Trinity XI [Luke 18:9-14] (15-Aug-2021)

  

St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am

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

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

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. 

Today, in our Gospel reading, we have a wonderful parable of Jesus, a very well-known parable, about the Pharisee and the tax-collector. Our reading begins where it says in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.

Before we begin to look at the parable itself, it is very much worth our while to examine our hearts according to these words. Do we trust in ourselves that we are righteous, and do we treat others with contempt? You know, in the Gospel of John, we read a wonderful passage there where Jesus says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It is a truly, wonderful gift to have the word of Jesus, to abide in it, to be his disciples, to know the truth, and to be set free by the truth. I can’t imagine, in some sense, a greater gift in the whole world.

However, we live in a world where many people do not abide in the word of Jesus, who are not truly his disciples, who do not know the truth, and instead, are bound and slaves to various lies. And we would be in exactly the same position, if it hadn’t been for the wonderful grace and favour of our Lord Jesus, and his inexhaustible mercy toward us. There are all kinds of people who have heard the word of God, and yet they don’t listen to it. They are just numb to it, or they can’t hear it, or they even really hate it, and mock it, and ridicule it. There are all kinds of people who look like they are disciples of Jesus, but take no notice of what he says, and almost don’t have any interest in what he says, especially if it requires them to change their mind about something.

There are many people who are not interested in truth. They are only interested in following and doing what most people around them do. They just go along with the flow like sheep, and go astray like sheep. They believe whatever their told, and don’t want to think differently. But also they are bound, imprisoned, enslaved, and they don’t even know that they are not free, let alone want to be free.

But to be a Christian, to be one of Christ’s baptised children, to be a believer in Christ, to be a follower of him, a disciple of him, is to abide in Christ’s word, to know the truth, and to be set free by the truth. One of the most important things that we Christians need to keep at the forefront of our minds is that we are all conceived and born in sin. All our thoughts, words and actions are tainted by sin, even before we have branched out and done anything. St Paul puts it very sharply in the third chapter of Romans. He quotes a long list of passages from the Old Testament. None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grace; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and they of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes… All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Galatians, St Paul describes exactly what the human heart has contained within it. He says: The works of the flesh of evident: sexual immortality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Jesus himself gives a similar list: He says: From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

In the last year or two, with everything that has gone on in the world, many people have come to realise that not everything we are told by the press, by the media, by politicians, by those elected to govern us, is the truth. Many people have come to realise that those who are in power do not necessarily have people’s best interests at heart. On the other hand, many people still trust, what they call, “the system”. We have seen corruption in all kinds of levels of society, censorship, control. Many people are worried and anxious, and think about what might happen next, and where things are going.

We Christians should never be surprised that there is evil in the world, and that there is a certain level and extent and prevalence of evil in the world. We can so easily think that we are righteous and then treat other people with contempt, just as Jesus warns us in the reading today. No: we are not righteous, in and of ourselves. If we know the truth, it is not because we are people who are so arrogant that we just always think we are right. If we are Christian, it is not because we are spiritually or morally superior to those who are not. No—the creation of our bodies and souls was a work of God alone, our redemption by Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection was a work of God alone, and our conversion to Christianity was also a work of God, and a work of God alone. Our will needed to be converted first, before it could do anything that pleased God, and even now, our will still reacts and turns against God. Jesus said to his disciples, and his words still apply to us: You did not choose me, but I chose you. We have nothing in and of ourselves to claim any righteousness before God. Everything we have, we have as a complete, total, pure gift alone, and we can do nothing but simply thank God for what he has done for us, how he worked to save us, how he continually works through us and around us and behind us and in front of us to preserve the fragile and precious faith that he has given to us.

So: Jesus tells us a parable that we should not trust in ourselves that we are righteous, and treat others with contempt. Let’s read the parable.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

In this parable, Jesus polarises the world. He doesn’t polarise it in the way that we normally think. He does not put the left-wingers on one side, and the right-wingers on the other side. He does not put the Fascists over there, the Communists over there. He does not put the rich over here, and the poor over there. He does not put white people over here, and black people over there. He does not put love-filled people over here, and hate-filled people over there. He does not put conservatives over here, and liberals over there. No—none of that is relevant in this parable. Because however human beings want to polarise and divide people, God still divides and polarises each of them even more. Jesus takes the knife of his word and cuts right through the heart of every single person.

He puts the one who exalts himself over here, and the humble over there. He puts the one who is justified before God over here, and the one who is not over there. There is a polarisation: there is a separation. It’s not like Jesus just says: “Let’s not divide people, let’s find the middle ground.” No—he doesn’t. Because when people try to divide and polarise society and people and families and whatever, they testify to something that is actually true, and that is: there is a judgment. However, the truth of the matter is that God is the judge, he is the one who justifies, he is the one who divides truth and error, he is the one who exalts the humble and humbles the exalted. That is the polarisation: that is the true judgment, the judgment between the sheep and the goats on the last day.

What is so incredible about this passage is that the Pharisee that Jesus speaks about seems to be the model Christian. He says: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. Look! Almost everything this man says is great! First of all, he prays to God. If only we prayed more. Second, he thanks him. If only we were more thankful to God for everything that he gives us. Third, he is not an extortioner, he is not unjust, adulterer. Let’s assume that he is telling the truth! If only there were more people everywhere that didn’t commit these kinds of sins. Fourth, he fasts twice a week, and he gives tithes of all that he gets. If only we had such self-discipline, and devotion towards God. If only more people supported the church like this man.

However, he is so wrong about one thing, which makes all the difference. He says: I thank you that I am not like other men. Here is the lie. He is exactly like other men, because he thinks that his righteousness before God consists in the things that he has done. He is exactly like other men, because he thinks that his own sin isn’t all that serious, and that he put all of his good works in the scales of divine justice, and weigh up the balance. He is exactly like other men, because he doesn’t recognise the sin that is at work in his fleshly, human heart, just like that same sin works in all kinds of people.

For example, take Hitler and the Nazis. They said: We Germans are not like the Jews. Hermann Sasse, a Lutheran theologian in Germany at that time, who ended up living here in the city of Adelaide, said: No, we Germans are exactly like the Jews. Why? Because we are all sinners, both Germans and Jews, and whoever else. Hermann Sasse saw that the problem with the Nazi party’s understanding was that they didn’t recognise sin.

But then, we can also turn things around, and say: We are not like the Nazis. We can have a certain self-righteousness about ourselves, and start to imagine ourselves as if we lived in some kind of historical movie, as if we would have been the heroes and they would have been the villains. Every terrible movement that has done great damage to the world and the human race has come about because of sin, and that sin is the same thing that we carry around in our own hearts. So, when we see terrible things happening in the world, our answer before God is not to say: We thank you, God, that we are not like those people over there. No, our answer before God is to say: God, I am exactly like those people over there, and I repent. My heart, my flesh, my corruption is the same as them, and if there is any reason why it hasn’t spilled over to the same extent as it has in them, it is purely by the grace of God, who has worked in us to restrain us. And so, we are not the heroes. We have never been the heroes. There has only been one hero, and that is Jesus Christ alone. He is the one who has taken all the corruption, all the dirt, the filth, the damage, the murder, the polarisation and the judgment of the world, he has taken every single last drop of it, and he has died for it all on the cross. He stretched out his arms and his hands and his feet, and submit himself and was willing to be nailed to it all. He is the one Saviour who has ever lived. All his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane ran from him. Peter denied him three times, even though he was the first preacher on Pentecost. Paul locked up and persecuted and killed Christians. None of them were righteous, because Jesus is the only one who is righteous.

Now, we come back to the two men in our parable today. If no-one is righteous, why is he tax collector justified? Why is he exalted? Well, this has really nothing to do with him. You see, a tax collector was not a person that was thought very well of, at all. Tax collectors at that time were often Jews who worked for the Romans—they were considered to be traitors to the Jewish people. Now, Jesus is not saying that all Pharisees are bad, and all tax-collectors are good. There would have been plenty of tax-collectors who had no interest in Jesus. And we do read about some Pharisees, like Nicodemus, who helped to bury Jesus. It’s like the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Jesus is not saying that all poor people go to heaven and all rich people go to hell. There are plenty of poor people who will not be saved, and there are plenty of rich people who will be saved. However, there is a danger when we are wealthy and rich, that we think that we have everything and don’t need God. In the same way, there is also a danger in being a Pharisee, even a religious person, a devout person. There is a danger, sometimes, in being devout, in being religious, in being committed to God, because we start to think that our devotion, our religiosity, our commitment, our piety, even our Christianity itself, earns something before God, or is something that makes us better than other people, or is something in and of ourselves that justifies us before God. And then we think: God must bless me, because at least I am better than that person over there.

No – that is not how it works. Let’s look at the tax-collector. We read: The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

There is always something we can be certain of when we think about our salvation. People always look to themselves to work out if they are saved, and this is dangerous. They start to think, I can see God working in me. But this man doesn’t say anything like that. He can see sin working in him. Perhaps, he doesn’t know to what extent sin is working in him – God alone knows that and sees that. God only allows us to see our sin in little bite-sized chunks, because otherwise it would completely and totally overwhelm us.

This man recognises that he is a sinner, and if he is a sinner, then the good news is that he qualifies to be saved. Because Jesus only died for one kind of person in the world: he only died for sinners. People who are not sinners have no need and no use for him.

The tax collector also says: Be merciful to me. Actually, this is not the normal word, “be merciful.” There is a word, “have mercy”, that has historically been used in the church service throughout the centuries, eleison. The words, “Kyrie eleison”, is Greek for, “Lord have mercy”. But in this passage, this is not that word. It is a different word: ilástheti. And this word has to do with atonement. It’s as if he is saying, “Atone for me”, or “make atonement for me”, or something like that. He is looking at his sin, and he sees that is great. But he is not simply asking God for mercy, as if to say: God, I know you have every reason to punish me, but I’m asking you not to. He’s asking God to do something about it. He’s asking him to do whatever needs to be done to forgive it, to expel it from his heart, to cast it out, to blot it out, to wash it away, to purge it from himself.

This little word should be of great encouragement and comfort to us. Because when we sinners come into the presence of God, we have an atonement. We have a Jesus, who has shed his blood, and has offered himself in our place before the throne and the judgment of God. And when we enter into his presence in this life, we simply say to him: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”. We say: God, let this atonement that Jesus carried out be mine, let it have its full effect in me, let it apply to me, let it be that thing that I can cling to, and be completely and totally certain of your mercy and your favour and your love towards me. That’s what the atonement of Christ gives to us: it gives us the mercy of God, and all the blessing of God.

You see, when this Pharisee dies, all the things that he prided himself on would die with him. When the tax-collector dies, the mercy and the atonement of God continues. And it continues in such a way, that the sin, which he felt so deeply that he beat his breast over it, that that atonement and mercy would make him completely and totally sinless and clean and pure as he enters heaven to rejoice with all the angels of God. The tax-collector humbled himself under God’s judgment, and trusted in God’s capacity alone to make things right. This is the reason why this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

So, let’s go down to our houses today also justified in the sight of God. Let us recognise that we have a sinful heart, just like everyone around us, and humble ourselves with a repentant attitude before God’s throne and his judgment over sin. But also, let us trust in Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our Lord, our King, who has died for us, risen for us, atoned for our sin, and is so full of mercy and grace and forgiveness, that we cannot even begin to comprehend or understand it. He is the one who humbled himself to became like us, and now has ascended into heaven, and is exalted to the right hand of God. Jesus, my Lord and my God, what a wonderful thing it is that you are merciful also to me, even to me, a sinner!

Amen.

 

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Trinity X [Luke 19:41-48] (8-Aug-2021)

 

St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am

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

And when Jesus drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.

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 four parts to it: the first part we read about Jesus weeping over the city. The second part, we see him making a prophecy about the city of Jerusalem. The third part, we read about Jesus cleansing the temple. And the fourth part we read about Jesus teaching in the temple.

Our reading today comes at the end of Luke, chapter 19, and this chapter is a very rich chapter. We first read about the little man, the rich man, who is called Zacchaeus, who climbs up into a high tree, to get a glimpse of Jesus as he goes by, and Jesus invites himself to his house.  Next, we read about the parable of the Ten Minas, a mina being a sum of money. In the old times, this was often called the parable of ten pounds. Then, following this, we read in Luke 19 about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And then we come to our reading today, about where Jesus weeps over the city, cleanses the temple, and teaches there.

So, you can see that the events of our reading today take place in the week of Passover and Easter. The church has always celebrated Palm Sunday on the week before Easter, because if you count up the days in the Gospels about when these things took place, it works out to be a week before Easter. And so, throughout the centuries, the church has called this week Holy Week, because it is the week when Jesus was there in Jerusalem, having been welcomed by the crowd on Palm Sunday, it is the week when Jesus celebrates his Last Supper with his disciples, it is the week when Jesus offers his life as an atonement and sacrifice on the cross on Good Friday, and it is also it is the week when Jesus rose from the dead. We should never underestimate what God can do in a week!

So let’s read from our Gospel reading, and see what it says. First, it says: And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.

There are a few of times in the New Testament, where we read about Jesus weeping. The most well-known passage is where Jesus visits Mary and Martha, after their brother Lazarus had died. As they are walking to the tomb, we read, very simply: Jesus wept. These two words are the shortest verse in the entire bible. But there’s a little comment immediately afterwards. We read: So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

On one hand, some people who see Jesus weep, recognise his love and his compassion. Some people think that this is a sign of Jesus’ helplessness and weakness, and think that all Jesus can do in the face of death is cry. Also, they are a little bit angry with Jesus, thinking that he was too late. Mary and Martha both had said to Jesus: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. The people who saw Jesus weep, thought much the same thing, and were critical of Jesus, and his timing, and now, of his weakness. Well, in actual fact, a few verses later, we read about how Jesus wonderfully raised Lazarus from the dead. So, it’s very easy to criticise Jesus and to think that in our eyes he did something that we are not happy about, but we often think like this because we don’t know what Jesus is going to do next.

So we see here in John’s gospel how Jesus wept. We do see his weakness, actually. The weakness which he willingly took on when he, as true God, the Lord of heaven and earth, who is equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, descended from heaven, and became a man, a true human being like one of us. We see the wonderful weakness which Jesus took on in his earthly life, for example, when he became a baby, his fasting in the wilderness for 40 days when he became hungry. Of course, we also see his weakness when he offered his life on the cross, and suffered a terrible death.

But also, we need to remember that whatever Jesus does, and however he presents himself to us, he always does it as both man and God together. You see, Jesus is not two different people: he doesn’t switch his divinity or his humanity off, according to what he is doing. So for example, when he touches a person and heals them, it’s not just a man who touches the person, but it’s God who touches them, because Jesus is our Lord and our God.

Imagine the problem when you have the butter in the fridge and you want to cut it. If you put the butter in the oven, or the microwave, it just melts and goes everywhere. If you try and cut it with a knife, the butter it too hard. So you have to heat up the knife, and make the knife hot, by putting the knife in the fire on the stove, and then the knife cuts and melts at the same time.

So, we could think of Jesus’ human body like a knife that is connected to fire. It’s like his humanity is the knife, and his divinity is the fire. So, as I said, when Jesus touches a person, it is touch of a man and God together. Also, when Jesus was in his mother’s womb, it was not simply a man who was in his mother’s womb, but God who was there. And so, in the history of the church, Mary has been called “the Mother of God”, and rightly so, not because she is the mother of God the Father, but because the person she had in her womb and whom she gave birth to was God.

So, also, when we think of Jesus dying on the cross, it was not simply a man who died, but God who died, and we say this, not because God can actually die, but because in the person of Christ, because he is both man and God, God dies, and experiences death and goes through it.

Also, in the opposite way, we see some amazing things that Jesus does in the Gospels. For example, he walks on water. Now normally a human being can’t do this, but because he is God, his human body is able to do this. It’s not just the foot of God on the water, it’s a real human foot. When Jesus is on the mount of Transfiguration and his face and his clothes shine, this is not just the light of God, but this is Jesus’ actual human body that is shining.

Also, in the Lord’s Supper, there are many Christians who say that this is just bread and wine, because it is impossible that Jesus body can be in heaven and in the Lord’s Supper in all kinds of different church gatherings all throughout the world at the same time. But you see: because Jesus is both man and God, his human body is able to take on divine qualities, and do things that normally a human body can’t do. So, we simply believe Jesus’ words as they read plainly: This is my body, and this is my blood. It is the body and blood of Christ, who is both true man and true God.

Now, let’s come back to our reading. Why am I making a big point about this? Because when Jesus weeps, we have to realise that because Jesus is both true man and God, that this is not just a man who weeps, but it is God who weeps, because Jesus is God. Even though we would normally say that God doesn’t experience emotions and cry and weep like us, here in the person of Christ, our human weakness is taken on by God, and God experiences our human weaknesses and emotions, because Jesus is God.

And why does he weep? He weeps over the city. When he wept over Lazarus, the people said: See how he loved him! In the same way, we can look at Jesus weeping over the city, and say: See how he loves this city! And he does.

What I am teaching here is very offensive in some ways to our human flesh. We think, if God is God, how can he weep? How can God be so weak? If I feel weak, of what comfort is it to me if God is weak too? No: actually, God is strong, but he entered into our human weakness, in order to make us strong like him. He wants you to realise that your tears are precious, because he also shed tears. He entered into our weakness, suffered and died, so that he could for us that wonderful salvation, and bring us to the new Jerusalem, where there will no more tears.

So what does Jesus say about the city? He says: Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

The people had just welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with great praise and fanfare. We read: The whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. But at the same time, we also read that some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

They welcomed Jesus, but they didn’t recognise what kind of a king he was. Many people saw him as a political figure, who was to come into Jerusalem, kick the Romans out, and rule as an earthly king. But Jesus’ rules as a different kind of king. He is crowned instead with a crown of thorns, and enthroned on the cross. Those that mocked Jesus thought they were pretending, but in actual fact, they were giving Jesus his real coronation on this earth. Although Christ even now rules from heaven, seated at the right hand of God, on this earth, we see his kingdom as one of the cross.

And so, many people don’t recognise the kingdom of Christ. They don’t know the things that make for peace. They don’t recognise the time of their visitation. They see God who rides on a simple donkey and sheds tears, and they say: I want something much more glorious that that. But what they don’t realise is that in this person, Jesus Christ, and in his words, in the glory of God, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, whose glory is above heaven and earth, and everything that we could possibly imagine or comprehend.

And so, in our reading, Jesus prophesies about the city of Jerusalem, that it will be destroyed. It says: For the says will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Right at the heart of this message of Jesus, is the fact that Jesus’ greatest failure in the eyes of the world—his suffering, his death—is actually his victory, his wonderful atonement for the sin of the world, and the time of God’s great visitation upon the world. This word “visit” is a very loaded word in the Scripture. Sometimes, we read that God visits his people in wrath and anger, but also in grace. On the cross, we see both. God visits the world in his wrath and anger, and he pours it out upon Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. All of God’s justice, and judgment, and anger against sin is poured out on Jesus, and laid upon his shoulders. But also, we see here God visiting the earth in showing his grace, because when we look to this Saviour of ours, and we recognise in him his atoning work for our sin, God bestows upon us the forgiveness of our sin, and shows his grace. This cross, this Jesus, this Saviour is his grace upon us.

So, Jesus makes it very clear, that when God visits us, when we hear the word of God, no matter how humble it seems, it is important that we recognise it. The preaching of the cross is the visitation of God. The absolution, the bestowal of the forgiveness of sins in the church by the pastor, is the visitation of God. The sacrament of Holy Baptism, which you have received, the new birth by water and the Word, by water and the Spirit, is the visitation of God. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the gift of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, this is the visitation of God. So recognise it for what it is. Let these things not be hidden from your eyes. Don’t look for something more glorious that what God in his glory gives to you.

In the year 70 AD, there was a great fulfilment of this prophecy, where the Romans came and invaded Jerusalem, and tore down the temple. Even, I heard somewhere from an archaeological study, that when the Romans burnt down the temple, the fire was so hot, that it melted the gold, which got into the cracks in the floor. Because the Romans wanted the gold, they pulled up the floor as well, just as Jesus says here: They will not leave one stone upon another in you.

For us too in the church today, there is a great urgency and a great need for us to hold on to the word of God, and not let any of it go. If we don’t recognise the time of the Lord’s visitation, then God can always take his gifts away from us and give them to some other people who want them. Even today in the church, governments around the world, including our own here in Australia, are pressuring the church to do what they want, rather than what God wants. As Jesus says: The days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. We should not be afraid of the pressure, if they want to hem us in. Jesus knows how to lead us forward, and he knows how to look after us, and he knows the names of each and every single one of his sheep. So, it’s a good thing to despair of ourselves, to despair of our world, to despair of our country and our people, because these things are all tainted by sin, and it has been like that for a very long time. However, in God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, there is no despair. There is only hope, because in Christ, and in his cross, and in his blood, and in his sacrifice, and in his person, is all the glory of God, all the fulness of the majesty of God, all the joy of heaven, all the promises of eternal life.

In the last part of our reading, we see Jesus enter the temple and cleanse it. We read: He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” I’ll just talk briefly about this. We see here that in the place of prayer, in the place of the devotion to God, in the place of worship, comes the world of business, and trade, and commerce, and money, and bargains, and everything like that. This worldly stuff is not what the temple is about. Jesus is very sharp about this, that he simply drives these people out without questioning them and talking to them.

But then afterwards we read something that we can so easily miss. On one hand, Jesus throws these people out of the temple. But then it says: And he was teaching daily in the temple. This is what belongs in the temple, and also in our churches: the teaching of Jesus. If you knew that you were going to die at the end of the week, what would you do? For Jesus, he teaches, and he teaches daily. This is the wonderful visitation of God: he cleanses us out of what is evil and does not belong, and then he teaches us.

And this teaching continues according to the blessing of God, and according to his arrangement. We read: The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

You can see here that despite the plans of the chief priests and the scribes, they couldn’t do anything. God was the one who was miraculously preserving this preaching and this worship, no matter who wanted to close it down. This should also be of great encouragement to us, and we should pray to God that he would continue to visit us, continue to cleanse us out and lead us forward, and continue to teach us the words of his Son Jesus Christ, that we would learn it and be constantly sharpened in it, and that he would preserve us and protect us from all harm, and not just us personally, but also protect and preserve the word of God and the sacraments in our midst, as his living and wonderful visitation upon this earth.

So let’s commend ourselves to our heavenly Father, to Jesus Christ, to the Holy Spirit. Let’s remember the loving and compassionate tears of our Saviour Jesus, and his plea to us as his children. Let’s also submit ourselves to his cleansing, just as cleansed the temple, and also to his wonderful teaching, and the great message of Gospel, which brings us salvation and life and every blessing from the throne of God in heaven. Amen.

 

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Trinity VIII [Matthew 7:15-23] (25-Jul-2021)

                                 

This sermon was prepared during lockdown, and uploaded online only.

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

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

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. 

In the Lord’s Prayer, after we call upon our Father in heaven, the first thing that Christians have continually prayed for since Jesus taught this wonderful prayer to his disciples is: Hallowed be your name.

This is such a wonderful prayer, and these four little words “hallowed be your name” are probably the most difficult for people to grasp what they really mean. The word “hallowed” means “to keep something holy”, so we’re asking in the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we want to keep your name holy, let your name be holy.

Luther puts it so well in the Small Catechism: God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. God doesn’t need us for his name to be holy. His name is already holy. But we are the ones who use God’s name, and we are the ones who call upon it. Are we going to use his name in holy way, or in an unholy way?

So Luther says: How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

This explanation is so rich. It says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. First of all, listen to what it says about God’s word: it has its own truth and purity. We don’t need to add our own truth and purity to God’s Word to make it true and pure. God’s word has its own truth and its own purity. And so it’s the duty of pastors and churches to teach God’s word in its truth and purity. So it says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Teaching comes first, life comes second. We can’t live a Christian life unless we’re taught the Christian life first. No-one will believe that Jesus died for their sins unless they are taught this. No-one will live a holy life unless they are taught what a holy and godly life looks like.

Psalm 119 says: Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. 2 Peter 1 says: We have the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

Today, we need to hang on to God’s Word, and savour it, and learn it, and study it like never before, otherwise it will all be taken away from us.

Teaching comes first, life comes second. There’s no Christian life without Christian teaching. And it’s not easy to teach God’s word, and to read it clearly, because we have so many barriers in our thinking, in our conscience, in our hearts and minds which prevent us from hearing God’s word clearly. When we think God’s word is not clear, the problem’s not with the bible, the problem is with us.

And it’s not easy to live a holy life. So often we think we’re doing the right thing, and our lives make complete sense, until the Holy Spirit comes and crushes our false righteousness to bits. Isaiah says: All our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag.

And so we read: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! (We need help! We so desperately need to pray for the Holy Spirit to help us teach God’s word and to lead holy lives! Help us to do this!) But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

Do you see there in the catechism these prayers of desperation! We so desperately need to hear the word of God preached in its truth and purity, but the only people who will do this are sinful pastors! We all so desperately need to lead holy lives according to God’s Word, but the only thing we see in ourselves is our sin, how much we fail at living a holy life! (At least, if we’re honest, this is all we see!) Prayer, prayer, prayer! Hallowed be your name! Help us, heavenly Father! Have mercy on the pastors of your church! Have mercy on the people of your church! Lord Jesus, do not leave us alone, but stay with us to the close of the age, just as you have promised!

You see – in the church, there will always be someone preaching something. There will be people living some kind of life. But will the preaching be true and pure? Will the peoples’ lives be holy?

This is exactly what Jesus wants to teach us about in our reading today. He says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Jesus teaches us very clearly that in the church there will be true prophets and there will be false ones. And Jesus calls you to beware of the false ones.

You see, the Gospel brings so much peace to people. It really is a wonderful privilege to be a pastor. There are very few other people who can walk into people’s homes to be with them at a time of death or a time of tragedy and people will actually listen. There’s a certain respect that people show pastors. And then there’s a temptation for us pastors to rest on that instead of actually ministering to people with God’s word.

And so, there are also other people who don’t want to shepherd people with God’s word, but want the benefits, the trappings, the honour, the respect. In Acts chapter 8, there’s a man called Simon who asks that he might buy from Peter the power to give people the Holy Spirit. But this is not how it works.

When God’s Word is not taught, people have to teach something, they don’t teach nothing. If they don’t teach God’s word, they always, always teach a pretend, counterfeit, false word which they pass off as God’s word.

So Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

So you can see, that false prophets make an effort. They dress up in disguise. They make a show. They realise if they want to be respected, and respectable, they have to look like real prophets. They have to be dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Some pastors and some churches are particularly obvious and crass about this. They realise that the presence of the living and resurrected Jesus brings with it a certain atmosphere. They realise that when they walk into a real church where the word of God is taught that the people behave differently because they know they are in a holy place in the presence of a holy God. But if they don’t teach this, then they have to replicate the atmosphere: some churches will even put in flashy lights to give people the impression they’re in a night club or something. They know that Christians sing: and instead of singing texts which are full of God’s word, they sing empty repetitions that could mean anything. There are some Christian songs which are almost the same as popular love songs where you can basically take the word “baby” out and put in the word “Jesus”.

False prophets are always mimics. They want to pretend that they are a real church. They want to create the atmosphere of Jesus’ presence, they want to replicate the power that comes with God’s word, they want to replicate the energy that comes with singing the words of the Holy Spirit, but it’s always a fake atmosphere.

Now, it can be so easy to point the fingers at other churches, and other denominations. Many of us will have good friends who are members of other churches that don’t teach God’s word properly, and nevertheless despite their churches, they are faithful Christians, and people who are a pleasure to talk to about our common faith. But no church is immune from false prophets. Sometimes it seems as though some Lutheran pastors haven’t read the bible since seminary, if they ever did.

People often thank pastors for sermons they like – and it’s nice when people do. But with this then comes the temptation not to preach about subjects that people might not like. But the glory doesn’t belong to pastors, it belongs to God. It’s not the pastor’s words that people enjoy, but it’s God’s word they enjoy. We pastors can so easily forget that we must decrease and Jesus must increase, and then pastors want to take the credit for God’s word.

And so, Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who comes to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognise them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognise them by their fruits.

Such an obvious fruit of true prophets is that they teach God’s word in its truth and purity. And in our church, this is our continual prayer, that we have these wonderful gifts at hand: God’s Word, and the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

It’s amazing how a false prophet will want to convince you that we are all basically saying the same thing. They want to give the appearance of being a good tree, whereas in actual fact they are a rotten tree. They want to give the appearance of being a grapevine, but in actual fact, they are a thornbush.

For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are an obvious example of false prophets, want to say to Christians that we believe the same thing. “You believe that Jesus is true God, but we believe that he’s God’s first creation. But let’s not fight over words!” We don’t believe the same thing! Either Jesus is true God or he’s not. If he’s not, then his blood is of no use, his death is of no use, and his prayers are of no use. We need to listen to people, what they say: are they pretending that we agree when we really don’t?

For example, often people attack Baptism in this way: They say, “You baptise babies and we don’t. But we all believe the same thing.” No we don’t. We baptise babies, because we believe that baptism is God’s work. It says so in Titus 3 and Ephesians 5, when it says: God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: Let the little children come to me and do not stop them. We believe that “baptism saves us” because 1 Peter says: Baptism now saves you. Finished. If you don’t believe that baptism gives salvation, if you don’t believe that baptism is God’s work not a human work, then your argument is with Jesus and his apostles, not with us.

People often attack the Lord’s Supper in this way when they say that it’s not Christ’s body and blood. Well, Jesus said, “This is my body, this is my blood”. Your argument is with Jesus if you don’t believe that.

Then the false prophets take away the great comfort and the great riches that come with baptism and the Lord’s Supper and preaching, and they say: You don’t need this stuff. You need something extra that only I can give you. You need to come to our revival meetings, you need to come to receive the Holy Spirit from us, and only from us. These people don’t believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, they believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from them!

They say: “You don’t need God’s Word. You need to listen to our own prophet! Our preacher, our prophet is the only one who’s got it right! He will cast out demons. He will do many mighty works! You don’t need baptism, the Lord’s Supper, you don’t need pastors, or the bible or the creed or the liturgy”, they say.

Don’t listen to people who talk like this! They are false prophets! They want to devour you like wolves! There seems to be some new crazy church starting up every month. Jesus says: Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Jesus says: You will recognise them from their fruits. It’s difficult to recognise a false prophet from their life, whether it is holy or not, because every preacher is a sinner, even if some would like to pretend that they’re not. But you need to listen to their words, their preaching, their doctrine. Holy teaching comes before a holy life. This holy preaching, the teaching of the Word of God in its truth and purity is the will of our Father in heaven.

Jesus says: Not everyone will enter heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Teaching God’s word, and praying to God from his word.

Even St Paul says: Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

And so Jesus says to us: Beware! Beware of the false prophets. Don’t be sucked in! The Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father and the Son, so if you want to receive the Holy Spirit you can only receive him from the words of the Father and the Son, and from no-one else’s words. If the words comes from someone else, they are the words of a false prophet.

Amen. 

Lord God, heavenly Father, how desperately we need your help! Our pastors need your help so that they would teach us God’s word in its truth and purity. Parents need your help that they can teach their children. And all of us need your help so that we would live according to your word. Send us the Holy Spirit, our helper, and our Comforter, in the name of Jesus, our living and resurrected Lord. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Trinity VII [Mark 8:1-9] (18-Jul-2021)

                                

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?

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.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus fed 4000 people. You might not have realised that in the Gospels we read about two different miracles: the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000. They are not two accounts of the same miracle, but they actually record two different miracles. In both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, both of these miracles are recorded.

When it comes to the miracles of Jesus, the comfort we derive from them is always, first of all, the fact that it happened. When we preach the Word of God in the church, and we say that the bible is without errors, and inerrant, and infallible, and all that kind of thing, we as pastors should always seek to preach the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text. When we study the bible, we study the words, the grammar, the sentences, the cross references, and all that sort of thing. But when we say in the church, that we preach the word, or we preach the text, it doesn’t mean that we’re coming up here in the pulpit to preach a whole lot of words and grammar and things like that. The most important thing is what the words in the bible actually say, and much of the time, we’re also dealing with real things that actually happened in real life in real time. So, when we preach this passage about the feeding of the 4000, the most important thing is not what nouns and verbs St Mark used, and all that kind of thing, but the fact that at a particular time, at a particular place, this thing happened, this miracle actually occurred, Jesus actually did it.

Sometimes, there’s also a tendency when it comes to interpreting the bible, to always ask the question: “What’s the point of this passage?” What message is St Mark trying to portray here? Yes, that’s a good thing to some degree, but once again, if this miracle didn’t actually happen, then there is no point. It’s just as when St Paul is talking about the resurrection, and he says: If Christ had not been raised from the dead, my preaching is in vain. Your faith is in vain, you are still in your sins. There is a point to the resurrection, and that is that Jesus defeated death, that he won the victory over death, but if he didn’t actually rise from the dead, then there is no point. Also, in the feeding of the 4000 people in our Gospel reading today, if the miracle didn’t actually happen, then there is no point. So, we should always remember, with all these passages which speak about miracles in the Gospels, to spend some time in simple, reverent awe about the fact, that the same Jesus we read about here, who is also our Saviour through baptism and faith, actually did this thing in our Gospel, and actually fed 4000 people. And that, in itself, is an amazing, wonderful, divine thing, that is totally worthy of our awe, our reverence, our wonder, our complete amazement. 

So let’s have a look at this passage in three parts: First of all, we have the people, the crowd. Secondly, we have the disciples of Jesus. And thirdly, we have Jesus, and what he says, and what he does.

In the previous chapter, chapter 7, of the Gospel of Mark, we read about Jesus giving a sermon, some teaching, about traditions and what defiles a person, and after that, we read about how the Syrophoenician woman came to him and asked him to cast a demon out of her daughter, and how Jesus also healed a man who could not speak or hear. Now, often when Jesus is teaching, or doing some healings, a crowd begins to gather, and people want to learn more, and they want to know what’s going on. And sometimes, they are so interested in what Jesus has to say, that they forget about providing themselves with food. Maybe they think: I’ll just listen to this one last teaching sermon, and then I’ll head home and have morning tea. But, you could imagine, if you were alive at that time, that what Jesus had to say must have been just so incredibly interesting, unlike anything that you’d ever heard before, and so the people just stay there, and listen.

We read at the beginning of the reading: In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”

We learn here that sometimes those who follow Christ are sometimes led into a kind of wilderness. We read at the beginning of each of the Gospels, that after Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit drove him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one. We read that Jesus fasted there for 40 days. Now, in the church year, we often commemorate this event and remember it particularly during the season of Lent, which is 40 days before Easter. And sometimes, Christians devote themselves to some kind of discipline or mortification, where they might fast, or give up some food, like coffee, or chocolate, or something like that, as a kind of way to remind themselves about Jesus’ fasting, and also his suffering and death for us on the cross.

However, apart from this season of Lent, where we might take up some self-chosen suffering, sometimes God leads us into our own personal Lent, our own personal time of cross-bearing, where he leads us into the desert, or into the wilderness for a while. At the beginning of time, Adam and Eve lived in a wonderful garden, but then because of the fall, were kicked out of Eden, and only then, did they first begin to experience the world as a kind of wilderness, with its thistles and thorns. Jesus, when he lived on this earth, often went out into the wilderness, because he wants to atone for the sins of the human race which forced them out of Eden. So, Jesus’ wilderness, his desert, is a garden, a paradise for us.

So, sometimes, we go through a time in our life, where we just feel so close to God, so many things in our life are going well, we feel like it’s just so easy to pray and speak with God, and praise him. And these times in our life can be of wonderful encouragement, but they are more like lunch and recess time at school. Often children at school love recess and lunch, but it’s not really why they’re there: it’s just the break, it’s not really school. And so, the times in our lives when things are hard, when there are many temptations, those are the times when Jesus really sends us to school, and those are the times when we really grow.

And so, what kinds of things does Jesus use to lead us into the desert, into the wilderness? Sometimes, we begin to feel a sense of loneliness from others around us. The people we know that we once enjoyed their company and friendship, now turn against us, and turn their backs on us. Or sometimes, in our homes, we find ourselves having a difficult time in our marriage or in our family, where the peace of the home just isn’t what it used to be. Or, sometimes, the things we enjoyed on an everyday basis, just in terms of our daily bread, the comforts of life, are no longer there like they used to be. We might enter into a time of financial hardship, or at least, financial uncertainty. Or, sometimes, our country, or our city, or whatever, takes a bit of a turn for the worst, and life becomes a bit harder for us. Or, sometimes, things might go inward: all of a sudden we start to realise that we’re not the good people we thought we were, and the Holy Spirit starts to reveal to us our sin, in this way, or in that way.

And all these kinds of things can compound and all come together, and we can be overwhelmed, or become depressed, and start to feel like we are in a kind of wilderness. God provides us for a time with our own personal Lent, and sometimes, it can feel like there is no Easter. We start to doubt God and question his motives, or we wonder where he is, or what he’s doing, and why he let this or that happen to us.

Whatever happens, we know that God is faithful. Jesus knows exactly what is going on, and he will alleviate whatever suffering we endure at the exact time when this suffering has been of whatever benefit it has needed to be for our soul. Jesus strips something away from us, to that we can look much more clearly and much more sharply to him for everything. Jesus takes away from us some earthly comfort and earthly joy so that he can strengthen us and encourage us with his heavenly comfort and heavenly joy. After all, this life is not all there is. This earthly life is just a breath, a puff of wind, a vanity, nothing. St Paul writes: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

And so, in the meantime, Jesus leads us into the wilderness, and he teaches us all kinds of things that he knows and that we know, we really need to learn: patience under the cross, contentment with what God has given to us, humility under the mighty hand of God. St Paul writes: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. If only we were all like Paul describes himself here! But what’s the secret to surviving the wilderness? How has St Paul learned to be content? He knows that he is not alone, but that Jesus is with him. He knows that he has a faithful Saviour. If he were by himself, he would only see his own weakness, his own helplessness, his own need. But because Jesus is with him, he can be strong, he can be content, he can do all things through him who strengthens him. And the same goes for us, and this is the reason why Jesus leads us with him into a wilderness. He wants to teach us to look to Him alone for everything. When we have taken him for granted, and forgotten that he is always with us, then he teaches us that he really is here, that he really does love us, that he really does look after us, that he really does forgive us, and that he really does provide for us.

Now, let’s have a look at the disciples. We read that they say to Jesus: How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? The funny thing about this, of course, is that that this feeding of the 4000 people happened after the feeding of the 5000. Jesus already had performed a miracle of feeding 5000 people, and then the disciples ask this question. Their memories have been so quickly plagued by doubt. Don’t they know that the answer to this question is standing right in front of them? Of course, normally if people ask themselves: “how can we feed so many people?” there really might not be an answer, because they don’t know, because normally people can’t feed so many people, if they don’t have enough food, or they are a long way from shops, or they don’t have any money. But when they’re with Jesus, the answer is completely different. All they need do is look to his hands. That’s where the answer is. 

We learn from this question from the disciples that faith is no simple, straight-forward matter. We are always forgetting everything, are we are always needing to hear the Gospel and learn it again. The mould is always creeping into our hearts, the gunge, the creep, the darkness. And we are always in need of turning to God and letting him sweep out our hearts again with his Holy Spirit, and learn the faith again.

As a pastor, sometimes there is a temptation not to preach the Gospel, and not to lay the foundations about the Scripture, about how our hearts are constantly doing battle with sin, and how Jesus has suffered and died for us, and made a full atonement for us with his blood and his sacrifice. We pastors can often think that we don’t need to keep preaching these things, because we think: everyone knows that stuff—let’s go on to other stuff. But it’s not true. Even the greatest professor in the world of theology doesn’t know the Gospel from Sunday to Sunday. He still needs to hear it afresh. He still needs the Holy Spirit’s broom to sweep him clean again. The reason is that the Gospel is always new. Jesus is always new. We are always learning something new from him, and even we think we’re learning something we’ve already heard from him before, something we think is old, we often need to learn it in a new way, and in such a way that it needs to be applied to some part of us which it hasn’t touched. To think that the disciples had already seen Jesus feed 5000 people, and as soon as they end up in a similar—almost the same—situation again, they completely forget how the problem was solved last time. In fact, the problem was not really solved. There is no solution: there is only Jesus. Jesus is not simply a solution to our problems, he is a person, he is our shepherd, and doesn’t just want to solve things for us, and plug our gaps, he wants us to depend on him for everything. He wants himself to be our everything, our all, our complete and total sufficiency.

Luther taught a wonderful thing when he spoke about God’s school as made up of prayer, meditation, and temptation. We turn to God in prayer, we meditate on his word, that is, we think about it, and churn it over, and learn from it, and study it. But then, God plunges us into the wilderness again, and we experience temptation, spiritual attack. And this in turn throws us back into prayer and the Word. This is how Jesus makes us living Christians, and makes us walk in the narrow way, behind him, and following in his footsteps.

But also, we see something else in our reading about the disciples. When Jesus took the bread and the fish, he gave to his disciples to distribute to the people. So this means that the blessings we receive from Jesus—whether it is things like our daily bread, food, money, or whatever—or spiritual blessings, comfort, and consolation, it is given to us also for the blessing of other people too. Jesus doesn’t just give us things for ourselves, but for others. St Paul writes: The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. We also read from the beginning of 2 Corinthians about how God comfort us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. So we see from the disciples, how they completely forgot the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, and how they needed to be strengthened in faith again, but also how they were then called to distribute the gifts which Christ gave them to others.

Now, let’s look at Jesus in our reading. First of all, we see his wonderful, compassionate, merciful, heart. He says: I have compassion on the crowd. And not only does he have a compassionate heart, but he is also almighty and powerful to do something about it. He takes the seven loaves and the few fish, and we read: having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.

Don’t you think that if Christ was merciful to the people then, that he will not be merciful to you now in your life?

Sometimes we have many things that we are worried about. We worry because we do not have. Sometimes, he provides for us by giving us what we need, sometimes he simply takes away the worry, and we realise that we had what we needed all along. In our reading, Jesus does both. He gives the people what they needed, but they had what they needed—seven loaves and few small fish—they had what they needed all along. All it needed was Jesus’ blessing, and it became for them everything that they needed. 

So, from this, we learn that Jesus is constantly feeding us with what we need. He gives to us our daily bread. He gives it to us Christians, and also to unbelievers, because he is merciful to them too. For us, he teaches us to receive our daily bread with thanks, because we realise that even if he hadn’t forgiven us our sin, he is still so merciful as to provide us with what we need.

But then, also, Jesus feeds us with spiritual food in this life. He feeds us with his word, just as he said when he was in the wilderness: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. He establishes us in his kingdom and sits us around his table through Holy Baptism, and he also gives us his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper.

But then, also, Jesus feeds us with eternal food. When we die, we will be taken on angels’ wings to feed on the heavenly pastures, and enjoy the rich treasures of God’s own house. Jesus won this great banquet for us, when he suffered and died on the cross, but he also opened the door for us when he rose from the dead. He even gives us a personal invitation through Holy Baptism, and strengthens us with the food of the Lord’s Supper all along the way, until we reach his heavenly eternal supper. This is a wonderful gift, and a wonderful promise. Jesus has compassion on us, he loves us, he has promised us the gift of eternal life, and he has the power and ability to act on his own promise and to fulfil it. So let’s put our trust not in the loaves and the fishes, but in Jesus who knows what to do with them! Amen.

 

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

Trinity VI [Matthew 5:20-26] (11-Jul-2021)

                               

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder…” but I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

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.

Today in our Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us particularly about the 5^th commandment, “You shall not murder”, and he especially applies it in talking about anger. Now, I think, it’s fair to say, that today, there is far too much anger in our community, our society, our country, our world. People burst out, fight, rage – there’s so much hatred in our world today, and very little love.

It’s easy to get angry, especially when we see so many things around us going wrong, and not how we would like them to be. But it’s often hard to stay calm, and be patient, and show gentleness and friendliness, and to be reasonable. This is a battle that Jesus calls us to fight: the fight against our own anger. It’s a very difficult fight, and in order to conquer we must know where the remedy to our anger comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ himself, and his righteousness alone.

Our reading today starts with verse 20 of chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This verse comes just at the end of a little section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is talking about the law. He talks about the Law, then he talks here about the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and then he goes on in the next verse to talk about murder and anger. And these things all go together, actually. Let’s listen to the previous verses to hear what Jesus has to say about the Law. He says: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom od heaven. And then we read the verse, which begins our reading today: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, let’s think for a moment about the Law. Jesus says: I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

When you think of God’s Law, what do you think about? What comes to mind? Do you think about something good or something bad? God’s Law is actually all those things that God teaches us to do, or not to do. And also it includes the threat of his punishment if we don’t do what he commands, and also the promise of reward and blessing if we do do what he commands.

Actually, the Law comes all the way from the very beginning of the world. It goes right back to Garden of Eden. In fact, in the Garden of Eden, there was only the Law. There was no Gospel, because there was need for it. God created the first people in his image, and put them in the Garden, and instructed them what to do and what not to do. At this time, there was no sin in the world, and nothing wrong, and so the Law of God was Adam and Eve’s daily pleasure and delight. We read: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food… The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Here we see God’s wonderful Law at work: the beauty of his creation, the enjoyment of God’s good things, the satisfaction of work, the daily delight of enjoying the presence of God and his blessing. At that time, there was no anger, no murder, because there was no sin. There was only calmness and gentleness and enjoyment and happiness: and these things flowed from God’s own calmness and gentleness. God shared his own delight, his own calmness, and happiness with his creation.

We also read where God says to Adam: You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Here we also see God’s law at work, because he permits Adam to eat from every tree, but he also forbids Adam to eat from a specific tree, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why does God do this? Why does God prohibit something to Adam? Why doesn’t he let him enjoy everything? Here we see the law of love. Because when God establishes his law in the Garden of Eden, and orders everything beautifully, and allows Adam and Eve to enjoy it all, he also wants to teach that love is also not simply about a feeling but about a choice. Adam and Eve are called to choose the things that God allows to them, and also to avoid the things that are not allowed to them. For example, in a marriage, we are called to love our husband or wife. But also, that love means that we choose not to go after other men or women. The love of a husband for his wife means that he avoids choosing any other women to replace her. The love of a wife for her husband means that she avoids choosing any other man to replace him.

And so, when Adam and Eve, simply enjoy the things that God gives them, and avoid the things that he doesn’t give them, they show their love for God. And they enjoy his perfect peace, and his perfect calm and gentleness.

This is why Jesus says: Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. We can’t get rid of the law, because to get rid of the law is to get rid of the Garden of Eden. To get rid of the law, to relax the law, is to chip something away from God’s wonderful order and the beautiful way in which he arranged the world in the first place for his people to enjoy. To relax the law is to say I don’t want to enjoy any tree in the garden, I would rather eat from the tree that God has forbidden me to eat.

But, when we talk about the law, we have to realise that we don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore. As we read in Genesis chapter 3, the first people were deceived by Satan into sin, in such a way that they desired to eat from the tree which God had forbidden them to eat, and they fell into sin. This meant that they didn’t just have a knowledge and an experience of what is good anymore. But they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This word, “knowledge”, in Hebrew, doesn’t just mean that they knew it in their heads, but they experienced it in their lives. The very fact that you and I even know what evil is, is because of the fall into sin. We know what evil is, because we experience evil, and we ourselves have done what is evil, thought it, desire it, even when don’t want to, are clouded by it, are messed up by it, are entrenched in it, are bound to it.

This is where anger comes from. It comes from the fall into sin. It actually comes right from the devil’s own words to Adam and Eve: You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The devil implants this complete falsehood into their minds, this lie, this envy, this idea that God is stingy and he’s actually holding something back from us. And Adam and Eve, think, “What? God wants us to be blind? God wants us to less than our full potential? God wants us to be dumb and stupid? God wants us to be less than him? It’s not fair! I want more! I want things to be better than what they are!” And so they take the fruit and eat.

So, here’s where anger comes from. It comes from the desire to be like God, and to have things better than what God actually gives to us.

Now, on the other hand, the Scripture does speak about God’s anger. When we speak about God’s anger and his wrath, it is his anger against sin. It is a righteous anger. But there is also an anger from the devil, which is always the anger against God.

So Jesus says: I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, because of the fall, the Law of God is no longer only our daily delight, but it also comes with thunder and lightning, because it condemns our sin and finds us out for who we really are. After the Fall, God gave Moses his law again, and reinstate it in the 10 Commandments, with thunder and lightning, not with birds and trees and waterfalls, as in the Garden of Eden. The scribes and Pharisees did not keep God’s law, but they changed it, in such a way that they made it achievable by themselves. They made up all kinds of traditions and practices, and made themselves into some kind of spiritual super-stars, who were super-pious, super-devout. In fact, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus talks about is not the righteousness of God at all. It is simply self-righteousness. It is self-righteousness that is blind to the law of God, in such a way that they end up leading the charge to kill Jesus, by having him crucified.

The only righteousness that will allow us to enter into heaven is the righteousness of Christ alone. His righteousness endured this false righteousness, his righteousness was crucified by our self-righteousness, which we share with the scribes and Pharisees, because we like them always want to avoid the Law pointing its laser beam at us and finding us. Jesus on the cross does not express his anger at them, but he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. We, because of our sinful flesh and our sinful hearts, never know what we’re doing. Only God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, knows perfectly what we’re doing, and sees the full corruption of it, and the full blindness of it. And what does Jesus pray about those who crucify us, people like us who don’t know what we’re doing? He says: Father, forgive them. The way in which Christ shares his righteousness with us is that he forgives us our sins, through the shedding of his blood on the cross, and through his glorious resurrection from the dead. We simply trust him, that his words, his sacrifice and his promises are true, and this forgiveness is ours, just as Jesus said to the thief: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

This righteousness of Christ is the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, and through faith, this righteousness is given to us and our sin is given to Christ. Jesus gives us his righteousness, and God the Father adopts us as his own children, when he poured out the Holy Spirit on us in the waters of Holy Baptism. He gives us this gift, we trust his word, and it is ours. And Jesus continues to strengthen us in this righteousness, when he feeds us with his own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The self-righteousness, through which we break the law, which we share with the scribes and Pharisees, which crucified Jesus himself, Jesus endures and suffers, and then he feeds back to us as his own pure righteousness, the righteousness through which he has fulfilled the law, and then shares with us. It is just so beyond our comprehension, and beyond our understanding, and beyond our wildest thoughts and dreams what the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ really is, and just how profoundly he has suffered for us, and just how immensely he loves us.

Now, let’s think about anger again. Jesus says: You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murder will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Self-righteousness, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, says: I haven’t murdered, therefore I haven’t sinned. Jesus says: but murder starts with anger. Anger is the first train station, and murder is just the destination of the train.

Now, we often think we have a right to be angry. And sometimes, we know that something is wrong, and we are angry about it. But we must know the difference between God’s anger, and the devil’s anger. Psalm 4 says: Be angry, but do not sin. St Paul writes a little comment on this verse in Ephesians, where he says: Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

I remember hearing a sermon from a pastor, many years ago, who said: At the end of the day, all of our anger is anger against God. I think this pastor was right, because we need to ask ourselves, when we get angry, aren’t we really just being angry with God who has allowed us to be in such and such a situation? Aren’t we just angry with God who hasn’t allowed things to be better for us in the world, and to be better for everyone, or to be better in general?

Remember at the end of the book of Genesis, when Joseph’s brothers went to him. Now Joseph’s brothers had been jealous of him, and had thrown Joseph into a pit, sold him into slavery, and then pretended to their father that he had been eaten alive by animals. But instead of getting angry with them, Joseph says: Am I in the place of God? You meant evil towards me, but God meant it for good.

Many things that we are angry about, are things that we don’t understand. We don’t understand why God allowed this, or why he let this happen. Think about it: often when people are about to die, if they are unbelievers, and they convert before they die, we say: “They made their peace with God.” Why do we say this? Because the reason why people refuse to turn to God, is because they are angry with him. They wanted things to be different.

We might look at our own lives, and our own society. We might look at our marriage, or our families, and we see things there, that we wish were different, that we wish were better. Are we angry about it, do we take our anger out on other people, or do we acknowledge even when we don’t understand, that God has allowed certain things for our blessing? Jesus says: What I am doing, you do not understand, but afterwards you will understand. He says: You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice. Psalm 30 says: By your favour, O LORD, you have made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

We might look at the way that COVID has made a mess of our lives in the recent years. We might look at the way at the way in which the marriage laws, the abortion laws, and the euthanasia laws have changed in Australia in the last few years. We might look at the way in which we can no longer trust the mass media in our country to provide us with unbiased news. We might look at the way in which there is corruption at all kinds of levels of society. We might think about all kinds of terrible injustices and sick perversions: child slavery, human trafficking, the wealthy industry of pornography. We might look at the way in which wealthy people, with high levels of influence, try to manipulate governments and nations to bring about great harm to many people. We might look at the way in which communists and “wokists” seek to destroy the family and free society, and aim to corrupt young people, turning children against the parents, and seeking to shut down and cancel any contrary views. We might look at the way in which churches all throughout the world have sacrificed the truth, and exchanged their birthright for a bowl of soup like Esau, just so that they can be more accommodating to the world.

Are we angry about these things? Yes, because these things are wrong, they are tragic, they cause us to weep, to cry, to lament. They cause us great bitterness, great anguish, great heartache. But we must also realise that the future of the church is not in its anger. The future of the church is not a whole lot of angry people. Jesus says: I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

What Jesus is doing now, you do not understand, but afterwards you will understand. Isaiah 38 says: Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness, but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. In all your confusion, Jesus has given to you the peace of God which transcends and surpasses not just all human understanding, but all angelic understanding, and all the combined understanding of heaven and earth. We might have once asked God to increase our faith, and help us in our life, and instead we end up feeling our sin even more deeply than before, and our helplessness even more, and the raging of the evil one even more.

They raged against Jesus too. And he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. When we do not know what we’re doing, and in our sinful blindness we do not know what God is doing, still, we have the forgiveness of sins, we have a faithful Saviour, we have his grace, his mercy, his love, we have Baptism and his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and the promise of eternal life. Remember the anger of those people who stoned the first Christian martyr to death. Stephen prayed: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We also pray the same prayer against our enemies too, and for all those in the world who continually take their stand on the side of evil. 

But in the meantime, when it comes to anger, the greatest fight is against our own anger. Yes, there are things that we can see that are wrong, and that are not right. But do we trust in a God whose ways are beyond our ways? Do we trust him to make things plain to us in his own time, even when we don’t understand now what he’s doing? After all, despite all that we know to be wrong in our lives, and in our world, Jesus still glorifies his Father by bestowing his grace upon us. And that is a thing more precious than anything in the world. It exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, because their righteousness—our self-righteousness—is a righteousness which goes from anger to anger to anger. The righteousness of Christ is a righteousness which has won perfect peace by his blood on the cross. It is a righteousness which cleanses us from the guilt and condemnation of sin by his blood. It is a righteousness that opens to us the gate of heaven, where an even more wonderful peace will prevail than was even there in the Garden of Eden. From this righteousness come the fruits of the Spirit, and all things good, and wonderful, and beautiful, and holy, and pure, and perfect. In this righteousness, we can look to Christ, walking on the water, with the storm raging around us and above us and within us, who says: Peace! Be still! Fear not. It is I. May God our heavenly Father send us the Holy Spirit, to root out of us our anger and our discontent, and point us to his Son, our righteousness, and our perfect peace! Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.