Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

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

“For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?” It’s easier to tell someone their sins are forgiven them than it is to tell them to get up and walk. If any of us told a paralytic to arise and walk it would become immediately evident that we have no ability or authority to tell the paralyzed to walk. It’s much easier to tell someone “Your sins are forgiven you” because, unlike paralysis, there’s no physical demonstration whether you’ve actually forgiven them their sins. We can forgive our neighbor when they sin directly against us because we are the wronged party. Jesus tells us in Luke 17:3-4, “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” But no man one has the authority to forgive sins committed against other people and especially sins against God. This is why, after forgiving the paralytic, some of the scribes present said within themselves, “This man blasphemes!” St. Mark adds that the scribes also said in their hearts, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). While can forgive the sins of the one who sins against us and repents, no man has the ability or authority to forgive the sins of others as Jesus does with the paralytic.

What the scribes fail to recognize—or rather, refuse to recognize—is that that Jesus is not like other men. He is man, born of Mary. But He is also true God, the eternal Son of God the Father, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Heb 1:3). As the eternal Son of God, He is fully God with all power and prerogatives of His Father, which includes the ability and authority to forgive sins of all who hate their sins, repent them, and want to be rid of them. God the Son takes on human flesh and becomes like us in every way except sin, and yet remains God. This is why, when these men bring this paralytic to Him, Jesus says to him, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Anyone with eyes could see that the man sought healing from paralysis. But Jesus, who knew what was in man (John 2:25), sees the paralytic’s heart. He sees the man’s repentance, that he knows his sins, is burdened by them, and wants to be free of them. So his friends take him to Jesus and he hears words that are far sweeter than any physical healing: “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” In one sentence Jesus bestows three great blessings on the man. He calls him Son. Jesus saw the faith of the man, that he believed Jesus was the Christ and that Jesus could unburden his conscience. Jesus tells the paralytic that he is a son God because he believes in Jesus and trusts Him for mercy. Jesus tells him, “Be of good cheer.” Jesus tells him to take heart and rejoice. Why? Because he has a gracious God in Jesus, who does not delight in the death of sinners, but that they turn from their sins and live. Jesus tells him, “Your sins are forgiven you.” They are removed as far as the east is from the west. They are drowned in the depths of the sea of God’s mercy. They are blotted out as a thick cloud, and God remembers them no more.

God alone can forgive sins like this. If Jesus were a mere man, then He would blaspheme. But Jesus isn’t a mere man. He turns to the scribes and puts the question to them, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’” He does the more difficult—the impossible—to show them that He has authority on earth to forgive sins. It is as if He said, “Since you cannot believe I can forgive men their sins with My word, I will heal this man with My word. If My word can heal him instantaneously, then you have no reason to disbelieve that My word forgives him all his sins.” And it was so. He arose and departed to his house. The paralytic rises to new life, physically and spiritually. He rises on new legs and firm feet. The Shulamite could have been describing this man when she said in Song of Solomon 5:15, “His legs are pillars of marble Set on bases of fine gold. His countenance is like Lebanon, Excellent as the cedars.” From now on walks on new legs, strong and powerful. From now he walks with a bright and lively countenance, his heart rejoicing that his sins are no more and that He is a new creation in God’s sight. This forgiveness and the new life it brings can only be given by God, which is why Jesus gives it to the penitent paralytic: He is God who forgives sins and raises to new life.

Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. God first gave this power to man by becoming man in the incarnation. But the multitude marvels and glorifies God for giving such power to men, not just the man Jesus of Nazareth. By becoming man, God the Son shares this authority with His human nature. But He is rich in mercy and gave this authority to others as well. He promises Peter and the eleven, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19). He tells them all again in Matthew 18:18, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then on the evening of His resurrection from the dead, He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). Those men then went into the world, preaching the gospel and forgiving the sins of all who were truly penitent. By Christ’s authority they spoke that same absolving word as Jesus had spoken to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.” And those men appointed other men in cities to do the same work and speak the same word to all who were truly penitent, believed in Jesus for mercy, and intended to order their lives according to God’s commandments.

God still calls men into His ministry to do that very same thing; to bind the sins of the impenitent on them so that they see their lost condition and repent, and to forgive the sins of the penitent so that those sins are removed from them. Christ’s ministers are men who, of themselves, have no authority to forgive sins. But they are men whom Christ has called and placed into His office, His ministry, His service, and given such power to them. Through His minister’s absolution, Christ calls all who repent, Son, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” as St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26. As God’s adopted sons, you have “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” (1 Ptr 1:4). Through His minister’s absolution, Christ bids you be of good cheer and to take heart, because you have a gracious God for Jesus’ sake, who doesn’t want your death but wants you to live eternally with Him. Through His minister’s absolution, Christ says to you, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Christ removes them as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12). They are drowned in the depths of the sea of God’s mercy (Mic 7:19) and they are blotted out (Is 44:22). The minister speaks in the stead and by the command of Christ, so His absolution is to be heard as if it were from Christ Himself. For in that absolution Christ says to you “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:2).

Through the minister’s absolution, Christ says to you, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” As the paralytic rose on new legs as pillars of marble and feet of fine gold, so you go forth from this place with new legs and feet to walk in the newness of life. This new life, which Christ began in you when He rebirthed you in baptism, He increases in you so that you  continually put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Paul gives several examples of what that looks like; putting away lying and in its place speaking truth with our neighbors; not sinning in our anger but committing it to the Lord who judges righteously; and putting away stealing and pursuing industriousness instead, so that we may help others. These are illustrations of what this new life of true righteousness and holiness looks like. It means putting off sin and pursuing its opposite virtue, in thought, in word, and in deed. This is what it means that Christ tells us—as He told the paralytic—“Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Arise to new life by faith in His absolving word. Take up your bed, the former sins, no longer lying in them, and go to your house, the vocations to which God has called you. Do this as a son of God, with a bright and lively countenance and your heart rejoicing that your sins are no more and that you are a new creation in God’s sight. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

Today’s gospel lesson takes us to Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus had just silenced a group of Sadducees who tried to trip Him up. When the Pharisees heard this, they move in try the same. One of them, a lawyer, a man knowledgeable about the Law of Moses, tests Jesus. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Of the hundreds of commands that the Lord gave Israel in the books of Moses, which one is the great one, the chief one, the most important one? Jesus answers, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Love for God and love for neighbor, these are chief commandments. Everything God commanded at Sinai, every law, statute, and ordinance given through Moses, instructed Israel on how they were to love God and how they were to love their neighbor. This is what the prophets preached as well. Through them God threatened to punish Israel because they hadn’t loved God with all their heart, soul, and mind, nor had they loved their neighbor as they loved themselves. The prophets threated punishment and held out the promise of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and new life for those who truly repented so that they could order their lives according to God’s commandments. God commanded Israel to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things and He commanded Israel to love their neighbors as themselves.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day heard God’s commandments and thought they did them pretty well. They assumed they were loving God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and their neighbors as themselves. They could say, “Of course, I love God with everything that’s in me. God commanded us to bind His word on our hands and have them as frontlets between our eyes (Deut 6:8), and I do that. I wear God’s word on my hand and head as He commanded. God commanded us to put tassels on the hem of our garments and look at the size of my tassels! God commanded us to pray to Him, and everyone can see that I pray for long periods of time. God commanded us to tithe our animals, so I go above and beyond. I tithe from the mint and anise and cumin in my kitchen (Matt 23:23). They thought that setting their hearts, souls, and minds on the law and how to fulfill each command in an over-the-top way, was how they loved the Lord their God with all the heart, soul, and mind. In reality, their laser-like focus on the outward ceremonies of the law was really a love for their own righteousness Their hearts, souls, and minds weren’t directed toward God. They were directed towards showing others—and themselves—how righteous they could be. When it came to love for their neighbor, they couldn’t hide their self-righteousness to the same extent, but had to ask Jesus on another occasion, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), because they understood that they didn’t love everybody they encountered as they loved themselves. Yet they remained confident in their own righteousness and excelled at all God had commanded in His law.

But the law—which is summarized in the command “love”—is first and foremost a matter of the heart. The Pharisees worked strenuously on the outside but neglected the inside. They mistook the outward performance of the law for true love of God. What does it mean to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind? It means to cling to Him alone in good days and in bad, in health and illness, in happiness and suffering. It means to expect only good things from God, and trust that everything we receive from Him is truly good, even if it seems evil and troublesome. It means to take refuge in Him alone in every adversity, so that if we know we have a good and gracious God, then we have all we need in this life. To love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind is to set God before one’s eyes in this faith and to set His will before our eyes so that we walk in His ways. The second commandment is like it. What does it mean to love your neighbor as you love yourself? It means wanting good for them in this life and helping them toward those good things as you’re able. It means being patient and kind, being humble and gentle with others. It means being merciful, not just in action, but from the heart. The Pharisees only saw the law as a tool for sharpening their self-righteousness. They could not let the law do what the law was intended to do: show them their inability to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and their neighbor as themselves.

But for as much thought and focus as the Pharisees had given the law, Jesus asks them a question that shows them how little attention they’ve given to the gospel. He asks them what they think about the Christ—Greek for ‘Messiah.’ “Whose Son is He?” He asks. They answer partially correct. He’s the son of David. But Jeus wants to get them to a better understanding. “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?  If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” David said in the Spirit, that is, by divine inspiration, that the LORD—God—said to his Lord, the Messiah, that he will sit at God’s right hand till He makes His enemies His footstool. How can the Christ be David’s son and David’s Lord, the one to whom David the king would bow? David’s son would have to also be God’s Son, which is what David confesses in the Spirit. It’s also precisely what Jesus had told the Pharisees about who He was. The crowds on Palm Sunday had confessed Jesus to be the Son of David, the Messiah. Jesus accepted their praises. Jesus had told the Pharisees Himself that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). Not only does David prophesy in the Spirit that his Son would also be his Lord—God’s Son—but that his Lord would reign over His enemies, putting them under His feet. All who rejected Him, all who refused His teaching, would be put under His feet. The Pharisees seem to catch Jesus’ drift, so they make no reply.

The Pharisees could not accept Jesus’ teaching because that would mean they were wrong about the law. They would have to confess that they did not love God with all their heart, soul, and mind, or their neighbors as themselves. They would have to admit that they were not—in God’s eyes—good, holy, and righteous, but that they, like the Tax Collectors and notorious sinners, fell short of God’s law. They would have to confess that Jesus is David’s son and David’s Lord, God Himself in human flesh, and repent of their sin and unworthiness. This they refused to do. They preferred the illusion of their own righteousness and blamelessness to Christ’s righteousness and blamelessness which He freely offered to all who repent of their sins and look to Him for mercy. David’s son and David’s Lord had come to earn full forgiveness for their sins and give out that forgiveness to all who confessed their sin—that they do not love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind, or their neighbor as themselves. The Pharisees wanted to be righteous by their outward acts. Jesus wants to declare sinners righteous, covering them with His innocence, righteousness, and blessedness, which not only forgives sins but gives a new heart and the Holy Spirit. When the heart apprehends Christ as its only Savior and Mediator with God, it finds rests. The heart begins to truly love God. The heart covered with Christ’s righteousness and made new by the Holy Spirit also begins to observe the law—not only outwardly worshiping, praying, and hearing God’s word, not only the outward actions of love for one’s neighbor. The heart made new by faith in Christ sees that its doing of the law isn’t perfect. Our love for God and neighbor will not be perfect in this life because we still have the sinful flesh. But the heart made new by faith in Christ knows that it pleases God because it believes in Christ as Savior.

Look how St. Paul describes those who are justified by faith in today’s epistle: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The testimony of Christ—that He is David’s son and David’s Lord, true man and true God—is confirmed in believers as God daily and richly forgives our sins and raises us up to new life in His Holy Spirit, new life in which we grow in love for God and neighbor each day. We eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus—His return in glory to judge the living and the dead—because on that day He will confirm us as blameless by raising us from the dead in glorified bodies, without the taint of sin, so that what we have now by faith—Christ’s innocence, righteousness, and blessedness—will be ours to see and experience for eternity. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

Jesus dines at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were very strict about the observation of the ceremonial law, the law that dictated how they were to live as people set apart from the Gentiles. Observing the Sabbath was part of that ceremonial law because it dictated when and how Israel was to worship. They were to rest from physical labor on the seventh day of the week so that they might devote themselves to hearing God’s word and reflecting on it. This ruler of the Pharisees—no doubt a man held in high esteem among the Pharisees—invited Jesus and others to dine at his home. Everyone reclining at the table with Jesus watched Him closely because He was not, according to their standards, as strict about observing the Sabbath. Perhaps they had heard what Jesus did on another Sabbath while He was teaching in a synagogue. There was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up (Luke 13:11). Jesus called the woman to Him and said, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” He laid His hands on her and immediately she straightened and began to glorify God. The ruler of the synagogue becomes indignant. He even tells Jesus, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day” (Lk 13:14). Jesus castigates the head of the synagogue, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound — think of it — for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”

This is why this group of men reclining at table with Jesus on this particular Sabbath watch Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy—edema. Knowing that everyone is watching Him closely, Jesus answers their thoughts. He asks them, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” “Do you consider it work to heal a man on this day? Do you think it worthy of a man of God to help His neighbor in need if He has the ability, even if the need occurs on the day of rest?” They remain silent. Of course they think it’s work. Of course healing a man is unlawful in their estimation. So heals the man. He restores his health, saves the man’s life, and then sends him back to the life to which he had been called. Then He defends Him to the Pharisees. “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Once again, they remain silent. Every one of them would do precisely that. If their animal, their farm implement, fell into a ditch or pit on the Sabbath, they would work with all their might to get it out. If the Sabbath law yields to one’s animal, how much more ought it to yield to their fellowman? And that was the problem. The Pharisees loved the ceremonial law because ceremony is all outward observance. But the law also says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). Love is first and foremost of matter of the heart. If you love your neighbor you help your neighbor in their need as you’re able to help. If these men had truly loved their neighbor—in this case, the man with dropsy—they would have brought him to Jesus and asked Jesus to heal him. But they valued the ceremonial law as more important than the law of love. Jesus shows them the opposite is true.

By healing this man, and so many others, on the Sabbath, Jesus shows how He fulfills the Sabbath. God sanctified the seventh day—Saturday—and commanded Israel to do the same. How is anything sanctified? St. Paul, a former Pharisee, tells Timothy, “ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:4-5). Israel was to rest from all work on the Sabbath so they could hear God’s Word, meditate on it, apply it to themselves, and devote themselves to prayer. The rest God commanded was not the purpose. They were to rest from work so that they focus on God’s word. They were rest from work so that God could work in them through His Word. And here is Jesus, God’s Word in human flesh, come to bring true rest to souls. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30). The Sabbath was a sign that taught Israel what to look for in the ministry of Jesus.

That’s why the Sabbath law is no longer in force. It is part of the ceremonial law that was a prefiguration of Christ’s work. Paul tells the Colossians, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance—literally, the body—is of Christ” (Col 2:16-17). Dietary and clothing laws, laws for public and private worship, all these were given to Israel to set them apart from the other nations so that they might be an incubator for the world’s Messiah. They were also given to Israel to teach them about the person and work of the Messiah. The Sabbath prefigures the rest Jesus brings to the conscience burdened by sin, because His gospel forgives all sins and detaches them from the sinner. The Sabbath prefigures His gospel in that it bid Israel to leave aside all work and meditate on God’s Word. Jesus bids us leave behind our works with which we try to earn God’s favor and the forgiveness of our sins, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law (Gal 2:16). Christ is risen from the dead in the brightness of His divine glory and melted the shadows established through Moses which pointed to Him. Those who insist on maintaining the Sabbath, whether Jew or Judaizing Christian, are like those who prefer a photograph of their loved one to their love one’s actual presence with them.

Jesus unburdens us from the ceremonial law given to Israel, the ceremonial which pointed to Him. He still wants us to set aside a day to hear His Word, mediate on it, apply it to ourselves, and devote ourselves to prayer. The apostles chose Sunday for that purpose, as a sign against the legalists who demand observe of the ceremonial law, and as a confession that we worship the One who rose from the grave on the first day of the week. Unburdening us from the ceremonial law, and unburdening us from the guilt of our sins, He sends us forth with His love so that we might love our neighbors as ourselves. Love isn’t ceremonial. Love takes on outward manifestations and actions, but love is a matter first and foremost of the heart. By forgiving us our sins and cleansing our consciences, Jesus gives us new hearts with new movements and motivations. Believing the gospel, we begin to love God more and more. We begin to love our neighbors as ourselves, so that we want their good, that we look our for their interests in the same way we look after our own interests. This law, the law of love which Christ writes on our hearts, knows no limit. It isn’t confined to certain days of the week or seasons of the year. Love sees the neighbor and says, “How can I help?” “What does this person truly need?” St. Paul writes in Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” This also means that we must open to receiving charity of others. If we refuse other’s help and loving actions, then we deny them opportunities for Christian charity.

Which brings us to second part of today’s gospel lesson. Jesus teaches the Pharisees humility, which is part of faith toward God and love toward one’s neighbors. The Pharisees sought the most honorable seats at the table. But this is not the way of love. This is the way of vainglory, which only serves one’s ego. Paul says in Romans 12:3 that one should not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. He says elsewhere, “In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil 2:3). This doesn’t mean we think poorly of ourselves or depreciate ourselves. It means we think of ourselves as God thinks of us in the gospel. As we humble ourselves before God by daily repentance and reliance upon His grace, He says, to us, “Friend, go up higher.” He exalts us with His gifts and seats us at His table as sons and daughters of God because we believe in His only-begotten Son. As dear children of God, we aren’t worried about our honor or glory. We have the ultimate honor anyone could desire and no one earth can give: the honor of being sons and daughters of God through Holy Baptism. Acknowledging that brings joy. It also brings humility because we know we are undeserving of such honor. In that joyful humility that rejoices in the Sabbath rest God gives our souls, we can walk with our brothers and sisters in Christ as Paul bids us in the epistle, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes understanding guard your hears and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

The widow at Nain surely suffered greatly. When Jesus came near the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. She had already buried her husband. Being a widow, she had placed all her hope in her son to provide for her in her age. Now her son has died, and she goes to bury him. The pangs of death surround her. The Lord has taken away the husband whom He had given her. He has taken away the son whom the Lord had given her, and with his death, the Lord has taken her financial security from her. The widow at Nain reminds us that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. None of us are strangers to this. The Lord gives health and takes health when He allows illness and disease to attack our bodies and minds. The Lord gives wealth and possessions yet takes them through the changes and chances of life which are beyond our control. Moses says in Deuteronomy 8:18, “It is He who gives you power to get wealth,” the ability to work. Yet He also takes that ability away through disease, an accident, or the deterioration of age. The Lord gives us the good things of this life to enjoy but takes them away, sometimes as quickly as He gave them. And of course, there is death, the bitterest way our loved ones are taken from us. Like the widow at Nain, the very midst of life we are in death.

When hardships hit, when suffering strikes, and when afflictions arise, our sinful flesh has two responses. The first is to make the hardship, suffering, and affliction go away, and if we can’t get rid of it, then the flesh does everything in its power to dull the pain. The second response is to doubt God’s goodness. Christ tells us our heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask Him (Matt 7:11), yet when God takes away those good things that He has given us, the flesh believes that God is not good. He’s evil and He hates us. St. Paul says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be’ (Rom 8:7). This is always true, but it is especially true in trials and hardships. Philip Melanchthon wrote, “The flesh distrusts God, trusts in present things, seeks human aid in calamities, even contrary to God’s will, flees from afflictions, which it ought to bear because of God’s commands, doubts concerning God’s mercy, etc.” (Ap V:49). That strikes close to home. When calamities strike, we distrust God and trust in present things instead—things of this life. We seek human aid in calamities—both people and substances—rather than God’s aid, even though God tells rely on Him in every trouble. God is the one who lays afflictions on us. The psalmist says in Psalm 66:11, “You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs.” When we try to flee from the afflictions God lays on us, we sin, because it is God’s will that bear up under them in patient endurance which trusts in His promised mercy. The sinful flesh, however, is incapable of this, since it, by nature, distrusts God and doubts concerning His mercy.

Just as our flesh cannot raise itself from the dead, it cannot raise itself to faith. Jesus alone, working through His word, does both. Jesus comes to this suffering widow. He has compassion on her in her suffering. He tells her, “Do not weep,” not as if giving a command but as offering comfort. By His compassion Jesus wants to silence the sinful flesh’s distrust of Him. He teaches her—and all who will believe—that He is very compassionate and merciful (Jam 5:11). He does not want her, or anyone, to doubt His mercy, to disbelief His compassion for sinners. His compassion so moves Him that He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Not only is the Lord gracious and compassionate. He is powerful, mighty, and able to resurrect this young man to new life. By presenting the young man to his mother, Jesus shows her His mercy, creating faith in her heart which trusts His promised mercy. Jesus teaches us that He is with us in our sufferings. Though we are hard pressed on every side, though we are perplexed, or persecuted, He will deliver us at the time that He knows is best for us. If He allows us to be struck down by disease, misfortune, even death, He will deliver us from every evil. In fact, sometimes it is by taking us out of this life that He delivers us from every evil. He teaches us this so that we do not despair of His mercy in our afflictions, sufferings, and death, but so that we mighty love Him, pray to Him, expect aid from Him, and obey Him even in our afflictions.

Since the sinful flesh can’t do this of its own power—and wouldn’t do this if it had the power—Christ does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. He raises us from the dead. St. Paul writes: And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph 2:1-3). We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were once sons of disobedience, living according to our flesh’s lusts and the desires of our minds. We were as spiritually dead as the young man in the box at Nain. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:4-7). By the Law He shows us our sinful nature and inability to rise. By the gospel He raises us to new life, forgiving us our sins and giving us new hearts in which the Holy Spirit dwells so that He may bear His fruit.

And part of the new life we now live by faith in the gospel is that we suffer the right way, not the way flesh’s way. The flesh looks to God in suffering and distrusts Him and curses Him. The new man says with the Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). The flesh looks for human comforts in the midst of sufferings. The new man says with the Psalmist, “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life” (Ps 119:50). Whatever affliction God sends, no matter how difficult it may be or how different from anyone else’s, God promises help, aid, and mercy to all who come to Him humbly seeking Him. The flesh throws up its hands and thinks it will die in hardship. The new man says with the Psalmist, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction” (Ps 119:92). The flesh cannot endure hardship with joy. The new man can because his new heart is animated by the Holy Spirit. The flesh grouses about every trial and tribulation. The new man says with St. Paul, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). Knowing that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away—and that He gives and takes away for our eternal good, we can endure every hardship in patience and trust until He delivers us from them. Whether God gives or takes, we know how to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need as Paul says. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:12-13).

This is why Paul tells the Corinthians in today’s epistle, “do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” Don’t lose heart when hardships hit, when suffering strikes, and when afflictions arise. But pray with St. Paul to be strengthened with might through Christ’s Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That is a pray God loves to hear, because He inspired Paul to pray it for the Corinthians and for all Christians. Christ promises that God the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and the Holy Spirit is given to strength you in the inner man—the new man. How is the inner man strengthened? By the gospel. By faith Christ dwells in our hearts so that we may daily grow in our comprehension of His love for us. We grow in our understanding of His love as He richly and daily forgives all our sins. We grow in our comprehension of His love as He strengthens us to endure every hardship, bear up under every trial, and suffer all things in patient trust. We grow in comprehension of the love of Christ which passes knowledge as we believe more and more that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away not out of spite, or punishment, or hatred for us, but that all He does is for our eternal good, that we may remain steadfast in faith, persevere till the end, and be saved. This is how we suffer. This is how we die. By Christ’s strength and love. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

“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.” Mammon is riches, money, and wealth of all kinds. Mammon is just part of life. It takes money to live. Jesus doesn’t condemn possessing money and riches. The patriarchs were wealthy men. So was King David. Christ himself used money in his earthly life. He even had a money box that Judas was in charge of. Having money, wealth, and riches isn’t sinful in itself. David says in Psalm 62:10, “ If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them.” Solomon writes in Proverbs 11:28, “He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage.” And St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:17, “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.” The entirety of Scripture teaches this: God gives wealth and riches us. He tells Israel in Deuteronomy 8:18, “It is He who gives you power to get wealth.” It is serving mammon that is sinful. We serve mammon by setting our hearts on it, pursuing it, and overworking ourselves for it. We serve mammon by trusting that if we have it, then we have all good things and everything we need.

If we begin serving mammon—thinking that with enough wealth we’ll be safe and secure—we usually don’t realize it precisely because we try to serve two masters. We may hear Jesus’ words about loving and being loyal to the one and hating and despising the other and think that that is how we tell if we’re serving mammon. “I don’t hate God, therefore I’m not serving mammon.” But hate in the Scriptures doesn’t always mean an absolute hatred of someone or something. More often than not it means thinking less of someone or something. 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.” Jesus doesn’t want us to actively hate our family. He put us in our families and commanded children, “Honor your father and your mother.” Jesus warns us against love and loyalty for family taking priority over love and loyalty to Him and His Word. It’s the same here. If we serve mammon—thinking that with enough wealth we’ll be safe and secure and ordering our life and thoughts around obtaining mammon—we prioritize riches and our pursuit of them, and demote God, thinking less of His promise to provide daily bread. This is what trusting in riches and setting our hearts on them looks like. This is what makes serving mammon such a subtle temptation. It’s not like bowing down before an idol of silver or goad. It’s daily living of life in which we use mammon that mammon calls out to us to serve it, to set our hearts on it and believe its false promise that with enough of it we’ll be safe and secure.

Jesus points us to the chief way we serve mammon: Worry. Isn’t that what we do as we exchange our riches for goods and services? We worry if there will be enough. We worry about the cost of things. We worry that things cost a lot more than they used to and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. If we have money in the stock market we see the daily up and down and worry about whether or not we’ll outlive our retirement savings. The pandemic revealed just much people worry about mammon and set their hearts on it. People panicked at the sigh of half-empty shelves and bought things they didn’t need. The most bizarre example of people setting their hearts on mammon was the hording of toilet paper. That was driven by sheer worry for tomorrow. Comparatively, Jesus’ examples of “What you will eat or what you will drink . . . and what you will put on” may seem elementary to twenty-first century disciples. After all, we have food in our pantries and freezers—typically enough to live on for quite some time. We have clothing in our closets. So we don’t worry about these. But look closer at why you don’t worry about what you’ll eat or drink tomorrow and why you don’t worry about what you’re put on. Is it because you trust your Father in heaven will give you all things as He’s promised or because your panty and closet are already full? Even in the twenty-first century first world, for all we have, we are still tempted to serve mammon, thinking that if we have enough of it, we’ll be safe and secure no matter what comes tomorrow.

The First Commandment is “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Dr. Luther explained that this means, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That is precisely what Christ is inviting us to do in today’s Gospel lesson. He knows how mammon tempts us to fear, love, and trust in it instead of our Father in heaven. He first warns us against making an idol out of any earthly wealth when He says, “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.” But then He gently chides us with the examples of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The birds of the air are such a great example! They don’t sit in their nests and wait for God to rain down insects and seeds on them. They fly about, working for their daily bread, gathering it for themselves and their young. And the Lord provides for them. Like the birds of the air, God gives us our daily bread through our work and labor and through the work and labor of others. And while we should sow, reap, and gather into barns, we do so trusting that through these means God is providing daily bread for us. The birds teach us about our bellies. The lilies of the field teach us about our bodies. Look how God clothes them! There is nothing so beautiful in nature as a blooming flower, tree, or vine. The drought has taught us this, hasn’t it? If the heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air each day, and clothes the flowers of the fields and ditches, won’t He feed and clothe you? You are, after all, much more valuable to your heavenly Father than birds or flowers. He made these  for you and your enjoyment. He made them as illustrations and examples of His provision for you.

God will provide daily bread. He uses the ordinary means of our work, our savings, and a whole economic system. And in any of that should bend, break, or shatter entirely, God will use extraordinary means to provide daily bread. He rained down Manna on the  children of Israel six days a week for forty years. The Lord commanded ravens bring bread to Elijah during the drought. He provided oil for the widow and her son when they had only enough for their last meal. He fed multitudes in the wilderness with only a few loaves and small fish. He provided His and Peter’s temple tax in the mouth of a fish. One of God’s means that should never become extraordinary though is Christians. He even provides daily bread for us through the generosity of others. St. Paul says at the end of today’s Epistle lesson, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” So it is that we, as children of the heavenly Father and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ are means through we He provides daily bread to others in need. There is no reason to worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear, and not because our pantries and closets are already full. That’s how the unbelieving Gentiles think, and in their thinking they serve mammon. But you who are baptized children of God, “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

Instead of worrying about the things of this world and whether or not there will be enough of those things for tomorrow, Jesus redirects our hearts to fear, love, and trust in the true God above all things. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Don’t seek wealth, money, and riches so that they are your priority. Prioritize God’s kingdom and righteousness. Prioritize—seek in the first place—the blessings Christ gives you in the gospel. Doesn’t He clothe you with His own righteousness, with His very self, since we are to daily put on Christ and put off the old man? Doesn’t He give you Himself to you to eat and drink? We eat His flesh and drink His blood spiritually when we hear or read His Word, believing it and applying it to ourselves. We eat His flesh and drink His blood orally in the Sacrament of the Altar? These things—His Word, His Gospel, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His Holy Spirit, His peace—these are the things we are to seek first and prioritize above all earthly things because these are the food and clothing that equip us for the life of the world to come, eternal life beyond all worldly things.  Jesus promises that, seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness first, “all these things shall be added to you.” Therefore do not worry about the things of this life, but seek first the riches He gives you in His Word and gospel, for these are our true life. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

The Christian’s three great enemies are the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. These three enemies work inseparably to tempt us to sin, and when we have sinned, to tempt us to justify ourselves and defend what we have done so that we can keep on doing it. The devil tempts us chiefly in spiritual things. He tempts us to think God’s word doesn’t apply to us so that we either fall into despair on the one hand or false security on the other. The world tempts us to disregard God’s word and follow its example so that we prioritize the things it praises and seek the things it esteems. Then there is the sinful flesh. Luther calls the flesh the Old Adam “who exerts himself and incites us daily to inchastity, laziness, gluttony and drunkenness, avarice and deception, to defraud our neighbor and to overcharge him, and, in short, to all manner of evil lusts which cleave to us by nature” (LC III:101). What makes the sinful flesh so insidious is that is our own flesh. The devil and world are external to us. But when the flesh tempts us to think ungodly thoughts, to say ungodly things, or act on our sinful inclinations, it comes across as something natural, and the argument goes that it something is natural then it has to be morally neutral. Then the world swoops in with its mantra of “everyone’s doing it,” followed by the devil’s suggestion that God’s word doesn’t really condemn whatever it our flesh wants to do at any given moment. The flesh’s temptations are so insidious that many people professing to be Christians live according to the flesh. They surround themselves with friends—the world—who affirm that they aren’t sinning, and the devil opens the door to false security.

But we must be on guard against the sinful flesh with its insidious and deceptive suggestions. The Spirit and the flesh aren’t on the same team. St Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” The Spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other. The things the flesh wants—its works—are contrary to the fruit the Holy Spirit wants to bear in you. “The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” These are the things that come naturally to the flesh, the works that the Christian must fight against. Yet many claim to be Christian and live together with someone without marriage. Many claim to be Christian but dress and behave lewdly. Others do unclean things with themselves or others. But just as wicked are hatred and contentions, selfish ambitions, dissensions, and their root: the desire for what another has that you do not. Drunkenness and revelries are socially acceptable methods of coping with one’s problems or simply to alleviate boredom. But all are destructive to our neighbor and ourselves.

They are also destructive to our salvation. Remember, the flesh lusts against the Spirit. The Spirit wants your salvation. The flesh does not. The Spirit works repentance in your heart so that you sorrow over your sins. The flesh rejoices in sin and wants more and more of them. The Spirit works faith in your heart so that you believe that God wants to be merciful to sinners for Jesus’ sake. The flesh justifies itself and sees no reason for a savior.  The Spirit wants to give you a new heart which delights in God’s will, which is your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3).  The flesh entices you to unholiness and impenitence. Paul reminds the Galatians that he had told them before, and now he tells them again, “Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” This is how serious it is. Practicing these works, living in them, remaining in them, disinherits a Christian from the kingdom of God. That’s because if a Christian practices the works of the flesh, lives in them, and remains in them, they are no longer a Christian. They have driven out the Holy Spirit by their willful, deliberate sinning. Since the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith in the heart, if the Spirit is driven out, then faith is driven out as well. And where there is no faith, there is none of Christ’s righteousness. Where there is no faith, there is no salvation. Where there is no faith, there is no justification, no forgiveness of sins. Where there is no faith and the Holy Spirit, there is only God’s judgment, wrath, and the threat of eternal punishment. The works of the flesh are dangerous to faith and salvation.

Dwelling in this flesh, having the Old Adam around our neck each day, and being beset by such a great enemy within ourselves that thrives on self-destruction, temporally and eternally, to where can we flee for refuge? Look to the example of a man who had a disease in his flesh. There were ten of them. They were lepers, St. Luke tells us. Their very flesh rotted and decayed while they continued to live. It’s a great picture of our sinful nature: alive in the flesh while the flesh is corrupted and decaying. When they see Jesus from afar, they cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They flee to Jesus and beg for mercy. Jesus shows them mercy, telling them to go all the way to Jerusalem and show themselves to the priests, the ones who would declare them clean from the leprosy. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. Nine keep going to Jerusalem. They got what they wanted from Jesus. They got their miracle and now they’re done with Him. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. This one got what he wanted, but wanted to return to gives thanks to God. Where does He go to give thanks to God? Not the temple where God dwelled with Israel. He goes back to Jesus, falls at His feet, and gives thanks to God in human flesh, who cleansed his decaying flesh. This one was—of course—a Samaritan, a foreigner, not an ethnic Jew, not fully descended from Abraham. Jesus points out the ingratitude of the nine with his question, then tells the Samaritan, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well,” literally, “Your faith has saved you.”

When we feel the passions and desires of the flesh, when we are tempted by our own bodies and minds to unholy thoughts, words, and deeds, we flee to Jesus, as the Samaritan leper did, in faith. He knew that Jesus could be victorious over his physical leprosy and his sins. How much more victorious can Christ be over our sinful flesh if we walk by the Spirit? As He cleansed the ten lepers with His word, He cleanses us our leprous sinful flesh by His Word. He combines His word with water in Holy Baptism. He washes you, cleansing your flesh. In baptism He gives you the Holy Spirit and took you to Himself, so that you belong to Christ. In baptism you crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Christ put to death your Old Adam in baptism and raised you to new life, the resurrected life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit creates this new heart, this new life, in us, therefore we walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is nothing else than living in your baptism, daily putting to death the old Adam and rising to the new life. He daily forgives our sins and gives us His Holy Spirit so that we do this, forsaking our sins and living as the new man in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in believers so that He might bear His fruit in them. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. He doesn’t want to bear only a few of them in you. The fruit of the Spirit is not like the works of the flesh, which are many and varied. It is His fruit—singular—and therefore He will bear all of them in the Christian as he daily puts to death the Old Adam and rises as the New Man in Christ. The works of the flesh are destructive to our neighbor, ourselves, and our salvation. But the fruit of the Spirit builds up our neighbor, benefits us, and serves as outward testimony that we walk by the Spirit.

As you walk by the Spirit, He also leads you to return and give thanks to God for the cleansing He has given you. The leper saw that he had been cleansed and returned to give thanks. As often as you receive Christ’s forgiveness and cleansing, return to give Christ thanks. And as often as you need strength to stand against your enemies, ask for what you need and then immediately rejoice and give thanks to God that He has given it to you. He has promised to give the Holy Spirit to all who ask. Our enemies are great and they mean us great harm—eternal harm— but He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4), and He is greater than the leprous flesh, too. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish, but so that you do the things that glorify God, that serve your neighbor’s interests, that are good for you, and that testify to others and yourself, that you are baptized children of God, who not only live in the Spirit, but walk in the Spirit as well. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard yourhearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s the question. “Go and do likewise” is Jesus’ final answer to that question. It’s obvious that the man shouldn’t be like the robbers in the parable, who fall upon others, strip them of their clothing, wound them, and leave them half dead. To do any of these things would violate the commandments “You shall not murder” and “You shall not steal.” But neither is the lawyer to be like the priest or the Levite in the parable, who knew every line of the law but imagine that it only applies to the outward act. The priest and the Levite think they don’t break the commandment because they weren’t the ones to harm the man, steal his things, wound him, and leave him half dead. Even though they did no harm, they missed wide the mark of the Law which reads: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Instead, Jesus says if you want to inherit eternal life, be like the Samaritan. He saw his neighbor in need. He went to the man, bandaged him, treated his wounds, set him on his own animal, brought him to the closest inn, cared for him, and then paid all the expense for his recovery. The external acts are good, but the most important thing about the Samarian was his heart. He had compassion on the half dead man. That compassion in his heart is what led him to do what he did. Jesus’ answer’ is simple. If you want to inherit eternal life, be like the Samaritan. But not just once. Not just do people you like. “Go and do likewise” to everyone, in every situation, and you will inherit eternal life.

Jesus gives the man a law answer because that’s where the man is. He’s stuck in the law, imaging that the inheritance is of the law. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is his question. Jesus drives him to the law, or rather drives the law into him, to show him the impossibility of inheriting life through the law. “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” Jesus asks. The man, stuck in the way of the law, answers correctly. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Here Jesus runs him through the first time. “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” The law is simple. It requires that you love God perfectly at all times. This means He is your highest good. He is the source of all good things in life. To have God is to have everything you need, even if you have nothing. The law requires you to trust God above all things so that you never doubt, not for an instance. It requires you to fear God and His judgment above all things so that you never sin. Then it requires perfect love for neighbor, as we said a moment ago, that loves your neighbor and helps your neighbor in every need. The lawyer feels the sting of the law at this point. He can’t do that. It’s too broad. So, he has to narrow it. By asking, “And who is my neighbor?” he attempts to move the goalposts. But the goalposts can’t be moved. Your neighbor is everyone around you, not just the people you like or can tolerate. It even includes your enemies, for the Jews and the Samaritans were not only friendly terms by any means. The law requires loving outward acts. But more, it always requires genuine compassion and heartfelt love for our neighbor.

This is impossible for the lawyer. It is impossible for any of us because we are sinners, curved in upon ourselves, self-loving, self-trusting, self-fearing creatures. None of us can love our neighbor perfectly as the Law demands all day every day of the week. But love is a debt that is never fully paid because love is more than outward acts. It’s a matter of the heart that is willing to set aside one’s own interests for the sake of the interests of another as often as our neighbor needs. And if we can’t love our neighbor—whom we can see—perfectly, then it is impossible for us to love God—whom we cannot see—perfectly as well. We don’t fear, love, and trust Him above all things. We don’t love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We cannot “go and do likewise” and therefore we cannot inherit eternal life by the law, by our works, or by our best efforts. This is Jesus’ point by driving the lawyer back to the law. The lawyer wants to be justified by the law. He wants the law to tell him he’s righteous, that way he can tell himself and God that he’s done it himself. Jesus shows the lawyer just how far he will have to go to inherit eternal life by the law, and it is a distance that no man born in the natural way can traverse, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The point of the parable is that you can’t inherit eternal life by the law. St. Paul writes to the Galatians in today’s epistle lesson, “For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Even earthly inheritances aren’t of the law. Yes, they are legal documents that require legal recognition, but how one comes into an inheritance is not a matter of law. You cannot do anything to earn an inheritance. You must be an heir to be given the inheritance. So it is with the inheritance promised to Abraham. This inheritance was given to Abraham by grace and Abraham received it by faith. Abraham was not justified before God by his works but because He believed God’s promises. The law was given later, not to change God’s covenant, but for another purpose altogether. “What purpose then does the law serve?” Paul asks. “It was added because of transgressions.” The purpose of the Law is to show everyone their sins so that they look to God for mercy. Paul says, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The law’s job it to confine everyone in the prison of sin, to show everyone their sins, so that they look to Christ for mercy and believe His promise as Abraham did.

Once the law confines us under sin and shows us our transgressions, we see Christ’s parable in a different light. It’s no longer about us, or at least us as being the Samaritan. If we hear the parable and think we can inherit eternal life by the law, then we assume we are to be the Samaritan. But if we know we don’t keep the law, then we see ourselves as the wounded man. This is what the sin does to us, after all. It wounds us so that we cannot rise. It strips us of the righteousness with which God originally created us. It leaves us dead on the road. The priest and the Levite, the representatives of the law, pass us by, because the law cannot help up or give us life. They only show us our sins so that we learn our sinful condition even more. But then comes a Samaritan who has compassion. He comes to us. He bandages the wounds of our sin, healing them by pouring the wine of repentance and oil of forgiveness into them. He sets us on His own animal, that is, He bears us as a burden because we are too weak to cooperate with Him in our salvation. He brings us to the inn of His holy church and here He cares for us. He then sets innkeepers over us, His pastors, whom He charges with our spiritual care until He returns on the Last Day and brings with Him the final redemption of all who believe the promise of the gospel, that by His sufferings and death He has atoned for each and every one of our many sins. When we see the law for what it is, we see that the Good Samaritan isn’t us at all. It’s Jesus. He is the Seed of Abraham to whom God made the promises. He is the heir of the everlasting inheritance and promises to share that inheritance with all whom believe in Him. By washing in baptismal water, cleansing us of our sins, He makes us co-heirs with Him, co-inheritors of eternal life, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Being washed, sanctified, and adopted as co-heirs with Christ, justified by faith and not by law, we are able to “go and do likewise.” As those who will inherit eternal life by faith in the promise of the gospel, we become good Samaritans like our elder brother Jesus. We go and begin to do likewise because the inheritance is already ours by faith in God’s promise. Washing our wounds daily by repentance and faith, knowing Christ cares for us in the inn of His holy church, we strive to love our neighbors. No, we will not love our neighbors perfectly because we still live in the sinful flesh, but even that imperfection is covered for Jesus’ sake, so that our good works are pleasing to God because they’re done in faith. As you travel the road from Jerusalem to Jericho—this earthly life—help your neighbor in his bodily need, as God gives you opportunity, as you are able. Go and do likewise, patterning your love for your neighbor after your Good Samaritan’s love and compassion for you. He has made you an heir of eternal life and promised you every eternal blessing. With that in mind, strive to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

Jesus opens the ears of the deaf and looses the tongue of the mute, and He does so in a glorious way. When some people bring a deaf mute to Jesus and beg Him to lay His hands on the man, Jesus takes the man away from the crowd. He puts His fingers in the man’s ears, showing him that He is going to open them so that they can hear. He spits and touches the man’s tongue, showing him that He will moisten his rigid, heavy tongue so that he may speak plainly. He looks up to heaven, showing the man from where His power and authority to heal him comes. Finally, Jesus sighs and says one word: Ephphatha, which means “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. He whose ears had been stopped up so that no word or sound could penetrate, hears. He, whose tongue was heavy and unyielding suddenly begins to speak rightly, correctly, and without any trouble, as if he had been speaking every day of his life. Jesus demonstrates His almighty power, which He possesses as the eternal Son of God. He demonstrates that He is the Messiah who, in whose day “the deaf shall hear the words of the book” (Is 29:18) and in by whose ministry the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped (Is 35:5). By opening deaf ears and loosening an unyielding tongue, Jesus shows His ministry—the ministry of the New Covenant—far outshines the glory of the Old Covenant given through Moses.

There’s no denying Moses’ ministry was glorious. When the Lord called Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses excused himself, saying, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex 4:10). Literally he says he is heavy of mouth and heavy tongue. The Lord responded to Moses’ excuse by asking, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Havenot I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (Ex 4:11-12). That the Lord was with Moses throughout His ministry was evident by the miracles Moses performed. He afflicted the entire land of Egypt with ten destructive plagues. He led Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea on dry ground, and gave them God’s law from Mt. Sinai. As a result of speaking with God face to face, Moses’ face shown with brightness, so that when he came down from the mountain, the Israelites were afraid to come near him. After He spoke to them so that they knew it was him, he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face (Ex 34:32-33). Moses’ ministry was glorious. His face was radiant with heavenly glory. His words were the very words of God’s law. His ministry—the ministry of the Old Covenant—was truly glorious.

But for all its glory, Moses’ ministry was a ministry of condemnation and death. It was the ministry of condemnation because the Commandments showed Israel—and all mankind—just how far short of God’s glory we fall. Paul says in Romans 3:20 that by the law is the knowledge of sin. And not just the knowledge of outward sins, but of inward, hidden sins of the heart. Paul says in Romans 7:7 when he says, “I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” No one knows if we covet someone else’s possessions, house, spouse, or life. But God who searches the heart knows and condemns all who covet and lust for that which He has not given them. So it is for all the commandments. Each one touches not only the outward man, but the heart, demanding perfect fear, love, and trust in God above all things so that we do His will joyfully and willingly from the heart.  Just as Moses’ mouth and tongue were heavy, so the Law God gave through Moses was heavy, a weighty burden which no one can bear perfectly. By the law is the knowledge of sin and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). This is what makes the ministry of the Old Covenant the ministry of death. Paul calls Moses’ ministry, that of the Old Covenant, the ministry of death, not to denigrate it, not to say it wasn’t of God, or that the law Moses gave wasn’t God’s law. St. Paul calls it the ministry of death because Moses’ ministry—the law—brings death upon not just Israel, but all mankind, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

The ministry of Moses, for all its glory, shows us our sin and condemns us to eternal death. It shows us how much we have in common with the deaf mute who is brought to Jesus, not physically, but spiritually. Our ears may hear, but by nature, they are stopped up to God’s word. Our sinful flesh prefers to hear its own words which rationalize our sinful desires, justify our covetous eyes, and excuse our selfish behavior. Our ears cannot hear God’s word because they are stopped up with the world’s words which normalize sin, lust, dishonesty, worry, and a host of other sins. Moses tells us to hold God’s Word sacred so that so that we gladly hear and learn it. David tells us, “The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times” (Ps 12:6). Yet the sinful flesh is deaf to God’s Word—to hearing it with understanding—because it prefers the corrupting speech of the world.  We are like the deaf mute in that we cannot use our tongues as God intended, either. Our tongues are loose so that we can physically speak, but by nature we speak ill of others and boast of ourselves. God wants us to use our tongues to speak truth to our neighbor and speak it lovingly. He gave man his tongue to praise Him, pray to Him, and confess Him. But how often do we use our tongues in the way that James 3:6 describes? He says, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”

Apart from God’s law—the ministry of condemnation and death—we would see none of this in ourselves. God desires that we see our sins, that we acknowledge that we deserve God’s wrath and punishment for our sins, and that we lament them. He uses the ministry of condemnation and death to bring us to the point of confessing, as David did in the thirty-eighth psalm, “But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. Thus I am like a man who does not hear, And in whose mouth is no response” (Ps 38:13-14). Confessing that we are deaf and mute before God readies us for the ministry of the Spirit which does not kill, as the letter of the law does, but vivifies and enlivens those who acknowledge their deafness and muteness. What does Jesus do for the deaf mute? He heals Him. He unstops deaf ears. He loosens the rigid tongue so that the man from then on hears, not only other’s words, but God’s word, and speaks, not only to others, but to God in prayer and praise! This is what the ministry of the New Covenant, the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness, does. Where Moses reveals our deafness and muteness and condemns it, Jesus opens our ears so that we do not despise His word but gladly hear and learn it. He opens our lips so that our mouths declare His praise. Just as the ministry of death was glorious, with miracles and a bright-shining Moses, so the ministry of the New Covenant is more glorious, for Christ attested to His ministry with gracious miracles and a bright-shining face, not on loan as Moses’ was, but because He is the eternal Son of God, the brightness of God’s glory. For even what was made glorious—the ministry of the law—had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. Once the law has fulfilled its purpose and worked repentance, it’s glory fades in light of the glory that excels, the glory of the gospel, which forgives sins, declares us righteous in God’s sight, and gives new life to all who believe, new life with new ears and new togues.

What do we do with the new ears which we receive again today? Stop up our ears with the words of the world; words that tempt, entice, and corrupt; words that expect and excuse sin? What do we do with the new tongue we receive by hearing Christ’s word of absolution? Speak lies to others and ourselves, tear down others and puff up ourselves? May this not be so among us. No, the Lord Jesus has healed our deaf muteness once again, let us not go back to it willingly. Instead, let us use our ears to hear God’s Word, saying with the Psalmist, “Your word is very pure; Therefore Your servant loves it” (Ps 119:140). Loving it, we hear it as often as we have opportunity so that we may hold it in our hearts each day, living our lives according to it. We use our tongues to speak His word, to ourselves, to others to build them up, as well as back to God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. The fruit of our lips is the sacrifice of praise we offer to God, thanksgiving that He has opened our ears and loosed our tongues by His glorious ministry of righteousness, forgiveness, and life. Amen.

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

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

The Pharisee in today’s parable is a pretty good guy. He is not like other men. He’s not an extortioner.  He hasn’t gotten his neighbor’s goods by force or threat. Nor is he unjust. He’s fair and equitable to others, he gives them what is due to them. Nor is he an adulterer. He is faithful to his wife. Nor is he like the tax collector praying in the corner. He doesn’t cheat others out of money as tax collectors often did, enriching themselves in ways that only appear to be right. The Pharisee is a pretty good guy. He knows it and is thankful for that. “God, I thank You that I am not like other men,” he prays. Not only is he a good, upstanding person, he goes above and beyond what is required of him. Regular fasting was not mandatory for the Israelites. Yet this man fasts twice a week. The law required tithes of the first fruits of their harvests. But this man gives tithes of all he possesses. This guy is good. The tax collector, though, not so much. First, he’s in a disreputable profession. Tax collectors worked for Rome, who ruled Judea at the time. They were also given a good amount of latitude as far as how much they could collect, a latitude many of them seemed to use quite freely. Tax collectors were so despised that they were half of a byword among the Jews. No one wanted to be considered a friend of tax collectors and sinners. No wonder the Pharisee thanked God that he was not like this tax collector.

But the Pharisee has a big problem, perhaps the worst problem a person could have. It’s the kind of problem that is nearly impossible to self-diagnose. He trusts in himself that he is righteous, meaning he is self-righteous. To any onlooker or passerby, he’s a righteous, holy man. But inwardly the opposite is true. He sees himself and all his works and puffs himself up at the thought of them. He lives the way he lives—in such an outwardly holy way—because he thinks that his actions are what make him righteous. And become he thinks of himself as righteous because of his deeds and sensibilities, he despises others. Having turned up his nose at those who appear less righteous than he, he thinks little of them. And so, these two things go together: If someone trusts in himself that he is righteous, he will despise others. Self-righteousness can’t exist by itself. It needs others around to feed itself with their unrighteousness and deplorableness. That’s because at its root, self-righteousness is a theology of comparison. As long as there is someone worse—and the worse the better—I look good and have a reason to continue looking good. It doesn’t take another actual person, either to be self-righteous. If a class of people exist that are viewed negatively, self-righteousness has the nourishment necessary for its life. Even if this tax collector hadn’t been within earshot of the Pharisee, the fact that tax collectors exist would be enough for him to say, “At least I’m not like those people.”  What makes self-righteousness so difficult, if not impossible, to see in oneself is it hides under the good that one does.

This tax collector, on the other hand, is not self-righteous. He’s the opposite. He’s humble and self-effacing. He doesn’t raise his eyes to heaven as he prays but beats his breast and prays, “‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He knows his sins. He feels them in his heart. He knows that he is unrighteous and that in his flesh there is nothing good. Jesus doesn’t put any specific sins in the tax collector’s mouth. He may very well have extorted money from his neighbor. He may very well have behaved unjustly. He may very well have adulterated his marriage. But Jesus has him go deeper.  The tax collector confesses himself to be a sinner because even if he’s been good outwardly, his heart is still the sinful heart, and out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies (Matt 15:19). There is no self-righteousness here, no self-justification, no excuses, no blame shifting. There is only honest self-appraisal under God’s law that demands perfect love for God and selfless love for neighbor. Seeing that he is unrighteous in and of himself, he asks God to be merciful to him. Because he has nothing to offer God to make atonement for himself, he asks God to provide atonement for him. Why would he do that? Because he believed that God would be merciful to sinners. He believed that God had promised to provide atonement and be merciful to those who humbly acknowledge their sin and truly regret it. He prays as Asaph does in Psalm 79:9, “Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name; And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, For Your name’s sake!” Provide atonement for my sins, not on account of any righteousness I have, but because You have promised to be merciful.

Then Jesus explains, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” This man—the tax collector—goes home justified, not the Pharisee. To be justified is to be declared righteous and free from sins and to be absolved from the eternal punishment for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith. God forgave the sins of the tax collector because he was humble, contrite, and because he trusted God’s promise to be merciful and provide atonement for sinners. The other—the Pharisee—goes home unjustified. God did not declare him righteous. God did not free him from his sins. God did not absolve him from eternal punishment because he wasn’t humble, contrite, or trusting God’s promise to be merciful and provide atonement for sinners.  The Pharisee didn’t even ask God for anything in his prayer! He exalted himself and despised his fellow man. The Pharisee couldn’t see past how good he thought he was to see the truth that he, too, was a sinner in need of God’s mercy. He, too, was a sinner out of whose heart proceeded evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies like the blasphemy of self-righteousness. Because he couldn’t see himself as God saw him, he saw no reason to confess anything to God, and no reason to ask for mercy and forgiveness. He went down his house, still in his sins, still under God’s wrath and condemnation. “Still,” because apart from faith in God’s promise to forgive sin, there is no justification. Apart from faith in the atonement God provided upon the cross, no one is declared righteous in God’s sight.

This parable is so simple, but its application runs deep. Self-righteousness is a pervasive part of the sinful nature. The sinful flesh which the tax collector had, which the Pharisee had, and which you and I have, will think, say, and do anything to prove to itself and others that it is righteous. Like the Pharisee, the sinful flesh will play the comparison game, “Thank You that I am not like other men.” The sinful flesh will even tempt us to compare ourselves to our previous selves, so that we see how much more sanctified we are today and say, “Thank you, that I am not that bad anymore!” The sinful flesh is a master at playing the comparison game, with the goal that we think more highly of ourselves than we ought, which often means we look down on others. But God does not compare us to other people. Nor does he compare us to our former selves. He compares us to His law, which means that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), for in God’s sight no one living is righteous (Ps 143:2). We are to realize this, to know this about ourselves, and to do what the tax collector does. No comparison. No excuses. No self-justification. Just confession of sin and faith in the gospel, for faith in the gospel that Paul received and delivered: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Faith in that gospel is only thing that God counts for righteousness.

Having been justified, declared righteous, free from sins, and to be absolved from the eternal punishment by faith in Christ’s righteousness, we think of ourselves as we ought. We call ourselves sinners and this is most certainly true. But God calls us righteous because we believe in His Son, and for this justification we rejoice! In that joy we begin to do righteous things. We love God from the heart so that we trust Him to give us every good thing we need. We begin to love our neighbor from the heart as well, so that we do not seek our own good but the good of our neighbor. We say with St. Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” We are justified, declared righteous, and set free from eternal punishment by God’s grace alone. Even the good we do now is done by His grace which is with us, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor 3:5). Having been justified freely by God’s grace for Christ’s sake, and this through faith, we labor. We don’t labor to pile up works to boast in, like the Pharisee. We labor in service to the Lord and our neighbor, out of thanksgiving and joy that God is merciful and provides atonement for sinners. Believing this promise, go down to your house justified by God, declared righteous, free from sins, and absolved from the eternal punishment, and labor in love God and for others by the grace with you. Amen.

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

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

On Palm Sunday Jesus rides toward Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He began in Bethany and Bethphage on the Mount of Olives and processes nearly two miles to Jerusalem. As He drew near the city He sees and weeps over it. What brings Jesus to tears? He says, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Jesus foresees the destruction of Jerusalem. Nearly forty years after this, in 70 A.D., around the time of Passover, the Roman general Titus will besiege Jerusalem. They will surround it, cut off supplies to the city, and drive the Jews to starvation. In August of that year the Romans will have breached the city, massacred the Jews who hadn’t starved in the siege, and destroy the second temple. This would have been around the same time when, six hundred and fifty years earlier, Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem in a similar fashion, burned Solomon’s temple to the ground, and carried away captive those who remained in the city. For these reasons the church hears Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem every year on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, because this Sunday typically falls mid-August. We hear of Jesus’ tears and His prophecy so that we may heed the warning the Jews of Jesus’ day failed to heed.

Jesus says that the Jews did know in their day the things that make their peace—that is, the things that would bring them peace—nor did they know the day of their visitation. Jesus is describing not only His coming to Jerusalem, but His entire ministry, as God’s visiting His people for mercy. It’s language that recalls God’s gracious visitation of Israel at the exodus. At the end of His life, the patriarch Joseph told His brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (Gen 50:24). He confirmed that prophecy by an oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Gen 50:25). They embalmed Joseph and put his remains in a coffin as a reminder of God’s promise to visit Israel in grace. The bones of Joseph, long preserved, served as a testimony to God’s promise that He would visit them in mercy and bring them into the land He had promised to the Patriarchs. When Israel left Egypt, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you” (Ex 13:19). God visited His people just as Joseph had foretold. He rescued them from Pharoah and their bitter slavery. He fed them in the wilderness with manna. He gave Israel His law and the divine service of the tabernacle. Those gifts not only separated Israel from the other nations to that they could be the Lord’s special possession. Those gifts continually directed their faith towards God’s promise of a future visitation when the Lord would fulfill the law and the sacrifices, bringing perfect righteousness and complete forgiveness for all who believe.

Jesus’ public ministry, especially this final week of His public ministry, is that visitation to which all previous divine visitations directed the Jews. Yet they do not know the things that make for their peace. They don’t recognize God’s gracious visitation. God gave the law to show the need for a Savior. They turned into an instrument for imagining they needed no Savior because they thought they fulfilled it. The sacrifices were given to point to the sacrifice of the Messiah and the peace He would bring between God and penitent sinners. They turned the sacrifices into a mechanism of making peace with God, imagining that faith in the only true atoning sacrifice to come was unnecessary. God had given them the Tabernacle for these sacrifices. He had given them the Temple so that His Word might be taught there. He had given them His house as a place of prayer. They turned it into a den of thieves, setting up shop for their sinfulness in the very place where sinners were to hear God’s Word and present their requests to God. They blinded themselves to their great need for God’s grace, thinking they needed no mercy. They shielded themselves with self-righteousness so that they could not see in Jesus God’s gracious visitation.

Jesus weeps for Jerusalem, because if God’s gracious visitation is rejected and despised, the only visitation that is left is condemnation and wrath.  He doesn’t harbor an absolute hatred for anyone so that He doesn’t desire their salvation. He weeps because He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). His tears show that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pt 3:9). This is why He goes straight to the temple upon arriving in Jerusalem. He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Although Jerusalem’s judgment draws near, He cleanses the temple so that in the final days of His earthly ministry it may be what He intended it to be. He teaches daily in the temple about the very things that the chief priests and scribes despised and rejected so that more would hear the gospel and believe, and by believing, avoid the wrath to come, both temporal and eternal. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people seek to eliminate Him, so recalcitrant they have made themselves against God’s gracious visitation. But they were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. The people hung on His words because they wanted the things that made for their peace with God.

Jerusalem was destroyed—along with everyone within her walls—because she did not know the time of her visitation. Jesus’ prophecy is written for our warning. God continues to graciously visit people through the preaching about His Son. He offers them the atonement Jesus acquired on the cross and the perfect righteousness He earned by His perfect life. St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians are for everyone when He says, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:1-2). Every day that God gives us is the day of salvation, the day for us hear God’s Word, read it, and meditate on it, because that’s how He visits us in mercy. We must repent of those times when we put off meditating on God’s word, thinking we’ll do it tomorrow, for today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow which may not come. Nor are we to receive the grace of God in vain, imagining that we can keep on sinning, that we can repent and amend our ways tomorrow because tomorrow is not the day of salvation. If we receive God’s grace in vain, we do what the Jews did and heap more judgment upon ourselves. No, we let Christ cleanse the temple of our thoughts and the house that is our heart, so that He may teach us His Word and conform our thoughts and our hearts to the things that make for our peace. For in His Word, He teaches us the things that make for our peace with God: the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness not of our works but of faith.

Along with the things that make for our peace, Christ gives us His Holy Spirit. He gives gifts to each of us which we are to use for the profit of all. Among the Corinthians He gave the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, gifts of healings, the working of miracles, prophecy, that is, preaching the Word, discerning of spirits, different languages, and the interpretation of languages. Although He gave a diversity of gifts, it was the same Spirit who gave them all according to His will. The Corinthians had received God’s gracious visitation in the gospel and God had graciously given them these gifts for the sake of the church and for the sake of others. They were not to use them, as the Jews had used God’s gifts, for self-righteousness and self-conceit. They were to use them to point themselves and others to Christ. So is with all who believe. The gifts differ from person to person. The gifts differ for the time and need of the church. They DO differ, for the Spirit stopped giving many of those gifts once the church had been planted and the gospel preached throughout the world. No matter what gifts the Spirt gives to you individually, we are to use them to serve the church, to serve our neighbor in love, and built one another up in Christ Jesus and the new life He gives us.  But the chief gift the Holy Spirit gives is that of faith, so that receive Christ’s gracious visitation each day in His word, so that we remain steadfast in the things that make for our peace with God, so that each day we confess, “Jesus is Lord,” who has visited His people with salvation and mercy. Amen.

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