(Antiphon) We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, In the midst of Your temple. According to Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God, In His holy mountain.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
Grant to us, Lord, we beseech You, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we, who cannot do anything that is good without You, may by You be enabled to live according to Your will; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Jeremiah 15:19-21
19 Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. 20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you and deliver you,” says the LORD. 21 “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.” (NKJV)
GRADUAL: Ps. 31:2b,1a
Be my rock of refuge,
A fortress of defense to save me.
In You, O LORD, I put my trust;
Let me never be ashamed;
EPISTLE READING: Romans 8:12-17
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. (NKJV)
VERSE: Ps. 78:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. Give ear, O my people, to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL: Matthew 7:15-23
15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ ” (NKJV)
(Antiphon) Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in Heaven and Earth, we humbly beseech You to put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Jeremiah 31:23-25
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The LORD bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’ 24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” (NKJV)
GRADUAL: Ps. 34:11,5
Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
EPISTLE READING: Romans 6:19-23
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV)
VERSE: Ps. 47:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL: Mark 8:1-9
1 In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”
4 Then His disciples answered Him, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?”
5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
And they said, “Seven.”
6 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. 7 They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. 8 So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. 9 Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away. (NKJV)
(Antiphon) The LORD is their strength, And He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Save Your people, And bless Your inheritance; Shepherd them also, And bear them up forever.
To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock: Do not be silent to me,
Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
Lord of all power and might, You who are the Author and Giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of Your Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and according to Your great mercy, keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Exodus 20:1-17
1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (NKJV)
GRADUAL: Ps. 90:13,1,2b
Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.
LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
EPISTLE READING: Romans 6:3-11
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV)
VERSE: Ps. 31:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. In You, O LORD, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness. Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL: Matthew 5:20-26
20“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.26 Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” (NKJV)
(Antiphon) Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
O God, who has prepared for those who love You such good things as pass man’s understanding, pour into our hearts such love toward You that we, loving You above all things, may obtain Your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Jeremiah 16:14-21
14 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. 16 Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.” 19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.” 20 Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods? 21 “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD.” (NKJV)
GRADUAL: Ps. 84:9,8
O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed.
O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob!
EPISTLE READING: 1 Peter 3:8-15
8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For
“He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. 11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. (NKJV)
VERSE: Ps. 21:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL: Luke 5:1-11
1 So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. (NKJV)
You can’t get around it: God loves the lost. Every Scripture that you’ve heard today, from the Introit to the Gradual to the Verse to the Readings themselves all cry out in unison: God loves the lost. He seeks them. He calls them to repentance and forgives the one who repents. Not just a little bit. Not grudgingly or half-heartedly. But eagerly. God is eager to seek out lost sinners and eager to bring them back into His house by forgiving them their sins. The prophet Micah stands back in awe at this God, with his jaw on the floor: Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?
That’s what Jesus was doing in the Gospel today, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. That “remnant”—the leftovers of Israel—was the tax collectors and the public, professional sinners. They had long ago wandered away from God’s kingdom. They had chosen a life of dishonesty, of carnal pleasure, of earthly gain. They had turned away from God and His Word, turned away from faith and toward the sin that so easily entangles. And they were lost.
But then Jesus came, looking for them. God had sent Jesus to find just these very people—sinful people, rebellious people, lost people. God Himself, in the Person of Jesus, had come looking for them. More than that, God’s Son was going to pay for their sins, suffer for their sins, die for their sins, because He wanted them back—back in His kingdom, back in His house. He called them to repent of their sin and to trust in Him—that He would forgive them, for everything, and bring them back into God’s house, for free.
And lo and behold, they believed Him. Our Gospel says that all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. Their dead hearts were stirred to life by Jesus’ Word of repentance and forgiveness, and they were drawn to Him and His Gospel. And Jesus was overjoyed to have found them.
But the Pharisees and scribes were not. The Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” You can picture the look of disgust on their faces. Disgust toward the sinners, and disdain for Jesus, who dared to dirty Himself by associating with such great sinners, who dared to soil God’s holy name by preaching about God’s kingdom to people such as these, who were obviously unworthy to sit at the table with God.
But these men who thought they were such wonderful keepers of God’s law demonstrated with their complaining just how dirty they were, too. “White-washed tombs” Jesus once called them, and rightly so. Because while the cheating tax collectors and sinners were filthy inside and out, the Pharisees kept the outside clean enough, while they just rotted away on the inside, and still imagined that they were righteous. That’s called hypocrisy.
It’s true, God’s Law commanded the tax collectors not to steal and commanded the prostitutes not to commit adultery, but they didn’t listen, so God’s Law condemned them. But God’s Law also commands us to love our neighbor, to seek the good and the wellbeing of our neighbor, to have a compassionate, loving heart even toward our enemies, to yearn for their repentance and salvation, and to sacrifice our possessions or our good name to help our neighbor in need. God’s Law damns the arrogant eyebrows and the dirty looks at those we think of as being beneath us. His Law condemns the sharp tongue, and the loveless words, and the heart that would be just as glad not to have to share the kingdom of God with people who, in our opinion, don’t deserve to be there.
The Pharisees stood condemned by Jesus, as does the Pharisee who dwells in us, not because the Pharisees’ sins were greater than the sins of the tax collectors and public sinners, but because the Pharisees hated the tax collectors and public sinners, and they hated the forgiveness Jesus was giving to the tax collectors and sinners. And if you hate God’s forgiveness for others, then there is no forgiveness left for you, because it’s the same God who gave Jesus as a sacrifice for you as for them. If you want to cheapen His sacrifice for them, then don’t imagine that it will be worth enough to cover you, either. You can’t play around with Jesus’ blood that way.
So, whom does God want to forgive? We see very clearly in our Gospel: He wants to forgive everyone. He sent Jesus to die for everyone. He calls everyone, through the Gospel, to repent—to acknowledge their sins and to mourn over them, and to trust in Christ for forgiveness. God wants to forgive everyone.
Now, whom does God forgive? Who receives forgiveness from God? Jesus illustrates it in the parables He told. Jesus is the shepherd who saw that one sheep out of a hundred had wandered away. And he left everything to go searching for it. Jesus is the woman in the parable who noticed that one coin had gone missing. And she lit the lamp and swept the house and searched and searched for it until she found it. Jesus, too, lights the lamp of His Gospel and goes out with it, leaving everything behind—His heavenly glory, His comfort, His own wellbeing—to go searching for the sinner. The sinner who acknowledges his sin and looks to Jesus for forgiveness is the one sinner who repents. He or she is the one whom God forgives. He or she is the one whom Jesus scoops up from the thicket and places on His shoulders. He or she is the one who rides back home with Jesus and for whom Jesus throws a party, so that He can celebrate with the angels and with all of heaven: This one was lost, but see! I found him!
And whom doesn’t God forgive? Jesus says to the Pharisees, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Jesus viewed the tax collectors and the sinners as treasures, and as cause for rejoicing. But heaven does not rejoice at all in “just persons—self-righteous people—who need no repentance.” God does not forgive them. Why? Because to be self-righteous is to attempt to cover yourself before God in your own righteousness. To be self-righteous is to stand before God and point to your history, your behavior, your attitude, your heart. And that is nothing else than to plead to be judged by God’s law. But God’s law demands more than you can give. God’s law demands perfect obedience and a perfectly loving, compassionate, selfless heart. And no one can give that.
On the other hand, the one who repents is the one who stops relying on his own deeds and flees for refuge to Christ. Now, there is righteousness. There is goodness. The one who repents, fleeing in faith to Christ, is covered in Jesus’ righteousness. And the Scriptures declare about that one, “Blessed is he whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”
So blessed are the tax collectors and the sinners who repent! God has found them and forgiven them and rejoices over them! And that isn’t just a one-time thing. It’s true, there was a time when you were lost in unbelief, and Jesus found you with His Gospel and converted you to faith and baptized you into His family. But He wasn’t done bringing you home yet at that time. It’s not as if Jesus goes looking for the lost, finds them and then moves on to others. Repenting of sin and fleeing in faith to Christ is to be a daily activity for the Christian. As Luther said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent!’, He meant for the whole life of believers to be one of repentance.” That’s why Jesus continues to send His Gospel to your ears, and His body and blood to your mouth, to keep forgiving your sins, to keep you steadfast in the faith, to keep you riding on His shoulders until He delivers you at last to your heavenly home.
The one whom God forgives is the one who flees in faith to Jesus for forgiveness. There will never be a day in your life when you don’t need repentance, when you don’t need to flee in faith to Jesus for forgiveness. The warning in our Gospel, is this: Let the day never come when you think you don’t need repentance. Let the day never come, as it did for the Pharisees, when you think you don’t need to flee in faith to Jesus for forgiveness. You’ll never be safe on your own. You’ll always be safe riding on the shoulders of the Shepherd. Amen.
