Jesus confronts the wages of sin

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 16

Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

We can’t step directly into the Gospel this morning, because our Gospel deals directly with sorrow, with tragedy, with death and bereavement. And forasmuch as many of you may already have a proper, Scriptural perspective on those things, many—whether here, or watching or listening to or reading this sermon today—do not. So we’re going to take moment to address suffering and death.

How can God allow people to suffer? To face tragedy and death?  How can He allow such devastation by floods and hurricanes, fires and tornadoes? Such things are famous for turning theists into atheists, because they’d rather pretend there isn’t a God at all than believe there is a God who sends or allows such things. They think God wants us all to be happy on this earth, to lead a nice life, a care-free, trouble-free life. Some think they deserve such a life. Others think a loving God would give it to them, whether they deserve it or not. Of course, they’re both dead wrong.

They forget that we live under a curse.

To the woman He said :“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

This is the divinely pronounced sentence for our entire existence on this earth: Pain. Toil. Trouble. Hardship. Tragedy. Loss. And finally, death. And the world today, more than ever, blames God for it.

It’s like the police officer who warns a suspect to put his hands up, or the officer will shoot. And instead of putting his hands up, the person hides his hands, or reaches behind his back. So the officer shoots. And people today want to blame the police officer, because the world today no longer has a grasp of justice, of personal responsibility, of getting what you deserve—what you’ve earned by your actions.

So it is with God. He warned Adam and Eve, Don’t eat from this tree or you will die. And they ate. And they brought death and misery into the world. And people want to blame God for it, for following through with His warning, for giving mankind what we, by our corrupt nature and by our actions, have not only deserved, but have asked for.

But they’re wrong. Every time you see a death, every time you see a tragedy, every time you see a natural disaster, you should say, “Oh, what a hateful enemy the devil is, who wanted this suffering for the world! Oh, what a wretched curse has fallen upon our race! Oh, how justly we are punished for our transgressions! Oh, how terrible are the wages of sin!” For the wages of sin, as St. Paul writes, is death.

In our Gospel, we’re confronted with one of the hardest cases of sin paying out its wages to those who have worked under its service—under its slavery. A young man dies—an apparently innocent young man, by human standards, and also a Jew, of the people of God. His father had already died, leaving the boy fatherless and his mother a widow. Now she’s a widow whose only son has died. She is bereaved. She grieves. She’s now destined to a life of loneliness, and, most likely, a life of poverty and begging, until, sooner or later, she herself must receive the wages of sin.

In none of it is God to blame. In all of it, God remains just.

At the same time, God is merciful and God is loving, and you see that mercy and love painted all over Jesus in our Gospel as He confronts the wages of sin in all its sadness. He approaches the tragic funeral procession marching out of the city of Nain. He doesn’t avoid it. He doesn’t draw back from it, or take this opportunity to explain God’s justice, because the people there—Jews who had been taught from God’s Law since birth—knew very well this wasn’t God’s fault. But knowing that death is the well-deserved wages of sin doesn’t do a thing to diminish our sadness or to wipe away our tears.

For that, it takes the word of Jesus, the word of the One who pronounced the curse in the first place.

Do not weep, He says to the widow. She had every reason to weep. Jesus Himself would weep at the grave of His friend Lazarus. But her time of weeping had come to an end. Jesus would fix things, even this seemingly hopeless situation.

He touches the coffin. The pall bearers stop. He speaks to the dead man, Young man, I say to you, get up! And just like that, death is defeated—at least, for a time. The boy’s soul was immediately reunited with his body (from heaven, we assume). Whatever ended his life, whether sickness or injury, was immediately healed. The wages that sin had paid out were thrown back in sin’s face, as it were. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus then presents the boy to His mother. Not the husband; he remained dead and buried. Just the boy, and even then, a temporary restoration, because that boy would one day grow old and die again. But it was enough for the moment. It was all Jesus offered at the time in the way of miracles, to anyone. Temporary earthly relief.

There would be a few more temporary restorations to come. Two more before Jesus’ crucifixion (the widow’s son was the first resurrection Jesus performed), several more at the moment Jesus died, one a few years later through the Apostle Paul, and then that’s it, as far as we know. That’s it. No more temporary restorations. Because temporary restorations, for as amazing and as comforting as they are, don’t really solve anything. Temporary earthly relief from suffering and sadness makes life easier for a little while, but it doesn’t change anything. What we need—what all men need—is an end to the curse.

Most people don’t even think that’s possible. Most give up on it. That’s why they’ll take momentary pleasure or temporary relief and be satisfied with it. But an end to suffering? An end to sorrow? An end of death? That’s a pipe dream, they think, fantasy land.

If only they knew the God who is more fantastic than any fantasy. If only they knew the God who truly saves!

That’s why Jesus performed the miracles He did, to show people, it really can be better. That God really is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle. And that help comes through Jesus alone.

That help comes in two stages. First, Jesus, our Brother, received the wages of sin for us. He tasted death, received the curse. An innocent man—THE innocent MAN—died. God allowed Him to die. God sent Him into the world to receive sin’s wages, so that, through faith in Him, we might receive His gift of eternal life. As it says in Galatians 3, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).

But Christ rose from the dead—not temporarily, but eternally. And because Jesus took our curse, our wages, upon Himself, and because He rose from the dead, stage 1 of our restoration—of our resurrection! —happens now when we hear the voice of the risen Son of God in the Gospel and believe in Him. The result is immediate forgiveness of sins—justification by faith. The curse upon our souls—God’s wrath against our sin—is gone. As Paul says, We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. The curse of condemnation and the curse of eternal death in hell are removed. Paul writes, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And a new life begins, as Jesus said in John 5: He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

Stage 2 of our restoration waits eagerly—desperately, almost—for Jesus to return. When He does, All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. On that day the curse that remains over our flesh will be lifted. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?

Until then—that’s always the hard part, isn’t it? Until then, rest in the image of the loving and compassionate Lord Jesus walking up to the sorrowing widow and restoring life to her son as easily as speaking a word. Rest in the lifting of the curse upon your soul that already took place when you heard the word of Christ in the Gospel and when you were buried with Christ through Baptism into death. Rest in the lifting of the curse upon our bodies that will take place soon enough. And, as you’re able, help your neighbor to understand the reason why suffering and death still afflict us in this world: as a wake-up call to the impenitent and unbelieving, that they might obey the Gospel before the curse overtakes them forever, body and soul; and to the believer in Christ, as the final stages of birth pangs, and as the empty threats of a death that has already been defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ, a death that will soon be swallowed up in victory. Amen.

 

 

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A Christian must live on divine welfare

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Where is your next meal going to come from? That’s probably a question you haven’t had to deal with in quite some time, right? Maybe at some point in your life. But which of you has no food in the fridge, or in the pantry? Which of you has no money in the bank or in the stock market or under the mattress? Which of you is living paycheck to paycheck? Or, if you are, is it to fund basic things like food, clothing and shelter, or is to fund a lifestyle you’ve gotten used to, or future plans—not evening knowing for certain that there will be a future?

And that’s really where we’re at, I think. I have all that I need for today. But what about tomorrow’s meals? And by “tomorrow” I mean, the rest of my life and the life of my children and the life of my children’s children. Do you worry about such things? If so, ask yourself, why?

There are two competing ideas among the people of the world with regard to where my next meal is going to come from. There’s an entitlement, welfare mentality that says, my meals for tomorrow are going to come from you. You’re going to make sure that I’m well-fed, sheltered, clothed, have decent health care, and maybe much more than that. You and everyone around you are going to see to it, by force of law. So hand over your money so that I can eat. I’m entitled to it for one reason: I’m a human being. I exist, therefore I should be fed and taken care of by my fellow human beings.

Call that socialism. Call it communism. Call it extortion. Or just call it by its Biblical name: coveting, and then, stealing. Breaking the Ninth Commandment, and then the Seventh. Setting your heart on your neighbor’s wealth and giving it a guise of godliness, an outward appearance of lawfulness. But it’s godless. It’s wicked. It’s a damnable sin to set your heart on your neighbor’s wealth and to claim it as your own. (And notice, I’m not saying that receiving welfare is a sin. The sin is setting your heart on your neighbor’s wealth, as if it ought to be yours.)

Now, before you shout Amen! to that, there’s also the opposite idea people have about where my next meal is going to come from. It’s going to come…from me! No one’s going to help me, except for me. It all depends on me. Me and my ingenuity. Me and my hard work. Me and my plans and my decisions and my bright ideas.

But that’s godless, too, isn’t it? (And notice, I’m not saying that working hard is godless. Not at all! But trusting in your hard work to provide for your tomorrow—that’s idolatry.

Take both mentalities—the welfare mentality and the hard work mentality—and see that, in the end, they’re the same. Where is my tomorrow’s meal going to come from? It’s going to come from money, from mammon, from wealth, whether it’s your hard-earned income or whether it’s mine. If I’m going to eat, money will have to provide. And both mentalities end with the same result, don’t they? Worry. What if I can’t get you to feed me and provide health care for me? Or, what if I can’t provide for myself, in spite of all my hard work? Well, try harder, right? Throw a tantrum and get the politicians on my side to force you to do it. Or search and search and search until I find a job for myself that will provide for me, and then hope that it lasts, that it doesn’t disappoint me tomorrow.

But what does Jesus say to that godless way of life? No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon—wealth. If you live to get money, you can’t serve God. And if you live to serve God, you can’t serve wealth.

But I need money to live! I need food! I need clothes! (And I want so much more than that, too!)

God knows that. He isn’t ignorant of your needs, nor is He unconcerned about you. Quite the opposite. And that’s the point of our Gospel. You don’t need money to live. You need God to live—the One who created you and all things, who gave you your eyes, ears, and all your members, your reason and all your senses. He’s still the one who preserves them by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and yard, land, cattle, and all that you have—with all that you need to sustain your body and life.

More importantly, God is the One who has redeemed you, not with gold or silver, not with mammon, but with the holy, precious blood of His Son and with His innocent suffering and death. More than that, God is the One who, by His Holy Spirit, has adopted you by calling you by the Gospel, enlightening you with His gifts, sanctifying you in the covenant-waters of Holy Baptism where He washed away all your sins, made you His child, and committed Himself to your temporal and eternal welfare. See! You don’t need to serve money in order to live. What you need to live…is divine welfare.

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? The answer is, yes you are. You’re more valuable than any animal. Each of you is worth more than all the animal-life on earth put together, because God made man in His own image, and though that image has been damaged in all of us beyond repair, God chose to redeem us, to bring us to faith in His Son, to justify us by faith, and to recreate His image in all of His believing children—the New Man who is being daily renewed by His Holy Spirit, who dwells in you as His own holy temple. So, yes, you’re more valuable than the birds. And if they are the recipients of divine welfare, you most certainly will be. So don’t worry about tomorrow’s meals.

Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? See, you’re more valuable than grass! More valuable than flowers. If God adds beauty to the things that only last for a day or for a moment—without any work or worry on their part—won’t He find a way to cover up your body, since He redeemed your body, and washed your body in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and has filled it with His Holy Spirit and has promised to raise it from the dead to live with Him forever? So don’t worry about clothing.

Food and clothing are representative of all the needs of the body—daily bread, as Jesus calls it in the Lord’s Prayer, which includes everything that pertains to the needs and sustenance of the body, such as food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, yard, land, cattle, money, property, a godly spouse, godly children, godly servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, trustworthy neighbors, and the like.

As Jesus says, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. You see, divine welfare is already a given. So instead of spending your time and your energy running after tomorrow’s meals, instead of worrying about tomorrow, Jesus directs the children of God to His kingdom and His righteousness. What does that mean?

It means, let God’s kingdom’s fill your thoughts and drive your efforts. Not that you work your way into God’s kingdom. But the things that brought you into God’s kingdom in the first place—hearing the Word of God as it is preached and receiving His Sacraments—are also the things that keep you there. Seek those things first, before worrying about your job or about tomorrow’s needs.

And the righteousness of God—that becomes yours by faith in Christ Jesus, so that you stand righteous before God all the time. But it also refers to leading holy lives here on earth. Seek first to keep God’s commandments, to do God’s will, and don’t let worry for tomorrow’s meals get in the way of that. Seeking God’s righteousness may even mean you lose your job, or even more than that. Learn to say, “That’s OK.” The money you earn doesn’t provide for you. God’s provides for you. Christians are to live on divine welfare.

If that hurts your pride, then repent of your pride and recognize that you are not worthy of any of the good things you have. They are all gifts of grace.

On the other hand, some people, would try to abuse that divine welfare system, thinking, “I’m on divine welfare! That means I don’t have to work!” But that’s also wrong. God says, through the apostle Paul, “If a man will not work, let him not eat.” Working is part of seeking God’s righteousness, one of the things God has given us to do. You see, you’re not working hard for food. You’re working hard for God. You’re working because God has called you to work, whether at a job that makes money or whether it’s working as a father, mother, etc. You’re working, not to have food for yourself, but to serve God. And He will likely use your hard work as a means of providing for you, so that you not only have enough for yourself and your family, but also have money with which to help others, and maybe, according to His grace, enough left over to have some nice things for yourself, too. But even if you work hard your whole life, a Christian must always remain on divine welfare, because if not, you’re back to serving mammon. And no one can serve two masters.

Take the warning Jesus offers today in the Gospel not to depend on yourself or on other men for tomorrow’s meals. Take the warning not to distrust the God who has made Himself your Father by uniting you to the Lord Christ. And most of all, take the comfort Jesus offers here, to know God as a good and caring Father who would never think of abandoning you in any time of need. He hasn’t yet, and He never will. He will see to your well-being. He will see to your welfare. Trust in Him, not in your wealth. With wealth comes worry. But under God’s divine welfare plan, there’s never a need to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, like today, is in your Father’s hands, and He cares for you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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The whole Christian life is a Kyrie and a thanksgiving

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

Today’s Epistle talked about “the flesh” vs. “the spirit.” What is “the flesh” St. Paul was referring to? I think you know he was talking about the sinful, spiritual disease that dwells in our flesh—in the flesh of all people. The infectious, inherited corruption that runs throughout ourselves and our race, passed down like a disease from Adam and Eve after they fell into sin. The disease lives in all human beings and is the source of every wicked work, of which St. Paul listed a number in the Epistle: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.

You know how the Bible often uses the physical maladies of some people to illustrate the spiritual defects in all people? Blindness depicting spiritual blindness? Deafness pointing to spiritual deafness, etc.? Today in our Gospel we see the disease that pictures for us “the flesh”: Leprosy. A disease of the whole flesh, spotted skin riddled with sores. A disease that made a person unfit to live with “healthy” people, a disease that kept a person far away from the holy things in God’s temple.

That’s what the flesh is like, a spiritual disease of the whole person, making us sinners before God from the time our mothers conceived us, blemished, spotted, unfit to live among the saints, unfit to approach God.

But see what happened in the Gospel! Ten men with leprosy somehow, somewhere heard the good report about Jesus, that He was “the Master,” that He was powerful to heal every kind of disease, and that He was merciful to all who came to Him for help. They heard it, and they believed it. You can tell they believed it from their cry of faith, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!

The word about Jesus had already kindled faith in the hearts of the lepers—at least, faith in Jesus for physical healing. And so He healed them. He didn’t wave their leprosy away then and there, but instead He sent them on their way to the priests in Jerusalem, who were charged with examining lepers to see if they were truly healed.

The priests—the keepers of the Law—were the ones who could pronounce lepers clean. But the priests—the keepers of the Law—weren’t the ones who could cleanse them. Only Jesus could do that. And there’s our first spiritual lesson in this Gospel. The Law can’t save anyone, can’t heal anyone before God, because we start out life diseased, infected with original sin and condemned by the Law for it. But by faith in Christ Jesus, there is cleansing before God, and not just of original sin, but of all sin, so that, by faith in Christ Jesus we can now stand before God and the Law has to pronounce us Christians righteous—not because we have a cleanness of our own, but because faith in the cleansing, forgiving power of Jesus, makes us clean. As Jesus said to the leper who returned, “Your faith has saved you.”

But you remember how the story went on. As the lepers were journeying to the priests, they looked down at their flesh at some point, and they saw that they were no longer lepers. They had been cleansed by Jesus. Nine of the ten kept going to the priests, but one of them stopped and turned around and glorified God with a loud voice. He ran back to where Jesus was. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and gave thanks to Him.

Luke notes that he was a Samaritan, which should remind you of another Samaritan encounter we heard about last week—the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans practiced false worship and were despised by the Jews for both religious and racial reasons (the hatred was mutual, from what we can tell). But this Samaritan gets it right. He recognizes the true God in the person of Jesus. He won’t be satisfied with anywhere else for giving thanks to God than at the feet of Jesus. He doesn’t care that Jesus is a Jew. What does that matter? Jesus is his God who came to his aid. He had to return to where Jesus was to give thanks.

And Jesus was glad he did. But first Jesus had to note the absence of the other nine. Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? Clearly it mattered to Jesus that the other nine failed to give thanks to Him, because it revealed something about those nine men. Although they had started out well, believing in Him for healing, they quickly forgot about Him. And that’s not what saving faith does.

Saving faith doesn’t believe in Jesus for a moment and then leave Him to get back to our own life apart from Him. When the Holy Spirit works faith in a poor sinner, He grants forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus. Another way of saying that is, He gives the sinner new birth, to be born again, “regeneration,” we sometimes call it. The flesh, the sinful nature, isn’t wiped out and destroyed, in the process. Instead, it’s “crucified,” as Paul wrote to the Galatians. It’s “drowned,” as we confess in the Small Catechism, in Holy Baptism. But it’s drowned “daily” as we return each day to our Baptism, in contrition and repentance.

And then what? A New Man daily emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. As Paul said to the Ephesians, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Walk in the Spirit, Paul wrote in the Epistle, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The first step in that walk in the Spirit is thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for God’s giving of His Son into death for our sins. Thanksgiving for Christ’s sacrifice of love. Thanksgiving for the Spirit’s free and faithful gift of forgiveness, for the sake of Christ.

Jesus praised the one who returned to give Him thanks, because it was a sign that the man’s faith was genuine, a sign that the man had truly been born again, as opposed to the other nine whose faith flickered and died as quickly as it had been kindled.

Assuming you all meant the words you confessed already today in this service, you came here, first, to seek the Lord’s mercy in Christ Jesus. Lord, have mercy! Who takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us! That’s good and right. The whole Christian life begins with that cry of faith, kindled by the word you have heard about God’s mercy in Christ. And you also came here this morning to give thanks to God in the place where God has promised to be, here, where the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are administered. Glory be to God on high!…We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory… That’s the response of faith.

Let that cry of, Kyrie! Lord have mercy, and the response of thanksgiving characterize your life throughout the week. You can’t be here in church every day. You’re not supposed to be. God has given you duties to perform in this earthly life. But what happens here on Sunday mornings—your cry of Kyrie and your response of thanksgiving—can play itself out every day as you live in daily contrition and repentance, and as the New Man emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Walk in the Spirit, according to the new, cleansed man, not according to the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another. Remember your Baptism! Remember that you have received God’s forgiveness, and with it, a New Man. Not that you won’t still struggle with sin. On the contrary, you will see that sin is your constant companion.

But so is the grace of God in Christ Jesus, which saves you from the Law’s condemnation and from the guilt of your sins, and inspires you to produce all the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

You noticed, He didn’t mention “thanksgiving” in that list, did he? That’s because thankfulness to God characterizes the whole life of the Christian and accompanies every fruit of the Spirit. It’s a part of every truly good work. Lord, have mercy! Lord, thank you for your mercy! That’s the Christian life. May God give you strength to live it again this week. Amen.

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You can’t earn God’s favor by being a Good Samaritan

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22  +  Luke 10:23-37

(Only the audio and text of the sermon is available today. Right-click here to download sermon or click the Play button below to listen.)

There is some real devastation occurring around the country and around the world at the moment: fires, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, droughts. (Thank God, we’ve been spared from those things here, at least for the moment.)

In the midst of all these natural disasters, we’ve been hearing more and more about “Good Samaritans” stepping forward to help total strangers in this way or that. All of that is good. All of that is wonderful, even inspiring, and if you have a chance to help a stranger in need, do it!

But that’s not actually what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is about, and if you get this wrong, you turn Christianity into nothing more than another do-good religion that looks very friendly, that seems very helpful, but that cannot save anyone from condemnation on the Day of Judgment. And make no mistake, all the natural disasters we’re facing right now are divinely sent signs and harbingers of the coming of Christ, His coming for judgment, which is drawing closer and closer, except that we can’t pinpoint its arrival date like we (sort of) can with the hurricanes. Something much worse than wildfires and hurricanes is coming on the world for all the wickedness of man—eternal death and destruction in hell.

So understanding the Gospel of Christ, and specifically, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, is more important now than ever. And what you should understand from the Good Samaritan is that you can’t escape condemnation by being a “Good Samaritan.”

Actually…actually you could escape condemnation by being a Good Samaritan, but that’s just the problem. You can’t. Because being a Good Samaritan isn’t about doing a good deed for a stranger once in a while. It’s about an entire life devoted to selflessly serving your every neighbor in his every need. That’s how much God’s holy Law demands, if you want to be saved by it.

There was a very law-oriented lawyer in our Gospel who wanted to test Jesus. These lawyers, and many of the Jews, seemed to think that Jesus was bad-mouthing God’s Law, because He was teaching the people that the Law couldn’t save them, that they had so completely broken the Law that the only way to be saved was apart from the Law, by God’s grace, by God’s promise of forgiveness, by faith in Him, the Christ, whom the Father had sent. So the lawyer tested Jesus, trying to get Jesus to openly disparage the Law of Moses and get Himself in even more trouble with the Jewish authorities. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

But Jesus surprised him. Instead of tossing out the Law, Jesus pointed the lawyer right to it. What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? The man was ready with a memorized answer: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ It was a good answer, a wonderful summary of the Old Testament Law which Jesus Himself used at times. You have answered rightly, Jesus said. Do this and you will live.

“Do this.” It jarred the lawyer. He hadn’t really considered the meaning of the words he had memorized. Love. Love, as God defines it. Love, which comes from the heart, not just outwardly going through the motions. Love the Lord with all your heart…all…all…all. That doesn’t leave any room at all for self-love, does it? Or for self-service. Or for seeking pleasure, or for seeking revenge, or for anger, or for bitterness, or for apathy. Love the Lord with everything you are and have. And, because the Lord commands it, also love your neighbor as yourself.

“Do this.” The lawyer was starting to see that his precious Law, instead of saving him, actually demanded far more than he could give, and so it actually condemned him. But still wanting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” That’s what prompted Jesus to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan—to pound the final nail into the lawyer’s spiritual coffin.

Who is my neighbor? And what does it mean to love him as I love myself? The word “neighbor” simply means “the person next to you.” The Jew who had been robbed, beaten, and left for dead was next to the priest who came by on the road. The wounded man needed his help. But the priest walked on by, not loving him enough to lend a hand. The Jew lying on the side of the road was next to the Levite who came by on the road. The wounded man needed the Levite’s help. But the Levite walked on by, not loving him enough to lend a hand. It was the Samaritan, the natural enemy of the Jews, who saw the wounded Jew lying there, next to him on the road, and did love him enough to help. And not with a begrudging, “OK, I guess I’m supposed to help this guy,” but with true compassion and care, bandaging his wounds, putting him up on his own animal, walking beside him all the way to the inn, caring for him there, and even leaving money for the innkeeper to care for him until he came back from his journey.

So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

This, the Good Samaritan, is what it means to be a neighbor, to be a friend to the person next to you, whether that person is a complete stranger who needs your help once, or whether it’s a person who lives in the same house with you and needs your help 24/7. That’s what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. This was always the full meaning of the Fifth Commandment (which just so happens to be the commandment we’re learning by heart this week): You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every bodily need.

“Do this and you will live.” People imagine that this is the end, the goal of Christianity. The truth is, it’s not even the beginning!

Christianity, the Gospel of Christ, begins where the Law ends. The Law of God has shown us what perfection looks like. Love for God, love for your neighbor. It not only shows us. It demands that we live like this if we want to live forever with God. People like to convince themselves that they’re good people when they do good deeds for strangers, but the Law doesn’t end with a good deed. What about the next stranger? And the next? What about the people living in your house with you? Or your parents? Or your children? What about your next-door neighbor? Your fellow church-member neighbor? You helped them today? Good! What about tomorrow? And the next day? And the next? It’s like a father who changes a diaper once and thinks he deserves a medal! There will be plenty more where that came from. Will he be eager to change it the next time, and the next, and the next?

No, we are not Good Samaritans, and we never will be—not the kind who can earn God’s favor and eternal life by our goodness. Original sin, the corruption of our nature, ensures that. Because, at our best, we are like the Apostle Paul, who confessed, I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…The good that I want to do, I do not do; but the evil I do not want to do, that I practice.

Jesus didn’t give us the pattern of the Good Samaritan to show us how to gain eternal life. He gave it to those who thought they could gain eternal life by their works, to show them that they couldn’t.

What, then? If not by works, then how? That’s what Christianity answers, what the Gospel offers. To those who have been brought to the painful recognition of their sins and of their inability to save themselves, the Gospel offers Jesus. As St. Paul further confessed, O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Jesus is the divine Stranger, the Samaritan, the Foreigner from above, who saw us, His natural enemies, wounded by the devil and left for dead in our sins and trespasses, and took pity on us. He loved His Father with all His heart and kept all His commandments for us. He loved us as Himself and gave Himself into death for us as the sacrifice for our sins. He bandaged and tended our wounds through the preachers of the Gospel who have proclaimed His life, death and resurrection, and through Holy Baptism, that cleansing bath. And He has placed us in the care of the Church until He returns, to feed us with His body and blood and to keep tending our wounds with the continual preaching of the Gospel of peace.

What’s more, this was the plan all along. God never intended to save the Jews or anyone through the Law, but, as Paul pointed out in today’s Epistle to the Galatians, it was always God’s promise to Abraham and to His Seed, the promised Christ, that God intended to give eternal life to all who believe. Salvation has always been by the promise. Salvation has always been by faith in Christ.

How do we become heirs of eternal life? The Gospel is clear: 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.

Only those who have been made heirs of eternal life by grace, through faith, for the sake of Christ, can begin to be “Good Samaritans.” Does God want us to “do this”? To show love and mercy and constant compassion to those whom He has placed next to us? Yes! Absolutely! But He wants us to do it in the context of faith, in the context of baptismal adoption, as those who are no longer trying to earn His favor, but as those who have been made heirs through faith in Christ, as those who are no longer slaves to the Law, but free children of God, imitating their Father in heaven. You can’t earn God’s favor or escape condemnation by being a Good Samaritan. But you, God’s children, freed from condemnation through faith in Christ Jesus, can show the world that you are God’s children by imitating the Good Samaritan. You have witnessed God’s love in action in the loving service of Christ to all men. Now, as Christians, go and do likewise! Amen.

 

 

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Your ears and tongue are there for a reason

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 12

2 Corinthians 3:4-11  +  Mark 7:31-37

You heard in the Gospel how Jesus healed a deaf man, who couldn’t hear, and who also couldn’t speak. You heard it, because you have been given ears that work. And you have already confessed many things this morning about yourself and about God, for the benefit of those around you, because you have been given tongues that work. So, you see, there is a simple lesson here in the Gospel of the kindness and the power of Christ, who healed that deaf and mute man long ago. But there is a deeper lesson here, too, about an ear-problem and a speech impediment that affects all men, including Christians, and about an ear-healing and a tongue-healing that Jesus grants, in His mercy, to those who are brought to Him for help.

To be deaf is an especially serious problem. Do you remember what we confess in the Small Catechism, the First Article of the Creed? I believe that God has made me and all creatures, and that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them. Why do we single out eyes and ears? Why are they so important? Because with our eyes we see God’s revelation of Himself to us in nature, and with our eyes we are able to read God’s revelation of Himself to us in the Bible. But perhaps even more importantly, with our ears we are able to hear the preaching of the Word of God, which is God’s primary tool for bringing us to faith in His Son and for keeping us in the faith. Faith comes by hearing, isn’t that what God’s Word says? And what did Jesus once say? Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. You see, God has great gifts to give you through your ears.

The tongue, on the other hand, isn’t used for receiving, but for giving: giving a confession of your sins to God, and giving a confession of the Christian faith to your neighbor. But the ears have to come first. Hearing has to come first, to receive the Word of God so that you know what to confess and to be moved to confess in the first place.

The deaf man in our Gospel needed help. You can get by in life without the sense of hearing, but it sure comes in handy. His friends who brought him to Jesus shouldn’t be overlooked. They couldn’t heal their deaf friend, but they did all they could do for him, most importantly, bringing him to Jesus. Because they could hear, and so they knew who Jesus was, that He had the healing their friend needed. They could speak, and so they did speak up on behalf of their friend, pleading with Jesus to have mercy on him.

And Jesus did have mercy. He stopped everything, took the man aside from the crowd. And then communicated with the deaf man through his eyes and with his sense of touch instead of his ears. If you were listening before, you heard about the sign-language Jesus used to communicate to the deaf man what He was about to do. With mercy, with kindness, and with divine power, Jesus gave him working ears and a working tongue.

As always, the physical maladies in Scripture point to spiritual maladies that affect all people, just as the physical healings that Jesus performed point to the spiritual healings that Jesus offers to all people.

What’s the problem with people’s ears? What sin does deafness highlight? Well, sometimes people refuse to hear God’s Word. And those who hear often fail to listen. And that’s a much more serious problem than physical deafness. What did we confess this last week in our review of the Small Catechism, the Third Commandment? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.

God requires the world to fear and love Him enough to gladly hear His Word when it’s preached, because this is your God speaking to you. And not just to hear, but to learn, to think about, and to trust. But people come up with one excuse after another why they don’t need to hear the preachers whom God Himself has sent. And even when they hear, they act as if they didn’t.

That kind of deafness is complete among the unbelievers of the world. Among believers, it isn’t complete. But it’s still present in the sinful flesh. It still threatens. It still corrupts. And the temptation to not hear or to not listen or to not take to heart—to hear with your ears but to be miles away in your thoughts—is strong.

And without the ears, the tongue will never work quite right. Without hearing God’s Law that accuses you of sin and threatens you with death, your tongue will never be moved to confess your sins before God. Without hearing God’s Gospel of His grace and mercy in the Person of His beloved Son, His willing sacrifice on the cross for your sins, His promise of forgiveness for everything, not by works, but by faith—without hearing that Gospel, your tongue will never be moved to confess Christ Jesus as Lord, not with faith, not with joy, not from the heart.

But you’re here this morning, gathered around the Word of Christ, either because the New Man in you wanted to hear or because someone brought or invited you here for healing. In either case, the almighty Lord Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit with His very own tool, the Word of God, to show you your sins, but even more, to show you God’s mercy, to point you to the cross of Jesus, whose death on the cross purchased the healing of your soul, healing which He now offers in the forgiveness of sins.

And with forgiveness comes the gift of new ears and a new tongue. Ears to hear your Shepherd’s voice; tongues to confess both your sins and your faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Ears to hear His teaching eagerly; tongues to speak the truth you have learned from God in your every-day lives. Ears to hear the comfort of His promises of grace and mercy and daily providence throughout all the chaos and uncertainty of this earthly life; tongues to thank Him and to praise Him, and to invite the people whom God has placed around you, whom you know to be either partially or entirely deaf, in a spiritual sense, to come to this place where healing is, where Jesus is, every Sunday, with His Gospel, His Sacrament, His healing, His truth, His sacrifice, His love.

You Christians have been given ears. So use them for their intended purpose. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!, says the Lord. You have been given tongues. Use them, too, not to tear down, but to build up, to speak the truth, and to point men to Christ, so that every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

 

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