Great faith revealed at the end of the story

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Reminiscere – Second Sunday in Lent 2014

Isaiah 45:20-25  +  1 Thessalonians 4:1-7  +  Matthew 15:21-28

To understand today’s Gospel about Jesus and the Canaanite woman, we’re going to start where the story ends. We’re going to skip to the end so that we can then go back and see what Jesus is doing in this Gospel for the Canaanite woman and for us. How does the story end? It ends with mercy and salvation for the woman and her daughter. And it ends with an extremely rare word of praise from Jesus recorded in the Scriptures, “O woman, great is your faith!” Do you know how many people in the Bible are attested by the Holy Spirit as having “great faith”? Two, from Genesis to Revelation. Two—both in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. And, significantly, both Gentiles: The Roman centurion who sent to Jesus to heal his servant and said, Just speak the word, and my servant will be healed. And this Canaanite woman in our Gospel, who is only mentioned only by St. Matthew.

So what? A tiny faith that relies on Christ still saves. If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. If you die with but a little faith, you die still clothed completely in Christ Jesus and counted worthy of eternal life because of Him. But who in his Christian mind makes it his goal to have as tiny a trust in Christ as possible, especially when He feeds you His faith-nurturing Gospel, in Word and Sacrament, to make your faith grow and bud and flourish? He does that today by holding before your eyes this example of what great faith looks like. See how well it turns out for this woman who clings to Jesus in faith, in spite of every outward appearance. See how blessed! See how greatly rewarded! See how highly praised!

Great faith looks, first of all, like a Canaanite woman, one of the most cursed races of men on earth. Isn’t it something that Jesus shows us what “great faith” looks like using the example of a Canaanite woman? He shows us that pedigree and lineage and nationality don’t matter a bit before God. Faith in Christ is what matters, because Christ became the most cursed man in human history by His death on the cross, in order to rescue all the cursed sinners by faith in Him.

It was faith in Christ that prompted this woman to come to Jesus in the first place, although she didn’t have to go far. It says that Jesus went out from [the land of Israel] and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. But He didn’t go forcing Himself upon the people. He made Himself available to the people and let His Spirit do the convincing through the Word.

How do we know that? Because this woman hears about Jesus coming into that territory and she immediately knows who He is better than the Jews did. “Lord, Son of David,” she calls Him. That’s a confession of faith. “Son of David” is another way of saying “Christ!” Messiah! And not only does she believe that Jesus is the Christ, but that He has come to help Gentiles as well as Jews. She believes He’ll show mercy to her, so she calls out, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! Such is the great power of the Word of God, the simple word that went out to this woman about Jesus and absolutely convinced her that He was the merciful Lord, the Son of David, who had come to earth, who had come to her to help.

So she pleads for Jesus help and mercy for her dear daughter, who was severely demon-possessed. The devil and his dark forces were afflicting her daughter somehow. The power of evil was in her home. It doesn’t get much more serious than that. What power did she have—what power do any of us have against the devil, against the demons?

She brought her troubles to Jesus, who alone is powerful against the demons. But notice what she didn’t bring. She didn’t bring money. She didn’t bring a long list of all the good things she had done, or of all her promises to do good things in order to bribe Jesus to help her. Works don’t count. Your deeds, past or future, don’t count. But seeking free mercy and favor from Jesus because of who He is—the gracious Lord and Christ, Son of David—that counts. That’s faith.

Her faith was tested by Jesus. She came crying out for help, but at first, He answered her not a word. Knowing how the story ends, we know that He did this to highlight the great faith of the woman, because it’s a tiny faith that only trusts when prayers are answered immediately. It’s a tiny faith that trusts only in how outwardly nice and friendly Jesus appears to be. But it’s a great faith that trusts Jesus enough to wait for His help. It’s a great faith that sees past the appearance of outward indifference on the part of Jesus to the merciful, loving heart of Christ.

The woman’s faith, as we know, was great. So she kept calling out to Jesus. Then Jesus’ disciples spoke up, Send her away, for she cries out after us. Literally, “Dismiss her.” Were they asking for Jesus to dismiss her with His blessing and help, or to just get rid of her? Jesus’ answer leads us to conclude that they were interceding for the woman, trying to encourage Jesus to help her. Christians do this all the time, praying for others to receive the help that they haven’t yet received. Sometimes we, like the disciples, wonder why God makes His dear people cry out so long and wait so long for the promised mercy.

But Jesus’ answer again makes it sound like He doesn’t want to help this particular woman. He answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Knowing how the story ends, we come back to this saying of Jesus and wonder what He means by this. Because He can’t lie or deceive, and if He was only sent by His Father in heaven to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, then He cannot deviate from the Father’s mission just because the woman is persistent, and yet, by giving her divine help and praising her great faith, He most certainly demonstrates that He was, in fact, sent to this woman who was not from the house of Israel.

Or was she? That’s really the question, isn’t it? Who are the lost sheep of Israel? I mentioned earlier that only St. Matthew records this encounter with the Canaanite woman. St. Matthew wrote his Gospel especially to the Jews. The Jews generally thought of themselves as the people of God based on their lineage from Jacob, from Israel. But here again, in this encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman, just as in the encounter with the Roman centurion, Jesus demonstrates who the true house of Israel is, in God’s eyes. Not those who can trace their ancestry back to Jacob. But those who believe in Jesus as the Christ. In fact, it’s through the Gospel that the Holy Spirit invites people into the house of Israel, so that all people may enter through faith in Christ.

That’s the lesson here, and it’s bigger than the Canaanite woman. It’s also for Jesus’ disciples. It’s for all the Jews. It’s for all the Gentiles, for you and for me, so that we may know what the house of Israel is and how it has been opened to all people by the blood of Christ shed on the cross, and that we may know Christ as the door to the house of Israel, and faith as our entrance into Him.

The Canaanite woman still saw that that door was open to her. Jesus hadn’t sent her away, nor had He said that she wasn’t part of the house of Israel. She bowed down before Jesus and said, Lord, help me! Then one final test for her faith: Jesus answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Now, if there had been any sinful pride in this woman, her pride would have been offended by this. If she had no faith, she would have perceived Jesus’ words as her final defeat and slunk away in despair.

But we know how the story ends. Her sinful pride has already been brought low. And her faith in Jesus has already been kindled. She sees the Door to Israel wide open at this point and says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” And she was not disappointed. On the contrary, she was highly rewarded and praised by the Son of God. O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire. Her faith was tested, but here is why her faith was called great: The testing of her faith revealed that all the impurities, like pride, like carnal security, like despair and doubt, had already been removed by the Holy Spirit, so that what was left in this woman was a simple, humble trust in Jesus, that she, a poor sinner, would receive mercy from the Son of David, not because of her worthiness, but because of His greatness.

That’s what great faith looks like: an unshakable trust in Jesus’ greatness, especially His greatness in earning and bestowing the forgiveness of sins. May the Word and the body and the blood of Jesus continually work such faith in your hearts, so that not only today, but tomorrow and until the end of your earthly story, you learn more and more to rely on God’s mercy ever and only in the Person of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Sermon on the Augsburg Confession, Article VII: The Church

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Preached during the week of Invocavit 2014

James 1:2-15  +  Luke 22:24-32

As we gather together in these five midweek Lenten services, we’ll continue to hear the Scriptures, as the Gospel this evening again points us to Jesus as the Greatest One who willingly made Himself the greatest Servant in order to save us from our sins, as the Great One who got down on His knees and treated you and me as if we were the truly great ones. And we’ll sing Lenten hymns during these services, to help us focus our attention during this season on Jesus’ voluntary humiliation and His sacrifice of Himself for our salvation.

But during this Lenten season, we will also continue to examine the confession of our faith, the Augsburg Confession, because as believers in Jesus, we care about everything He says. We live off of His every word, and we recognize that His teaching, His doctrine, is one united whole, not a series of disjointed doctrines that you can pick and choose from, or ignore.  Think of the doctrine of the Gospel as a great sphere, with the death and resurrection of Christ at the center and everything else radiating out from that central truth, and then pointing back toward that central truth. So now, during Lent, is the perfect time to focus even more on catechesis, on hearing and learning the doctrine of Christ—all of it.

In fact, that’s the very thing that defines the Church in the world and keeps her united, as we confess in Article VII of the Augsburg Confession.

Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.

And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Eph. 4, 5. 6.

One holy Church is to continue forever.  Why do we confess that? First, why do we confess that there is one Church?  There is one Church, because there is only one cornerstone of the Church, which is Christ, and only one foundation of the Church, which is the Holy Scriptures.  Paul says to the Ephesians, Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So there is only one household of God in heaven and earth, one, holy temple in the Lord. Why “holy”? Because God calls it holy. How so? Because this household of God, this temple, this Church, though made up of sinners, has been declared holy by God through Holy Baptism, which washes us into the holy Person of Christ.

And what about the word “church”? What does it mean? The Church is the assembly of the called, the congregation, the assembly of those who have been called by the Gospel to believe in Christ and who, therefore, have been baptized into Christ. One holy Church, throughout the world.  One holy assembly of people who have been called by the Gospel to repent and believe in Jesus, people who have been sanctified by the blood of Christ, by Baptism and by faith in Christ.

This one holy Church, we confess, is to continue forever. Jesus said to His disciples, on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  So, we’re not talking about any single congregation or church building in a given city. We’re not talking about any human institution or any single “denomination” or synod, or about a single bishop or succession of bishops.  The Roman Church may not endure forever. The Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc., the ELDoNA, the WELS, may not endure forever.  This church building, this gathering of believers may not gather here forever. But one holy Church, throughout the world, will continue forever.

Which Church is that? It is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. Just as the Scriptures do, our Confessions repeatedly refer to baptized believers in Christ as “saints,” holy ones. But notice that the Church isn’t that saint over there, or this one over here doing his or her own thing. It’s the congregation (the coming together) of saints. Whenever possible, the saints come together around God’s Word rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered.

Nor is the Church only made up of the hearers of the Gospel. It’s the congregation of saints where there is also a pastor preaching the Gospel, a pastor or pastors who rightly teach the Gospel to them and rightly administer the Sacrament to them. The gathering of the hearers of the Gospel + those who preach the Gospel to them rightly = the Church.  Or to put it another way, Pastor + Laity, gathered together around Word and Sacrament, anywhere and everywhere in the world = the Church.

Notice that we speak of the Gospel rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered, in accordance with Christ’s command. This is serious business. There are not multiple “versions” of the Gospel out that around which the Church gathers. There is only one saving Gospel, and there are any number of false gospels. St. Paul said to the Galatians, warning them about the false teachers, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,  which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

You know how Luther summarized the Apostle Paul’s doctrine? “Therefore my doctrine is true, pure, sure, and divine. Nor can there be any doctrine that is different from mine, much less better. Therefore any doctrine at all that does not teach as mine does—that all men are sinners and are justified solely by faith in Christ—must be false, uncertain, evil, blasphemous, accursed, and demonic. And so are those who either teach or accept such a doctrine.” Serious business, isn’t it? That’s why I can never recommend to people that they submit to the teaching of a church or a pastor whose doctrine I don’t know, of whose doctrine I know to deviate from the doctrine of Christ.

Finally, we confess in this article that to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. What do we have to agree on in order to practice fellowship in this one holy Church? Do we have to agree on the color of the carpeting? The number of candles on the altar? What vestments the pastor should wear? What ceremonies we should observe? No, not as long as we agree on the doctrine of the Gospel. As we confess, Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike.

It is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. By “doctrine of the Gospel,” we don’t just mean John 3:16. We mean the whole doctrine of Christ, which we’ve been confessing in each article of the Augsburg Confession and will continue to confess in the articles to come.  If there are those out there—and there are—who disagree with or teach contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, then we don’t commune with them or pretend to be unified with them. Instead, we warn them of their deviation from the doctrine of Christ. As Paul wrote to the Romans, Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.

But, if we agree on the whole doctrine of Christ, then we recognize that unity created by the Holy Spirit, and a blessed unity it is. We worship together, pray together, commune together, and recognize the ministers in this Church as Christ’s ambassadors, as coworkers of Christ in His vineyard.  And we take seriously the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 4, to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

This is the Church, the body of Christ of which He is the Head. This is what we confess in Article VII of the Augsburg Confession. Amen.

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Christ Stays on the Path of the Law for Us

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Invocavit – First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 3:1-24  +  2 Corinthians 6:1-10  +  Matthew 4:1-11

The Apostle Paul was pleading with the Corinthians in today’s Epistle, as all ministers of the Gospel plead with their people, not to receive God’s grace in vain. That is, knowing that God, in His grace, sent His Son into our flesh, and that He died for us and has made reconciliation between God and sinners, knowing that He forgives sins and gives His own righteousness to all who believe in Him, don’t turn away from Him in unbelief. Don’t turn back to the devil. Because Christ has come, defeated the devil, and opened a new way for you into the kingdom of God, a way, not of works, but of faith alone in Christ alone. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.

This way into the kingdom of God, this path of faith in Christ, was plotted by God before the world’s foundations were laid. But it wouldn’t exist if Christ hadn’t first walked the path of the Law for us, the path on which we all were born, the path of full and complete obedience to God’s Law, the path of humility and humiliation, which is how He merited, how He earned for us this other path, this path of salvation by faith.

Back at Christmastime we considered how Christ, the Son of God first entered onto this path of ours, this path of the Law, by being conceived and born as one of us, with our human flesh. Now we begin the season of Lent, and we see in today’s Gospel how Jesus begins to fight in earnest for us, to remain steadfast on the path of humiliation and obedience in order to open up for us the path of salvation, the path of faith. Jesus had to fight to remain on the path on which His Father had placed Him, because the devil tried his hardest to tempt Jesus, to get Him to stray from the path. Because if Christ strays from that path to the right or to the left, then there is no path of salvation for us.

Matthew tells us that it was the Spirit of God who led Jesus out into the wilderness to fast for forty days without eating anything. God preserved Jesus without the need for food during those forty days, but it says that, at the end of them, He was hungry. There was hunger and want on the path Jesus had to walk. The first temptation is the temptation of want or misfortune.

Along came the devil, the tempter, and said, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. Now with that question, “If You are the Son of God,” the devil was not trying to get Jesus to doubt who He is or to prove who He is. Scripture tells us that Jesus knew all along who He was and where He came from, that God was His Father, and that had come to earth to do His Father’s will of saving sinful mankind. No, the devil’s temptation was to try to get Jesus to stop trusting that God would do what He had promised in His Word to do: to provide for His children. His temptation was this: “If God were a loving Father, He wouldn’t treat His Son this way, making Him suffer want and hunger and misfortune. You deserve better than this. He isn’t a God worth loving. He isn’t a God worth trusting. Step off the path of love and obedience toward God!”

It’s the same thing he does to God’s children today when we, at times, suffer want and misfortune and hard times, or when the tempter tempts us to think God hasn’t given us enough, blinding our eyes to all the grace and blessings and good things God has given, so that we become afraid we won’t have enough money, or bitter and angry that God should allow us to suffer. That’s the sin that makes us unable to earn our way on the path of the Law.

But Jesus stood strong for us. He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Moses had said those words to Israel, reminding them how God fed them, not just for forty days, but for forty years, each day, with manna (that miraculous bread from heaven), just enough manna for one day at a time, so that each day they had to rely on the Word of the Lord, “There will be manna there again tomorrow, so don’t gather any more than you need for today.” Israel never did learn that lesson, and we struggle with it, too. But Jesus never once wavered in His trust in God the Father and in His love for God’s Word, and so He earned for us the path of the righteousness of faith.

The second temptation Matthew records is the one where the devil took Jesus up to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the Temple. If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus had defeated the first temptation by citing what was written in Holy Scripture. So Satan comes along, “Oh, you want to play the ‘it is written game.’ I can play that, too.” And then he goes on to take a passage out of context, twist its meaning, and then tries to get Jesus to trust in something that God had never promised to do. Because God’s promise in Psalm 91 is not to float people down from the heights when they jump, but to “guard you in all your ways,” it says. In other words, when you’re on the way or the path that God has placed you on, doing what God has instructed you in His Word to do, then He will guard and protect you for your good.

This is a spiritual temptation, a temptation of error, blindness, and false understanding of Scripture, where the devil uses tricks to get people to understand the Bible wrongly, and then to trust in their own false interpretation. It’s a temptation to go where God’s Word doesn’t direct you and to believe in promises God hasn’t actually made. It’s a very serious temptation, because you only know God through His Word. And if you don’t take God’s every Word seriously, then the devil will be able to fool you so that you walk into his traps. He truly does prowl around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

So the Christian is tempted to say, “Ah, see, I know a Bible passage or two. My faith is strong. I don’t need to know everything the Bible says.” But that’s tempting the Lord. If He had only given you one or two Bible passages to learn, then fine. Be content with that. But if He has given you a whole Bible filled with His words from cover to cover, and the ability to read and the opportunity to learn, and He has warned you against false doctrine and the devil’s tricks, and you say, well, I don’t need to know all that, then you show that you don’t love Him with your whole heart. And the path of the law, the path of your obedience has become useless to you.

But Jesus saw through the devil’s misuse of God’s Word and remained on the path of obedience. It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ Jesus not only knew God’s Word perfectly. He also loved God His Father perfectly, with His whole heart, and had no need to step off the path God gave Him to walk in order to make God prove Himself.

In the final temptation recorded by Matthew, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” We saw the temptation of misfortune on the left. We saw the temptation of spiritual tricks and twisting of God’s Word in the middle. Here on the right we see the temptation of prosperity. The devil promises plenty, fame and fortune, glory, wealth, comfort, friends. He’ll promise you the world. You can even be like God, if you’ll only make a little deal with devil. Worship him once. One quick bow, or the nod of a head.

That’s all Eve did, really, one quick worship of the serpent by believing his words instead of God’s Words and biting the fruit. That’s all Adam did, really, one quick bow to his wife by taking the fruit from her, instead of bowing to God by refusing to sin. They were promised the world. They were promised that they could be like God. The devil lied. As always. Every act of disobedience to God, every compromise of His Word, every decision to do what you want, with no regard for what God wants is a form of worshiping the devil. You don’t have to be a Satanist to participate in devil worship. You just have to be sinner, and we all qualify.

One quick bow to the devil, and Jesus would have become a sinner, too, and ruined the path on which God had placed Him, the path of keeping the Law for us. And that would have kept our path—the path of faith—from ever existing. But again He stood firm. Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” And the path of the Law remained intact.

Then the devil left, and God sent angels to minister to Jesus and to comfort Him, as He comforts all His children after times of testing are over. But Jesus wasn’t done fighting to stay on the path of the Law. The rest of His earthly life would be lived on this path of obedience, until He would become obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross.  By His victories over the devil, He has won eternal comfort for you. He has shown Himself to be a trustworthy Savior, one who can sympathize with you in your weakness. One who was tempted in every way, just as you are, yet remained without sin. He has shown Himself to be the true Second Adam who obeyed where the first Adam sinned, so that all who are grafted into this Second Adam by faith are granted His victory over the Temper, counted righteous by faith, justified, not by your own victories over the devil, but by His.

This was planned by God in eternity, but it’s not all that was planned. Part of God’s eternal plan of election is that He will defend [those whom He has justified by faith] in their great weakness, against the devil, the world, and the flesh ; govern and lead them in His ways, and, if they should stumble, raise them up again, and comfort and preserve them in trials and temptations. (Formula of Concord, SD:XI)

How does Christ defend, govern and lead you in His ways? How does He raise you up again, if you stumble, and comfort and preserve you in trials and temptations? By the Word of God that is just as powerful against the devil in your mouth as it was in Jesus’ mouth. And by the very Gospel you have heard again today, and by the Sacrament you will receive. It is God’s will that you use His Word to continue to fight against temptation and defeat the devil with it, and it is God’s will to help you in every temptation, so that you can endure it and stand firm in this path of salvation by faith, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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What more do you want than Christ?

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Ash Wednesday 2014

Isaiah 59:12-21  +  Joel 2:12-19  +  Matthew 6:16-21

Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly. So God called upon Israel through the prophet Joel to drop everything they were doing and come together in repentance around the Lord’s altar, to mourn over their sins and to seek God’s mercy.

It’s for the same purpose that we have come together tonight in sacred assembly around this altar of the Lord: To consecrate a fast—a 40 day Lenten fast, to turn from our sin, and to seek the Lord’s favor.

We fast in a New Testament way, which is not an external thing, but an internal thing. People once criticized Jesus because His disciples didn’t fast like other Jews. His reply is enlightening: “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

We fast, at least on the inside, because we mourn. We mourn because we are separated for now from Jesus, our Bridegroom, our Savior, our treasure, who has ascended into heaven, and our real life is hidden with Him there, while we still live here below with sin surrounding us and with our sinful flesh always, always right there with us. God does not count sins against us who are baptized and believe in His Son. But we still sin.

So it’s proper that we should mourn. And if your flesh starts to convince you that you do not sin, then listen to God who says that you do.  But even without His saying so, you know it, because your conscience—the one He implanted in your heart—accuses you. And you know it, because your flesh wears out, gets tired, grows old, decays. You are dying, slowly or quickly. You are returning to dust. You can eat three healthy meals a day, every day of your life, and you will still die. Eating food does not eliminate death. It just postpones it for awhile.

Which means that you have a more serious need to consider than taking care of your body.  To fast is to contemplate death and the grave, where there is no food, no eating. It is to think on your sin, which is the reason why your body will lie in the grave one day, returning to dust. And so, to fast is to live in repentance, mourning over your sin, hating it, wanting to be rid of it. It is to recognize that God owes you nothing. You deserve nothing from Him but wrath.

To fast is to remember that food is not enough.  It won’t save you. What more do you want? What more do you need?  Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. There is such a thing as food for the soul. It’s the food of the Word of Christ and the body and blood of Christ that are the most important, because while eating a meal three times a day every day will still end with you returning to dust in the grave, the Word of Christ, His body and blood, will actually keep your soul alive, even though your flesh decays, and will even end up with your flesh restored and glorified on the Last Day.

In our Gospel, Jesus gives us some instructions concerning a proper fast. When you fast, Jesus says, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

If the purpose of fasting is to mourn over your sins and to humble yourself before God, your Creator whom you have offended with your sins, then making a show of it before men would not be serving its purpose at all, but would be pure hypocrisy, like bragging about how humble you are, so that other people can have a high opinion of you. Don’t be the people who come to church during Lent so that other people, or even that sneaky man in the mirror, can see what a godly, obedient Christian you are. For such people, there is no heavenly reward.

No, says Jesus. Do not be like them—hypocrites, pretenders, actors who put on a show for other people. Instead, He says, But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

You see, mourning over sin doesn’t mean you go around announcing to the world that you’re mourning over sin, or looking sad or depressed. It means living each day with your heart concerned, not about what people think of you, but about what God thinks of you. And you have to get this right. What does God think of you?

If He is thinking of you, judging you, evaluating you based on you and what you do, then it’s wrath and condemnation. But He comes right out in Scripture and tells you that He does not want to judge you based on you. He wants rather to judge you based on Christ, and so He calls you to turn away from yourself, from trusting in yourself, from your sins and your deeds, and to flee instead to Christ. Because all who trust in Christ are evaluated by God based on Christ’s righteousness, sheltered from God’s wrath, and basking only in God’s favor.

And that is the reward, the gift, the treasure that God wants to give you.  Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

How do you lay up treasures on earth? By seeking earthly rewards, earthly comforts, by living to please men.  Why do you seek to please other people? Why do other people’s opinions matter to you? People are but a breath. They, like you, will be dead before too long. Why impress people? To get ahead in this life? Is that what you want? Anything you get here will eventually wear out, even as you yourself will wear out.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Heavenly treasure. What is that? Paul tells us in Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. In Him, in Him. In Christ. Every spiritual blessing is wrapped up in Him. His righteousness, His blood, His merits have purchased all things, even God’s forgiveness and eternal life, for you, and an eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. What more do you want?

It is God who has laid up those treasures in heaven for you, where Christ is.  But here is God’s great gift to you. Until you are brought to your heavenly home, God gives you Jesus here, in His Word and His Holy Supper. This is where you get righteousness. You get forgiveness of all sins. You get eternal life. You get a Father’s love and grace and mercy. You get Jesus Christ Himself. All these treasures are stored up for you in the Sacrament. Let these treasures of Christ be the things that your heart treasures. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

May your heart be on the Sacrament of Christ tonight, and throughout this Lenten season. May your heart be set on the Word of Christ at every opportunity during this spiritual fast that we consecrate tonight—on Sundays, but also at the weekly Wednesday services, and even every day during Holy Week. God has treasure to give you, won by Christ, given out by the Holy Spirit.

What more do you want? Think about that question throughout these forty-days. Your flesh will answer, “Many things!” But let the answer of your heart be, “Nothing! Only Jesus.” Your heart will not be disappointed. Amen.

 

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Luther Sermon for Lent 2

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

SERMON FOR REMINISCERE SUNDAY

by Martin Luther

REMINISCERE. SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

TEXT: Matthew 15:21-28 (KJV)

THE FAITH OF THE SYROPHENICIAN WOMAN, AND THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THIS GOSPEL.

 

1. This Gospel presents to us a true example of firm and perfect faith. For this woman endures and overcomes in three great and hard battles, and teaches us in a beautiful manner the true way and virtue of faith, namely, that it is a hearty trust in the grace and goodness of God as experienced and revealed through his Word. For St. Mark says, she heard some news about Jesus, Mark 7:25. What kind of news? Without doubt good news, and the good report that Christ was a pious man and cheerfully helped everybody. Such news about God is a true Gospel and a word of grace, out of which sprang the faith of this woman; for had she not believed, she would not have thus run after Christ etc. In like manner we have often heard how St. Paul in Romans 10:17 says that faith cometh by hearing, that the Word must go in advance and be the beginning of our salvation.

2. But how is it that many more have heard this good news concerning Christ, who have not followed him, and did not esteem it as good news?

Answer: The physician is helpful and welcome to the sick; the healthy have no use for him. But this woman felt her need, hence she followed the sweet scent, as is written in the Song of Solomon 1:3. In like manner Moses must precede and teach people to feel their sins in order that grace may be sweet and welcome to them. Therefore all is in vain, however friendly and lovely Christ may be pictured, if man is not first humbled by a knowledge of himself and he possesses no longing for Christ, as Mary’s Song says, “The hungry he hath filled with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away,” Luke 1:53. All this is spoken and written for the comfort of the distressed, the poor, the needy, the sinful, the despised, so that they may know in all times of need to whom to flee and where to seek comfort and help.

3. But see in this example how Christ like a hunter exercises and chases faith in his followers in order that it may become strong and firm. First when the woman follows him upon hearing of his fame and cries with assured confidence that he would according to his reputation deal mercifully with her, Christ certainly acts differently, as if to let her faith and good confidence be in vain and turn his good reputation into a lie, so that she could have thought: Is this the gracious, friendly man? or: Are these the good words, that I have heard spoken about him, upon which I have depended? It must not be true; he is my enemy and will not receive me; nevertheless he might speak a word and tell me that he will have nothing to do with me. Now he is as silent as a stone. Behold, this is a very hard rebuff, when God appears so earnest and angry and conceals his grace so high and deep; as those know so well, who feel and experience it in their hearts. Therefore she imagines he will not fulfill what he has spoken, and will let his Word be false; as it happened to the children of Israel at the Red Sea and to many other saints.

4. Now, what does the poor woman do? She turns her eyes from all this unfriendly treatment of Christ; all this does not lead her astray, neither does she take it to heart, but she continues immediately and firmly to cling in her confidence to the good news she had heard and embraced concerning him, and never gives up. We must also do the same and learn firmly to cling to the Word, even though Go with all his creatures appears different than his Word teaches. But, oh, how painful it is to nature and reason, that this woman should strip herself of self and forsake all that she experienced, and cling alone to God’s bare Word, until she experienced the contrary. May God help us in time of need and of death to possess like courage and faith!

5. Secondly, since her cry and faith avail nothing, the disciples approach with their faith, and pray for her, and imagine they will surely be heard. But while they thought he should be more tenderhearted, he became only the more indifferent, as we see and think. For now he is silent no more nor leaves them in doubt; he declines their prayer and says: “I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This rebuff is still harder since not only our own person is rejected, but the only comfort that remains to us, namely, the comfort and prayers of pious and holy persons, are rejected. For our last resort, when we feel that God is ungracious or we are in need, is that we go to pious, spiritual persons and there seek counsel and help, and they are willing to help as love demands; and yet, that may amount to nothing, even they may not be heard and our condition becomes only worse.

6. Here one might upbraid Christ with all the words in which he promised to hear his saints, as Matthew 18:19: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them.”

Likewise, Mark 11:24: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them;” and many more like passages. What becomes of such promises in this woman’s case? Christ, however, promptly answers and says: Yes, it is true, I hear all prayers, but I gave these promises only to the house of Israel. What do you think? Is not that a thunderbolt that dashes both heart and faith into a thousand pieces, when one feels that God’s Word, upon which one trusts, was not spoken for him, but applies only to others? Here all saints and prayers must be speechless, yea, here the heart must let go of the Word, to which it would gladly hold, if it would consult its oven feelings.

7. But what does the poor woman do? She does not give up, she clings to the Word although it be torn out of her heart by force, is not turned away by this stern answer, still firmly believes his goodness is yet concealed in that answer, and still she will not pass judgment that Christ is or may be ungracious. That is persevering steadfastness.

8. Thirdly, she follows Christ into the house, as Mark 7:24-25 informs us, perseveres, falls down at his feet, and says: “Lord, help me!” There she received her last mortal blow, in that Christ said in her face, as the words tell, that she was a dog, and not worthy to partake of the children’s bread.

What will she say to this! Here he presents her in a bad light, she is a condemned and an outcast person, who is not to be reckoned among God’s chosen ones.

9. That is an eternally unanswerable reply, to which no one can give a satisfactory answer. Yet she does not despair, but agrees with his judgment and concedes she is a dog, and desires also no more than a dog is entitled to, namely, that she may eat the crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord.

Is not that a masterly stroke as a reply? She catches Christ with his own words. He compares her to a dog, she concedes it, and asks nothing more than that he let her be a dog, as he himself judged her to be. Where will Christ now take refuge? He is caught. Truly, people let the dog have the crumbs under the table; it is entitled to that. Therefore Christ now completely opens his heart to her and yields to her will, so that she is now no dog, but even a child of Israel.

10. All this, however, is written for our comfort and instruction, that we may know how deeply God conceals his grace before our face, and that we may not estimate him according to our feelings and thinking, but strictly according to his Word. For here you see, though Christ appears to be even hardhearted, yet he gives no final decision by saying “No.” All his answers indeed sound like no, but they are not no, they remain undecided and pending. For he does not say: I will not hear thee; but is silent and passive, and says neither yes nor no. In like manner he does not say she is not of the house of Israel; but he is sent only to the house of Israel; he leaves it undecided and pending between yes and no. So he does not say, Thou art a dog, one should not give thee of the children’s bread; but it is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs; leaving it undecided whether she is a dog or not. Yet all those trials of her faith sounded more like no than yes; but there was more yea in them than nay; ay, there is only yes in them, but it is very deep and very concealed, while there appears to be nothing but no.

11. By this is set forth the condition of our heart in times of temptation; Christ here represents how it feels. It thinks there is nothing but no and yet that is not true. Therefore it must turn from this feeling and lay hold of and retain the deep spiritual yes under and above the no with a firm faith in God’s Word, as this poor woman does, and say God is right in his judgment which he visits upon us; then we have triumphed and caught Christ in his own words. As for example when we feel in our conscience that God rebukes us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell, and we think we are lost forever. Now whoever understands here the actions of this poor woman and catches God in his own judgment, and says: Lord, it is true, I am a sinner and not worthy of thy grace; but still thou hast promised sinners forgiveness, and thou art come not to call the righteous, but, as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “to save sinners.” Behold, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us.

12. King Manasseh did likewise in his penitence as his prayer proves; he conceded that God was right in his judgment and accused himself as a great sinner and yet he laid hold of the promised forgiveness of sins. David also does likewise in Psalm 51:4 and says: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” For God’s disfavor in every way visits us when we cannot agree with his judgment nor say yea and amen, when he considers and judges us to be sinners. If the condemned could do this, they would that very moment be saved. We say indeed with our mouth that we are sinners; but when God himself says it in our hearts, then we are not sinners, and eagerly wish to be considered pious and free from that judgment. But it must be so; if God is to be righteous in his words that teach you are a sinner, then you may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Then you eat not only the crumbs under the table as the little dogs do; but you are also a child and have God as your portion according to the pleasure of your will.

13. This is the spiritual meaning of our Gospel and the scriptural explanation of it. For what this poor woman experienced in the bodily affliction of her daughter, whom she miraculously caused to be restored to health again by her faith, that we also experience when we wish to be healed of our ,sins and of our spiritual diseases, which is truly a wicked devil possessing us; here she must become a dog and we become sinners and brands of hell, and then we have already recovered from our sickness and are saved.

14. Whatever more there is in this Gospel worthy of notice, as that one can obtain grace and help through the faith of another without his own personal faith, as took place here in the daughter of this poor woman, has been sufficiently treated elsewhere. Furthermore that Christ and his disciples along with the woman in this Gospel exhibit to us an example of love, in that no one acts, prays and cares for himself but each for others, is also clear enough and worthy of consideration.

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