Lent 2: Audio Sermon (24-Feb-2013)

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Lent 2 [Matthew 15:21-28] (24-Feb-2013)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm) and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 15:21-28)

Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ tables.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel reading today, through the example of a Canaanite woman, teaches us today about prayer, and about the problems that Christians face in prayer.

At the end of our reading, we have Jesus say to the Canaanite woman, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”

We have two things here: Jesus praises the woman, and he also gives an answer to her prayer. These are two things that every Christian desires: we want to be commended by Jesus and encouraged by him. And also, we would like our prayers to be answered.

But this reading is also a strange one, because the woman takes a rather rough journey with Jesus to get to this point. So let’s take a look at the text. We read:

Jesus went away from [Jerusalem] and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word.

A Canaanite woman came out to him. She was not a Jew: she was a Gentile. And nevertheless, she must have listened to Jews, and had some basic knowledge about who Jesus was. She calls him: The Son of David. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.”

Those of us who are parents will know what this woman feels. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong her daughter, apart from what she says: “She is oppressed by a demon”, and, she says, “severely”, “badly”.

How often children cause their parents to pray! Maybe a child is sick or disabled, maybe the child is becoming wild and disobedient, or wayward. Maybe the child at whatever stage of life has lost the faith and turned away from Jesus, and this has caused the parents great pain.

A parent’s helplessness is shown up and reinforced so much when it comes to their children. A parent can’t live their life through their child—children all have their own will, their own body and soul, and nobody can live their life for them.

And so this woman comes to Jesus, pleading to him on behalf of her child.

And we read: But he did not answer her a word.

Many times, when we pray to Jesus it feels like he’s just not listening. We may receive no encouragement from prayer, no sense that we’ve done something important, and our sense of helplessness becomes even greater. Sometimes people say, “I suppose we can only pray.” For many people, prayer is the last resort. People “give it a go” when all else fails. Maybe this is how this woman felt too. And here she comes to Jesus, and he doesn’t even speak to her!

Sometimes people get to a point where they think that if Jesus doesn’t listen, then they should go and pray to someone else, like Buddha, or even the devil.

But then, we ask the question, “Why does Jesus snub this woman?” Why does he keep quiet? Why does he give her the cold shoulder? Is he playing some sort of sick and twisted game? Why doesn’t he listen?

But here’s the thing: Jesus does listen. And in some sense, he is playing a game. But he’s not playing the sort of game where he’s torturing a poor defenceless animal. He’s not poking a cat or a dog with a stick just so that he can have a laugh. But he’s playing the sort of game as when loving parents try to draw a little toddler towards them with a toy to get them to come and sit on their lap. Jesus wants to draw something wonderful out of this woman. He withholds an answer from her at this time, so that he can give her an answer later.

And so, we shouldn’t be discouraged by what we think is Jesus’ silence. Even when we feel abandoned by our heavenly Father or by Jesus, remember how Jesus called out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We are simply sharing in Jesus’ own prayer when we feel like this. And Jesus comes and joins in with us and prays with us. He sends the Holy Spirit to come and call out to our Father in heaven through sighs and groanings. This is a painful experience for us, when our greatest friend, our most faithful friend, our Lord and God, who shares our flesh and blood, seems to be against us. He’s not against us—but many times he wants us to come and feel a bit of his cross with him. Then he encourages us, “Take up your cross daily and follow me.” “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Jesus doesn’t want us to be discouraged in prayer, but he wants to draw us in further. The game he plays is a loving one. He wants us to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking. The door to Jesus’ heart is already opened for this woman, even though she thinks she has been left out in the cold. Jesus is wanting her to keep walking in further and further through the dark halls and corridors to where the warm fireplace is. Remember where Jesus says: Knock and the door will be opened to you.

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And so now in our reading, we read: And [Jesus’] disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Sometimes we know that if we would like to have some influence over a person, we might go to their friends for them to put in a good word for us. The woman has thought that if she can’t go through the front door, she’ll go around the back to see if anyone’s home.

So often this happens in our Christian life too. We really want some help from Jesus, and he just doesn’t seem to be listening. So we go to his friends. We go and ask our Christian friends to put in a good word for us. People come to pastors with their needs and request. Sometimes people outside the faith do this too, and want Christians to put in a good word for them to the “man upstairs”. And when people come to other Christians with their needs, the feeling can be quite overwhelming, because sometimes they ask such impossible things!

This is the same with the disciples here. They probably think: “How can I help? What do you expect me to do? I’m not Jesus!”

And so they go back to Jesus and say: “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”

When they say, “send her away”, they are not necessarily asking Jesus to send her away empty, but for him to hurry up and do something for her! “Do something for her, will you! Shut her up! Do what she wants! We don’t want to listen to her anymore!”

But Jesus also refuses her here. He says: I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Is Jesus saying here that he was sent only for the Jewish people? No. But at the same time, he went to them first. John chapter 1 says: “He came to his own and his own people did not receive him, but to those who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” It’s only when the Jewish people reject the words of Jesus, that they are then carried by the apostles to the Gentiles. In our Gospel reading, this woman was not Jewish, and Jesus seems to reject her because she’s a Gentile.

Sometimes people are like this: people think, “there’s something inherent in me that I can’t change, and that this one thing prevents Jesus from listening to me.” We might think: maybe Jesus doesn’t listen to men, or maybe he doesn’t listen to women. Maybe it’s because I’m white, or black, or young or old.

The woman in our gospel reading today doesn’t know where else to go though. She knows she’s not Jewish, well and good. But what good is that? There’s no Gentile Jesus! There’s only a Jewish Jesus.

And so we read: But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Now the woman is desperate. She throws herself on her knees, and says: “Lord help me.” And once again we get a stern response from Jesus.

Now, at this point, many people would storm off in a huff! “I’m not going to sit around and be insulted!” we might say.

But it’s precisely the insult that she latches onto. He says: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ tables.”

We can see here how the woman humbles herself under the mighty hand of God. As St Peter says: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Are there things about the Christian faith that offend you, or insult you? Do you sit there week after week, rolling your eyes at the confessions of sins? “I have deeply displeased you.” “I deserve your punishment in time and in eternity.” And then we say, “what I need is self-esteem!” “I’m not sitting here week after week flagellating myself, and making myself feel miserable.”

Well, when you feel like this, it’s time for you to sit down, shut your mouth, behave yourself, and stop carrying on like a 5-year-old brat. This is a serious business!

Let yourself be insulted by Jesus. Have you ever thought that Jesus knows what’s best for you? Have you ever thought that he is the best teacher of prayer, the one who breathes out the Holy Spirit from his own mouth, and he knows how to lead you closer to his heart? Have you ever thought that he is chastising you not because he hates you, but because he loves you with the greatest love imaginable? Don’t be so proud and precious, and take yourself so seriously. The angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly!

And we are taught in our culture to be so precious about our feelings! We think the worst thing that Jesus could ever do to us would be to hurt our feelings!

And yet, all the time, when we rebel against Jesus like this, we push ourselves away from the Fountain of Love himself, we push ourselves away from those wounds which pour out that life giving blood over us, we push ourselves ourselves away from the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Have you ever joined Abraham in his humility and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes”? Have you ever joined King David and said, “I am a worm and not a man”? Have you ever read Proverbs 30 and cried out with the writer: “I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man”?

Or what about this woman? She is happy with Jesus’ insult, and she says, “If I’m a dog, I’m a dog. But if I can’t have meat and bread, then give me a dog biscuit. Give me a crumb from my master’s table.”

But the insult that Jesus gave her was also a crumb for her to latch onto, the final crumb which she would snatch and be raised to sit with Jesus at his wonderful heavenly banquet. The insult is not an insult for her! It’s her golden ticket! And so Jesus only says this, so that he can finally say, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire!”

And the final outcome of all this is that Jesus praises this woman as a great person of prayer. He praises her helplessness. He praises her desperation, and gives her as an example to every Christian for the rest of time.

The events of our reading today may only have lasted 5 minutes. But what’s five minutes of pain and frustration, in comparison with an eternity of joy? What’s five minutes of desperation for this woman, compared with encouragement and hope for every Christian in the future who feels frustrated and desperate and helpless in prayer?

We read in the psalms: Taste and see that the Lord is good. God’s anger is but for a moment, and his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, draw us closer to you through joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, laughter and tears. Give us endurance, and give us the encouragement of the Scriptures that we might have hope. Amen.

Lent 1: Audio Sermon [17-Feb-2013]

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Lent 1 [Matthew 4:1-11] (17-Feb-2013)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 4:1-11)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Martin Luther once said: The greatest temptation is having no temptations.

When we are tempted, we join in with Jesus in his temptation, and it is a kind of wonderful privilege. And also, when Jesus was tempted, he also shared in our temptations.

The difference between Jesus’ temptation and our temptation is this: Jesus’ temptation results in his complete and total sinlessness shining through, and his temptation results in his perfect victory.

Our temptations result in our complete and total sinfulness shining through, and our temptation results in our complete failure.

Against the devil, we don’t stand a chance. The devil has been around a lot longer than any of us, and he knows us well, much better than we would like. But the devil is completely unable to harm us Christians. This is not because of our strength but because we have someone who fights for us and always wins the victory: Jesus Christ.

And so, here we are: us on the one hand with all our failures, and our defeats from the devil. And on the other hand, we have Jesus with his success, his victory. And then Jesus does us a swap: he connects us with himself. He baptises us with his Holy Spirit, and we become one body with Christ. We receive his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper week after week.

And what happens? Our failure is Christ’s victory. Jesus goes to the cross, bearing the heavy weight of the cross, being nailed to it. Jesus suffers and dies, and to the human eye, from human wisdom, Jesus looks like a failure. He becomes a failure for us. People go and taunt him as if he were failing: “Let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him.” But in actual fact, Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is his wonderful victory.

On the other hand, Christ gives to us his victory as a gift. When we are at our weakest, when we are crushed, when we are poor, humbled, deflated—it is precisely at those times when Christ says to us: “My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness.” He doesn’t say “my power will help in weakness”, but my power is made perfect, perfect, perfect—it is accomplished, it is brought to fulfilment—in your weakness.

But it is precisely at these times of weakness, when the devil then comes along and wants to rub our noses in it. The word “devil” means “accuser”. So he says: “Look at you, you stupid fool. Look at you, you miserable wretch. Look at you, you failure. You’re worthless. You’re useless. You’re pathetic.” At these times, the devil comes along and wants to drop-kick us. The devil comes along to the courtroom, to our trial, and says: This person is not worthy of God, not worthy of Jesus, not worthy of the Holy Spirit. This person is unclean. This person is worthy of death.

And he is right. And so we agree with him, and we think the devil’s got us. He’s got us pinned. He’s got us right where he wants us.

But along comes Jesus, the Lamb of God, our High Priest, our Advocate, with his own blood. On behalf of the miserable, lost and condemned criminal, He comes before the judge and offers his suffering and his death in our place, His perfect achievement and his perfect victory over all our enemies.

What a wonderful thing this is! What a wonderful thing it is to have a friend like this who would come and step in for us like this!

Then God’s holy and living voice comes roaring from his judgment seat saying: Cancel the accusation. Tear it up! That guilty person is acquitted for Jesus’ sake from all guilt and punishment. That person is justified, and totally freely, without price Christ’s righteousness belongs to that person. It is credited to that person.

And this forgiving judgment which happens in heaven, is proclaimed on the earth in the pulpit in preaching, it is spoken at the font at baptism, it is spoken at the altar in the Lord’s Supper, and it is spoken every time a pastor opens his mouth to speak the absolution, publically or in private: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

And this is the reason we sing: Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us, We tremble not, we fear no ill, They shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none; He’s judged, for e’er undone; One little word can fell him.

What a wonderful Saviour we have: A high priest who is not unable to sympathise with us in our weakness, but one who is every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

So in our Gospel reading today, we don’t have a reading about Christians being tempted, but Christ himself being tempted by the devil. And Jesus Christ himself wins the victory. And that victory then is the victory of every Christian for the rest of time. When we are tempted, it is not the time for us to fight, but it is the time to call in the champion, our Saviour Jesus Christ. He knows how to fight for us, and the victory belongs to him. As St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, our reading today is full of supernatural things and profound mysteries that belong to the spiritual life. It is a strange reading, because there was no one else around to see the event. Jesus was by himself, all alone. It says that he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. And in the same way, St Peter in his second letter, says that the holy men of God who wrote the Scriptures, such as St Matthew here—or Mark or Luke who wrote the event in their gospels—were carried along by the same Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, and also the same Holy Spirit carried along the evangelists and apostles as they spoke and wrote the gospels.

So let’s make a list of these supernatural realities that St Matthew describes: first of all, we have the Holy Spirit. Then we have the devil. We have the miracle where Jesus fasts for forty days and forty nights. We have Jesus being called the Son of God. We have the devil taking Jesus to the holy city and setting him on the pinnacle of the temple—this is quite strange: the devil pushing Jesus around in his time of weakness. We have the devil also taking Jesus to a very high mountain: once again, very strange. And at the end of the reading, we have angels. It says, the angels came and were ministering to him.

If we really look at this passage, we can see that there are many things here that we can so easily blink and miss, and so many things that are offensive to a sceptic.

But all of these things are there in their own place, and in a very distinctive place.

The main business has to do with Jesus himself and the devil.

But there’s the Holy Spirit too, quietly in the background. We read: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In Mark, it says the Holy Spirit, drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Also, this is the first event after Jesus’ baptism. The Holy Spirit comes down on Jesus in the form of a dove, and then that same Spirit drives Jesus out into this lonely place. The Holy Spirit sets up the situation, and the opportunity for Jesus to meet the devil.

Now look at how Jesus faces the devil—how simple it is. Later on, when Jesus is arrested, and Peter cuts off a man’s ear, he says: Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

Now, here, at this time, we might think that this is a good time for Jesus to call on the twelve legions of angels. But he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus tells the angels to stay right out of it. Only after the devil leaves Jesus—at the end of our reading, we read—behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

At the end of John 1, Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. The only time we see the angels actually doing this in the Gospels is in the times of his profound suffering, when he is being tempted by the devil, and when he is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. (This fact should also be a great comfort to us!)

But now, we come to the actual temptation itself, when the devil throws his arrows at Jesus, and Jesus stands his ground. But notice here, that there’s no great wrestling match between Jesus and Satan. Jesus and Satan are not equals, so there is no ongoing struggle.

In fact, just imagine that this whole business were a silent movie and we were watching it. Who would look like the strong one, and who would look like the weak one?

Jesus is hungry, he is weak. The next moment, he is taken by the scruff of the neck and finds himself looking down metres and metres down to the ground from the top of the temple. The next moment, Jesus is whisked up to some high mountain and promised all the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus looks like the weak one. But in actual fact, what happens is that at the end, the devil leaves him.

Now, let’s imagine the whole scenario not as if it were a silent movie, but a talkie! A normal modern movie with sound! Now, this helps us to see where Jesus power lies: in his words.

The devil wants Jesus to prove that he is the Son of God, by turning stones into bread. The devil wants Jesus to prove that he is the Son of God, by putting himself in a dangerous situation and making the angels come and rescue him. And in the last temptation, the devil tempts Jesus to submit to him and worship him, in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world.

Each of these temptations is an attack on Jesus’ authority. And spiritual warfare has to do with nothing but authority. We are under Jesus’ authority, and this is where our victory comes from too.

In Luke 10, after Jesus sends out his seventy-two disciples, they come back and say: ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

But back to our reading for today… in each of these temptations, the devil attacks Jesus’ authority, and in each situation, Jesus defeats the devil with the greatest weapon of all: his word. Jesus says: It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ He says: Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” And finally he says: Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’

Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also the Word of God. In each case, Jesus quotes the bible—in fact, all the three passages that Jesus quotes are from Deuteronomy. The devil knows the bible too, and he also tries to use it against Jesus. But the devil wants Jesus to break the commandments of God.

The devil is right: the angels probably would bear him up and not let his foot strike against a stone. But the devil is wrong, when he asks Jesus to throw himself down.

And so here we see the victory, which Jesus wins purely through his word. Jesus is the Word become flesh, and he stands against the devil, and speaks this word against him, and wins.

With us, we win the victory with Christ only through his word. Apart from Jesus’ word, we have absolutely no authority whatsoever. You don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't have the angels, you don't have Jesus, you don't even have God, if you don't have God's word. Parents, children, pastors, hearers, church presidents and bishops, governments, leaders, citizens—no-one has any authority at all except God’s word. The devil will always want to convince parents, pastors, bishops, governments that they can do whatever they like because they are who they are. But Christ rules through his word, and the victory over the devil is won when the word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!

If we want to fight against the devil, we will always lose. He can’t be defeated by sinners like us! He can only defeated by Jesus Christ, and even he himself defeats the devil not even with physical strength, but in his time of great weakness simply through the speaking of his word.

So let us also live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Be of good cheer! Your sins are forgiven you! Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Our Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ash Wednesday: Audio Sermon (13-Feb-2013)

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Ash Wednesday [Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21] (13-Feb-2013)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon, 7pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

“Praise God! I am alone again and have snatched myself from the world’s damned hypocrisy and its kisses of lust; Here I have only my Jesus, here I will begin the cure of my soul in solitude.

The proud Michal cannot mock me in my distress, when I must yearn for Jesus in a faithful labour of love. Here the gentle pouring of tears can flow freely and a sweet kiss can join me to my Saviour.

Here the sighs go forth freely, mixed with sweet words, as if I were in front of the house of heaven at the gates I have desired. Here my dear Lamb of God appears as my dearest bridegroom in sweetest confidence.”

This little poem was written by a Lutheran pastor, Valentinus Löscher, sometime in the early 1700s, and it based on some things in our Gospel reading tonight.

Today in our Ash Wednesday gospel reading, we read about what it means to be a Christian in solitude. Today many people desire community and we often emphasise the fact that the church is a community of people, a communion of saints.

However, in our reading tonight, Jesus speaks about those things which should be done not as a community, not in public, but “in secret.”

Firstly, Jesus says: Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Now earlier in this same sermon—the Sermon on the Mount—Jesus says to his disciples, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Here Jesus wants to teach us that good works are done for the benefit of other people—they are not for God’s benefit. God doesn’t need our good works, they are for the benefit of others.

But on the other hand, Jesus says: Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Even though all our good works are for the benefit of other people, we are not to perform our good works, to practise our righteousness, in such a way that we simply want to be seen by them. Of course, sometimes we are going to be seen by them. But when people see our good works, it is so that they may glorify our Father in heaven, not glorify us.

Also, when we do good things, when we practise our righteousness, and do pious, godly things, things which are pleasing to God, we submit these things to God’s judgment, not to other people’s judgment.

Sometimes people say: It’s not just important that we do good things, but that we’re seen to be doing good things. Not so with Jesus. It’s not important to him that we are seen to be doing good things, as if appearances are all that matter. What’s important to Jesus is that we are doing good things. Sometimes people are going to misinterpret our actions and intentions – let them! They are not our judge, even though our good works are for their benefit.

There’s a nice poem called “Anyway” that used to be hung on the wall of Mother Teresa’s hostel, which read: “People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred, Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives, Do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies, succeed anyway. The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow, Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable, Be honest and frank anyway. What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight, Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you help them, Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth, Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”

This poem beautifully summarises this tension between letting our light shine, as Jesus commanded, and also being careful not to practise our righteousness before others in order to be seen by them.

Jesus says: For you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

As we begin the season of Lent, we remember that this is a time throughout the history of the church for self-examination and for prayer, fasting, reflection and all that sort of thing. And so it’s so important that Jesus holds before our eyes God the Father as our judge.

We wait for our reward from our Father in heaven.

Now atheists will never really understand this, because they don’t believe that their Father in heaven exists. And through the influence of these people, many Christians also forget to give serious consideration to this passage from Matthew 6. It is important that Christians dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to doing good works, but this is quite different from doing things to be seen. Many community clubs, government organisations, welfare groups and all sorts of corporate charities always have to do things in order to be seen. They have to gather statistics and show people that they are doing what they say they are doing—then they can get more donors, and get more government funding, or whatever. This is not what Jesus is talking about here.

He says: For you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Notice that the verse doesn’t say, “You will have no reward”, but “you have no reward”. Jesus is not talking so much about a reward in the future, but a reward paid right here and now. We are not clocking up points so that we can go and cash them in with God later. The reward here is simply God’s own approval, which he promises—on top of that, God may even work things in such a way that someone may show kindness to us in return in this life. But if all we want is the approval of people, of human beings, then we will act differently, and we will already have what we wanted. As Jesus keeps saying in the reading tonight: They have received their reward.

So in our reading tonight, Jesus teaches his disciples about three important things: giving to the needy, prayer and fasting.

In Greek, the word for giving to the needy means “doing merciful things” or “doing works of mercy”.

Many times in our life, we may be confronted by a needy situation. A person may need financial help, clothing, food, or help with something. There are all sorts of reasons why people may need our help. Luther’s small catechism says that we should help and support our neighbour in every physical need.

And everything we always do is always under a microscope. Our heavenly Father knows our every thought, our every word, our every move, our every gesture, our every facial expression, and he discerns everything. The angels are watching us. Jesus himself is watching us.

And it’s strange—there’s always this temptation to want to ignore the attention that we already have, the heavenly attention, and we want a draw a crowd of people around ourselves and make sure that everyone knows just what good people we are. Let God build your reputation! Let God promote you! Don’t promote yourself and try to build your own reputation!

And so Jesus says: When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus says, instead of letting everybody else know what you’re doing, don’t even let the different sides of your body know what you’re doing.

In each of these little sections, Jesus uses the words: hypocrites, and secret.

God knows what you are doing. Let him commend you. Let him reward you. Let him see what you’re doing in secret. A person who is not content with the fact that God watches you and is happy with you and wants to reward you is a hypocrite. They’re just actors. Hypocrites want people to watch them, they want people to be happy with them and to reward them. Hypocrites worship people instead of worshipping God.

And now, Jesus talks about prayer. In our reading tonight there’s a large section about the Lord’s Prayer which is left out. But once again, Jesus wants us to pray in secret. He wants you to go to your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

Then later, Jesus talks about fasting. He says: When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

You can see that in each of these things that Jesus is teaching, he calls us to examine ourselves, and to test ourselves in front of his words.

When I have given to the needy, have I sounded a trumpet before me? Have I been a Good Samaritan to someone and then told everyone all about it? Have I become angry when people haven’t noticed something good that I did?

When I have prayed, have I made a show? Have I been concerned that when I am in public and in church that I make sure that I have the appearance of being holy and pious? When I pray, have I babbled on, thinking that God will only hear me if I make a long prayer? Have I doubted that God has heard my prayer because I said a short prayer?

If I have fasted—maybe I have decided to give something up and go without some luxury—have I wanted people to know about it? Have I carried on so that people notice that I’ve been making sacrifices?

But at the end of the reading we have a very significant passage, where Jesus says:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If we only do things to be seen by others, then we are simply laying up treasures on earth. And our heart is simply stuck on the earth, where our treasure is.

But instead, our Father in heaven wants our hearts to himself, with all their sin, with all their worries, and with all their cares.

And so we ask ourselves: where is my heart? Where I am laying up treasure?

It’s so difficult for us to imagine what wonders and treasures and glorious and beautiful things are waiting for us in heaven! No one can do a scientific experiment and fathom all of heaven’s depths. Instead, all we can do is look around us and see what is in front of us—the earth, people, things, stuff. And then we realise just how far away our hearts really are from heaven, and from all the secret things that are there.

But our heavenly Father is actually here with us, in secret. He watches in secret, and he rewards in secret. And through Jesus, he continually brings heaven down among us, and unites us with Jesus. Jesus calls us to examine our hypocrisy, to recognise ourselves as true hypocrites and play actors. Jesus wants us to test our heart between two things: “being seen by others” or “in secret.”

Jesus Christ himself is no actor, and he comes to make his home among sinners. He speaks his forgiveness in public, in church week after week, and we receive these gifts altogether in the community of the church, but then in solitude from day to day, there is also time to be spent privately, secretly with him in giving to the needy when situations arise, prayer which is available to us all the time, and sometimes fasting. This secret work does not go unnoticed. In fact, more than that, it is rewarded by our Father in heaven himself.

And Jesus is the greatest treasure. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let your treasure be him. Let his blood be more precious to you than anything. Let his words of forgiveness and blessing be the most precious thing in the world.

Let Jesus and all his promises and blessings be your treasures, and let your heart be there. Meditate on him, think about these things.

So as we begin this Lent and call our hearts to account, let’s pray:

Hence, all fear and sadness! For the Lord of gladness, Jesus, enters in. Those who love the Father Though the storms may gather, Still have peace within. Yea, whate’er I here must bear, Thou art still my purest pleasure, Jesus, priceless treasure. Amen.

Quinquagesima: Audio Sermon (10-Feb-2013)

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Quinquagesima [Luke 18:31-43] (10-Feb-2013)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon, 10am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Luke 18:31-43)

They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel reading today has two parts to it.

The first is where Jesus takes his twelve disciples aside and prophesies that he is going to die and rise again.

The second event is where a blind man calls out to Jesus and asks him to restore his sight.

So let’s look at the first part.

Jesus is on a long journey to Jerusalem. Right back near the end of Luke chapter 9, we read that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. In Luke chapter 13 we read that Jesus “went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.” In chapter 17, it says, “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.”

So you can see that for much of what Luke writes in his gospel, Jesus is making a journey towards Jerusalem. It is a very important journey. When Jesus is transfigured on the mountain, Luke reports that he was talking with Moses and Elijah about his departure, his journey to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to the cross.

And now, Jesus is close to Jericho and is about to pass through. Jericho is about 45kms from Jerusalem. And Jesus says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem.”

Jesus says, we are going up to Jerusalem, because of the lay of the land. Jericho is 250 metres below sea level and Jerusalem is almost 800 metres above sea level. So there’s a lot of uphill walking. Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan says that the man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

So we know that this road was a well-known road, and it was also a road that was known for its downhill slope to Jericho and its uphill climb to Jerusalem.

But what Jesus tells his disciples is something quite amazing. He says: “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon, and after flogging him they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

Now, we who are alive today at this time know that these things happened later. We know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. We know that he was arrested and handed over the Gentiles. He was tried in court by Pontius Pilate, who was a Gentile, a Roman. We know that he was mocked. We read that the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head as a kind of sick joke, and jeered at him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” We know that the high priests and others who were walking past Jesus on the cross said to him, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” We know that he was treated shamefully. He was beaten, and blindfolded, and he wasn’t given a fair trial. Jesus says that he will be spit upon. We read later that this happened. We also know that he was flogged, just as Pontius Pilate commanded. We also know that he was killed. He was nailed to the cross and he died. We also know that on the third day he rose again from the dead.

But what is amazing about this passage in our Gospel reading today is the fact that Jesus is telling his twelve disciples about this in advance. It’s all very well for us to think about this after the event, but can you put yourself in the disciples’ shoes and imagine what Jesus’ words today must have sounded like?

You see, when Jesus went to the cross, it wasn’t a mistake. It was exactly what needed to happen. Jesus was the Lamb of God, the sacrificial Lamb, and he was going to Jerusalem to make the one perfect, eternal sacrifice on behalf of the sin of the whole world. Things like this don’t happen by accident.

In fact, Jesus was travelling uphill to Jerusalem in direct obedience to his Father’s will. We read: Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Now, this is not the first time that Jesus prophesies his own death, but it is the third time that he does this. And how, do we read, the disciples reacted to this?

We read: But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

It was only later that the disciples realised what Jesus was talking about . But this is often the same for us too: so often we read a piece of the bible and listen to Jesus’ words, and they make absolutely no sense to us, but later on it makes sense.

Here the disciples are completely blind. They have really no idea of what is going to happen in the future. They know that Jesus will reign as a king, but they don’t expect it to happen on a cross. Perhaps they think here that Jesus is telling another kind of parable.

But Jesus knows his own future. He is not blinded to it. He is travelling to Jerusalem for this purpose: he knows why he is going there. In the garden of Gethsemane, he prays that this cup may be taken away from him, and he submits to the will of his Father. But his disciples just don’t understand.

Jesus also holds the future for us in his hands. This is because the future always belonged to him, and it never belonged to us. Jesus holds the future in his hands for our individual lives, for our families, for our churches—we don’t know what the future holds, but Jesus knows, and we know that he will be there. In Jeremiah 29:11, we read a verse which is such a favourite for so many people: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

And Jesus also prophesies certain things about the Christian life: he promises that it will be a narrow way with few people on it, a lonely way, a hard way, a life of the cross, but we know that every step of the way, he will also walk with us. Every step of the way, his promise of grace and of life and of comfort will be there, as it says in Hebrews: “Jesus always lives to make intercession for them”, that is, for us. As long as Jesus is alive (and we know that he will never die again, as it says in Romans 6), he will always be praying for us, sighing for us, strengthening us, begging and imploring his Father on our behalf.

And so when we come to our heavenly Father, and we ask him, “What’s going to happen in my future?” “What will happen to me?” “How long will this happen?” or “Will things be any better in my life, my society?” and all that sort of thing, we are simply joining in the prayers that Jesus is always making to his Father. So we join in praying with Jesus, and Jesus joins in praying with us. He cleans up and covers every prayer of ours with his blood, with his prayers, with his holy flesh. All of our weakest, worst prayers are made completely perfect because they are prayed together with Jesus.

And so, we have this wonderful gift, that Jesus is always praying for us at his Father’s right hand, and that he is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. He sees right into the depths of all the darkness of our hearts, and he sees right through to the most glorious heights of heaven where all the angels sing and rejoice night and day. Jesus is the living and eternal God of the past—he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who spoke to Moses in the burning bush—and he is also the living and eternal God who holds your future in his hand, and prays for a wonderful, glorious future for you, such that you can never imagine, and such that you can never even pray for because you wouldn’t even have the words.

And all this is made possible because Jesus suffered and died and rose again from the dead for you. Now, we know from the Gospels that these things happened, and we know from the preaching of the apostles and of Jesus himself that these things happened for us, but as for what will happen to us in the future is unknown to us, we are left completely blind, and simply wait for Jesus to reveal his wonderful future for us, as each day reveals itself. Some days there will be sadness, just like Good Friday. Some days there will be wonderful joy, just like Easter Sunday. But whatever day it is, we will always share every day—and the sadness and the joy of every day—with our loving Saviour and Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Every day is a day to hold Jesus’ bitter sufferings and death before our eyes as our great strength in our suffering, and every day is a day to hold Jesus’ wonderful eternal victory before our eyes as our great hope and comfort.

There is a wonderful passage at the end of the Gospel of Luke, where after Jesus has risen from the dead, and he walks along to a village called Emmaus with two disciples. And at night they say to him, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” And we read: So Jesus went in to stay with them.

And so the same prayer goes for us: Lord Jesus, stay with us. Stay with us today and in the future. Stay with us in times of the cross, and stay with us in times of joy. Let our sorrow be yours, and let your joy be ours. Let my sin be yours, and let your righteousness be mine. I don’t know what the future holds, but nevertheless, I know you will be there, just as have you have been with me in the past, and just as you are here now, so stay with us. Abide with us. Remain with me.

And now we come to the second part of the reading. We read: As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Here is an event, which gives us a wonderful picture of what it means to be a Christian. Firstly, we need to remember that this event actually happened and took place at a certain time. But this event also strengthens many of us who are not physically blind. But we are blind in so many other ways.

How many people today live their lives in black-and-white, when our Lord Jesus calls us to live life in all its colour! How blind people are to spiritual realities—and live as if its midnight all day long! We are blind to the working of God’s hand, we are blind to protection that God’s angels give us every minute, we are blind to the power of Jesus’ blood which is washed over us in baptism and continually received by us in the Lord’s Supper. If only we could see all the wonderful things that God is doing all the time! Proverbs 3 says: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

But if we could see all these things with our eyes, it would be too much for us, and we would be far too overwhelmed. And so for much of the time, we are left in the dark, just like the 12 disciples listening to Jesus talking about his future death and resurrection: The sayings are hidden from us. We don’t understand what Jesus is talking about. We don’t grasp it. Our sinful existence clouds our sight and our ability to recognise God and his work.

But here in our reading is a poor beggar. And he is blind too. And he hears the commotion, and asks what is going on. And in his darkness, he hears with his ears the words that will change his life: “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!”

Today, Jesus of Nazareth is also passing by! He is walking through our town, through our home, through our life, through our church, ready and willing to distribute every gift to everyone, and to shower his Holy Spirit again on each heart. What an amazing thing: to think that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by! As it says in Psalm 8: What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

And so it’s no wonder that we sing again and again from Sunday to Sunday and week to week: Lord, have mercy. As the blind man says: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! I know you are passing by, I know that you are passing through my town, I know that you are speaking your word: Don’t pass me by and leave me with my sin, my shame, my problems! Come and have mercy on me too. As it says in Psalm 95: If today you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Jesus, I hear your voice and your call and your pure grace: come and stay with me, shine your light into my eyes, and have mercy on me.

And then we read: Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.”

Today, Jesus is also passing by. What do you want him to do for you, in all your blindness, and helplessness?

Remember the words of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: Stay with us, Lord Jesus, because it is almost evening and the day is nearly over.

Remember that simple prayer of the blind beggar, “Lord have mercy.” That is the most profound and deepest prayer ever prayed. We pray it every Sunday and we forget it’s even there! Even the whole of the Lord’s Prayer is one big prayer for mercy from our Father in heaven. And the more we spend at God’s altars in the church, the more we call on him from day to day, the more we pray to him, the more we realise that for us everything is total blindness and helplessness, and everything depends on Jesus’ pure mercy. Give thanks to the Lord Jesus for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Amen.

Abide, O dearest Jesus, Among us with Thy grace, that Satan may not harm us, Nor we to sin give place. Lord Jesus Christ—you are the same, yesterday, today and forever. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Amen.