Take your job seriously. When you falter, repent and rest in Christ’s forgiveness. And when you’ve been restored, work all the harder and all the more urgently to manage your master’s things wisely. Amen.

 

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Judge every prophet by his doctrine and life

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 8

Romans 8:12-17  +  Matthew 7:15-23

Jesus is beginning to wrap up His sermon on the mount in this morning’s Gospel. He has just warned the crowds, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The path to heaven, to God, to eternal life, is not nearly as broad as most people think. Most people don’t end up in Paradise. Most people enter by the wide gate and walk along the broad path that leads to hell. The gate is wide and the path is broad because there are many, many, many wrong answers and wrong beliefs about getting to where God is, whereas there’s only one right answer, one right way, and that is the way of Christianity, the way of faith in Christ Jesus and adherence to the Word of God.

But where is the narrow gate? Where is that difficult way which leads to life? Where is God’s Word being taught in its truth and purity? Well, you’ll find that there are many, many people who would gladly give you directions. They’re called “prophets,” that is, people who claim to represent God, who claim to speak for God, to know the way to salvation. But beware of false prophets, Jesus urges the crowds in today’s Gospel. There will be many of them, many people who will point you to the wrong gate and the wrong way.

Now, many of those false prophets are not even Christian prophets. They’re the prophets of Islam or Buddhism or any of the non-Christian religions of the world. They’re also the religious fanatics who preach evolution—that false, insidious religion that has taken hold of our world. Beware of such false prophets.

But beware even more of the ones who claim to speak for Jesus, because you’ve already come to know that the pagan religions of the world are false, but when you hear the name of Jesus, you think, Ah, this person must be telling the truth! He’s pointing me to Jesus! Not so fast, Jesus says. Not every prophet, not every preacher who calls Jesus “Lord” points to the narrow gate. After all, why are there so many who walk on the broad way that leads to destruction? It’s partly because there are so many false prophets pointing them in that direction.

So, Jesus warns, Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. That’s a simple enough picture, isn’t it? What is it to come, as a prophet or preacher, in sheep’s clothing? It means to present oneself and one’s doctrine as innocent, harmless, loving, true and correct. That’s what every preacher does, the true ones and the false ones! Every preacher comes looking like a sheep. The trick is telling which ones are the sheep and which ones are the wolves dressed up like sheep.

It’s important, because ultimately, they’re pointing in two different directions. The true prophet points to that narrow gate and that difficult way that leads to life, while the false prophet points to the wide gate and the broad way that leads to destruction. The true prophet upholds all of God’s word, from beginning to end, and teaches how all of Scripture points to Christ the Redeemer. He rebukes sin in those who are secure in their sin, and he points the penitent to Christ, who bore our sins on the cross and made satisfaction before God, who promises forgiveness of sins to all who believe. The false prophet, on the other hand, just like the devil himself, will freely use Scripture, but he’ll twist its meaning so that sin is no longer revealed as sin, and Christ as Savior is hidden. His Gospel is altered, slightly at first, and then a bit more, and then a bit more.

Now, how can you distinguish between the two, between the true prophet and the false one? By what do you judge them? By their hair style? By their friendliness? By how large of a crowd they can gather? By their ability to quote Scripture? By how many times they say the name of Jesus? By the miracles they do in His name? No. None of those things will reveal whether you’re dealing with a sheep or with a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In fact, as Jesus says at the end of the Gospel, Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

So how can you distinguish? How can you judge? (And judge you must!) Jesus says to the multitudes—to all His disciples: You will know them by their fruits. Now, the fruit of a prophet is twofold. It includes both his doctrine and his life. St. Paul commanded Pastor Timothy: Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. To yourself, that is, to your own faith and your own life. And to the doctrine, to the entirety of what you teach God’s people in God’s name.

Of course, judging a preacher’s doctrine and life means you have to have a standard to judge them by, and that standard is God’s Word. The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And then he gives them an example of Scriptural doctrine by which to test them. The Scriptures are the standard. But to use the standard, you have to know, you have to study the Scriptures yourself in order to be able to test the teacher, just as the Bereans did in the book of Acts when Paul came to them claiming to have been sent by God. They searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things he taught agreed with God’s Word. And with Scripture as the foundation, you can then branch out and also use the Confessions of the Church to see if your pastor is teaching new things—new interpretations of Scripture—or if he’s simply teaching things that have always been taught and believed in the Church. So I urge you to read and to study, not only the Bible, but also our Lutheran Confessions. Beware of false prophets by judging, by testing the doctrine of every preacher.

And by testing the preacher’s life. But with this understanding: every prophet sent by God, except for Jesus Himself, has been and always will be a sinner. Don’t judge a prophet by whether or not he sins or has weaknesses common to man. Judge him by whether or not he leads a penitent life, a godly life consistent with the Gospel. See if he lives as one who is a slave to sin and a slave to fear, or as a debtor to God and a trusting child of God, as Paul discussed in today’s Epistle. You’ll never be able to look into a prophet’s heart to judge his thoughts and attitudes, nor does Jesus call on you to do that. Look at his fruits, his doctrine and his life (as far as you can observe his life). (And, yes, that includes judging the church fellowship to which he belongs—his synod or church body, with their doctrine and practice.) If you do that, not according to your personal feelings, but according to His word, He assures you: you will know whether the prophet is true or false.

It’s a simple instruction from Jesus today: Beware of false prophets. It’s an ongoing command, because, by God’s own design, prophets will be around until the end of the world, and because even a true prophet can turn into a false prophet if he’s not careful, and if he’s around long enough. It’s a command and a responsibility that Jesus gives to His dear people, because He truly wants you to enter through the narrow gate. He doesn’t want you to be deceived with the many who walk the broad path to destruction. And so, although He permits false prophets to go out into the world, He will never stop sending true prophets along with them, to feed and to guide His people to the green pastures of His Word, and finally to the unending banquet in heaven. And along with the prophet, He will also guide you by His Spirit, through His word, to know which ones to trust and which ones to avoid. May He grant you wisdom and zeal to be good judges! Amen.

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This is how God treats His slaves

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 7

Romans 6:19-23  +  Mark 8:1-9

As we deal with the aftermath of the terrible shooting that took place yesterday in El Paso, we do well to come to the One who reigns at the right hand of God, to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, for help and for answers.

If we don’t turn to God’s Word for answers, then we’ll end up making fools of ourselves, like so many who have been so swift to blame people and things that aren’t to blame. Sometimes they do it to score cheap political points. But sometimes they do it to avoid dealing with their own guilt, to avoid coming to grips with the depravity of our own society that teaches our youth to reject the morality of the Ten Commandments most of the time, and then wonders how a person could be so immoral as to kill other people. Our youth are taught that the mass murder of innocent human beings is good and right right up until the moment they’re born, and only then does it suddenly become wicked and reprehensible. And we wonder where such wickedness comes from! But this is the reality that everyone dreads to face: that the sin that drove a young man to shoot over 50 innocent people yesterday is a wretched symptom of the same disease, of the same sin that dwells in us all.

St. Paul explains in today’s Epistle. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. So yesterday a young man who was a slave of sin, and free in regard to righteousness, obeyed his master as a slave. He did what his own sinful, godless heart wanted him to do, spurred on by the devil himself, leaving us all appalled and angry and upset, and rightly so. But notice that St. Paul wrote these words to Christians. You, too, were once slaves of sin. You, too, Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2, used to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. “The others,” meaning the rest of humanity. The same sin that led a young man to open fire yesterday with a rifle dwells in all people. It just shows up differently, like different forms of cancer have different symptoms. It may show up as rebellion against authority, attacking someone’s reputation, condoning sex outside of marriage, unscriptural divorce. It may show up as pride or as indifference toward God’s Word or as a stubborn determination to live contrary to His Word or as a refusal to believe His Word and to exalt human reason above it. The fact is, everyone who is born to sinful parents, going back to Adam and Eve, is born a slave of sin and remains a slave of sin until he is set free by the Son of God, until he is delivered from that slavery by Christ Jesus and placed into God’s own version of slavery.

And you, dear Christians, have been delivered from it. Not that sin no longer dwells in you, but that you are no longer ruled by it and no longer condemned by it. You were delivered from slavery because the Son of God made Himself a slave. Now, there are different kinds of slavery, but one thing all slaves have in common is that their will is no longer their own. They must do the will of another. They don’t seek to better themselves or their own life; they seek to serve and to better their masters’ interests. What did Jesus say to His Father? “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. Jesus willingly made Himself a slave to God’s Law. He obeyed. He followed. He served as a slave of righteousness. He was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross where He suffered even greater violence and injustice than those who suffered in yesterday’s tragedy. He did it in order to redeem us from our slavery to sin, to pay for our sins with His own blood, with His own death. And then, risen from the dead, He has called us through the Gospel to renounce sin’s slavery and to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins, sealing that forgiveness to us in Holy Baptism and turning us into His own slaves, in a much different kind of slavery with a much different end. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

People shamefully serve sin as slaves in order to have just a fleeting feeling of fulfillment, a few happy moments in this life that ends in death. But those who receive God’s gift in Christ Jesus have been placed into the service of a loving God who has promised, not a few happy moments in this life, but eternal happiness in the life to come. In this life, in this world, Jesus says to His slaves, you will have trouble. And He was not wrong, was He?

Even so, what is it like to live as slaves of righteousness, as slaves of God who are bound to do His will, not our own? That we see in today’s Gospel of the feeding of the 4,000. What do you receive now as slaves of righteousness, as people who are bound to Christ Jesus? You receive His constant care and compassion. You receive everything you need. And in the end, you receive eternal happiness in eternal life. This is how God treats His slaves.

The 4,000 men, plus women and children, had continued with Jesus 3 days. He had led them out into the wilderness, away from town, away from work, away from chores, away from family, away from “fun,” in order to teach them. And they followed gladly. They listened. They paid attention to His every word. Like “slaves,” in a sense. Their own lives didn’t matter. Only the will of their Master.

But again, what kind of Master is this? How does He treat His slaves?

He has compassion on them. He considers their need. He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”

Now Jesus’ disciples had already seen the feeding of the 5,000. And yet, when He mentions wanting to feed 4,000 people, they still have no idea how He could possibly do it. How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?

Doesn’t it often seem like that to us and with us? We’ve seen the Lord provide so many times. We’ve seen His protection in our own lives. We’ve seen His providence. And when trouble has come, we’ve seen His help and received His strength to get through it. But the next time trouble or scarcity hits—that’s always going to be the exception, in our minds. “How can He satisfy us this time?” That’s the sin that still dwells in us. Even though it doesn’t rule us Christians, it’s still always there, rearing its ugly head, trying to take the reins of control again.

But there in the wilderness, Jesus’ purpose wasn’t to rebuke His disciples. It was to show them, and the crowds, and us, what kind of Master He really is. He takes the seven loaves of bread they have, gives thanks, blesses them and breaks and them and gives them to His disciples to give to the people, along with a few small fish. And His divine power multiplies the food so that there’s enough, not only to satisfy the 4,000, but to fill seven baskets with the leftover pieces.

That’s what He did for those who faithfully and eagerly set aside their daily tasks for a while in order to hear His word. He will do no less for you who serve Him in the slavery of righteousness. He will provide the food you need, the people you need, the strength you need, the help you need to face the scarcities and troubles of this life, whether it’s a mass shooting nearby or whether it’s simply the troubles of daily life. He is powerful to help in every situation, to provide all the help you need for this bodily life.

And He will also provide the food for the soul that you need in order to keep trusting in Him and to keep putting to death the sinful flesh and living as slaves of righteousness. The language in our Gospel as the Lord gave thanks, blessed and broke the bread, is similar to the language of the Lord’s Supper, and that’s no coincidence. Our Gospel is a reminder that the Lord will continue to provide ministers for those who appreciate them, for those who pray for them. He will continue to provide the pure word of God to those who care.

Only take note of one thing: The 4,000 didn’t walk away from their homes and from their pantries and from their jobs on a whim. Jesus is the one who led them into the wilderness. Be careful not to be led down a path that Jesus has not laid out for you in His word, a path that you know will draw you away from His word or that is outright contrary to His word. In that case, you should not expect His providence, but His rebuke. Those who live as His slaves will always have Him as their gentle Master; those who go off on their own, however, will be on their own.

That doesn’t mean, though, that you won’t sin or that you won’t fail as you serve Him. He knows you will. Being His slave doesn’t mean you’ll actually succeed at serving Him all the time. It means you’ll repent when you’ve done wrong. It means you’ll listen to His word when He calls you on your sinful thoughts or words or behavior. It means you’ll then submit to Him again in humility, so that He can lift you up with the forgiveness of sins. It means that you’ll struggle each day against your sinful flesh, determined to live instead for righteousness.

The fruit of this slavery, as we’ve already seen, leads to eternal life, which is the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s why we can live without the exaggerated fear of those around us. People aren’t only upset by yesterday’s events because of the innocent who were injured or killed. They’re upset because they’re afraid for themselves and their loved ones. People were afraid to leave their homes yesterday, even here in Las Cruces, afraid to go to the store or to drive down the street. But you and I don’t have to live like that, in constant fear. We have a compassionate and powerful Master who is always watching and always in control. And so we know that one of two things will always happen. Either He will send divine protection so that we are kept safe from harm, or He will use the wicked intentions of wicked men to deliver us once and for all from this valley of sorrow, taking their murderous act and forcing it to serve His good purposes, to spare us from further earthly evil and to grant us the reward of the righteous: eternal happiness in eternal life.

Let the kindness and compassion of Jesus be your focus in these coming days. Let the knowledge of His divine governance calm your fears. Let the hope of eternal life be your strength. And let the word of God be your guide to live as beloved slaves of righteousness each and every day, knowing that your Master is good and is truly worthy to be served. Amen.

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God’s requirement of righteousness

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

(Due to technical difficulties, there is no audio or video for today’s sermon or service. Our apologies.)

Sermon for Trinity 6

Romans 6:3-11  +  Matthew 5:20-26

What does it take to get to heaven? I still remember from my time in Mexico the contrast between the average person’s thinking in Mexico and the average person’s thinking here in the U.S when it comes to answering that question. In Mexico the average person (in my experience, at least) thought, “I deserve to go to hell. There’s no way God will accept me.” In the U.S., I’d say the average person (at least, the average person who still believes that there is a God and that heaven and hell are real places) thinks, “I deserve to go to heaven. Of course God will accept me!” Then you have the wicked Papist influence on people, offering a sort of middle path. “I may not deserve to go to heaven, but I don’t think I deserve to go to hell, either, so I’m shooting for purgatory. Maybe eventually God will accept me.” Some people work hard to get to heaven and think they might just make it. Other people don’t work hard at all to get to heaven, and still figure God must let them in. Still others mess up their lives so badly they think there’s no hope.

Where do people get all these different ideas about the requirements to enter the kingdom of heaven? From all over the place. Well-intentioned but misinformed family, popular culture, false religions, false teachers within the Christian Church. But most of all, from their own sinful hearts and imaginations. Our made-up ideas about God lead to made-up ideas about what it takes to get to heaven.

Doesn’t it make the most sense to ask the Lord of heaven what it takes to get there? In the Bible, God has revealed “only” one requirement to enter heaven. That requirement is righteousness, the perfect uprightness of the whole person: righteous thoughts, words and deeds that flow from a pure heart. And there are two paths of righteousness, two ways to be righteous. There’s the Law way, that is, that way where you provide the righteous thoughts, words and deeds, which means that you have to start out with a pure heart. And there’s the Gospel way, that is the way where Christ Jesus Himself, during His time on earth, provides the righteous thoughts, words and deeds flowing from a pure heart, which God offers to count toward sinners who believe in Him.

In our Gospel this morning, the Lord Jesus shows us very plainly what the way of the Law requires and why no one can be righteous by it. Today’s Epistle, on the other hand, highlights the way of the Gospel. And both texts teach us how serious God is about His requirement of righteousness.

First, hear the qualifications to be counted righteous according to the Law. Jesus told the crowds on in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount: I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And the crowd’s reaction must have been, Are you kidding? The scribes and Pharisees seem like the most righteous people in Israel! They work very hard at it, all the time! How can we be more righteous that they? And how much more righteousness do we have to provide?

Well, Jesus goes on to give some examples. Take murder, for example. To take another person’s life without God’s permission is a sin against the Fifth Commandment, a failure to be righteous. You shall not murder! That’s a relatively easy commandment to keep…if you could keep it by simply not killing another person. But what if righteousness in God’s sight requires more than just not killing someone? What if there were a form of “murder” that could be committed in your heart or with your mouth? Being unjustly angry with your brother. Seething with hatred or bitterness. That puts you in danger of judgment, Jesus says. Or saying mean things to your brother. “You fool! Idiot! Jerk!” Or using other more “colorful” expressions. Jesus says that that puts you in danger of hell fire!

In the rest of the verses we read from Matthew 5, Jesus gives some examples of just how serious God is about how you treat your neighbor. If you’ve sinned against your brother, don’t bother trying to appease God by bringing an offering to Him, Jesus says. No, do right by your brother first. Be reconciled to him. Then bring your offering to God. And if you’ve injured someone, take care of it. Deal with it. Make amends for it with your neighbor. Don’t imagine that God will accept you in heaven while you refuse to do what’s right here on earth. Loving your neighbor is part of your duty to love God.

The same goes for the Sixth Commandment, as Jesus goes on to point out after our Gospel. Righteousness includes, not just chastity on the outside, but chastity on the inside—in your thoughts and in your speech. And so it is with all the commandments. The Law requires strict obedience and won’t be satisfied with anything less. Provide that obedience, on the outside and on the inside, and you could be declared righteous—justified—before God and enter the kingdom of heaven on the merits of your own works.

But the harder you try to provide that perfect righteousness, the more you will find that evil is right there with you. And even though you may get closer to righteousness, the words of St. James cut off that path completely: Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all.

That’s why the way of the Gospel is the only way to be righteous before God. And it’s a good way, a pleasant way, a sure way. Jesus was righteous. And God is willing—in fact, God is eager to count sinners righteous, not for their own sake, but for Jesus’ sake, to unite sinners to Christ through Baptism and through faith, and so cover them with the righteousness of Christ. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Through Baptism and faith, you have been given the righteousness that God requires to enter His kingdom. He reckons you to be righteous, even though your thoughts, words, deeds, and your very heart are not righteous according to the strict judgment of the Law. As Paul wrote in Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Let’s summarize with a couple of syllogisms: Everyone who disobeys the Law deserves to go to hell. All people have disobeyed the Law. Therefore all people deserve to go to hell. And all who are judged by the Law will surely end up there, and live even now under God’s wrath and judgment.

But! Everyone who believes in Christ Jesus and is baptized will escape the punishment of hell. You believe in Christ Jesus and have been baptized. Therefore you will escape the punishment of hell. You’ll end up in heaven. And even now you live under God’s grace and favor, as long as you continue steadfast in the faith.

But Jesus doesn’t only preach the Law to show His hearers that they can’t keep it and shouldn’t try to be judged by it. He also preaches the Law so that His disciples, who have received the forgiveness of sins through the Gospel, should work all the harder at keeping God’s commandments. It’s still God’s will. And it’s still God’s command. To believe in Christ implies a daily dying to sin and living to God, as Paul said in the Epistle. To believe in Christ is to reject the Law as a path to salvation, but to embrace the Law as the path you are determined nonetheless to follow. Reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And so, now that we’ve been saved through the Gospel, justified by faith, we have all the more reason to keep the commandments. We have all the more reason to stare temptation in the face and say, “No. I am baptized into Christ. I’ve died to sin. I live for Him who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And when you do that, and when you pray, you will have the Spirit’s help. So learn the commandments and keep them ever before your eyes. Think about how you are to put them into practice in everything you do. But do it, not as one who is trying to be judged by the Law, but as one who has already fulfilled God’s requirement of righteousness, through faith alone in Christ Jesus. And so your righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. And you will enter—in fact, you have already entered—the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

 

 

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