The Law fast vs. the Gospel fast

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 16

Isaiah 58:1-14

What does the Bible teach about fasting? There are some references to it. Fasting involved going without food for a certain period of time, denying oneself the pleasures of the flesh in order to pray, to focus on the unseen God. It was an act of humility before God. In the New Testament, Jesus’ 40-day fast at the beginning of His ministry is famous. Many of the Jews fasted, but Jesus’ own disciples didn’t fast. Because Jesus was with them. They didn’t need to focus on the unseen God, because, for a few short years, God was seen by them in the Person of Jesus. After His ascension, believers did fast sometimes, by their own choice, not by God’s command.

In the Old Testament there was only one day of the year on which God commanded all the Israelites to fast. That was the Day of Atonement. It was a 24-hour fast, and a Sabbath rest on top of it, no matter what day of the week it fell on. They were commanded to “afflict themselves” or to “humble themselves” on that day, and to do no work at all, a special Sabbath Day, because on that day atonement would be made for their sins, as God Himself had provided it through the ministry of the priests. They were to devote that entire day to paying attention to the atonement God was providing for all their sins. Once a year.

But people often took it upon themselves to fast on other days, which wasn’t wrong, which could be useful. But in tonight’s reading, Isaiah highlights what was wrong with Israel’s fasting. It was a Law fast, not a Gospel fast.

God speaks, first of all, to the prophet Isaiah, commanding him to expose the sins of the people of Israel.

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

Then God tells Isaiah which sins, in particular, to expose. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

So they were seeking God, seeking the Lord, pretending to worship Him, expecting help from Him and acceptance from Him, even though they were willfully disregarding His Law. They thought they could draw near to God, without repenting of their sins.

Isn’t that just like the people in today’s world? They don’t have any regard for God’s Word recorded in Holy Scripture. They don’t do what He says. They break His commandments one after the other, with zero repentance, with no intention of listening to Him in the future. And yet many of the same people still pretend to seek the Lord, pretend to worship Him, pretend that He will help them and accept them and bring them into heaven, “just as they are.” But, no, it doesn’t work that way.

Isaiah records the people of Israel complaining to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no notice of it?’ Many in Israel, probably some of the prominent leaders of Israel, wanted to get some help from God. So they chose to fast. They chose to humble themselves. And God didn’t applaud. He didn’t pat them on the back and say, “Good job! Good job! Thank you so much for not eating for a few hours. It means so much to Me! Of course I’ll help you now!”

No, and God tells them why He wasn’t pleased. Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. They were fasting, all right. They were not eating for a day. But how did they spend their time while they were “humbling themselves”? Still seeking their own pleasure in other ways besides eating. Still mistreating their workers. Still quarrelling and fighting and breaking God’s commandments left and right. And still, they thought that their little act of self-sacrifice and self-denial would earn them God’s favor.

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?

No, God says. What does He care if a person doesn’t eat for a while, and walks around all bent over and sitting in ashes? With the attitude of, “Oh, look at how humble I am. God will have to help me now!” No, He says, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

In other words, if you want to do something to please God, if you want to take a day to gain His favor, then it’s not not eating that would please Him. It would be the keeping of His commandments. It would be doing away with all wickedness, not mistreating your neighbor, including your worker or your spouse or your children. It would be taking the food that you would have eaten for yourself and giving it to those who have nothing to eat in the first place.

The Lord goes on: If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

Get rid of the “yoke” from your midst. That is, the things you do to burden other people, to make their life difficult, to make your life easier. Get rid of the pointing finger, blaming and demeaning others. Get rid of speaking wickedly about your neighbor. And devote yourself to helping those who need your help. That would earn the Lord’s favor!

The Lord goes on: “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God tells Israel, do you want to get My attention? Don’t do it with impenitent fasting. Do it by honoring Me, which means honoring My Word, which means honoring My Commandment to rest on the Sabbath Day. Honor Me on that day, not only by not working, but also by not complaining about how I’m forcing you to rest, by, instead, giving thanks to Me for giving you this day of rest, and for all the things I’ve given you. Honor My word. Honor My commandments by obeying them, from the heart, with love for Me, your God and your Savior. Then you will be blessed! Not by hating Me in your heart, not by ignoring My commandments, not by going without food for a little while, which I never commanded you to do in the first place.

What’s the real problem this chapter of Isaiah exposes among the Israelites, and among people still today? They were trying to earn God’s favor with their own self-chosen work of fasting, even while ignoring all the works God had commanded them to do in His holy Law, even while living lives that dishonored the very God whom they wished to appease. That is why I called it above “Law fasting.” And it’s worse than useless. It’s an offense to God.

But “Gospel fasting” is different. The right way to approach God is through the true humility of repentance, recognizing our sins, against God and against our neighbor, and giving them up instead of living in them intentionally. Then, it’s through the atonement made by the Lord Jesus, who paid for our sins on the cross. The “Gospel fast” is to pause and reflect on Christ’s sacrifice, to stop trying to earn God’s favor by your works, and, instead, to seek His favor through Christ crucified, through whom God has promised mercy and acceptance and the forgiveness of sins, for free. Finally, the “Gospel fast,” if you want to call it that, is to live each day, not for yourself, but for Him who died for you and rose again. It’s to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him, to endure affliction patiently, to pray for one another, to live each day honoring God’s Word instead of honoring yourself, doing what you can to help those in need instead of obsessing about your own needs and desires. This “Gospel fast” won’t put a scowl on your face, but a smile. Because it’s the easy yoke, it’s the light burden that Christ offers to all who come to Him. God is pleased with it, and it ends in glory and eternal life.

This is the kind of fast you should practice all the time, the God-pleasing Gospel fast, whether or not you choose to go without food for a while. Amen.

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The hope of a Christian funeral

Posted on September 15, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 16

Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

Do you remember how St. Paul described God at the end of today’s Epistle? He described Him as the One who is able to do far, far more than we can ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us. We have just a small example of that beyond-our-imagination power in today’s Gospel. With a word, Jesus raised a man from the dead. And He’ll do the same for you, one day, on an even grander scale. The funeral procession we encounter in today’s Gospel is the only funeral procession we encounter anywhere in the Gospels, which makes it, I think, a wonderful opportunity for us all to prepare for our own funerals ahead of time, and for the funerals of our loved ones. Every time we ponder the raising of the young man of Nain, we’re reminded of the hope of a Christian funeral.

King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A funeral—the death of a loved one—is certainly a time to weep, for believers and unbelievers alike. Death, in some cases, may bring to an end a long life of pain and suffering, making it somewhat of a relief, but that still doesn’t make it a time to laugh. It’s still a time to weep. How much more so when death takes a young man in the prime of his life. How much more so when death takes the only son of a mother. And how much more so still when that mother is already a widow. Such was the funeral procession in today’s Gospel as it slowly moved through the city gates of Nain, heading toward the grave where the dead man would be buried, a mournful procession with plenty of weeping.

It was no accident that Jesus, and a large crowd of followers, was approaching the city just at that moment. This is the one and only time when this city is mentioned in Scripture. As far as we know, Jesus had never gone there before and never went there after. But God Himself worked out the timing of these events, even as He is always working out the timing of all things so that His good purposes for His Church may be accomplished.

Luke tells us that, When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. We need to pay attention to that. The Lord Jesus’ reaction to death is God the Father’s reaction to death as well. Yes, He is the one who first threatened our first parents, Adam and Eve, with death if they chose to go against Him. And God is the One who has been justly following through on that threat for some 6,000 years now. But He doesn’t do it gleefully, or indifferently. Nor is He indifferent to the pain and sorrow people suffer when death takes a loved one from them. He sees our sorrow, as He saw the widow’s sorrow, and He has compassion.

Someone may be tempted to ask, well, then why doesn’t God make it stop? And the answer is that He did, and He will.

God, temporarily, made death stop for the young man in our Gospel. He approached the widow and said to her, “Weep no more.” He wasn’t denying that she had a reason to weep or rebuking her for crying. He was simply informing her that there was no longer going to be a reason for it. He came and touched the coffin, and those who were carrying it stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and he gave him to his mother, allowing that man to live out the rest of a “normal” earthly life with his widow mother, until he died again.

God doesn’t make death stop very often. It remains as His curse on our sinful race, and really, on the creation itself. It remains, lamentably, a “fact of life” in the story of this world, along with the toil and suffering that come before it. This is what our first parents brought upon themselves and upon their children when they chose to go against the God of goodness and life. And we, their children, are participants in their sin. We know better than to blame God for the suffering and death that befall us. We don’t expect God to remove suffering from this life or to stop death in its tracks. It’s going to continue for a little while longer.

But we take great comfort in the fact that, on a few momentous occasions, the Son of God was able, and willing, to step in and put a stop to death, as He did in today’s Gospel. With the power of His almighty Word, the Lord of life healed the young man’s body and returned its soul to it unharmed, lightening the burden of the widow mother, turning her sorrow into joy, and amazing both sets of crowds, those already following Him and those in the funeral procession.

This account gives us just a small glimpse of the power of Jesus—power which He displayed to an ever greater extent in His own resurrection from the dead, power which He has promised to use to accomplish something similar for us. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says this: For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will…. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

So first, Jesus talks about raising people to life even before their bodies die. He speaks to the spiritually dead, which is how we all begin life when we’re born into the world, and through His word, He calls people to believe and thus raises them to spiritual life. That means that, for believers, even when your body dies, you don’t die. You have already crossed over from death to life. This resurrection is even more important than the resurrection of a dead body, because this resurrection that happens through faith in Jesus is what determines where you spend eternity. This resurrection to spiritual life is what makes you a child of God. It means your sins are forgiven, you’re clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness, you’re made to share in the life of Christ. Not even death can take that away from a person.

And that’s the hope of a Christian funeral, that our loved one who died in the faith has not evaporated into nothingness, is not suffering in hell, but lives on, not in our hearts, not in our minds, but in the presence of God.

The rest of the hope of a Christian funeral is that the bodily death that we see there will also be fixed by Jesus, permanently stopped and even reversed at the last day. That hour is coming, closer and closer with each day that passes. Then we’ll hear the grand “Weep no more!” because there will be no more reason to weep, over anything. Then our bodies will not only be raised, but changed, perfected, and glorified. That will truly be the time to laugh, and the time to dance.

For now, there is still a time to weep and time to mourn. God doesn’t discourage that. He simply says, through the apostle Paul, that we should not sorrow as those who have no hope. Because we do have hope. The sure and certain hope of a continuing life now, and of the resurrection of the dead soon.

This is the Christian’s hope, at a Christian funeral. And it is a hope for Christians only. While we surely want all people to become Christians and to remain Christians so that this hope also applies to them, just as God Himself wants all men to be saved, we know that not all people will believe in the Lord. Many will stubbornly cling to sin. Many will seek salvation elsewhere than in Christ Jesus, the Lord of life. We can’t force others to believe, but there are some things we can do. You can remain devoted to hearing the Word of Christ and receiving His Sacraments. You can encourage one another to remain faithful until death. You can speak the truth in love to the people in your life who aren’t believers in Jesus. You can show the world by how you live that you do believe in the Lord Jesus. And you can leave behind for your family, for your loved ones, and for your church, the kind of steadfast confession that leaves no one with any doubt: This man, this woman died in the faith. This man, this woman died as a Christian. And that is a sure and solid reason to hope! Amen.

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Trust in your Father, who cares for you

Posted on September 8, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 15

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

It’s “do not worry” Sunday again. It almost seems a shame, doesn’t it?, that “do not worry” Sunday only comes around once a year. You probably need it more often than that. But, of course, every Sunday, every sermon, essentially comes with the message of “do not worry,” because every Sunday, every sermon, every preaching of God’s Word points you away from the things that cause you worry toward the Lord God, urging you to trust in the Lord Jesus, to hope in Him, to have faith in Him. And faith, fully formed, drives out all worry and fear, because the One in whom we trust reigns over all the things that cause us worry.

But that doesn’t mean that believers don’t stray into worry and anxiety at times. We do! Which is why Jesus had to speak the words of today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, and which is also why the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom, saw to it that these words would be recorded for us in Holy Scripture and preached repeatedly in the Church for two thousand years, because He’s well aware of our weaknesses, and of our tendency to worry about things.

Jesus begins in our Gospel with the thing that’s behind many of our worries: Mammon. Money. Earthly wealth and possessions. No one can serve two lords. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. When you order your life around making money and acquiring possessions, you effectively push God to the side. You push Him out of your life. Oh, you may not mean to do that. You may think you can keep God around in the background for emergencies while you continue to make your life decisions based on pursuing wealth. You may think you can keep God tucked away in your pocket to pull Him out once in a while for an occasional prayer or request, while you spend most of your time relying mainly on yourself and on your ability to run things, or to fix things. But it doesn’t work that way, according to Jesus. If you allow concerns about money to order your life, then you are serving it as your lord. If you insist on managing everything by yourself, running everything, trying to fix everything by your own careful planning and prudent actions, then you’re serving yourself as your lord. On the other hand, if you order your life around serving God, hearing His Word and putting it into practice, living each day with the intention of worshiping the true God with your whole self, placing your life into His good and capable hands, then you won’t end up serving Mammon, or trusting in Mammon, or in yourself. You’ll be serving God and trusting in God. Your heart can belong to Him or to something else, but not to both.

Then Jesus goes on to persuade us with gentle and friendly words to serve God instead of Mammon. And here it’s important to remember who He’s talking to. He’s talking to church members who know God, not to atheists who deny Him or unbelievers who don’t acknowledge Him. The Sermon on the Mount was preached to people who knew the true God, the God of Old Testament Israel, but who wanted, who needed to know Him better and who had come to Jesus for that very reason. That’s why He can speak to them about God as their Father in heaven. They knew this God as He had revealed Himself in the Old Testament, as He had created and ordered the world, as He had guided and guarded the patriarchs and the people of Israel. You know this God, too. Most of all, you know God the Father, who sent God the Son to redeem you from sin, death, and the devil, and who still sends God the Holy Spirit to teach you and to guide you. In fact, you know Him even better than the people who originally heard these words from Jesus, because you know the Father through the suffering and death of His Son. So you know just how much He cares about you.

Since you know that, act on what you know. And that applies, first and foremost, to the attitudes of your heart. Therefore I say to you, stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? The unbelievers of the world wouldn’t agree with Jesus. They would say that our body and life has to be the first and primary concern. If your body doesn’t have the necessary nourishment, if you have no clothes to wear, what can you accomplish in life? Therefore, it should be your first and primary concern to ensure you have food and clothing, and not just enough for today, but for tomorrow and for the future. That’s where the world would have you focus your attention. This also applies to elections, by the way. If you want a good earthly life, then you have to be focused on getting the right people elected! Pour yourself into the fight!

But Jesus says, no, life is more than that. That can’t be the primary focus of your life. Because, if you serve God, if He is your Lord, it doesn’t need to be.

Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

God has left a witness in nature, a witness of His care and concern for His creation, in how He cares for and provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. But Jesus takes that general truth written into nature and applies it in a special way to those whom the heavenly Father has called His children. If God cares for the birds that were never made in His image, if God provides beauty for the grass of the field that grows for a few days and then is gone forever, shouldn’t you conclude that He cares more and will provide far better things for those whom He has created to be with Him forever, for those upon whom He has placed His name—the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Yes, you should conclude that!

And you should also admit something else. Which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature? Or “one hour to his life”? All right. Let’s hear it. Which of you? Worrying, fretting, being anxious about providing for some need that you have—does it get you any closer to actually providing what you need? You know it doesn’t. And so Jesus, in a loving but direct way, tells you, “Stop it. Don’t do it.”

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Why should you quiet your anxious thoughts? Why should you stop going over and over in your head how you’re going to provide for yourself? Not only because it doesn’t do any good, but because it’s what the Gentiles do. Now, the Gentiles are literally just the non-Jewish nations, and in that sense, we’re all Gentiles here. But Jesus is referring to the Gentiles as those who don’t know God, who have no faith in Him. So it makes perfect sense that they spend their time thinking anxiously about how to provide for themselves for this life.

But you have a heavenly Father who knows that you have earthly needs, bodily needs. You have a heavenly Father who gave His own Son into death for your sins. Why should you be like the Gentiles who think they have to be in control of everything, and figure out everything for themselves, who think that the present and the future depend on them and their worrying and planning and executing?

No, instead, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek first. Before anything else, turn your thoughts to seeking God, and His kingdom, and His righteousness. You have already sought the righteousness of God by believing in Christ Jesus to blot out your sins and to make you righteous before God. Now seek the righteousness of God by being concerned with His kingdom. Seek the kingdom of God by hearing and pondering His Word. Seek the kingdom of God by going about the daily tasks He’s given you in your vocations. Seek to be the light of the world that God has called you to be. Seek to lead holy lives that bring glory to the name of your heavenly Father. And do this “first,” before giving a single thought to where your food or clothing or other necessities are going to come from. When you do that, you’ll find that all those things are added to you by God, according to your needs, according to His wisdom and merciful care. You couldn’t add a single hour to your life by your worrying. But when you concern yourself first with the kingdom of God and His righteousness, He Himself will do the adding of the things that you need.

So, Jesus concludes, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble. Tomorrow isn’t in your hands. It’s in God’s hands. So turn your attention to what He has given you to do today, not to worry about today, but to do today. Seek His kingdom. Seek His righteousness. Trust in Him. And, as Peter writes in his first epistle, cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Amen.

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God’s anger and punishment will end for the believer

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 14

Isaiah 57:14-21

Chapter 57 of Isaiah is the 9th and final chapter in this second set of 9 chapters in Isaiah 40-66, which means we’re about two thirds of the way done with our walk through Isaiah’s prophecy. The Lord has gone back and forth, rebuking the secure idolaters and comforting the penitent believers. The first part of the chapter was a strong rebuke. But the second part before us this evening offers strong comfort.

And one shall say, “Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people.”

Israel hadn’t been allowed to return from captivity earlier. The way was blocked. The punishment for their idolatry and rebellion had to remain, until now. Now the Lord commands the stumbling block to be removed from the path, so that His people can return to their homes, and, much more importantly, to Him.

For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Listen to how God describes Himself. He is high and lofty. God is so far above and beyond our mortal, earthly lives. He inhabits eternity. He isn’t affected by time or by events, as we are. Our bodies wear out. Our minds slip. We can get into accidents, or others can impose their will on us. But God is above all that. He’s outside of the story. He doesn’t need anything from us, or from anyone. And His name is Holy. He’s perfect. He’s sinless. He’s unapproachable by sinners and by mortal men.

Except that He makes Himself approachable. Or rather, He condescends, He chooses to come down and dwell with…whom? With him who has a contrite and humble spirit. We use that word “contrite” or “contrition” sometimes. It means to be crushed. In this case, crushed by sorrow over our sins. Crushed by the weight of our sorry situation. Crushed, not proud. Crushed, not “doing just fine.” The one who has been crushed by the weight of what he or she has done, who has a humble spirit before God, not trying to make excuses for himself, not insisting that God owes him something—God chooses to dwell with such a person. The high and lofty One comes down low, to meet sinners in their weakness and in their desperation.

To do what? To gloat? To rub it in? No, but To revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. These are comforting words, and they apply to all the humble and to all the contrite, because it’s a description of who God is, always, all the time. In His way, in His time, He will meet the humble and the contrite and bring them back to life.

For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made.

Again, pure comfort. Yes, God contends for a while with sinners. He rebukes, He threatens, He punishes. But when the sinner finally comes down from his pride, when he finally admits his sins, when he finally abandons all hope in himself—and in his idols! —, then God stops rebuking and threatening that person. The earthly punishment may still remain for a little while, until the lesson has sunk in as far as it needs to. But God’s anger against sinful men has an end. If it didn’t, God knows that no one could survive. He knows that the spirit, the soul that He made can’t take His perpetual anger, even if we deserve it. And so He promises an end to His anger for the penitent in Israel, and also for us.

For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

God is talking about Israel here, about the nation in its state of rebellion, in its state of every man looking out for himself, enriching himself, turning away from God’s word and from God Himself. God tried punishing Israel, sometimes with an attack from a foreign nation, sometimes with blight or famine or plague, sometimes by not sending a prophet for a long time, depriving people of His Word. And, as it says in this verse, it was never enough. “He went on backsliding in the way of his heart.” And so the punishment of the Babylonian captivity had to happen. But after that severe punishment did its work…

I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners. “I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” Says the LORD, “And I will heal him.”

The Lord knew Israel’s rebellious nature, just as He knows the rebellious nature of all men. And yet He promises healing and guidance and comfort. And that’s the kind of healing that Jesus really came to bring. Yes, He healed physical diseases. But this is the true healing He came to bring: comfort to those mourn, forgiveness to those who humble themselves in contrition and repentance. To them, the Lord says, “Peace! Peace!” He says it to him who is far off and to him who is near, to the one who has gone so horribly astray as to ruin his life, and also to the one who maybe hasn’t fallen into such grievous outward sin, and yet still needs God’s forgiveness and peace. He says it to those who have spent their lives outside of the Church, and to those who have grown up in it. Peace! Peace! I will heal him! For the believer, God’s anger and punishment will end. Indeed, they have ended already for him who believes in Christ.”

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. “There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”

Isaiah concluded chapter 48 with those words, and now he concludes chapter 57 with the same words. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” We still need to remember that. Our world still needs to hear that. The God of heaven denounces as wicked many of the things that this world celebrates. He has tender words of peace and comfort and healing, but those words are not intended for those who wish to continue to live in their sin, away from God, away from His Word, away from Christ Jesus. For such, there is no word of peace, only God’s wrath and anger and eternal punishment. To such, the Lord cries out, “Repent while there’s still time! And then, in repentance, come to know the peace of Christ Jesus, who was pierced for our transgressions, who was crushed for our iniquities, upon whom was the chastisement that brought us peace, by whose wounds we are healed.” Amen.

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Go and do likewise, with faith and thanksgiving

Posted on September 1, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

Last week, we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan who treated with such kindness that man who had been mugged and left for dead on the side of the road. This week, we hear of another good Samaritan, not in a parable, but in his actual encounter with the Lord Jesus. And just as we were instructed by Jesus last week to “go and do likewise,” to go and show the Samaritan’s kindness to our neighbor who needs our help, so we are guided by the Holy Spirit in today’s reading to “go and do likewise,” to show the kind of faith, and the kind of thankfulness, that the Samaritan showed in the healing of the Ten Lepers.

First, why does Luke include all these accounts with Samaritans? Samaritans lived in between Judea in the south and Jewish Galilee in the north. They were essentially foreigners, as Jesus calls the Samaritan in today’s account. But that’s exactly why Luke includes them, and why the Holy Spirit guided Luke to include them. They teach a very important lesson to the Jews who thought of themselves as the VIP’s in God’s kingdom, who thought that their race, that their ancestry automatically made them acceptable to God. Now, there were certainly advantages at that time to being a Jew. But there’s nothing automatic about being acceptable to God. You don’t gain God’s acceptance by having the right parents or the right genes. The only way to gain God’s acceptance is by trusting in the One whom God sent to make us acceptable.

Now, on to the story itself. There were ten men (including one Samaritan) with the disfiguring disease called leprosy. Even in the secular world, showing signs of leprosy often forced people to quarantine away from the healthy people. But in the Old Testament Law given by God through Moses on Mt. Sinai, lepers were strictly prohibited from interacting with Jewish society, including the synagogue, including the temple. It was a lonely, lonely life.

God was teaching Israel a vital lesson in how His Law dealt with lepers. God’s Law absolutely insisted that a person had to be “clean” in order to be acceptable to God. Clean and unclean were themes throughout the whole Old Testament. There were many ways to become ceremonially unclean, and specific procedures for becoming clean again. Leprosy was the ultimate form of uncleanness, a disease that couldn’t be cured, that couldn’t be washed away, because it was an ugliness that infected the skin and the body. Leprosy didn’t really have a cure, but if a person did somehow recover from it, God’s Law specified a very elaborate process, involving the priests, for examining the person and then performing the rituals needed to pronounce the person ceremonially clean.

Now, the outward disfigurement of leprosy that affected a small minority of people symbolized the inner disfigurement of sin that affects all people. There is a deep-seated uncleanness that infects us all. We call it original sin. And it’s ugly in God’s sight. Every time the Israelites saw a leper, they were to remember, that’s what I look like on the inside, unclean and isolated from God! That’s why I need the spiritual cleansing that my God provides in the sin offerings, and, ultimately, in the promised Messiah!

The promised Messiah, Jesus, has a very brief but meaningful encounter with some of these lepers in our Gospel. Ten of them had heard the word that was going around about Jesus. That He had come from God. That He was able to heal all kinds of diseases. That He was kind and merciful and ready to help anyone who came to Him. They heard it, and they believed it. And since they believed it, they called out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

And just like that, without requiring anything of them, Jesus replied, Go and show yourselves to the priests. He didn’t need to spell out for them what that meant. They knew that the priests were the ones who had to examine lepers and pronounce them clean. They understood exactly what Jesus implied: “I have mercy on you. By the time you get to the priests, you will already be clean!”

So they went on their way. We don’t know how far they got before they noticed that their leprosy was gone. They had believed what they had heard about Jesus. They had asked Him for help. He had spoken to them a cleansing word, a promise to cleanse them of their leprosy. And they had believed that promise and had acted on it. And now the promise had been kept.

Then what? They all celebrated their cleansing. They never thought it was possible, until Jesus came along. And now their hopes had come true. Their faith in Jesus’ promise had been confirmed. But then something terrible happened. Nine of them forgot about Jesus.

But one of them, the Samaritan, didn’t forget. He remembered the source of his cleansing, and his heart was filled with gratitude. So he turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. And he fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking Him.

Now, Jesus wasn’t surprised that the man had been healed. What surprised Him, or at least what clearly disappointed Him, was that only one out of ten came back to give glory to God. Were not all ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except for this foreigner? Some of the nine, maybe all of the nine, were Jews who should have known better, whose first thought upon being healed should have been acknowledging the God who had healed them. Instead it was a foreigner, a Samaritan, someone who had no ancestral claim to God’s acceptance, who demonstrated both faith and the thankfulness that flows from genuine faith.

And so Jesus both commended him and assured him: Rise and go. Your faith has saved you. And the clear implication is that everyone who reads this account, everyone who hears it, should “go and do likewise.” Believe as the Samaritan believed, and give thanks to God as the Samaritan gave thanks.

Outwardly, the Samaritan began as a leper. Inwardly, spiritually, you and I all began as unclean lepers, with that “flesh” that St. Paul talked about in today’s epistle to the Galatians, that flesh that lusts against the Spirit, that flesh that is opposed to the Holy Spirit, that flesh whose works are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, murders, drunkenness, debauchery, and things like these. Not only did you begin that way. But here’s the hard thing to hear: Your flesh is still that way, eager to engage in works like those the apostle mentioned. There’s no “cure” for the flesh, as long as we still live in this world.

But there is a cleansing before God. There is a way to be accepted by God, and it has nothing to do with your ancestry, or with your works. It’s hearing the word about Jesus, that He came from God, that He is the very Son of God, that He is kind and good to all who come to Him for cleansing. It’s hearing the word about Jesus, that He suffered and died for your sinful flesh and for the works that have come from your sinful flesh. And then it’s hearing and believing the promise He now makes: All who believe in Him are cleansed before God. All who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of sins, are made acceptable to God, are given a status that is clean and new and beautiful. The Samaritan leper believed the promise of Jesus, and his faith saved him. That is, his salvation came as a result of faith in Jesus. You should believe it, too. Go and do likewise!

Not salvation from leprosy, though. Not salvation from every illness, or from poverty, or from tragedy. Jesus hasn’t promised salvation from those things during this lifetime. What He has promised is salvation from sin, from death, and from the power of the devil. Believe that promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and your faith will save you, too.

But faith ought to be accompanied by thanksgiving, as it was with the Samaritan in our Gospel. If it isn’t, then there’s something wrong. And you can all think of times when you’ve received a wonderful gift from God that you went on to enjoy without actually thanking Him for. Let today’s Gospel lead you to repent of that inborn thanklessness and to follow again the example of the Samaritan leper.

And as you do, notice that the Samaritan didn’t just stop where he was on the road and say a silent prayer to God in heaven. No, he returned to where Jesus was present for him, to where Jesus made Himself available to people. You can do something similar. Jesus isn’t located in this place or that place since His ascension into heaven. But He has promised to be present in a special way where Christians gather together in His name, to hear His Word and to receive His Sacraments. He’s here among us today in that way, and He gladly hears and accepts your prayers of thanksgiving, whether sung or spoken. He gladly accepts the thanksgiving you bring as you come to His holy Supper, the Eucharist. And as you kneel, in humble thanks, to receive the very body and blood that He gave into death for your sins, just as the Samaritan once knelt at Jesus’ feet, He speaks to you, just as He spoke to the Samaritan, Rise and go. Your faith has saved you.

The Samaritan came to Jesus with His uncleanness and sought His help. He believed in Jesus’ word of cleansing and returned to give Him thanks. Go and do likewise, over and over again, with faith and with thanksgiving. Having been cleansed of the works of the flesh, make it your daily purpose to put to death the works of the flesh, to walk by the Spirit, and to produce His fruit in abundance, with thanksgiving. Amen.

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