…As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Michaelmas 3 / Trinity 22

Deuteronomy 7:9-11  +  Philippians 1:3-11  +  Matthew 18:23-35

We have before us in the Gospel an illustration of the second half of the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Do you find it difficult to forgive the one who has sinned against you? You’re not alone. Jesus’ disciples also found it difficult. In the words before our text begins, Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” And lest we take this command of Jesus as a mere suggestion which His Christians can choose to either obey or disobey, if they find it too difficult, He tells a parable to show how serious He is about it.

The kingdom of heaven is like… First, understand the context. Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, the Church, those who have been baptized. He is not concerned here with those who are outside the Church, but with those who call themselves Christians. He speaks of the King and “His servants.”

Now, lest anyone should think that our forgiving others comes first, and only then will God forgive us, we have the King dealing first with his servant who owes a great debt to the king. Our debt with God comes first. You can forgive your neighbor a million times, and you haven’t bought an ounce of God’s forgiveness with it. The debt each one owes to Him has to be dealt with first.

God sends out His holy law that demands love toward Him and your neighbor. “You shall, you shall not.” We have sinned against that law with words, deeds, thoughts, and our very self. Sin is part of our very nature. Meanness, unkindness, love for our own self, for our own ideas. Those sins add up to an enormous debt before God, like 10,000 years worth of wages.

God’s Law not only sets the standard for what we owe to God, but it also sets the punishment for disobedience: death for the debtor.

The first servant in the parable acknowledges his debt and asks for mercy, not even imagining a complete forgiveness of his debt, but seeking a little bit of mercy.

The King demonstrates great compassion, mercy. He forgives the entire debt that would have cost 10,000 years wages to repay. It’s gone. That’s a picture of how God forgives us when we seek His mercy for the sake of Christ. Christ’s death satisfied the demands of the Law for all people, so that all who seek God’s mercy for the sake of Christ are forgiven by Him through Holy Baptism.

You would expect that the forgiven servant would depart in peace and joy. Instead, he immediately goes and finds a fellow servant in God’s kingdom and demands payment for the debt owed to him. Now, demanding payment is what the King also did at first. If we are to behave toward others as God behaves toward us, then telling someone, “You have sinned against me. You owe me a debt for the wrong you did,” is not only excusable, but is part of imitating God.

But the forgiven servant does more than the King did with him. He “laid hands on his fellow servant and took him by the throat.” This is not just about collecting a debt. This is about rage, bitterness, anger, and hatred toward his fellow servant. Even if someone sins against you, you are not free to beat him up or hate him in return.

The fellow servant speaks the same words as did the forgiven servant. He fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ This is important. The scenario that Jesus presents is of your fellow servant, your fellow Christian, who, when confronted with his sin against you, begs for mercy and patience. He tells you that he is sorry for having sinned against you. This parable says nothing about forgiving your impenitent brother.

The forgiven servant behaves far differently than the King. “He would not.” He refused. He didn’t want to have mercy, much less forgive his fellow servant.  He threw him in prison. Isn’t that ugly? Isn’t that perverse? To have the King’s forgiveness for such an enormous debt, and then to refuse to have mercy on your fellow servant who owed you so little. How could a Christian behave that way?

This happens when a Christian allows the devil, the world, and his own sinful flesh to rule him, when he stops struggling with them and gives in to their hatred and becomes self-centered. He no longer considers his own sins to be that great, and so he no longer considers God’s forgiveness to him to be that big of deal. He begins to look at his own works and earning him some favor from God so that, even if he sins, he thinks he deserves God’s forgiveness because, overall, he’s a pretty good person. So the picture is skewed in his heart and turned upside down. He thinks that his debt to God is only “this big,” while the debt owed to him by his fellow Christian is a million times bigger. He expects that God will continue to forgive him his “tiny debt” because he deserves it, while he views his fellows Christian as dirt.

It won’t work that way. Jesus issues a powerful warning in this parable. He who despises mercy and refuses to forgive his neighbor, especially his fellow Christian who apologizes for his sin and asks for forgiveness, will have his whole debt reinstated and will be tortured for all eternity. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

How can this be? Because such a Christian has fallen away from the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.  Faith in Christ does not behave this way, does not despise mercy and refuse to forgive. The flesh does want to behave that way, and the world tells you you’re justified in acting that way, and the devil tempts you to act that way. But faith struggles against the voices of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, and does not allow them to get the upper hand. Faith says, “I know that my debt to God is 10,000 times greater than the debt this person owes to me, and God, out of pure grace and mercy, has given His Son for me and has forgiven me my great debt in Holy Baptism. So even though my flesh wants to remain angry and bitter toward the one who sinned against me, if he will just acknowledge his sin and repent of it, I will gladly forgive him. His sin against me is nothing compared to my sins against God.”

Where is the comfort in this Gospel? There is no comfort for the one who stubbornly refuses to forgive those who repent of their sins. There is only judgment here for that one. But for the one who hears these words of Christ and is afraid, for the one who hears these words of Christ and recognizes the bitterness in his own heart, there is great comfort. Because once again, today, the King, through this Gospel, calls in his servants and exposes their great debt. Once again, today, you have confessed unto Him all your sins and iniquities with which you have ever offended Him and justly deserved His temporal and eternal punishment. But you said that you are heartily sorry for them, and you have sought His mercy and forgiveness for the sake of the holy, innocent bitter sufferings and death of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. And once again today, the King has pardoned you and forgiven your debt. And here in His Holy Sacrament He once again seals that forgiveness to you. And if anyone wishes to receive Absolution in private, one on one, come and see me. We still practice private confession and absolution in the Lutheran Church.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” So we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t despise God’s forgiveness to you by refusing to forgive your brother who sins against you. God’s great mercy toward you in Christ is all the strength you need to now go forth and forgive your brother or sister, and that, not just once, not just seven times, but seventy times seven. This is the will of God for those who are His servants in His kingdom. And as you remain in Christ, as branches in the Vine, you will be enabled to produce this good fruit of forgiveness, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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A stronger faith than before

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Michaelmas 2 / Trinity 21

Hosea 13:14  +  Ephesians 6:10-17  +  John 4:46-54

As you heard St. Paul warn us today, we Christians are at war. But not like the Muslims are at war who seek to kill and compel and destroy. What did Paul say? We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We are at war with the devil, and lives are at stake. You can’t ward off the devil with holy water and crucifixes, nor can you protect yourself with your own will power or with your own strength. There is only one shield that can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one: the shield of faith. Not just any faith, but faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who bore your sins to the cross and earned for you everlasting life.

Faith can be weak and faith can be strong. Weak or strong, where there is faith in Christ crucified, you are protected. You are safe. You are righteous before God. Because you are clothed in Jesus. A weak faith has Christ just as much as a strong faith does. He is the treasure that faith holds. A strong faith holds onto Him firmly. A weak faith holds onto Him loosely. A strong faith holds onto Christ when the world crumbles around you. A weak faith crumbles in the face of adversity.

The question is, who is it who strengthens your faith? It isn’t you. It’s God the Holy Spirit. He does it through His Word. He speaks and causes your grip on Christ to grow tighter, firmer. He strengthens your faith because He knows the enemies you face from without and the enemy from within who would turn you away from trusting in God. He strengthens your faith so that, in the hour of trial, you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Now, maybe you think you already have a really strong faith. Good! The Israelites, too, thought they had a strong faith—until a few days passed with no food in sight and they turned against God and Moses. The apostles thought they possessed a great faith, too, until the storm came up on the sea and they almost despaired. Indeed, Peter thought he had a strong faith as he walked on the waves—until he saw the waves and began to sink. Then their supposedly strong faith showed itself for what it was: a faith supported by sight rather than a faith supported by God’s Word.

The fact is that we are in constant need of God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, and the strength that only comes by God’s Word. And the good news is that God is ever ready and willing to give you grace, and forgiveness, and strengthening through His Word. He does this very thing through the inspired words of John’s Gospel today, just as He did for the nobleman we hear about in the Gospel.

The nobleman in the Gospel had a son who was near death. He had heard a little bit about Jesus’ power and goodness. Word of Jesus’ miracle of changing water into wine at Cana had spread in Galilee, even as His miracles in Judea had become widely known. That good report about Jesus convinced the nobleman that Jesus would help. Fine so far.

But his plea for help betrays the weak point of his faith. He implored Jesus to come with him down to his house in Capernaum where his dying son was. He believed Jesus could do something—if Jesus were close enough to his son!

Does this remind you of another parable? Remember the parable of the Roman centurion who sent envoys to Jesus to ask Him to heal his servant? Jesus even offered to go to his house, but the Roman centurion said, “No, Lord, I’m not worthy to have you come, and besides, it isn’t necessary. I know that all you have to do is say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Jesus praised the faith of that centurion highly. It was just where it needed to be at that moment, putting all his trust in the word of Jesus.

The nobleman wasn’t there yet. He didn’t yet trust the simple word of Jesus. So Jesus tests him, and not just him, but all the people, and you and me as well: Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe. Well, that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? It’s easy to believe God will provide—as long as you see Him providing! As long as you have the safety net of a decent job, or a full pantry, or a little bit saved away in your bank account. But take that all away, and you find out what the source of your faith was. Was it the word of Jesus that “all these things shall be added to you,” or was it the stuff in your pantry or the money in your bank account, or the job you thought was stable? It’s easy to believe God is good when you and your family are healthy. But take away the health of a loved one, and you find out what the source of your faith was. Do you find yourself still relying on God’s promise to work all things together for good to those who love Him, or do you find yourself panicking or even cursing God?

The nobleman in the Gospel still thought that the Lord wasn’t powerful enough to help Him by His Word alone, but would only be powerful enough if He came with Him in person to heal his son: Sir, come down before my child dies! Less talk, Jesus. More action. Less talk, Jesus. More doing things that actually help me. How many people don’t think that way still today? How often have you thought, “It’s not the Word of Jesus I need to hear. It’s His actual help in my life. His Word isn’t relevant. His Word isn’t enough. His Word won’t help me.” But they’re wrong. They’ve got everything backwards. Their faith is weak for the very reason that they do not listen and pay attention to the Word of Jesus.

But then, if anyone will listen, the Word of Jesus comes along to keep faith from dying and to build it up stronger than it was before. Jesus said to the nobleman: Go your way; your son lives. Just a word. Just a promise. Jesus doesn’t hold his hand and walk with him to his home. He sends him away with a promise. And what did that promise produce in the nobleman who just a moment ago was desperate and afraid? So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

Oh, for such a promise from Jesus! “Your pantry will be full! You’ll get the position you want on your team, at your job! Your cancer, your illness will go away! Your loved one will not die.” No, these are not the promises Jesus has made. You cannot have faith in things that God hasn’t promised, not real faith. But that doesn’t mean He has left you with no promises. Every petition of the Lord’s Prayer is a promise from Jesus that your Father will hear and grant it. Or these: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Sometimes you don’t get to see how God keeps His promises to you. In some cases you will not know until you get to heaven how God was working faithfully to keep every promise He ever made to you in His Word. But sometimes you do get to see, like this father did in our Gospel. Sometimes you do get to see how God moved history to keep His promises to you.

The nobleman got to see his son healed at the word of Jesus. And he himself believed, and his whole household. There, you see? Jesus promised, then the nobleman believed. Then the nobleman saw with his eyes that Jesus had kept His promise. And then he believed even more, and not just him, but his whole household. Believed—what? That his son was healed? No, he didn’t need to believe that. He could see that for himself. What did he now believe? He believed in Jesus—that He would continue to help, that He was the Savior sent from God who would help with him in his every need.

Words. Promises. Faith. They’re important. Because there is still one promise of God that you will not see fulfilled until after you die. You heard today of a promise God made in the Old Testament that no one could prove, a promise that had to be taken on pure faith, because there was no evidence for it at all. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! If your faith is based on sight, if you only believe in Christ when you can see Him keeping His promise, then you are lost. Because He has made a promise of resurrection and eternal life, but all you see in this world is death. Yet, for as unbelievable as God’s promise of resurrection and victory over death may be, there were some in Israel who believed it without ever seeing it, because the power of God’s Word strengthened their faith in the face of death.

You and I have something more. We have the Word and promise of God, as Israel did. We also have the fulfillment—just one fulfillment of His Word and promise. One resurrection. One victory over death. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the first proof, the first fulfillment of that promise of resurrection. He was the first, but He won’t be the last. He is the firstborn among many brothers. All who believe in Him will be raised as He was to live eternally, even as all who believe in Him have already been raised to new life through the waters of Baptism, by the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus’ victory will be the victory of all who run the race of faith and cross the finish line. Are you worried about strengthening your own faith so that you can finish the race? The answer is to look away from yourself. Instead, listen to the writer to the Hebrews: Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. Let us look to Him for help. Let us look to Him, in His Word and Sacraments, to grant us each day a stronger faith than before. Amen.

 

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Worthy to feast with the King

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Michaelmas 1 / Trinity 20

Isaiah 65:1-2  +  Ephesians 5:15-21  +  Matthew 22:1-14

You heard in the Gospel the parable Jesus told about the marriage feast. If the king sent His messengers to you to invite you to the marriage feast of His Son, would you come? If God the King sent His messengers—prophets, apostles, and pastors—to invite you into His kingdom, to feast with His Son, would you come? You have come. Here you are, baptized into the wedding hall, awaiting the arrival of the King on the Last Day.

Now, understand: the invitation of the King is not first and foremost to come to the Divine Service every Sunday, and this church building is not the wedding hall. But the wedding hall is the Christian Church, into which God invites all men through His appointed messengers, and the Divine Service is the place where God sustains the faith of those who have come, so that when the King comes to see the guests on the Last Day, He may find a Church full of people still clothed in the wedding garment of faith.

We have in this Gospel a story of God’s plan of salvation, and specifically, how many people are called into His Church, where He wants them all to come and remain, to feast with Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, and yet how few are chosen to stay and enjoy the eternal feast with Him. It’s a sobering Gospel, with both a joy-filled encouragement and an urgent admonition: The worthy will feast with the King.

The king in the parable is God the Father, and His Son Jesus is the bridegroom whose marriage feast is at hand. This is the spiritual marriage between Christ and those who are grafted into Him by faith. Paul says in Eph. 5, just after the verses you heard this morning in the Epistle: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Baptism, that washing of water by the word, gives a person entrance into the Church, and the marriage feast is the joyful day when Christ will return to bring His Church to be with Him in the new life of the new heavens and the new earth He will create.

Right up until that day, God invites people into His Church, the wedding hall. He has to invite them, because no one is born into it. People will talk that way: “I was born a Lutheran, Catholic, Christian, etc.” But that’s not true. Everyone descended from Adam and Eve is born a “bad person,” according to Scripture, born a sinner, born outside of God’s kingdom. Everyone is, by nature, a rebel living in rebellion against God, doomed to death and eternal destruction.

But since the beginning, God planned to save mankind out of that death and destruction. The parable Jesus told in the Gospel doesn’t talk about what the King’s Son has done to earn this marriage feast and to purchase the Bride out of slavery, but we can’t pass up the opportunity to mention it. The King’s Son became one of us, became a man, a sinless man. He joined Himself to our flesh forever so that He could die for our sins and became an everlasting source of righteousness for us poor sinners. As Paul said, “He gave Himself for the Church.”

With that in mind, think about how awesome a thing it is that God not only gave His Son for us when we were all sinful and weak, but then sent out messengers to call people to the banquet, to preach faith in Christ, to bid people to come into God’s kingdom.

The first invited were the Jews. They were invited since the time of Abraham. And prophets were sent to preach faith in the coming Christ. But for the most part, They were not willing to come. So the king sent other messengers: John the Baptist was sent; Jesus and His apostles were sent to announce the good news, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel! All things are ready! Come to the wedding!” But the Jews, as a whole, didn’t believe in Christ, didn’t want any part of this marriage feast. They made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.

People rejected the invitation to be saved by faith in Christ for various reasons. Some people simply “made light of it.” Others had worldly concerns that interested them more than Christ. And still others were vicious, violent and full of hate, because an invitation to be saved through faith in Christ meant that they couldn’t save themselves, meant that God was calling them bad people, sinners, unworthy to go to heaven based on their own works, and that made them angry. So they killed the prophets. They killed John the Baptist. They killed Christ Himself. And then they whipped and imprisoned and killed any number of the apostles.

What did the King do when His gracious invitation was rejected and when His servants were mistreated and killed? When the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Those were strong words Jesus preached to the Jews during Holy Week. People in our day don’t often think of God as this God of vengeance that Jesus describes. But He is. “Vengeance is Mine. I will repay, says the Lord.” Sin has earned God’s wrath and vengeance for every person, and God Himself has provided a shelter from wrath in the Person of His Son Jesus. But if people won’t have Jesus, if they won’t take shelter under the protection of His blood shed for our sins, then the King will come with vengeance against them. We see a portion of that vengeance poured out on the Jewish people 40 years after they crucified Jesus, when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the city laid waste.

But the King does not give up on the wedding or on the marriage feast. The King says, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Now, what made the Jews “not worthy”? Was it their many sins against God and man? Were they just such awful people that God didn’t want them? No. What made them not worthy was their refusal to repent and trust in Christ for forgiveness. Christ is the destroyer of sin, who welcomes sinners into His presence and into God’s house. But where someone finds something more precious to himself than Christ, where someone has better things to do than to be with Christ, there all sins remain.

This matter of worthiness is important to understand. No one is worthy of heaven, or of Christ. God always and only invites the unworthy into His kingdom, as we see in the next words of the parable: The King commands His servants: Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. See! There was no distinction in who should be invited and who shouldn’t be invited. The King extends His invitation to all. Come to the wedding! Come to the feast! These people along the highways who were invited—that’s you and me and all the Jews and Gentiles since the time of the apostles. We’re the stragglers, like wild olive branches that have been grafted into the tree of Christ after the natural branches, after the Jews were cut off because of unbelief, as Paul describes in Romans 11. People who have led outwardly good lives and people who have led bad lives—the kingdom of heaven is full of them all, because the King is allowed to invite whomever He wishes.

What makes a person worthy to sit at the feast and to remain when the King finally comes? Only faith in Christ, faith that no one has the ability to conjure up in him or herself, but faith that is kindled by the message of the mercy of Jesus, by the promise of forgiveness for His sake, by the gracious invitation to enter God’s kingdom, to enter the One, Holy, Christian and Apostolic Church through Holy Baptism.

But understand: it is possible to be baptized at some point and call oneself a Christian without actually believing in Jesus on the Last Day, and that’s the last point that Jesus makes. On the Last Day the King Himself will come into the wedding hall to see the guests. Jesus doesn’t even mention here what the King will do with those outside the Church. He simply refers to everything outside the Church as “outer darkness.” The King will come into the wedding hall of the Church to begin the marriage feast that has no end. When He comes, He will see who is wearing the wedding garment and who is not.

The wedding garment was a special garment given to every guest at a wedding. In Jesus’ parable, the King finds a man who is not wearing it, and it does not go well for him: Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ What is the wedding garment that God gives through the Means of Grace? Again, it is faith in Christ. As Paul says to the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Baptism happens once and gives us Christ for a garment. But faith in Christ—that’s not something that “happens.” That’s something that a person wears, like clothing. To trust in Christ is to wear Him around all the time. It’s that garment that God sees and counts a person worthy because of it—worthy to remain at the feast and spend eternity there. But many will be found on the Last Day who called themselves Christians, who entered the wedding hall of the Church, but who, at some point, walk away from faith, who take off Christ, even if they never officially leave the Christian Church.

And so Jesus brings us back once again to the reason why He insists that Christians come to church, to gather around the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments. You’ve been baptized. Wonderful! But between then and the Last Day God wishes to sustain your faith and keep you wearing Christ all your days, all the way up to the Last Day. It is God’s will to sustain your faith through Word and Sacrament, to continually forgive your sins, to keep you listening to Christ and, at times, to call you back to repentance and faith, so that when He comes He doesn’t find Christians in name only, but Christians who are eagerly waiting for His arrival, because the Bridegroom is their all in all, the Savior with whom they long to spend eternity.

Many are called, but few are chosen. Few are chosen, because few actually want the Jesus described in Holy Scripture for a Savior. May all of us here be counted among those few, those happy few—among those who do want Jesus for our Savior, among those who trust in Him who makes us worthy to feast with the King. Amen.

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Trust in God, not money

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 15

Deuteronomy 6:4-7  +  Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Every time I read today’s Gospel to someone (including myself!)—Jesus’ words about not worrying and about trusting our heavenly Father to provide for us—, I get almost the same reaction from people: (Sigh). Of course! I knew that. Why do I keep forgetting it?!? You keep forgetting it, or if not forgetting it, passing over it unnoticed, because there is an idol out there called money, and the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh put a lot of trust in that idol, and they are constantly at war against your faith, pulling on you, tugging at you to pay attention to this money thing. They lie to you, tell you your Father won’t provide; you have to take care of yourself—and even then, you may not make it!

Jesus confronts the devil’s lies today by identifying for us just what exactly the problem is with worry, and by providing the cure as well. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life.

You can serve God. Or you can serve money. But you can’t serve both, Jesus says. So serve God, who loves you, not money, which will perish, together with all who trust in it as their god.

What does it look like to serve God? It begins in the heart and flows from there, as Moses commanded Israel in Deut. 6: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Or as we put it in the Catechism: The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

But the temptation to fear, love, and trust in someone or something besides God is strong. We heard about that today in Sunday School in the story of the Golden Calf. God had just spoken to Israel from heaven 40 days earlier, but then Moses went up to receive God’s Word for those 40 days, and when the Israelites didn’t see or hear from God or Moses, they turned their hearts away from Him and created an idol of gold to be their god. Well, not many people around us create actual statues of gold to worship anymore. We don’t think it’s reasonable to dance around a statue and expect it to help us. But lots of people around us do put their trust in gold and silver and the almighty dollar. We do think it’s very reasonable to tally up the dollars, and either relax because there are lots of them, or become afraid, because there aren’t enough.

Trust in money takes many different forms. For some, it means that earning money takes precedence over hearing God’s Word or receiving His Sacrament. For others, it means spending money selfishly or foolishly or haphazardly, to fulfill their own desires, without taking into account God’s instructions about how we are to use the money He has entrusted to our management. For others, it means being stingy with their money and hording it up, so that they are not generous with it, as they should be, so that they do not, as Paul said to the Galatians, “do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

But the form of money-worship that Jesus addresses today is especially worry. When you worry about money, it reveals where your trust lies, or at least, it reveals that your sinful flesh is trying to get the upper hand in your heart. But when you call “worry” what it is, “idolatry,” then you can approach God in humble repentance and confess it, and receive absolution for it. Only then can you begin to tear down the idol in your heart.

Now, let’s make sure we understand the context of Jesus’ words. He was speaking, not to pagans or atheists, but to church members in Israel, to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. We don’t expect people who do not worship the true God or claim to be believers in Christ to trust in our heavenly Father or to care about God’s commandments. The unbeliever is already an idol-worshiper. To the unbeliever God doesn’t say, “I’m your Father. Trust me!” Instead He says, “Repent of your sins and believe the Gospel of Christ, so that I can adopt you as My dear child and wash away all your sins in Holy Baptism, so that you can have Me as a good and gracious Father for Christ’s sake.”

But, you who know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, you who acknowledge the Lord as God, you who “live by the Spirit—let us walk by the Spirit!” as St. Paul said in today’s Epistle. Yes, you carry around your sinful flesh that always wants you to trust in money and never wants you to trust in God. But you have been born again. You have died to sin. You have put on Christ. You live by the Spirit. So walk by the Spirit! Hear the Spirit’s words and follow where He leads, and where He leads is not revealed to you in secret. It is revealed right here in Jesus’ words: Do not worry about your life or your body. Trust in God, not in money.

See how Jesus tenderly coaxes you to do this, with beautiful signs and testimonies and promises of God’s providence, without a single ounce of your worry required.

Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Every time you see a bird or a flock of birds, you have a reminder from the Son of God that your heavenly Father is at work, providing food for those creatures of His. And you have a reminder from the Son of God that you are more valuable to God than those creatures are, so you have the promise that your heavenly Father will provide for you, too. Notice, Jesus doesn’t call God the Father of the birds; He isn’t. Yes, He is their Creator and their Master. But He doesn’t call Himself their Father. He calls Himself your Father—“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Jesus goes on: 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?

Every time you see a flower—any flower, really, you have a reminder from the Son of God that your heavenly Father is at work, providing “clothing for the grass,” as it were. And the grass is worthless. The grass is mown down and burned up and nobody sheds a tear, nor should they. It’s just grass. But if God thinks enough of the grass to clothe it in beauty, Jesus says, you can’t even begin to imagine how much He thinks of man, whom He created in His own image, to whom He gave a living soul. You can’t even begin to imagine how much He thinks of man, whom He has redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, who didn’t become a bird, or a flower, or even an angel, but who became Man in order to die for us and to give us the gift of eternal life.

You know, this, Jesus says. You’re not one of the Gentiles—those who don’t know the true God and so have nothing better to trust in than money and their own strength and labor and skill. Let the Gentiles—let the unbelievers run around focused on making money and providing for themselves.

But you, children of the true God, you, sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Let God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness fill your agenda. Let God’s Word dwell in you richly. Let the Gospel of Christ occupy your time, and more importantly, your heart. Jesus isn’t telling you not to work. On the contrary, Paul says, if a man will not work, let him not eat. But it’s possible to work hard without trusting in your work to provide for you. It’s possible to work hard at your job while still seeking first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. That starts with hearing God’s Word and receiving His Sacrament. It continues with daily repentance, and prayer, and trust in your heavenly Father, and love for your neighbor, and working hard in your vocation, not to make money, but to honor God and to serve your neighbor. You have plenty to do without worrying about your life or your body. Because your life and your body are in God’s dependable hands.

Having said all that, the cure for worry doesn’t come in a single dose. Jesus didn’t speak the words of our Gospel once and then let them perish. His words are recorded in the Gospel, because His people need to hear His voice in this matter more than once. His voice is the cure and His Sacrament is the medicine. Here Jesus forgives the sin of worry, fully and completely, and repeatedly. And then, by these means, He begins the cure in your life, so that, by the power of His Holy Spirit, you defeat the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh that try to convince you that your Father is faithless. He isn’t faithless. He’s faithful. You can trust Him. He gave His own Son for you. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Amen.

 

 

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A Physician for the sick

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Feast of St. Matthew

Ezekiel 1:4-14  +  Ephesians 4:7-14  +  Matthew 9:9-13

First, before we get into today’s Gospel, you may be wondering what on earth the connection was between the Old Testament Lesson from Ezekiel and the Feast of St. Matthew. You heard, in Ezekiel’s vision, about those four winged, living creatures, with the face of a man, of a lion, of an ox, and of an eagle. For many, many centuries, the Christian Church has associated those four symbols with the four Evangelists (the four Gospel-writers): Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew is usually represented with the simple face of a man.

The story of St. Matthew is a story of God’s grace to sinners, and our Gospel today especially highlights Jesus as the great Physician and healer, not for the healthy, but for the sick; not for those who have their own righteousness, but for those who are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness.

Before he was called to follow Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector, or a “publican,” as the King James translated the word. This is a good opportunity for us to remember why the first century tax collector was so despised in his society. For all the complaints people have about the IRS or the county assessor or the tax man in general, it’s nothing like the way things were in the Roman Empire.

The tax collector back then in Israel was either in the service of King Herod on behalf of Rome, or of some other Roman official. He was considered a traitor, a sell-out to his own people. When collecting property taxes, he would often just invent the value of a piece of property and over-inflate it, overcharging his fellow man. Then, if a poor man couldn’t pay his taxes, the tax collector would loan him the money out of his own pocket—and then charge huge amounts of interest, which he would keep for himself. No one bothered taking the tax collectors to court over this, because the judges were usually bribed by the tax collection ring to give the tax collectors immunity. As a result, the whole profession was so tainted that tax collectors were often just excommunicated from the Jewish synagogue. Even their offerings were not accepted. They were ranked by the Jews below adulterers, below prostitutes—with violent robbers and murderers.

Now you understand, I hope, why it was such a big deal for Jesus to associate with tax collectors on a regular basis. Now you understand why it matters that St. Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus called him to be His companion, His friend, His student, and one of His apostles, who form the very foundation on which the Christian Church is built (Eph. 2). It says something about Jesus.

We don’t know how much Matthew had heard about Jesus before or if there was more said on this day than is recorded, but from the brief words recorded here, we assume that Matthew must have heard some things about Jesus. We assume that he heard how Jesus had a reputation as one who welcomed sinners—without ever condoning their sin, as one who thought sinners were worth saving, worth rescuing, and even worth suffering for. In any case, Matthew had heard enough so that all it took now were these two words from Jesus, “Follow Me.” And Matthew did, from that day on.

Jesus’ reputation for welcoming sinners was confirmed by His choice of Matthew, so that, when Jesus went to that dinner at someone’s house (maybe Matthew’s house) after calling Matthew away from the tax office, it says that, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. You can just imagine how tentative they must have felt at first. “We heard Jesus was a prophet from God. He couldn’t really want to be seen with us, could He? He knows who we are. What will He say to us?” So they slowly approach Him and His disciples. They see Matthew there with Him. He was one of them. Maybe it’ll be all right?

It was all right. It was just what Jesus wanted. They sat down with Jesus. What do you suppose He said to them as they ate together? I’ll tell you this: He didn’t just make small talk with them. He didn’t ignore their sins as if they weren’t worth talking about. He didn’t tell them that God loves them just the way they are. Instead, you can be sure He treated them with love, and that He did address their sins. And you can be sure that He called them to repent of their sins. And you can be sure that He spoke to them of God’s mercy, how God wanted to be a Father to them, wanted to be reconciled with them, and that Jesus Himself was the Person through whom all reconciliation comes. That’s how the conversation went, in a nutshell. You know that, because that’s the summary Jesus gave to the Pharisees who were there.

True to form, the Pharisees criticized Jesus—though they weren’t brave enough to speak to Him directly; they had to go through His disciples. Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? They really couldn’t figure out this whole “mercy thing,” could they? It was absolutely foreign to them, to think that a respected member of society might actually stoop down to sit together with people who had a sinful reputation. It was absolutely foreign, this idea of trying to rescue those sinners and win them back for God.

Jesus answers their question: Because a physician is always surrounded by sick people. It’s the nature of his vocation. Jesus said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” This is Jesus. This is how He wants to be known, as a physician who has come to help those who are sick—and nobody else. Not physical sickness, but spiritual sickness—the sickness of sin. As we discussed just last week, Jesus has come to be the Good Samaritan who sees the wounded, dying man on the side of the road and goes over to him to help. So also here, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus goes where the sinners are, not to condemn them, not to deny their sickness, but to heal them.

But lest the Pharisees get the idea that they were well and had no need of Jesus, Jesus points them back to a passage from the Old Testament prophet Hosea: But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ The Pharisees brought sacrifices to God, as if they could earn God’s favor by doing things for Him. But all along, the chief thing God wanted—God demanded! — was love for Him and for one’s neighbor, mercy toward one’s neighbor. Mercy toward those who are needy, toward those who are lost. Mercy doesn’t mean you can save everyone. Most people simply refuse to be rescued from their sins. But mercy does mean wanting the lost to be saved, and rejoicing when they are. Mercy does mean you’re willing to sit down and speak God’s Word to those who have a sinful reputation. For all the offerings and tithes that the Pharisees brought, for all of their strict obedience to the laws, they neglected the most important part: mercy.

But then, see how Jesus reaches out to the merciless Pharisees, too. He shows them that they lack the mercy God requires. He shows them they’re sinners, and then says this: For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. Whether a person was a tax collector or a harlot or a proud, condescending Pharisee, whether a person is an adulterer or an alcohol abuser or a murderer or proud, condescending church member, no one is righteous in him or herself. All are sinners. But if you’re a sinner, that means Jesus came for you, to die on the cross for you, to earn heaven for you, and to bring you into it.

It means He came to call you sinners, not to tell you your sins don’t matter, not to tell you it’s OK to keep living in sin, but to call you to repentance, as He says. To call you to recognize your sins against God’s holy commandments, to mourn over them, and to trust in Christ, that God will most certainly forgive you your sins for His sake, because He suffered for you, He died for you, and He wants to associate with you, to sit down with you, to eat and drink with you.

Again, that’s the great gift we have been given here in the Sacrament. It’s Jesus, who knows exactly who you are and what you’ve done, and still wants to share this meal with you of His own body and blood. But it’s for sinners only, not for good people. It’s for sinners only, who are sorry for their sins and want forgiveness from God for the sake of Christ. Here in the Sacrament, the Great Physician comes and heals you again, both by forgiving you your sins, and by strengthening you to say no to sin, and yes to mercy, yes to a new life of devotion to God and your neighbor, even yes to the cross, to suffer pain and loss rather than sin against God.

That’s how Matthew’s life went. He left the tax office behind, took up his cross, and followed Jesus. Let us give thanks to God for the witness of St. Matthew, because through his Gospel, the Holy Spirit has taught us to know Christ our Savior, from his human genealogy and divine origins in chapter 1 to His resurrection and Great Commission in chapter 28. Through Matthew’s Gospel, we have come to know this beautiful truth about Christ as the Great Physician who came to call sinners, like you and me, to repentance. Let us heed His call every day. Amen.

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