Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

All of Jesus’ parables invite us to think about ourselves in light of His word and kingdom. A sower sows seed that falls on four different types of soil, inviting us to ask, “What kind of soil am I? Do I receive God’s word in faith, or do temptations and persecutions make me reluctant to let the word bear fruit in me?” A man hires workers for his vineyard throughout the workday but at the end of the day each laborer, regardless of how long they worked, get the same wage, causing the labors who were hired first to grumble and be sent away. This invites us to ask, “Do I think I deserve more from God that the person who is new to the faith, or am I grateful for God’s graciousness to me and my fellow workers? Ten virgins wait for the Bridegroom, five are prepared with oil, five are foolish and unprepared, inviting us to ask, “Am I prepared for Christ’s return? Do I replenish the oil of faith in my lamp each day?” A widow brings her cause to a wicked judge who refuses it for a while, but she doesn’t lose heart, she continually brings her petition before him, and he eventually gives her justice, inviting us to ask ourselves, “Do I continue to pray confidently even when it seems my heavenly Father doesn’t answer immediately, or do I lose heart and give up praying?” Then there’s today’s parable. A wealthy man’s steward is caught wasting his master’s possessions on serving himself, but before he gives up the ledger, he rips off his master even more so that he can be welcomed into the homes of the people he helped in his final day as the rich man’s steward. This invites us to ask . . .. What does this parable invite us to ask of ourselves?

This may be the strangest parable Jesus tells in the gospels. Here is this steward. He is in charge of the rich man’s entire estate. He’s to use His master’s possessions for His master’s benefit. Instead, he squanders them, he scatters them about on whatever he pleases. When his master fires him, he doesn’t repent and ask forgiveness so that Jesus can teach us about the gospel. Since there’s no repentance on his part there are no fruits of repentance. Instead of turning away from his wasteful use of his master’s goods, he doubles down on his dishonesty in the final moments of his stewardship. He called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, “How much do you owe my master?” And he said, “A hundred measures of oil.” So he said to him, “Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.” Then he said to another, “And how much do you owe?” So he said, “A hundred measures of wheat.” And he said to him, “Take your bill, and write eighty.” These men owed the steward’s master the full amount. But the steward misuses his master’s goods for his own benefit one last time, so that when he is relieved of the stewardship, these men he’s helped at his master’s expense will welcome him into their homes. Jesus doesn’t have the master condemn the unjust steward for this deceit and theft. Jesus says, “The master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly, circumspectly, prudently, thinkingly.

If the parable weren’t strange enough to our ears, Jesus tells us exactly how to interpret it: “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” The sons of this world are the unbelievers, the heathen. They don’t think the things of this life like land, possessions, money, and the like, are their master’s goods because they don’t acknowledge the Triune God is their master who has set them as stewards over the things of this life. How do they use these goods? They waste them on selfish pleasures. They scatter those goods to pursue happiness and ease and comfort. They use unrighteous mammon to make friends for themselves, people who will defend them, support them, and encourage them in their wasteful stewardship. Like the unjust steward, they are generous with someone else’s money, using it to get every advantage for themselves. The sons of this world are shrewd, circumspect, prudent, and thinking when it comes to using the things of this life for their advancement, their pleasure, and their betterment. The sons of light—those who walk in the light of Christ by faith—aren’t near as shrewd, circumspect, prudent, and thinking when it comes to using the things of this life. But that’s exactly what Jesus wants the children of light to be. The difference is the steward and the sons of the world he represents are wise but unjust. Jesus wants us to be wise but just.

Jesus explains, “Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” Mammon is whatever anyone owns over and above what his needs require. Mammon isn’t unrighteous in and of itself. What makes it unrighteous is the unrighteous use of it. The sons of the world misuse mammon, squandering it on their own comfort, honor, pleasure, glory, and the like. Jesus wants the sons of light to use unrighteous mammon, not for unrighteousness like the sons of the world, but to make friends. How do you make friends for yourself with unrighteous mammon? Look at the unjust steward. He used master’s goods to make friends for himself. He thoughtfully used his master’s goods to benefit and help his neighbors so that when he failed—when he was given the boot—those whom he had helped would welcome him into their homes. Jesus wants the sons of light to use their master’s goods for the sake of their neighbors. He doesn’t justify injustice. He’s not sanctioning sin. He’s saying, “Look at how wise the world is with its money for selfish purpose. You be just as wise with temporal goods, not for selfish purposes, but for your neighbor’s good.” All that we have is a gift from God. He gives us mammon so that we might be stewards over it, using it as He wills. St. Paul says in Galatians 6:10, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Doing good to others as we have opportunity is how we make friends using unrighteous mammon.

Those friends will then, on the day we fail, run out, and expire, receive us into an everlasting home. Consider the parable of the sheep and the goats. Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me” (Matt 25:35-36). He will praise the good works of the sheep because good works are witnesses to the faith in one’s heart, the faith that makes one a son of light. Those whom you help in this life will give public testimony to your faith on that Day. That’s how they will receive you into an everlasting home. St. Paul tells Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19).  The good foundation we are to lay up for ourselves is good works of love that proceed from faith. Everyone knows the phrase “You can’t take it with you.” And it’s true. But the good we do for our neighbor’s welfare will go with us, ahead of us, even, as testimonies to our God-given faith working through love (Gal 5:6), waiting to receive us into our everlasting home.

Jesus’ wants us to use unrighteous mammon to serve our neighbor in love. He wants us to be shrewd, circumspect, prudent, and thinking about how we use want God gives us so that it might benefit others. By commending the unjust steward Jesus invites us to ask ourselves, “How am I using unrighteous mammon? Am I using it wisely or foolishly? Am I using it for my own interests only, or am I using it for my neighbor’s welfare, as well?” Too often, the sons of light live as the sons of this world, thinking that our Master’s goods are really our goods to use however we want. We may find that we have enjoyed God’s gifts to the point of misusing mammon and scattering our Master’s goods on selfish and sinful pursuits. There are times when the Holy Spirit convicts us that have not been rich in good works. There are times when we find that we have set our hearts on riches so that we expect all good things as long as have wealth. The Holy Spirit convicts us of these sins so that we repent of that unjust stewardship and receive the Master’s forgiveness which He has promised to all who repent. Forgiving our sins, and giving us His Holy Spirit and new hearts, our Lord sends us back to our stewardships as faithful, just, and shrewd stewards of His goods. The unjust steward lived as a son of this world, asking “What do I want?” and “How can I use my master’s goods for my pleasure.” The son of light, who walks in the light of the Lord by faith in Christ and loves his neighbor asks, “What does my neighbor need? What has God given me that I can use to help my neighbor in that need?” The son of light can treat the things of this world like this because His heart is not set on them, but on Christ, so that as long as He has Christ and His word, he has all he needs. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

In our age it is generally accepted that all Christians basically believe the same thing and all ministers basically teach the same thing as well. The assumption is that anything with the name “Christian” is actually Christian and anything calling itself “Biblical” is just that. Many assume that if someone is prophesying, that is, preaching, in Jesus’ name, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and working miracles in Jesus’ name, then they’re a true prophet and preacher of God. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus demolishes the assumptions of our age. There are false prophets and they are ravenous wolves, leading people away from the will of God the Father, leading them to hell by their false teaching, and they do with a smile on their face the entire time. It is because false teachers are such a threat to the Christian that Jesus tells us, commands us even, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” What is the sheep’s clothing with which they disguise themselves? It’s scripture. False prophets use the scripture, they cite the scripture, but they don’t teach the whole counsel of God. They may leave out inconvenient parts of God’s word that are likely to offend. More often they mutilate the scriptures, twisting Scripture until it fits their unscriptural assumptions and beliefs.

Irenaeus of Lyon, who lived in the second century, that false prophets “endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions” (ANF 1:326). Irenaeus hits the nail squarely on the head. False prophets disregard the order and connection of Scripture. They separate things that God has joined together and join together things that God has kept separate, making a different teaching that God’s teaching by rearranging the different parts. We see this in those who separate faith from justification and insert human works into justification, disjointing God’s order that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:16). Others separate faith from Christ’s death and merits and teach men to place their faith in a universal declaration of justification which absolves all men apart from faith. Others separate baptism from God’s grace and reimagine it as an act of obedience, a good work. Others spiritualize the Lord’s Body and Blood in His Sacrament so that it is no longer true body and true blood, but a memorial of a historical event only or a springboard for us so that our thoughts ascend to heaven. The list could go on. The point is that the false prophets wear scripture as their covering. Many wear it well.

So how do you recognize false prophets? “You will know them by their fruits.” If you approach what you think is a grapevine and see thorns, or you go to a what you think is a fig tree and see thistles, you know what kind of plant it truly is, and you will avoid it. So it is with preachers. Every preacher says He teaches scripture, but what does he teach about scripture? Every preacher says he teaches the Christian faith, but does he teach it as it is presented in scripture? It’s a copout to claim that we can’t know false teachers, or that there aren’t really any false teachers, because its all a matter of interpretation. Jesus tells us we will know them by their fruits. If we say we can’t know false prophets because its all a matter of interpretation, we make Jesus into a liar and align ourselves with Pontius Pilate, who asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Go back to Jesus’ parable. “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” Men know what grapes and figs look like, which is how they know the different between them and thornbushes and thistles. So it is with the fruit of a prophet. You must know the good fruit.  St. Paul writes in Romans 12:7, “If a person has the gift of prophecy, let him use it in conformity with the faith,” or “in conformity with the analogy of faith,” which is the overall teaching of scripture: that penitent sinners are justified freely by God for the sake of Jesus’ death and merits by faith alone, and that God gives that forgiveness and righteousness through His Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper received in faith.

But there is another fruit by which you will know the false prophet: His life and how He teaches others to live. Doctrine is lived, after all. If a preacher preaches one way but lives another way, his fruit is no good. St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:2 that a bishop—that is, a pastor—is to be blameless. This means preachers must live godly lives so that no one can bring a just charge against them. The apostle tells Timothy in the same epistle, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12). Next to false teaching, nothing destroys the preaching of God’s word like preachers who do not live according to God’s word. Such hypocrisy destroys the preacher and offends his hearers so that they grow to doubt the Christian truth and even abandon it. Yes, the preacher is a sinner who daily prays, “Forgive us our trespasses” along with all Christians. But the preacher must live what He preaches, otherwise he tears down with his life what He builds with His words. If he doesn’t live according to God’s Word, he shows that he doesn’t really believe it himself or apply it himself. He may still prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles in Christ’s name—that is, perform the public ministry—but in his heart, he lives in sin, practices lawlessness, and will hear a terrible verdict from Christ on the Last Day, “‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

This also comes out in how the prophet teaches others to live. If the preacher excuses sin in his parishioners, ignores it so that he refuses to confront them, or he allows them or expects them to keep living in their sins, then he shows his fruit is rotten. Many preachers today preach this very thing, that Christ forgives sins but does not expect anyone to fight against their sins and stop them by the power of His Holy Spirit. They say, “We’re all rotten sinners, and thank God for the gospel that forgives us rotten sinners. See you next week, rotten sinners!” They cringe at the idea of preaching sanctification, afraid that preaching the new life of the Spirit and the use of the law as guide to this life will make them a preacher of works rather than grace. But Christ, the prophets, and apostles have no qualms about preaching sanctification.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Any teaching that preaches Christ’s forgiveness by faith but does not teach that the Holy Spirit transforms us out of the old Adan into men, so that we daily die to sin and live to righteousness, is a tree that bears putrid fruit. St. Paul writes in today’s epistle, “Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if, through the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” If preachers fail to teach the new life of sanctification, they lead their hearers away from the true Christ who gives not only gives forgiveness and salvation but the Holy Spirit so that we begin to live a new life, which will grow throughout this life, and finally be perfected in the life of the world to come.

Why is all this so important? Your eternal life depends on it. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Calling yourself a Christian isn’t enough. Nor is it enough for a preacher to call Himself a Christian preacher, to prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles in Jesus’ name. One must do the will of the Father. The will of God the Father is first that we believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the promise of the gospel for our forgiveness and salvation each day. The will of the Father is also our sanctification, that we lead holy lives according to God’s holy word because He has forgiven our sins and given us His Holy Spirit. As Paul said, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” As Christians we strive to do the Father’s will each day, repenting of our sins as the Holy Spirit convicts us of them, fleeing to the gospel for full forgiveness and perfect remission of our sins, and, in the joy the gospel brings, perfecting holiness in the fear of God by ordering our thoughts, our works, our deeds, —our entire lives—according to God’s Word. Living by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, the Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together with him. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

For three days this multitude—about four thousand—listened to Jesus’ teaching. For three days they heard Christ’s teaching about who He is, true God and true man. They heard Christ teach about the law’s requirements, how the law condemns everyone because no one can keep the law perfectly from the heart. But they also heard the blessings He brought to those who confess their sins and acknowledge that they have incurred God’s wrath because of them. He taught them of God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of faith the new life, and eternal life. For three days they received Jesus’ doctrine in faith, believing it and applying it to themselves so that they were fully confident that for His sake they had a gracious God and eternal salvation. For three days they heard God’s word and applied it to themselves so that, filled with the Holy Spirit, they would go from that place, no longer as slaves of sin to do its bidding, but as slaves of righteousness to holiness. For three days they heard and learn God’s word. But while they feast on Christ, the Bread of Life, they have nothing with which to fill their stomachs. That was how much they wanted to heard Christ’s teaching. Jesus calls His disciples to Him and tells them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.” Jesus has compassion on this multitude because they have continued with Him, heard Him. They forsook the needs of the body so that they might attend to the need of their souls, and this to the point that many of them would faint on the way home.

The disciples ask, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” to which Jesus responds by asking how much they have, which amounts to seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He has the multitude sit down. He takes the seven loaves, gives thanks, breaks them, and gives the pieces to His disciples who are to set them before the multitude. He does the same with the two small fish. And then the miracle happens. Not only does Jesus feed this multitude of about four thousand, He satisfies their hunger. He fills about four thousand stomachs with seven loaves and a few small fish and He provides seven large baskets of leftover fragments to prove that everyone had had enough. The disciples had asked how one could satisfy these people in the wilderness. Jesus shows them that He could do just that by His almighty power. And He did so, not because this multitude sought a sign from Jesus, as the crowd of six thousand did. He does this out of compassion for the multitude since they have continued with Him three days. They sought first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and because they did, Christ cared for them, gave them their daily bread, completely satisfying their hunger so that they would not faint on the way home.

From this we learn that Christ has compassion on those who continue to with Him. How do we continue with Christ? We do what this multitude did. We don’t despise preaching and His Word; but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. We set aside time on Sundays to hear His preaching, and by that I mean not just listening to the scripture read, sung, and preached, and letting it go in one ear and out the other, but hearing it so that we apply it to ourselves. Hopefully we set aside time each day to read His word and apply it to ourselves. Like the multitude, we hear the law’s requirements and how the law condemns everyone because no one can keep the law perfectly from the heart. Applying the law’s strict demands we must confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone, and by our sins we deserve nothing but God’s wrath and eternal punishment. But, like the multitude, we also hear about God’s grace in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of the world; God’s promise to forgive the sins of all who are truly penitent and believing; God’s promise to declare those who believe righteous with Christ’s perfect righteousness, and the promise of eternal life for all who endure in this faith unto the end, no longer living as slaves of sin, to do its bidding, but as slaves of righteousness to holiness.

This is an earthly way of describing the new life of faith. Paul says uses human terms like this because of the weakness of our flesh. And although we don’t typically think in terms of freedom or slavery, the terminology is useful to help us understand how it is that we continue with Christ. A slave presents his members—body, mind, and will—to his or her master to do what they will and command. Paul explains that formerly, before we believed the gospel, we presented our members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. The devil, the world, or our sinful flesh would tempt us to unclean and sinful thoughts, words, or deeds, and as dutiful slaves, we would willingly think, speak, and do as our master desired. Our lawlessness—which is just another word for sin—could only lead to more and more sin, because sin is never satisfied. We didn’t do anything righteous because we didn’t serve righteousness. But Christ redeemed us from this slavery. He set us free from sin by the gospel so that sin is no longer our master. But He did not set us free to ourselves. Since we still live in the sinful flesh, if we were freed to ourselves we only go right back to our former master, something that sadly we see too often in this life in those people who imagine the gospel sets them free so that they can boldly continue in their sin under the cloak of Christ’s forgiveness. But this is nothing but the old slavery to sin.

Paul says, “Having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Christ sets us free from sin by forgiving our sins and covering us with His perfect righteousness, but in doing so He makes us slaves of God. This doesn’t mean we aren’t children of God by faith in Christ and baptism. As Paul uses it, slavery doesn’t contradict sonship as Jesus uses the image in John 8:35, “A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.” The Holy Spirit employs the human language of slavery to press one specific point, and that is, that, having been set free from sin, having been made sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we present our members—our bodies, minds, and wills—to God so that we strive to do the will of our heavenly Father. Just like sin doesn’t have to coerce the unbeliever to do its bidding because he is a slave to sin, God does not coerce His slaves, either. He gives them new hearts with new wills, motivations, and movements, so that we want to do His will, for His glory and for our good. Since His will is our sanctification, Paul calls us slaves of righteousness for holiness. We are not, like so many, to go back to our former way of life, conforming our minds to the world’s thinking. The slavery of sin only earns the wage of death, spiritual death in this life that culminates in the second death, what St. John calls “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8). But the gift of God—which He freely bestows on His slaves who serve Him in love—is eternal life. Part of continuing with Christ is to present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness, because that is the reason He has set us free from sin in the first place.

And our Lord Jesus Christ is still compassionate to those who continue with Him during the three days of this earthly life. Though we may have to go into the wilderness to hear God’s word, traveling further than others; though we may have to go without or with less of the comforts of this life so that we can hear His word; though we may have to forsake the things of this life in order to to faithfully confess Christ and His doctrine, He promises that “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matt 19:29). Christ sees all this and has compassion on all who continue with Him. He will give you your daily bread, all you need for this body and life, and He will give it you when you need it. He will satisfy the weary soul and replenish every sorrowful soul (Is 31:25) with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). He does this out of compassion for you, He will not see His beloved child, a slave of God to righteousness, faint on the way to their heavenly home. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus seems to set the bar for entering the kingdom of heaven pretty high. The scribes and Pharisees were good, upstanding folk. They lived by the Ten Commandments. They didn’t murder. They didn’t commit adultery. They didn’t steal. Many of them voluntarily fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all their possessions, down to the spices in their cabinets. They were aggressive about resting on the Sabbath. This is the righteousness that you have to exceed if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven. And if Jesus’ hearers heard that and thought that was difficult to attain, Jesus raises the bar even higher.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’” The law forbids murdering one’s neighbor and oneself and strictly punishes the one who would take the life of another. The Lord said in Leviticus 24:17, “Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death.” Most people manage enough outward discipline so that they don’t murder others. But for those who are tempted to murder, the death penalty hunger over their head as a deterrent, coercing compliance with the law. The scribes and Pharisees thought they had fulfilled this commandment as long as they refrained from killing anyone, either because they didn’t want to in the first place or because they wanted to and didn’t. But Jesus takes this understanding of the commandment and shows how shallow it is. “But I say to you,” says Jesus, “that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” There’s more to murder than killing someone. “You shall not murder” is for the whole person, not just their hands. It applies to the lips. Calling someone ‘Raca’ and “You fool”—insulting and reviling them, is to murder with the tongue and deserves the same punishment as if you had killed them in their body. Not only is the hand and tongue to not murder, but the entire person, so that even the malicious anger that leads reviling thoughts, words, and gestures, that holds a grudge, or that burns for revenge, is condemned by this commandment and deserves the same punishment as murder with the hands: death.

After showing us what the commandment forbids, Jesus gives shows us what the commandment requires of us from the heart. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” It’s not enough to refrain from murder with the hand, the tongue, and the heart. The heart must be favorably disposed toward one’s brother. If your brother has something against you, the law tells you to go be reconciled to him. It doesn’t say, “Wait until they make the first move because its their problem.” The law commands the disposition of the heart that wants to be reconciled with one’s brother if they have something against us. That’s why if we bring our gift to the altar and realize this, we hit the pause button on our sacrifice, because we understand that the God who wants our worship also wants us to, as much as depends on us, to live peaceable with all men. He also says, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” When someone has something against you and it isn’t dealt with properly it can only fester and rot until they deliver you the judge. The truly righteous man does not want his brother to have anything against him and goes to his brother to be reconciled. What this commandment requires, in a word, is love, the same thing all the commandments—and the entire law—requires. St. Paul writes in Romans 13:9-10 , “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

This is the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, because their righteousness isn’t a righteousness of the heart. It’s an external righteousness that is about checking the box—“I didn’t kill anyone today”—rather than heartfelt love for the neighbor. Jesus says as much in Luke 11[:39], “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.” Externally appear good but their hearts are full of sinful desires and wicked thoughts. It’s sinful human nature to judge our outward actions and leave the heart as it is. We may not murder anyone, but how often do we hold a grudge. We may not end someone’s life, but how often do we speak belligerently towards others, mock them, and insult them. How often do we say to someone we’re “fine” but inwardly our heart is full of anger and resentment toward them. How often do we know our brother has something against us yet we do not leave our gift at the altar, go to them, and seek to be reconciled to them? As often as we do these things the law prohibits and fail to do those things the law requires, we are in danger of being thrown into the prison of hell fire, where we will by no means get out of there till we have paid the last penny of what we owe to the Righteous Judge.

The righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees isn’t without our reach. We can’t be that righteous because of our sinful nature. But the Lord Jesus is that righteous. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). Not just external sins like the Pharisees imagined they were. Jesus is sinless outwardly and inwardly. He lived perfectly righteous outwardly in His words and actions. He lived perfectly righteous, loving God and His neighbor from the heart. He was never angry maliciously, without cause, but when He was angry it was at sin, which He rebuked out of love for the sinner. He never spoke maliciously to others. His harsh rebukes were for the self-righteous and for the repentance. Jesus knew no sin, internally or externally, but thought, spoke, and acted out of true, heartfelt love for His neighbor. St. Peter says He “’committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth’; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:22-23). He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), dying in our place, under the judgment of the Righteous Judge, He paid for all our sins, down to the last penny of the debt that we, by our sins, have incurred. Jesus’ righteousness is the only righteousness by which anyone may enter the kingdom of heaven, for it is the only righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes, pharisees, and any of us of by ourselves.

And He offers that righteousness to you in the gospel and holy baptism. The gospel promises the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake and His perfect righteousness to all who repent and believe. By faith—believing that promise—each day we receive the forgiveness of all our sins and Christ’s perfect righteousness. God the Father sees us as righteous because we believe in His Son, who has paid the full debt of our transgressions. Not only are we declared righteous in God’s sight by faith, but in baptism “we were buried with Him into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” In baptism you were connected to Christ’s death. You were also raised to new life because baptism connects you to Christ’s resurrection! Having died to sin you now live to righteousness. Each day you are to count yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We fight sin in our bodies so we don’t consent to it and let it reign over us. When the flesh wants to be maliciously angry, when it wants to bite back with words, when it wants to murder in the heart, the Holy Spirit reminds us that we died to those things. By daily remembering that we are baptized—forgiven and perfectly righteous in God’s sight—we begin to love our neighbor more and more. We begin to fulfill the commandment, not just not murdering with the hands, the tongue, and the heart, but by loving our brother with our words and deeds because we truly love our brother from the heart. Jesus daily gives us the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees by faith. Let us so live as ones whom have been declared righteous outwardly and inwardly. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today the church celebrates Mary’s visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. It is not usually worth celebrating a pregnant woman’s visit to another pregnant woman. But this visitation is worth remembering because neither of the pregnancies are usual. Mary, a young virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, had herself just been visited by the angel Gabriel. The angel told her that she would conceive a child in her womb—not in the natural way—but by the power of the Holy Spirit and give birth to a child who would be the Son of God. Gabriel told her, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:32-33). The angel Gabriel also told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth had also conceived a son in her old age and was six months into her pregnancy. Like Sarah and Abraham of old, Zacharias and Elizabeth were quite old and well past the age of bearing children. Yet she conceived in the natural way, but at an unnatural season of life. The angel Gabriel had told Zacharias that his wife would bear him a son, who would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb. This child would be the forerunner of the Messiah, going before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Lk 1:17). After hearing of her cousin’s pregnancy and her own by the Holy Spirit, Mary went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. This is not just the visitation of two pregnant women. It is the visitation of the mother of God to the mother of the Messiah’s forerunner.

What happens at this visitation is also miraculous and worth remembering. Mary enters the house, greets her cousin, and at her greeting the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. The baby in her womb—far from being a lump of tissue or something lacking personhood—leaps. The angel’s words were true. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb (Lk 1:15) and is already joyfully announcing the Messiah, the Son of God, and he isn’t even born yet. His mother Elizabeth is at that same moment filled with the Holy Spirit so that she confesses, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” She confesses the child in Mary’s womb to be God Himself when she calls Mary “the mother of my Lord.” Mary is blessed—not as a co-redeemer with her son or as one who is to be invoked in prayer as Rome teaches—but as one who believes the word of God and says, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). ““Blessed,” Elizabeth says, “is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Mary rightly bears the title “Mother of God” because of the union of the divine and human natures in the person of her Son. She is blessed among women since God chose her by grace to bear God in human flesh. Elizabeth, and the babe in her own womb, rejoice that the virgin has conceived and will bear a Son who will be called Immanuel, “God with us,” and that, while in the womb, He graciously visits them.

Then it’s Mary’s turn to speak. She sings first of God’s gracious work specifically to her. Though God chose her of all women to bear His Son and deliver Him into the world, she does not exalt herself. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she says, “And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” She exalts the Lord for this great honor He has bestowed on her by grace alone. She rejoices in God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe (1 Tim 4:10). She includes herself in that number, calling God “my Savior,” for she needs salvation from sin just as much as anyone of Adam and Eve’s fallen race, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). She praises God that He regarded her low estate and sinfulness all generations will call her blessed. We call her blessed for this reason, that she conceived and bore the Son of God in human flesh, the Seed promised to Adam and Eve after they fell into sin. Irenaeus makes the connection: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith” (AH 3.22.4). All generations call her Blessed for this reason, nothing less and nothing more.

Then Mary turns her song toward the work of God that we see all throughout the Scripture and human history, His work for all people. “His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.” Mercy is God’s chief work. He is merciful to all people in that He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt 5:45). But God has a special mercy for those who fear Him, that is, for those who fear His judgment so they daily repent of their sins and trust His promised mercy. He is merciful to those who, having received the mercy of His forgiveness, fight against temptation and their own flesh, not wanting to sin and incur His wrath any more, and walk in His ways so that they do not sin. This special mercy God has for those who believe in Him is from generation to generation. It is perpetual throughout every generation of this world.

Not so the proud and mighty of this world, those who do not think they need God’s mercy. To them He shows strength with His arm. He opposes them in this life. He lets them succeed in the things of this life, amassing wealth, honor, power, and the like, but only for a time. Since they set their hearts of their wealth, honor, power, and prestige, God will eventually scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He puts down the mighty from their thrones. Pharaoh purses Israel to the Red Sea with all his might. But God scatters the corpses of his army in the Red Sea after His people pass through on dry ground to safety. Assyria puffs itself up against Judah and comes moments away from capturing Jerusalem until “the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses — all dead” ( 2 Kings 19:35). And so it happens continually throughout Scripture and human history, that the proud eventually fall to God’s judgment and the mighty are put down from their thrones. In doing so the Lord exalts the lowly—those who are humble before God—and fills the hungry—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—with good things while the rich are sent away empty. Mary is a microcosm of this. She is poor and lowly, a maidservant, nothing in the eyes of the world. Yet God in His wisdom does not choose a queen or noblewoman to be the mother of God, but exalts her. Her song teaches us to fear God, so that His mercy may be upon us and to remain humble as well, knowing that God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5).

This part of her song ends as it began—with God’s mercy. “He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.” God helped Israel by remembering the promise of His mercy. His promised mercy was to send the Christ, for He is the One whom God promised to Abraham and His seed. His promised mercy is the Christ, the Son of God who would die for the sins of the entire world and make perfect atonement for them, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). His promised mercy is in the very room in which Mary sings her song. God’s promised mercy is in Mary’s very womb. That is what makes this visitation worth remembering, commemorating, and meditating upon. For we see in Mary an example of faith. She hears God’s word and believes it without wavering. Mary’s faith with which she replied to the angel Gabriel, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), if faith which hears God’s promise and in spite of everything else says, “This is most certainly true.” In this Mary is an example for us of true blessedness. While it is true that all generations will call her blessed as the Mother of God, and this title only applies to her throughout all human history, we are blessed more than that! In Luke 11 when a woman from the crowd cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” Jesus responds, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28). Mary is blessed among women. But more than that, blessed are you who hear God’s word and keep it as she heard God’s word and kept it. This is true blessedness. Not wealth, honor, power, and prestige, and all the things the proud and mighty pursue. True blessedness is faith in God’s promise, because by faith we receive everything He wants us to have, everything the child in Mary’s womb wins for us, beginning with forgiveness of every sin and the Holy Spirit to live new lives, culminating in the bliss of everlasting life. Remember the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and the great works of God He does for those women and through the sons they bore by God’s grace. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” Who are these folks and why are they flocking to hear Jesus? Luke calls them tax collectors. These are men who on the Roman payroll and their job it to collect duty, tribute, and taxes from the people of Israel. Generally, these men were not content with their wages so they abused their office and collected more than necessary, so that what was Rome’s went to Rome and anything over that went into their own pockets. They were a greedy lot, driven by the love of money and that love of money led them to abuse their position and demand more tax than was actually necessary. No one liked the tax collectors. In Matthew 18:17 Jesus says that those who refuse to repent of their sin, after several admonitions, “let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector,” meaning, don’t have anything to do with them. Luke also calls them “sinners.” These aren’t people who sin out of weakness though. These are the people who willfully sin, who choose to sin, and who make a lifestyle of sin. These are the folks who flock to Jesus to hear Him.

So why did they draw near to Him to hear Him. What was Jesus saying that pricked their ears and drew them in so that they drank deeply from His instruction? It wasn’t a message of tolerance. Tax collectors and sinners were masters as tolerating sin already. Jesus’ words were not: “God doesn’t care about your many sins and your wicked lifestyles. He loves you and accepts you just the way you are.” That is what these people already believed in their hearts. For a person to continue to willfully sin they have to believe that God will not punish their sins and those sins aren’t that bad anyway. Jesus clearly was not tolerating their wickedness. What then? Was Jesus preaching self-improvement? A message of soft-law that says: “Yes, you’re rough around the edges, but with a little work you can be better. God will be pleased if you just try a bit more to be better people.” But there was no need for tax collectors and sinners to hear that from Jesus. The ones that had wanted to improve would have already thought such thoughts about God and themselves. There’s no need to flock to a teacher to hear that sort of thing. That’s what their sinful nature was already telling them. Neither toleration nor self-betterment actually deal with sin. Toleration and self-betterment are only cosmetic changes to the sinner. So what was it that Jesus was teaching that sucked these tax collectors and sinners in and held them?

Repentance. In Matthew 9:11 a Pharisee said to one of Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” “Why does He socialize with the dregs of society? He’s not much of a teacher, much less a Messiah, if He doesn’t understand exactly who these people are.” When Jesus hears that He replies: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:12-13). It seems odd that these tax collectors and sinners were gathering around in droves to hear Jesus speak about repentance. The ideas of toleration and self-improvement saturate our societal thinking to the point that even the word “repentance” sounds high-handed and harsh. Yet that is precisely what Jesus was speaking about. And that was precisely what these tax collectors and sinners had gathered around Jesus to hear. Repentance is not the sole-property of the fire-and-brimstone preachers who demand a change in lifestyle or else the sinner will burn in Hell. That’s not what repentance is. Repentance is a sorrow over sin and the desire to be rid of it. To repent of sin means to lament your sin and confess that what you have done is wrong deserves death and Hell, and that the promised condemnation is just and true. Jesus was very much condemning these tax collectors and sinners for their willful, open sins, as well as the sins in their hearts, those hidden from everyone except God and themselves.

The reason the tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear Him was because Jesus dealt with their sin head on, called it what it was, and then offered a solution far better than the cosmetic remedies of tolerance or self-betterment. He offered them the Gospel. To repent is not only to turn from your sins. You have to turn toward something else. The Gospel is the ‘something else’ to which they were to turn. He says to them, “You, dear tax collectors, are sheep who have strayed from God’s fold by your sins of thought, word, and deed. You cannot find your way back to the sheepfold but continue to wander further into the darkness of your sins. You, dear sinners, are a coin that has been lost and is unable to do anything to let yourself be found. But in spite of your straying you are still a sheep. In spite of your lostness you are still a valuable treasure to Me. Since you cannot find yourself back into the fold, since you cannot creep out of the darkness and back into the treasure box, I will seek you.“I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14). I am the one who seeks you out to find you, to put you on my shoulders and carry you back to Father’s sheepfold. I am the one who lights the lamp and sweeps the house and searches carefully for you. Your sins are mostly certain terrible, heinous, and damning. All of them. But I have come to make atonement for your sins because “The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus offers Himself upon the cross in place of every sinner and every sin. He dies the sinner’s death. He suffers the sinner’s condemnation. He “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25), that is, He died for our many sins and was raised to life so that He might justify all who believe in Him and trust His promise of forgiveness.

The message of Jesus that drew these tax collectors and sinners in was the message that Jesus preached at all times, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Sorrow over your sins, lament them for the Psalmist says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). The Lord had said through His prophet, “For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). To those broken by the knowledge of their sin, to those who feel the guilt of their transgressions against God and their neighbor, to those who tremble at God’s commandments and acknowledge that they have sinned grievously, Jesus offers them something the world cannot give: the forgiveness of every sin. The prophet Isaiah rejoiced in the promise of forgiveness and says “You have cast all my sins behind Your back” (Isaiah 38:17). The prophet Micah wrote: “He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). This is the gospel that Jesus speaks to tax collectors and all sinners who repent of their sins and look to God for mercy because mercy is precisely what God promises.

Jesus ends both of these parables in today’s Gospel lesson with similar words. In both cases the Lord rejoices over one sinner who repents and believes the Gospel. Not only does Christ rejoice in their salvation but “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). The Lord rejoices, and not only the Lord, but all the heavenly hosts rejoice with Him because this is His good and gracious will: that all men be save and come to the knowledge of the truth of repentance and forgiveness. But not all will do this. Luke 7:30 says that “the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves.” In today’s lesson they grumble against Jesus for instructing tax collectors and sinners in repentance and faith. Their example shows us that there are many who reject the Gospel because they think they don’t need the gospel. The Pharisees thought they were righteous in and of themselves so they didn’t need Christ’s righteousness that He won and then offered to all who believe the Gospel. The Scribes and doctors of the Law thought they were spiritually healthy so they paid no attention to the medicine the great physical of souls freely offered. In this they rejected God’s will for themselves and judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life. So it is in our day as well, that many reject repentance and faith because they love their sin and think they are they are righteous. Still others imagine that God tolerates their sinful behavior and winks at it, while others vainly think they can please God with their own paltry works. Jesus condemns all of these thoughts as sinful in Matthew 21:31 when He says: “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.”

Jesus receives penitent sinners who acknowledge their sin and grieve their sinfulness. He forgives the sins of all who come to Him with penitent hearts, who wish to be rid of their sin. And He deals with it, not by tolerating it, not by offering tips to try harder next time, but by absolving it and removing it as far as the east is from the west so that it is no more. He says to all the penitent in Jeremiah 31:34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” He is a gracious God to give us what we truly need to deal with sin: His perfect life, His atoning death on the cross, repentance and faith to believe His Gospel so that the angels in heaven rejoice over us.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus tells a parable in which a certain man prepares a rich supper and invites many people to enjoy it. But those whom he had invited don’t attend. They excuse themselves. One has just bought a piece of land and needs to go out to see it. He values his possessions more than the supper. Another excuses himself so that he can go test out five new yoke of oxen he has purchased. He values his work more than the supper. Another excuses himself, saying that he is recently married and therefore cannot attend. He values his bride more than the supper. There is nothing wrong with property and possessions. They are gifts from God protected the Seventh Commandment. There is nothing sinful with work and enjoying the good of labor. Work itself was instituted by God before the fall into sin. Moses tells us in Genesis 2:15 that “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:13 that “Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor — it is the gift of God.” Likewise, there is certainly nothing sinful with marriage, either. Like work, it was instituted by God in paradise before the fall into sin. God unites men and women together in holy matrimony to become one flesh and build a life together. All these things are blessings and gifts from the generous hand of God the Father Almighty. But like the pagans of old who worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25), those who declined the invitation to the great supper cared more for those gifts that belong to this life than the gift that belongs to both this life and the life of the world to come.

The great supper is that gift. It is the gospel. It is the good new that God, for Jesus’ sake, freely forgives all sins to those who repent their sins and believe on His Son. God had prepared this feast from the foundation of the world. He first announced it to Adam and Eve after their sin, telling the devil, “I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). God the Father send Moses and the prophets who foretold the coming of the Christ, His atoning death, and the peace and joy of conscience His gospel would bring. They invite Israel and all who hear to come to the feast being prepared. God the Father prepared the great supper by sending His only-begotten Son in human flesh, who then Himself invited all men, women, and children to the great supper of the gospel, so that they might feast on Him by faith and taste and see that the LORD is good (Ps 34:8) to those who place their trust in Him.

But those invited would not come. The Jews made excuses. They preferred the things of this life to the blessings Jesus offered in the great supper of the gospel. They preferred the land of Canaan and would rather have a Messiah who would reestablish the former boundaries and glory of the earthly kingdom of Israel. They preferred their work, not so much the work of their own hands as the self-chosen religious works by which they sought to please God and bring about His kingdom. They preferred the commandments of men to the doctrine of God because the doctrine of God touches the heart and not merely the hands, and the external is much easier than the internal. Others preferred their brides, not their actually brides, but carnal pleasures. After all, those who rejected the invitation of Jesus were the same people who had asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” (Matt 19:3). So many of the Jews of Jesus day heard Jesus’ invitation and thought themselves above it. They preferred other things over the great supper of the gospel and so they excused themselves from it.

In the parable, when the master of the house heard the excuses of those he had invited, he became angry and said, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” This is what Jesus did. He preached to the poor in spirit, those who understood they had no work good enough to offer God, but that all their righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Is 64:6). He preached to those maimed by their sins, with spiritual legs hobbled so that struggled to walk in the ways of the Lord. He invited the blind to see, not just with eyes of flesh but eyes of faith. He invited not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble (1 Cor. 1:26), but fishermen and tax collectors, those whom the world looks down upon and despises.

In the parable, the servant tells his master that He has done this and there is still room at the great supper. So the master of the house tells the servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” This is the call of the gentiles. Christ wasn’t satisfied to invite the children of Abraham only. He wanted to His Father’s house to be filled. Christ then sent His apostles to the gentiles, telling them, “Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). When Paul and Barnabas are rejected by the Jews, they say, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). The invitation went out through all the world and continues to go out into all the world, so that nearly two thousand years later, we in this place—and those watching from wherever they are watching this recording—hear Christ’s invitation to the great supper of the gospel once again. It continues to go forth and will go forth until the last day for Christ Himself said in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

But what is Jesus’ parable to us who are already sitting here, attending to the great supper of the gospel? What is it to us who have heeded Christ’s call and accepted His invitation by the faith God the Holy Ghost has worked in us? It is encouragement to keep esteeming the gospel highly, so highly that you do not despise preaching and God’s word but gladly hear and learn it as often as you have opportunity. It’s encouragement because it reminds each of us what this gospel is. It is a great supper. It is how our Lord feeds and nourishes us to everlasting life. Jesus tells the crowd in John 6:53, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” He is speaking about the spiritual eating of His flesh and blood, which is faith in Christ’s word, that we apply it to ourselves, rely firmly and with perfect confidence and assurance upon this consolation that we have a gracious God and eternal life for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, and support ourselves by it in every time of need and in all temptations (SD VII.62). Christ compares the gospel—Himself, really—to a great supper to remind us that we must be feasting on Him by faith daily. If we eat several meals each day to nourish our body and physical life, how much more should we be applying God’s word to ourselves and supporting ourselves by it in every trial and temptation? Jesus’ word to Satan in the desert, which was also His word to Israel in the wilderness, applies to us in the wilderness of this life: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).

Just as if we stop eating physical food, so if we neglect Christ’s invitation, our faith with weaken and die. So the parable serves as a warning as well. There are many and manifold things in this life that vie for our attention. The sinful flesh in which we all live wants, like the Jews in the parable, to value the things of this life—both sinful things and the good gifts of God—more highly than hearing God’s word and applying it to ourselves. These things grapple with us, inviting us to trust in them for our spiritual nourishment and sustenance. All of them want us to value them as our highest good rather than the great supper of Christ and His gospel. If we choose the things and esteem them more highly than God’s word, then the final words of the Lord in the parable should call us to repentance: “I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” He compels us, not by force or coercion, but by showing us our sins so that He might drive us to Him as our Savior. He warns us with this condemnation and woos us with this invitation. With the warning we curb our flesh’s desire to think of other things, and ourselves, more highly than we ought. But with the invitation—“Come, for all things are now ready,” we rejoice that that though we were among the the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind, God has called us to Christ’s supper so that we may feast on His forgiveness and fare sumptuously on our Savior, and by such eating, be nourished for new life here and unto life everlasting in eternity. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s epistle lessons sets the entire Christian life before us. It consists of two things. First, the apostle says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” God is love. Not the way the world thinks of God as love. The world thinks “God is love” means “God loves everybody just the way they are and wants them to be happy just the way they are, no matter what they think they are how they’re behaving.” But God teaches us in Scripture that God’s love isn’t tolerance. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son,” meaning, “This is the way God loved the world, by giving His only-begotten Son into death to pay for the world’s sins, so that “whoever believes in Him”—not just that He exists or that He is the Son of God, but repents of their sins and trusts Him as their only mediator with God—“shall not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the love that God is. And God wants all people to believe this, to repent of their sins, and to abide in His love by living in it each day, by using the gospel faithfully. Enduring, persevering faith is how we abide in God and God in us.

God’s love is perfected among us in this, John goes on: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. When the unbeliever thinks of the judgment to come—if they think of it of all—he imagines he’ll pass muster based on how good he’s been, or at least how good he’s intended to be. But with this comes a certain amount of uncertainty about the verdict that will be rendered about him. Not so the Christian, the one who abides in, dwells in, and lives in God’s love given in Christ. The Christian has boldness in the day of judgment. The Christian can be confident to stand before the judgment seat of Christ because the Christ who judges is the same Christ in whose love he has been abiding throughout his life. John says we are confident because as He is, so are we in this world. What is Christ? He is the only-begotten Son of God the Father, who rose to new life and ascended far above all the heavens, victorious over the devil and world, ruling in the midst of His enemies. As He is, so are we in this world. Christ is the Son of God and we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. In baptism He has clothed us with Himself, His merits, His righteousness, and adopted us as children of God the Father, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). As He is risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father almighty, we too are risen from the death of sin by baptism, alive with the life of God the Son. We, too, ascend, not bodily as He did, but as Paul says, we seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God, we set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth . For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col 3:1-4). This is what we are in the world. We are sons of God, who are victorious over our enemies of temptation, death, and the devil, who set our minds on things above, not things below.

And when we dwell in this perfect love of God the Father, we have no need to fear any judgment. This is the confidence of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 4[:3-4] when He writes, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.” Abiding in God’s love, repenting sins as soon as the Holy Ghost convicts us of them, and immediately fleeing to the gospel of perfect forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, drives out all fear of judgment. If we fear torment and punishment for our sins, then we aren’t perfected in love. And who of us can say that we are perfected in God’s love in this life, so that we never have a moment of fear of sin, its consequences, and the final judgment? No one, since we still live in the sinful flesh. But God gives us the Holy Spirit so that when the conscience does quail in fear, when the terrors of guilt do come upon us, He may bring us to repentance and then back to God’s special love for all who repent of their sins and believe in His Son. We love God, after all, because He first loved us. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8), without any merit or worthiness on our part. Believing this to be most certainly true, that this is how God the Father has loved us, we then love Him and abide in His love each day by a true and lively faith.

That’s the first part of the Christian life: faith. Then John moves to the second part of the Christian life. “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” Faith and love toward God is a living and active thing that will show itself, not only in hearing God’s Word, prayer, and patient endurance in suffering, but in love. Faith works through love for the brethren, by which John means our fellow Christians. If someone says he loves God but hates his fellow Christians, he is a liar. And who would actually hate his brother in Christ? It’s easier to do than it might seem. When we hear the word hate we think of intense dislike, aversion, or hostility towards someone. Scripture sometimes uses the word like that. But at other times to hate something means to esteem it less than something else. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” When disciples serve mammon by fretting over it, they’re not hostile towards God—they think too little of Him. Jesus says in Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Christ doesn’t want us to be hostile and adverse to our family in our following of Him. He’s telling us that we can’t think more highly of them than we do Jesus and His word, so that we allow them to remain in sins simply because they’re our family. If anyone says He loves God, yet despises His brother, thinks little of him, and doesn’t esteem as a fellow son of God through baptism and faith, then He is a liar.

The rich man in today’s gospel lesson is the example par excellence of hating one’s brother. He despised Lazarus, a fellow Israelite and son of Abraham. He didn’t esteem Lazarus for what he was, a child of God through faith. He hated Lazarus. If the rich man had loved the poor beggar he would have helped him. He would have invited to him to his table, or at the very least, fed him at the gate. And since he had no love for his brother Israelite, he did not love God, no matter how much he may have boasted of it to others. He didn’t love God for His mercy which is why, when He died, he goes to Hades to be tormented in flame of fire. There he realizes that he needs mercy. But the chasm is fixed and no mercy can be given, not even a drop, not even the mercy of knowing he did something to save his five brothers from that place. They, like he while alive, have Moses and the Prophets—the word of God, Holy Scripture—and if they will not believe the Word of God, they won’t repent and believe because a man rises from the dead.

Lazarus, on the other hand, is the example par excellance of faith. Jesus doesn’t tell us about His faith, nor does he have any works. How could he, he was full of sores and was laid at the rich man’s gate? But Jesus proves that He had faith by the fact that when He dies, he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. Lazarus had the faith of Abraham. Lazarus had nothing good in this life, yet, Paul’s words about Abraham in Romans 4[:40-21] apply to him: “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” The circumstances of life didn’t matter one bit. Abraham was rich, Lazarus poor. Abraham was healthy, Lazarus was sickly. But both believed God’s promise and neither set heart on their circumstances—wealth and health on the one hand, poverty and sickness on the other. This is why Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom, paradise, the only destination for all who die in faith, enduring until the end. This faith in God, who is love, saved both Abraham and Lazarus, and continues to save all who abide in it. It gives boldness in the day of judgment because it believes that as Christ is, we are, by faith. Since we are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we love our neighbors, but especially the brethren, so that we do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Gal 6:10). For this commandment we have from Christ, that he who loves God must love his brother also, not because we have to, but because we love the God who loved us first, who sent His only-begotten Son for us. This faith cannot help but work through love. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, approached Jesus one night to learn the gospel from Him. Jesus begins at the beginning. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There must be a rebirth, a second birth, for anyone who who wants experience God’s kingdom. It isn’t enough to be a child of Abraham, a ruler of the Jews, or a righteous man in the eyes of others. Rebirth is required. But Nicodemus doesn’t understand. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” he asks. He’s stuck in fleshly thinking that can’t understand the things of God. While Jesus speaks of a rebirth, a second birth, He describes this birth as being one from heaven. The word translated again can also be translated from above, and Jesus uses the word with both meanings in mind. To see the kingdom of God, one must be born a second time, yes, but that second birth is not like the first. Just as no one decides to be born of their parents, no one decides to be born again from above because the rebirth comes from above, not from below. Jesus restates what He had just said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The rebirth from above is one that happens by water and the Spirit. Not water on one occasion and the Spirit on another, but water and the Spirit together, as when God created the heavens and the earth and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2). The Lord had promised in Ezekiel 36[:25-26] to cleanse Israel of their sin and idols with the sprinkling of water, and by the water give them a new heart and a new spirit, for “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus speaks of this new heart and spirit given in baptism, this rebirth, when he tells Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Jewish males, on the eighth day of their lives, received the outward, visible mark of circumcision so that everyone, themselves included, would know they were members of Israel. But the rebirth of water and the spirit would marked Jew and Gentile alike, not with an lasting, outward mark, but with new hearts and spirits. Just as you cannot see the wind with the eyes of flesh, so you look at the reborn and tell it by sight. One hears the wind. One sees its effects in the trees. One hears the sound it makes as it passes through different places. So it is with those who are reborn from above by water and the Spirit. One will see the effects of the Holy Spirit working a new spirit within the reborn. The effects of the new spirit and heart grow as the reborn die daily to sin (1 Cor 15:31), since they have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal5:24). One will hear the effects of the Holy Spirit as their conversation grows more and more into what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers (Eph 4:29), putting aside the corrupt speaking of the world, and growing more and more into speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as the apostle says (Eph 5:19). As the wind’s presence is known by its sound and its movements, so it is with the baptized, they are known by their words and deeds. The first birth of the flesh accomplishes none of this. Being a fleshly birth it only gives birth to sinful flesh. But when sinner are reborn by the Holy Spirit and water, they are reborn from above as new creatures, as children of God.

When Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” Jesus teaches Him about His authority to teach this. “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” The we is Jesus and God the Father. He said in John 8:28, “As My Father taught Me, I speak these things” and in John 12:50, “Whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” The earthly thing of baptism, being reborn by water and the Spirit—the Holy Spirit—is God the Father’s word and will for mankind. Jesus teaches this because He is the One who came down from heaven. He tells Nicodemus that He is God the Son, eternally begotten of His Father, whom the Father had taught all things, not in that there was a time when He didn’t know the Father’s Word, but in the sense that the Father gave Him all things that were His own by begetting Him from eternity. He is the Word of God, after all, who was with God, and who was God (Jn 1:1) from eternity. He has descended to earth, assumed human nature so that He might teach these things of God the Father to Israel—and then to the Gentiles—so that all may be born again from above and enter God’s kingdom.

Then Jesus adds that the One who descended from heaven and who will ascend to heaven again must be lifted up. He says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” To be lifted up in this sense means to be lifted up on the tree of the cross because that’s what Moses did with the bronze serpent. In Numbers 21 when Israel complained, the Lord sent fiery serpents and whoever they bit died. When Israel repented—and only when they repented—did the Lord tell Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Num 21:8). As the serpent was lifted up on the pole so that all who looked to it in faith, trusting the promise God had attached to it, so the Son of Man would be lifted up on the cross, so that all who look to Him in faith would not perish from the serpent’s bite of sin, but have everlasting life. The Son of Man must be lifted up to atone for the world’s sins, to acquire perfect remission of sins and perfect righteousness so that the Holy Spirit can apply them to sinners in the gospel, in baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. The Son of God descends to earth to assume flesh and die for the sins of the world, so that all who are reborn from above by water and the Holy Spirit may ascend with Him and dwell with Him there.

It is in the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit—as Paul calls it in Titus 3:5—that we see most clearly the doctrine of the Blessed Holy Trinity, which we celebrate today. We confess the faith of the Athanasian Creed because we believe them, because which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he will perish eternally. We believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths, but we do not fully understand, nor can we as finite creatures. We believe there is one God who exists in three persons and the three persons of the Godhead are uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty, so that in this Trinity none is greater or less than another, even though the Father who is unbegotten begets the Son and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. We believe and confess this to be the catholic—the universal, that is,—Christian faith because this what Holy Scripture teaches us about the One God who is three distinct persons, each fully divine, each fully God. And although the three persons work inseparably from creation, through redemption all the way until the consummation of the age, it is chiefly in baptism, our baptisms, where we see the Trinity’s work the most clearly. We are reborn of water and God the Holy Spirit. He rebirths us by applying the benefits Jesus earned at the cross to us and creating faith in us that receives these benefits, so that we become children of God the Father, younger brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ—the Son of God by nature—and temples of God the Holy Ghost. The Triune God rebirths us from above so that we receive a new heart and new spirit, which show forth to ourselves and the world not as external mark, but in our life and conversation.

Dear baptized saints of God, we live amongst many who deny the Triune God. Many religions deny Him officially in their public statements of faith. These religions cannot offer any salvation because what they believe in an idol. Others deny the Triune God functionally, in practice, by only ever speaking of a generic “god.” Still others deny Him by overemphasizing one person of the Godhead. But the catholic faith which was the apostles preached and preach to the Last Day through their writings is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, meaning we worship God the Father who sent God the Son into the world in human flesh to bear our sins and be our savior, so that He might give us God the Holy Ghost to give us faith and rebirth us in baptism, so that we become children of God the Father. In short, we worship the one God who baptized us, who has given us new hearts and new spirits, and who has promised everlasting life to all who believe and are baptized. Let our lives be one of continual confession and praise of the Blessed Holy Trinity, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen”(Rom 11:36 ).

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.