Jesus provides for His people

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 7

Mark 8:1-9  +  Genesis 2:7-17  +  Romans 6:19-23

The feeding of the four thousand?  I’m sure most of you are familiar with that account from the Gospels.  I wonder if a few of you, though, wanted to correct me every time I said “four thousand” in the service today.  “Um, Pastor, it’s the feeding of the five thousand, remember?”  Of course it is.  And it’s also the feeding of the four thousand.  In the Three Year Lectionary that we had been using here at Emmanuel for many, many years, only the feeding of the five thousand comes up.  But in the historic lectionary that we’ve been following since last December, both miraculous feedings are included, and for good reason.  Two different times Jesus fed the multitudes before him, two different miracles that are similar in many ways, but also very different, each one performed by Jesus with different purposes in mind.

We’re going to spend some time comparing these two miracles of Jesus today, the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, and as we do, the purpose of the miracle before us in today’s Gospel will become clearer for us.  God sets before us today a very simple, but important truth:  Jesus provides for his people.

The feeding of the 5,000 happened first, about halfway through Jesus’ three-year ministry.  Like the feeding of the 4,000, it happened near the Sea of Galilee, after a long day of Jesus preaching and teaching and healing the sick.  In both cases, the compassion of Jesus is mentioned as that which led him to provide food for his followers.  In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish from his disciples, as opposed to seven loaves of bread and “a few” fish in the feeding of the 4,000.  In both cases, Jesus, in his state of humiliation, humbly submitted to his Father and gave thanks to his Father for this food.  But at the same time, Jesus didn’t need to ask for his Father’s help to perform the miracle.  Jesus himself displayed his almighty power as Creator, the same Creator and Provider who provided food and all things for Adam and Eve at the beginning of time.   And a few loaves of bread and a few fish were miraculously multiplied in the hands of Jesus’ disciples as he used them to hand out his blessings, to feed thousands and thousands of people.

The two miracles have those things in common.  But there are some differences, too.  The feeding of the 5,000 took place after the people had been with Jesus for one day.  They could’ve easily returned to their homes or to the nearby villages and found some food, as Jesus’ disciples suggested they should do.  But our Gospel takes places after the people had been with Jesus out in a remote place for three whole days.  Some of them had come a very long way and hadn’t brought any extra provisions for the journey.  They had gone out to hear the Word of God, to listen to Jesus and be healed by him, and hadn’t given any thought to their need for food.

The other important difference is this: The 5,000 were superficial followers of Jesus.  They were looking for signs from him, but they weren’t looking for their Savior from sin in him.  In John 6, we find Jesus performing the miracle of feeding the 5,000 as a sign for the people, to encourage them to seek him as the Christ, that he who provided bread from heaven for them was himself the Living Bread that came down from heaven, that they should put their faith in him to care for their souls.  But they didn’t want soul-care.  In fact, most of the 5,000, when they found out Jesus hadn’t come to be their bread king, turned away from him and stopped following him.

But the 4,000 – they followed him because they wanted more than bread.  They followed Jesus because they believed that he was the One sent from God to speak the Word of God to them, to be their Savior from sin.  Bread was not what their hearts longed for.  Jesus, the Christ – he was the one their hearts longed for.  And so when Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish for them, it wasn’t to encourage them to seek him as the Christ.  It was because they had already recognized him as the Christ – and as his believing followers, he had compassion on them and wasn’t about to let them go hungry or faint on their way home.  Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had said, “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear.  Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  The 4,000 had sought first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness by setting their physical needs aside to hear the Word of Jesus in the desert for three days.  Now it was time for Jesus to fulfill his promise and provide for their physical needs as well.

If you want to summarize the lessons Jesus taught with the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, you might put it this way:

In the feeding of the 5,000, the main lesson was from the lesser to the greater: If Jesus can satisfy your temporal need for bread for this life, then he is also the One who will fill your eternal need for the forgiveness of sins, for eternal life. Look to him for forgiveness, not just bread!

In the feeding of the 4,000 the lesson was from the greater to the lesser: If Jesus cares for sinners so much that he will save you from your sins and grant you eternal life, then he will not neglect you or fail to provide you with food and with all your needs for this earthly life.  Since you look to him for forgiveness, count on him also for bread!

The care and compassion and providence that Jesus shows in our Gospel for his followers, for those who cling to his Word, reveal to us a God of love who has compassion on his whole creation, but who has made a special commitment to care for those who are his children through faith in Christ Jesus.

And why not?  See what God has already provided!  As you heard Paul talk about in Romans 6 today, you used to be slaves to sin, to wickedness and to death.  You had no right and no reason to know God as a gracious and compassionate God, but rather as the Judge who punishes sinners and makes them receive the wages of sin, which is death – both physical and eternal.  But still God looked with compassion even on you, who were his enemies, and provided the Sacrifice who received sin’s wages for you and reconciles you to God, so that, in Christ Jesus and there alone you may know the compassion of God who gives the gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Now, Paul says, He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not, along with him, graciously give us all things?  That’s what we learn in the feeding of the 4,000!  You who already possess the treasure of the Means of Grace, the treasure of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament that cause you to know and receive Christ, the treasure of being baptized into Christ, of being God’s children – God looks on you with such compassion and commitment that he wouldn’t think of defaulting on his promise to provide you with daily bread.  He’s concerned with your soul and with your eternal life with him in heaven, but that means he’s also concerned about your body and with your eternal life on this side of heaven.

So look first to Christ to satisfy your spiritual needs.  Cling to his Word, and then as you do, trust in him also to have compassion on you and to provide everything else you need, too.  Jesus will always provide you with what you need, if you trust in him and not in your own reason and strength.  It’s Jesus who places people around in your life, at just the right moment, in just the right place to provide you with what you need: whether it’s money or food, counsel or help, encouragement or company.  They may be believers who help you in willing service to God; they may be unbelievers whom God puts in place to help you even though they hate the Lord Jesus. But you are to see Jesus there, having compassion on you, providing for his people – even miraculously if that’s what it takes.  That’s faith – to see nothing with the eyes of reason, no way God could possibly sustain you, and yet to trust that he must, somehow, some way, because you are his child and he will not abandon his children.  We learn faith from today’s Gospel.

We also learn love from the feeding of the 4,000.  The love of Jesus for his people – that’s the kind of love he calls on you to show to one another, to your brothers and sisters in Christ who are also his people. Yes, show love, show mercy, help and provide for everyone, no matter who they are, just as God shows mercy to all.  But, just as God shows special compassion and commitment for his people, so he calls on us, too, to show special compassion and readiness to help those who belong to the family of believers, whether here in our church, or, through our synod, to churches around the world.

Jesus said to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, “Love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  Learn that kind of love from Jesus in today’s Gospel, who looked out at 4,000 men, plus women and children, who had nothing to offer him, nothing to give him.  They had come only to receive from him.  Those were the people Jesus was so eager to help, people like you, who have nothing to offer him, nothing to give him.  You have come here today, not to give something to Jesus, but to receive from him – forgiveness of sins, words of life, because you know him as the Christ, you know him as your Savior.  He doesn’t need your compassion or your service, but as we’ve been seeing, especially in the last few weeks, your neighbor does. Your neighbor needs your compassion and your service.  But even more than that, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your family of believers needs your compassion and your service.  Your family of believers needs your kind words, your patience, your obedience, your Christian example, your interest, your counsel, your loving rebuke, your forgiveness, your time and maybe also some of your bread.  Jesus will take the little you have and multiply it as many times as necessary.  It’s always Jesus, providing for his people.  He has provided all things for you for free.  May he also, through you, provide for the rest of his family of believers.  Amen.

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The Law of God must be fulfilled

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 5:17-26  +  Exodus 20:1-17  +  Romans 6:1-11

You heard the Ten Commandments proclaimed to you from Mt. Sinai this morning.  Did you tremble as Israel trembled when they first heard the commandments?  No?  Why not?  Granted, there is no fire here or peals of thunder or billows of smoke – no loud trumpet blast, no voice booming down from the mountain at you.  Just words read from a page, right?  You’ve heard them before.  Still, you know these words to be God’s words. You know these commandments to be God’s commandments.  Why wouldn’t you tremble when you hear them?

There are only three possible answers to that question.  Either you don’t think God’s commandments have to be kept, or you think that you have kept them.

Israel fell into both ways of thinking throughout their history.  In a little over a month after they were given the Ten Commandments, they stopped trembling. They figured God wasn’t so serious after all about his commandments, they didn’t really have to be kept, he wouldn’t punish just a little idolatry, now, would he?  But, of course, they were wrong.

Then you had people like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day who didn’t tremble at God’s commandments, because they thought they were keeping God’s commandments, and then some. After all, they prayed to God all the time and they weren’t stealing people’s money like the tax collectors or committing prostitution or murdering anybody.  They figured they didn’t need to tremble before God’s commandments.  But, of course, they were wrong.

Do you fall into either of those categories? If you don’t think God’s commandments have to be kept, if you think maybe God wasn’t so serious after all with his command to be holy like him, to obey his holy laws, to love him above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself, if you think God will tolerate even one sin against his commandments, if you think you can see the kingdom of heaven without God’s commandments being perfectly kept, if you think Jesus came to tell you, “It’s all right.  Don’t worry about it.  You don’t have to keep God’s Commandments,” then you’re wrong.  And you should tremble.

Or, if you think that you have kept them, if you see yourself as a “good person,” if you honestly believe that you have lived your life in harmony with the Ten Commandments, because, after, all, you pray and you haven’t murdered anyone, if you think that all you need Jesus for is to iron out a few wrinkles and cover over a few minor blemishes in your commandment-keeping record, then you’re wrong.  And you should tremble.

Jesus makes it abundantly clear in today’s Gospel: God’s Law must be fulfilled.

God’s Law must be fulfilled by man, for salvation.

Some people were wondering in Jesus’ day whether maybe he had come to do away with the Law Moses had given, but Jesus denied that.  No, the law is good.  I have not come to abolish it but to fulfill it.  Every sentence of the law is binding on mankind, every phrase, every word.  When God says, “You shall not!”, then you must not.  When God says, “You shall!”, then you’d better.

God’s commandments must be kept.  And they must be kept far better than most people imagine.  For I tell you, Jesus says, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Remember, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were outwardly good, religious people.  They were not criminals or adulterers or murderers.  “Not good enough,” Jesus says.  That’s not good enough for man to be saved.  God’s commandments require far more than that.

He goes on to give an example from the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.”  Well, fine, everyone knows that.  But what not everyone knows, what Jesus revealed to his disciples, was that the commandment, “You shall not murder,” also requires, “You shall not hate your neighbor, or become angry with him, or utter cruel words against him.”  All these things, Jesus says, make a person subject to eternal judgment in hell.

“You shall not murder” also requires, “you shall show kindness to your neighbor, help and befriend him in every bodily need.  And if you injure him in any way, don’t bother bringing an offering to God’s altar. You go and make things right with your neighbor first, even if your neighbor is your enemy.”

That’s what it looks like to keep just the Fifth Commandment.  So no more pretending, if you are still pretending, that the Ten Commandments are really the Ten Suggestions, that they are optional, that God is not serious about having them kept.  No more pretending that you have actually kept them, because you know what it is to hate. You know what it is to get angry with someone, and harbor bitterness in your heart, to harm someone and then figure you don’t have to make it right.  The law must be fulfilled by man for salvation.  But you have not kept it.

There is one who has.  His name is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law.  He said it himself: I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.  Every time God’s law said, “You shall!,” he did.  And every time God’s law said, “You shall not!”, he did not.  Here is the righteousness that God’s law requires.  Here is the righteousness that counts in God’s sight.

Good for him?  No, good for you.  God gave his Son to you and to all as a Substitute, as a fill-in Man to stand in the place of mankind before God.  Since no man could be found who could fulfill God’s law, God made his Son to be The Man who would fulfill the Law for our salvation, to offer us his righteousness as a covering, so that you could stand before God – holy and innocent and righteous, through faith in Christ Jesus.

We call it vicarious obedience, foreign righteousness.  That means, it’s the obedience of a substitute, the righteousness of another Person by which God judges you who believe in Jesus.  When God calls on you to repent, he means that a change in your thinking should take place.  Stop thinking that it’s OK to disobey God’s commandments, stop thinking that you’ve kept them well enough to offer God any of your own righteousness.  And trust instead in the foreign righteousness, the vicarious obedience and the vicarious suffering and death of Jesus for your salvation.  For all who trust in him, there is only forgiveness and righteousness, and life.

You know when he covered you with his righteousness like a set of clean, white clothes.  It’s when you were baptized.  Someone asked me recently, “Pastor, if our sins were forgiven when we were baptized, why do we still have to be reminded of our sins all the time?”  I’ll make a deal with you.  When you stop sinning, I’ll stop reminding you of your sins.  When you are no longer in danger of falling into temptation, I’ll stop warning you about falling into temptation.  When your sinful nature is destroyed and the devil stops trying to convince you to rely on yourself and your righteousness instead of relying on Christ and his righteousness, then I’ll stop talking about sin.  But until then – and I hope you know that “then” is when you leave this earthly life – until then I will remind you of your sin and keep calling on you to repent and keep looking to Christ for forgiveness, because that’s what it means to live in your baptism.

We say in our small catechism, Baptism means that the Old Adam (the Old Man) in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death.  It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?

It’s written in the words you heard in the Second Lesson today.  St. Paul says in Romans, chapter 6, “We were… buried with [Christ] through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

And how do we live a new life?  Well, there are the Ten Commandments to guide us.  The law must be fulfilled by man for salvation.  But we haven’t fulfilled it, so God sent The Man, Jesus Christ, to fulfill the law for us and for our salvation.  Now the law must still be fulfilled, by the new man God has created in us, not for salvation, but because it’s God’s will; it’s what he wants.

And it’s what the new man wants, too. The new man in us who believe never hears God say, “You shall not!”, and then says, “Hmmm, yeah, I think I will.”  The new man in us who believe never hears God say, “You shall!”, and then answers, “Um, no, I don’t think I will. I’m forgiven, so, I don’t have to.  God has forgiven me, so I don’t have to worry what kind of impact my words or deeds have on my neighbor.  I don’t have to make up for anything I’ve said or done.  I don’t have to help my neighbor in his need.”  That’s how sin talks.  But as Paul said to the Romans, “You died to sin!  How can you live in it any longer?”  No, the new man hears and responds to God’s commandments differently.

You may recall that, at the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned that there are three possible answers to the question, “Why would you not tremble when you hear God’s commandments?”  I only mentioned two possibilities: because you don’t think they have to be kept, or because you think you have kept them.  Here’s the third possibility:  You don’t tremble at God’s commandments, because you know they must be kept and you haven’t kept them, and that’s not OK. But you also know that Jesus has kept them for you and shields you by his blood from your well-deserved punishment.

So you who believe in Jesus can use God’s commandments rightly. Use the commandments – know them, recite them, meditate on them in order to crush your sinful nature every day, to show you your need for a Savior, and then to guide you in the things you must do today and the things you must avoid tomorrow, not in order to be saved, not in order to become a child of God, but because you are a baptized child of God, because you are saved through faith in Christ Jesus, and as God’s children, reborn and recreated in the image of Christ, you no longer hear God’s commandments as a threat, but you take it as a simple reality:  The law of God must be fulfilled! Amen.

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Jesus, the Catcher of men

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Luke 5:1-11  +  1 Kings 19:11-21  +  1 Peter 3:8-15

Casting a net to catch fish – that’s what Jesus was doing here all week long. Most of you are aware that we hosted Vacation Bible School this week.  We followed a “fish” theme, that ancient symbol used to represent the Christian Church, with that simple but foundational truth represented by the Greek letters for the word “fish.”  “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” It was a pastor and a few VBS teachers who were lowering the nets, but it was Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Savior who was really doing the fishing, drawing children – and adults, too! – to his Word, and through his Word, to Him.

Casting a net to catch fish – that’s what Jesus is doing right now, and every Sunday from this place, and every time the net of His Gospel goes out anywhere in this world.  Jesus, the Christ, who came into the world to save lost sinners, Jesus the Son of God who died and who rose again, Jesus the Savior who got into Simon Peter’s boat that day so long ago to go fishing is still going out fishing with his Gospel net to catch men – men, women and children – for His kingdom.  Jesus is the Catcher of men.  1) It’s Jesus who casts the Gospel net. 2) It’s Jesus who fills the Gospel net.

IT’S JESUS WHO CASTS THE GOSPEL NET

Jesus cast the Gospel net on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  He preached first from the shore, and then from Peter’s boat.  He preached against their sin and rebellion against God.  He opened the Scriptures to them to show them how high God’s standards were, so high that every sinner falls short.  He preached Himself as their Redeemer who would bear the sins of the world and cover them with His own righteousness.  He preached forgiveness of sins for all who trusted in Him, as he preached on other occasions, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  From his own mouth Jesus cast the Gospel net.

But it wouldn’t always be that way.  After he ascended into heaven, Jesus would still be casting his Gospel net, but he would do it through the mouths of his disciples.  It’s just that, where our Gospel today begins in Luke 5, Jesus still didn’t have any full-time disciples. So he directed Peter and his companions to row the boat out into the sea and cast their fishing net.  Peter and his companions had been up all night trying to find the fish with their nets, but there were no fish to be found; they came up empty.  But now, at the word of Jesus they went out, they cast their nets, and you know how that turned out. 

The point of this miracle was not to emphasize Jesus’ power or the physical blessings he gives in his grace, although his power and grace are very real.  The point of this miracle was revealed in Jesus’ words to Peter, “From now you will be catching men.”  Just like Jesus cast the Gospel net from his mouth, so Peter and his companions would be casting the Gospel net from their mouths.  And just as Jesus was the one who guided their nets to where the fish were, so it would always be Jesus, there in the background, getting them right where he wanted them, so that he could cast his Gospel net through them.

Jesus would get them where he wanted them, for example, in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost, when the ascended Jesus saw to it to gather in Jerusalem a whole crowd of people from every nation.  And there Jesus sent his own Spirit on the apostles, and Peter cast the Gospel net that day, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins.”  3000 souls were caught that day in the Gospel net.  Peter did the preaching, but it was Jesus in the background, gathering the people, casting the net.  It was Jesus catching men for his kingdom.

Jesus has been casting the Gospel net ever since. He does it through the blessed office of the holy ministry as the Church calls men into the same apostolic office, to go and preach the Word in this place and that place, throughout the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior, and administering His Sacraments where he distributes the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation that he won on the cross. 

Jesus is also there casting his Gospel net when a Christian witnesses to a friend – that simple message of “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” – when we speak his Word to our children and to our neighbors and to our families.  Not all Christians are called into the public ministry like Peter was.  But the very same Peter says to all Christians, “Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you.”  There’s your chance.  Cast the net!  But realize, it’s really Jesus casting it through you, catching men for his kingdom. 

He puts us right where he wants us.  It’s never an accident.   Every conversation that turns to spiritual things.  Every Bible or Gospel tract that is picked up and read in a waiting room.  Every Divine Service celebrated, every Bible class or Sunday School lesson taught , every Vacation Bible School held – wherever and whenever and to whomever the Gospel is preached, it’s Jesus’ doing.  Jesus has arranged everything to find his elect – those whom God chose in eternity to be saved through faith in His Son.  Jesus sails out into the world with his Church, and through his Church, he will find with his Gospel every last one who is meant to be found.

Isn’t that a great comfort for us?  Our goal as a Church is not to grow.  (It’s not to shrink, either, or to maintain the status quo.) Our goal is not to be effective in our community, it’s not to bring people in, nor to keep people here. Jesus, our Master, Jesus the Catcher of men, has given us one task, one goal, one purpose: to cast the net, to preach the Gospel, with the full assurance that it’s always Jesus in the background, finding the fish, and doing the catching.

That’s not to say that everyone who hears the Gospel will be caught in the net.  Far from it.  But as a Lutheran preacher put it 100 years ago, “Even though many people, most people run away from the Lord and His Word and are lost, some – a good number! – are won, converted and saved. Those who are supposed to come, they come. Those who are supposed to hear, they hear. From the number of the Elect not one is left behind.”

Jesus the Catcher of men is there with his Church casting the net. And Jesus, the Catcher of men, is the one who fills the net, too.

IT’S JESUS WHO FILLS THE GOSPEL NET

You remember how Peter and his companions worked hard all night and caught nothing?  That was no accident.  Jesus, the ruler of the seas, saw to it that their nets came up empty that night, in order to bless them with this more important lesson the following day, to teach them about fishing for the souls of men.  They had to come to grips with the fact that none of their hard work would ever catch a single fish, a single soul for Christ’s kingdom.  No bait would work.  No coaxing of the fish would help.  No mistake or weakness on their part could stand in Jesus’ way.  They had to despair of themselves and their labor and their efforts.  Jesus alone could fill the nets.  Only the Spirit of Jesus, working through the Word of Christ, can take an unbeliever and turn him into a believer.

The same is true today.  Jesus is the one who fills the Gospel net, who draws people in and catches them for his kingdom.  We should never dare try to sell Jesus to people.  We dare not market our church. “Oh, come to my church.  It’s so comfortable, and the people are so friendly and we have such good potlucks and programs and music.”  No, that may work to fill a church building with people, but that’s not how Jesus fills his kingdom with people.  He draws them into his Gospel net, and sends forth his Spirit who works faith through the Word, where and when it pleases him.

You can’t help the Holy Spirit, and you can’t hinder the Holy Spirit, either.  Where the Gospel is rightly preached and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, there the Holy Spirit will be adding souls to Christ’s kingdom.  And you can’t judge the catch by how big or how fast a church grows.  You have to see the catch of men as Jesus sees it – all people everywhere, of all time, who hear and believe his Gospel – they all fill one gigantic net.  And if you could see how the nets have filled and swelled throughout the world, throughout the centuries, if you could see all of the people in the Church who have been caught into Christ’s kingdom – you would be astonished, just as astonished as Peter and his companions were on that day of the great catch of fish.

You would be astonished, and like Peter, you would fall down at the feet of Jesus in fear, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Like Peter, you would realize that you don’t deserve to be here in the presence of this great Fisherman.  You don’t deserve to be caught in Jesus’ net and saved for all eternity while so many perish eternally. You don’t deserve it and neither do I.  You are sinners, and so am I.  Recognize that all you have, all you bring to the table is sin.  But don’t ask Jesus to go away from you because of that.  Don’t go home downtrodden and depressed because of that.  Hear the words of Jesus to Peter, because the words of Jesus to the sinner named Peter are his words to every scared and downtrodden sinner, “Don’t be afraid!”

Don’t be afraid, because Jesus has not come to destroy you, but to save you.  You know that.  It’s why you gather here, to hear him say to you again through your pastor, “Don’t be afraid.”  Don’t be afraid. It’s no accident that you wound up here this morning.  It’s no accident that the Gospel net has found you.  Jesus had each one of you in mind, to bring you here this morning, to bring some of you here this week at VBS, that you should be where the Gospel net is cast, so that, by the power of his Holy Spirit, you might know him as Jesus, Christ, God’s Son, Savior – so that you may be caught for his kingdom, to live eternally with him, to become part of His holy Church, and even to become instruments through which Jesus, the Catcher of men, catches others.  Amen.

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The Christian life is characterized by mercy

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Luke 6:36-42  +  Genesis 50:15-21  +  Romans 8:18-23

Last week we saw the merciless Pharisees and teachers of the law judging and condemning the tax collectors and sinners who were gathering around Jesus.  They had no room in their heart for such people, no mercy, no forgiveness.  They were blind to their own sin, their own merciless attitude, their own need for forgiveness and mercy. And by such lack of mercy, they showed themselves not to be children of the heavenly Father, but instead children of the Evil One.  They showed themselves not to be children of the Father who, in mercy, sent out his Son to go looking for the lost sinner, to call him and her to repentance – a Father, who, together with his Son and the holy angels, rejoices over the sinner who repents and who delights to show mercy to those who love him and even more to those who hate him, because that’s who he is.

This week in the Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, “Be like that.  Be like your merciful Father, not like the merciless Pharisees.”  Jesus teaches us that The Christian Life Is Characterized by Mercy.

“Be merciful,” Jesus says, “just as your Father is merciful.”  First, notice that he says “just as,” not “so that he will be…”  God is merciful.  That means he looks upon needy, pathetic sinners and his heart goes out to them; he pities them and he helps them in their need, because they’re just so needy, and that’s who he is.  God is merciful. You can’t make him more merciful by doing things; you can’t buy his mercy with your love or good behavior.  And God has been merciful to you poor sinners by giving you everything you have.  It’s all undeserved – your food, your clothing, your house, your family, your job, your health, your talents and abilities and opportunities – all gifts of God’s mercy. And so much more than that, God has been merciful to you poor sinners in the person of His Son, whose sacrifice of himself on the cross reconciles you to a merciful God.

Notice that Jesus says “your Father,” not “the God in whom you don’t believe.”  Jesus is speaking here to his disciples, not to unbelievers. He’s not teaching unbelievers how to get into God’s good graces.  You can’t do a single thing to make up for your sins or to purchase God’s grace.  Your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ Jesus – through faith alone, and not through any mercy you might show, not through your obedience or acts of love.  Your sins are not scrubbed away by your hard work, but by the hard work of the Son of God who washed you clean in baptism and clothed you with his good works.  So don’t listen to the false teachers of the world who make your justification, your salvation depend on how well you keep the commandments.  That’s not what Jesus is talking about here.  He’s talking to those who are already forgiven through faith and who already have God as their Father.

It’s important that we recognize who the recipient of our mercy and all our good works is.  It’s not God.  God doesn’t need your mercy; God doesn’t need your good works.  But your neighbor does.  Your neighbor needs your help, your comfort, your care and concern, your protection, your riches.  Your neighbor is the one who needs and benefits from your good works, so direct them at your neighbor, not at God.

And direct them, not at your friendly neighbor only, but at your neighbor who hates you, who mistreats you and your family, who can never repay you.  That’s how your Father is merciful, who makes his sun rise on the righteous and on the wicked, who had his Son crucified for his enemies at the hands of his enemies.  “That’s what your Father does.  Be like that,” Jesus says.

And every true Christian will.  A false Christian may sing praises to God well enough, but he has no mercy in his heart for his neighbor. The Christian life is characterized by mercy, by good works – not just works that look good on the outside, not works that are done out of guilt or by compulsion, but truly good works that flow from a sincere heart, a heart of mercy, a heart of love, a heart that has been warmed by the love of God the Father, by the love of God the Son.  You don’t prove your faith to God with your deeds of mercy, but you do prove your faith to your neighbor and even to yourself. Good works don’t create faith and they don’t merit salvation.  But where good works are not, faith is not.  Where mercy is not, faith is not.    The one who believes in Jesus will seek to be like his Father and ours.

In our text, Jesus gives some examples of mercy in action.  Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. 

Now, what doesn’t he mean here?  This has got to be one of the most quoted verses of the Bible by the unbelieving world.  They may know of no other verse, they may hate the Bible and the God who reveals himself in it, but you can bet they know and love this verse (and Christians have been known to abuse it, too).  “Do not judge. Do not condemn. You let me live how I want to live!  Who are you to judge?”

Ah, but it’s all connected to the verse right before, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” So, Do not judge or condemn, just as your Father does not judge or condemn.  Now, that doesn’t mean God doesn’t ever judge anyone or condemn anyone or classify things as “sins” anymore. God’s law still labels sin as “sin.”  God’s law still condemns sinners for being “sinners.” Hell is not empty, and Jesus says to those who do not believe in him, “You stand condemned already, because you have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

But Jesus shows us what he means here, time and time again, whenever he encountered sinners.  He never denied or excused their sin. But he never stood there with his nose up in the air, either, looking down at them in arrogance, making fun of them behind their backs.  What did he do when those tax collectors and sinners gathered around him in our Gospel last week?  He didn’t deny that they were sinners or excuse their sin.  But he didn’t judge or condemn them like the Pharisees did, did he?  He didn’t see them and start lashing out at them. Instead, he spoke kindly to them.  He had mercy on them, how?, by addressing their sin, by calling on them to repent of their sin and to receive forgiveness and eternal life from him.  His purpose for them was not that they should go to hell, but that they should repent and believe in him and be saved from their sin.  That’s how he didn’t judge them or condemn them.  That’s what mercy looks like in action.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Some people take this to mean that when somebody does something terribly wrong to you, you’re supposed to forget about it, get over it and tell the person you forgive them, even as they go on hurting you or not caring that they did.  No, that’s not how God forgives; it’s not what Jesus ever did.  Even on the cross, he prayed for the forgiveness of those who nailed him there.  He didn’t tell them it was all right.

Joseph did the same thing in our First Lesson today.  He didn’t see his brothers for the first time who had sold him into slavery and run up to them and tell them, “Go to hell!”  He also didn’t run up to them and tell them, “Don’t worry about! I forgive you!”  What did he do?  He yearned for their repentance.  He spoke with them, warned them, and  as soon as they showed that they recognized how they had mistreated him, then he forgave them; then he let it go and left it in God’s hands.

Jesus also says to his disciples, “Give, and it will be given to you, a good measure.”  Give generously to your neighbor of your time, of your riches. Give generously, without worrying about how much you’re losing, because, as Jesus says, you’ll gain much more.  That doesn’t mean throw your money away to every panhandler or scam artist on the street.  It does mean don’t be stingy with your neighbor or unwilling to help when you can.  Be merciful! Give!

That’s the kind of mercy Jesus calls on his disciples to have in their hearts and to show with their lips and with their hands and with their feet.  In all these ways, Jesus says, be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

But here’s where the mercy of God’s children is unlike God’s mercy.  God is always and only on the giving end of mercy.  He doesn’t need mercy from anyone, and yet he gives it freely.

But you – you know what it is to need mercy and to be on the receiving end of mercy.  When you show mercy and compassion to others, you’re only showing them what you yourself have received.  When you withhold judgment from someone who deserves to be judged, it’s only because God has withheld judgment from you who deserved to be judged.  When you forgive the one who has sinned against you, it’s only because you yourself have been forgiven your many sins against God.  When you give generously, it’s only because you yourself have received generously from God everything you have. God has no reason to be merciful. You, on the other hand, have every reason to be merciful.

And here’s where the mercy of God’s children is also unlike God’s mercy.  When God confronts sinners and corrects sinners, He always sees clearly; He knows everything; His judgment is always perfect, always completely unclouded by any sin or error or blindness on his part.

But you – when you seek to correct your brother or sister, when you try to remove that speck from his eye, you don’t know everything; your judgment is not always perfect. You yourself may have a plank in your own eye that needs removing first.  You yourself may be just as blind as the blind man you’re trying to lead.  For as pure as your motives may be, you may be blinded by sin, and arrogance may creep in as you seek to help your brother.  The old picture applies, when you point your finger at someone else, there may be four fingers pointing back at you.

Do you want to correct a family that you think is being inconsiderate to you by not keeping their children quiet enough?  Watch out for the plank in your own eye!  First identify your own lack of consideration – a lack of love, a lack of mercy and compassion toward that family and toward others.  Then you can help correct the sin of another. Do you want to teach your fellow Christian to be more caring and welcoming toward you?  Hypocrite!  Treat your own carelessness and coldness first.  Then, in mercy, you can help your fellow Christian.  Do you want to help a fellow Christian be more loving? Hypocrite!  First repent of your own lovelessness.  First see how patiently God has dealt with you and how he has forgiven your sins in Christ.  Then and only then will you have a heart of mercy – a heart like your Father’s heart.  Only then will you be of any use to anyone at all.

The Christian life is characterized by mercy: the mercy of your heavenly Father who has been merciful to you in Christ Jesus.  The more you understand your need for His mercy, the more you will look to Him for mercy and the more you will receive mercy from him, even here in the body and blood of His Son. And the more mercy you receive, the more your Christian life will be characterized by mercy toward all who need mercy from you.  Amen.

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A God Who Welcomes Sinners – Who Would Have Thought?

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

Luke 15:1-10  +  Micah 7:18-20  +  1 Peter 5:6-11

God and good people go together – don’t they?  We normally picture God surrounded by saints and angels, with people who are, at least mostly honest, decent, hard-working, charitable, moral people – and with good reason.  The Bible spells out for us in Psalm 15 who may dwell in the Lord’s presence: LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

It’s no wonder, then, that people figure that God and sinners just don’t mix.  A couple of times in the last month people have said to me, “Pastor, it’s a wonder the church didn’t burn down when so-and-so came to church.” Or, “Pastor, if I show up at your church, I’m gonna burst into flames as soon as I walk through the door.” Why? Because God and sinners are like fire and gasoline. Everybody knows that.

Of course, if that’s true, then what are you doing here?  Not a one of you is blameless.  Not a one of you would be measured as a good person if God took out the measuring stick of his law, and neither would I.  Oh, no. God’s law calls you a damned sinner – you in the front row and you in the back and everyone in between.  Like fire and gasoline – that’s what an encounter would be like between any of you and the holy and righteous God.

So what is this in our Gospel?  What is this where the worst sinners in society were gathering around the Son of God – gathering around him to listen to him?  And they don’t burn up, and Jesus doesn’t send them away. Instead, he receives them, spends time with them, sits down to dinner with them.  A God who welcomes sinners – who would have thought?

Certainly not the Pharisees and not the teachers of the law. They were mad when they saw Jesus associating with the dregs of society, precisely because he claimed to have been sent by God. And God, they knew, would burn up those thieving tax collectors and sinners if God showed up on the scene.  If God showed up on the scene, he would know how righteous and decent and moral these Pharisees and teachers of the law were.  He would come and stand next to them and tell them what a good job they were doing – even as the sinners burned in their presence.  But not Jesus.  Oh, no.  “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Humph!

Now, you can bet these Pharisees and teachers of the law knew their Old Testament Scriptures.  They knew Psalm 15 which I read to you a moment ago.  But they also knew some very different passages.  Like, when the people of Israel made a golden calf and began bowing down to it and worshiping it.  And God threatened to burn them up, but Moses interceded for them and God forgave them and stayed with them all the way to the Promised Land.  They knew of David’s adulteries and murders, but also of God’s forgiveness.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law also knew of this prophet named Jonah. You remember Jonah?  After the part about the storm at sea and the big fish that swallowed him, he preached repentance and destruction to the wicked sinners in Nineveh.  And God turned back his anger and had compassion on those sinners and didn’t destroy them.  But that made Jonah angry.  He complained to God, “This is why I fled from you in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

So God taught him a little lesson.  Jonah went to a place outside the city to sulk.  And it was blazing hot in that desert, but God made a vine grow up very quickly to cover Jonah and give him some shade.  That made Jonah happy.  But the next day God caused a worm to eat up the vine, and then he sent a scorching wind right into Jonah’s face, and he got angry again.

And God said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

You see, God did for Jonah exactly what Jesus did for the Pharisees and teachers of the law in the Gospel.  They were so angry that Jesus would welcome sinners. And so he showed them what it was all about.  He showed them from their own experience so that they would be ashamed of their anger and their sinful, disgusting pride.  He showed them so that they would know how far they themselves had fallen from grace, that they no longer even recognized what the love and compassion of God looked like.

“Which one of you, if he had a hundred sheep and lost one, wouldn’t leave the 99 in the desert to search for the one that was lost?  He’d search until he found it, and then he’d scoop it up in his arms, wrap it around his shoulders and head back home and celebrate.  ‘Look what I found!  My lost sheep!’”  If you would do that over a single sheep, Jesus taught them, shouldn’t God do it for the many sinners who have wandered away from his loving care?

“Or what woman, if she lost one coin out of ten, wouldn’t light a lamp and sweep the house until she found it, and the call her friends over to celebrate with her –  ‘Look what I found!  My lost coin!’”?  If a woman would get that excited over a single lost coin, Jesus taught them, shouldn’t God get that excited about finding a lost soul?

And the good news is, God does get that excited about finding sinners who have run away from him; he does search for them and he does find them and he does celebrate with all of heaven when he finds them and brings them home.  “Look what I found!”

And this is where all the world’s wisdom falls to pieces, and all the false saints are revealed for the hypocrites they are:  I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. You want to count yourself among the righteous persons who do not need to repent, like the Pharisees counted themselves among the righteous, righteous, decent, good, moral, fitting company for God, because you haven’t done too much bad stuff in your life, or because you’ve done at least your fair share of good?  Then woe to you, because Jesus will not help you. He will not welcome you or eat with you or invite you into his kingdom.  Do you want to see the sinners of the world burned up and given what’s coming to ‘em?  Do you want to keep them away from our nice, pretty church, or at least, not associate with them yourself if they do come?  Then woe to you!  You have no Savior.  You’re on your own.  The shepherd leaves the 99 “righteous” behind.  God is a God who welcomes and rejoices over sinners who repent; he has no time for anyone else.

God’s law calls each of you a damned sinner.  But rather than deny it or run away from it, embrace it, because that means you are the one for whom Jesus has come looking.  He calls you to repentance – to see and to mourn over your sin and to trust in him for the forgiveness of sins, not a forgiveness that he pulls out of thin air, but a forgiveness that he purchased for you with his own blood when, on the cross, Jesus became a sinner like you. More than that, it was your sins that he bore and that he paid for with his suffering and death.  That’s where God and The Sinner met to settle accounts once and for all.  Fire and gasoline came together, and the Sinner was incinerated.

That’s how God can welcome sinners, not because sin is acceptable to him, but because sin has already been dealt with. That’s how Jesus could welcome sinners, because he threw in his lot with them – not committing their sins, but bearing their sins on the cross and burying their sins in the tomb.  Through his Word he now calls sinners to repentance and covers sinners with baptismal clothing and comforts sinners with his Absolution and feeds sinners with his body and blood.

So, you see, the picture of the shepherd finding his lost sheep and the woman finding her lost coin isn’t a picture of a one-time event in your life when Jesus first called you to repentance and then rejoiced over you – and then moved on to other people.  I’m afraid that’s how too many people misunderstand these verses of our Gospel, as if believing Christians were the 99 sheep whom Jesus is always leaving to go after other people. But no, the 99 righteous persons who do not need repentance – that’s not you.  You sin every day. Even your best works are still accompanied by sin.  Every day the devil still prowls around, looking for someone to devour, someone like you.

No, as the first of Luther’s famous 95 Theses says, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said, ‘Repent!’, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”  When Jesus first came to you with his Gospel and you believed and were baptized, you might say that’s when Jesus found you, and justified you, and began turning you into the saint that his Gospel already declares you to be.  But he isn’t done bringing you home yet. He hasn’t tossed you into his big flock of sheep to move on to other more needy people.  He hasn’t finished rejoicing over you yet.  The whole life of a believer is a riding on the shoulders of the shepherd as he brings you home to his heavenly Father and to the holy angels.  That’s when the heavenly celebration will really get going, when God welcomes sinners – forgiven sinners – into his kingdom of glory.

A God who welcomes sinners – who would have thought?  We join with the prophet Micah in marveling at God’s amazing grace, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”  Let this be known in all the world, and let it be known to all the people you know.  They will not burst into flames if they visit our church. On the contrary, this is where the flames are put out. Our God is a God who loves sinners, who seeks sinners, who gave his Son for sinners, and who welcomes into his presence every sinner who believes in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  For his sake.  Amen.

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