Sunday, November 13, 2022

The Second Last Sunday in the Church Year

The Second Last Sunday in the Church Year – November 13, 2022
Psalm 54; Daniel 7:9-14; 2 Peter 3:3-14
St. Matthew 25:31-46

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”[1] Faith is born in you, is created in you, by the hearing of the Word of God. This is not your own doing; it is the work and the will of the Holy Spirit. The act of hearing itself is not your work. Hearing is a passive, or receptive, activity. You hear when someone else speaks. You receive their words into your ears.

The reception of faith is then always connected with another person. We might call this the incarnational aspect of faith. Faith comes by hearing when the Word of God issues forth from the mouth of another human being. In this way, the Word of God becomes wrapped in flesh. Whether it is your mother singing to you in your nursery, your father reading the Scriptures to the family at night, or the public reading of the Holy Gospel by the ministers of God in the Divine Service, your faith was brought to you in the Word of God wrapped in the lips of another person.

The Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error. Yet in writing the Word of God, in its transmission, God saw fit to inspire holy men. God works through means. There is not an “Epistle of the Holy Spirit to the Church in Missouri.” Words did not miraculously appear on pages. The Son of God took on flesh, became incarnate, that He would physically die the death you deserve. After His physical resurrection but before His physical ascent into heaven, our Lord, Jesus Christ, breathed on His apostles.[2] He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them so that whoever hears them would hear Christ.[3] This is the Apostolic Doctrine once delivered to the saints.[4] This is the one faith into which we are all baptized.[5] It is the Word of God, and it is the Word of God delivered by means of fleshly mouths.

The propagation of the faith by the mouth of Christians to the ears of new Christians is how the Sheep are created. The Sheep are those who have received the Word of God in faith. Yet receiving the Word of God is not quite enough. The Word must take root. The Word must change the stony heart of the Goat into a fleshly heart of a Sheep. In fact, the Goats are surprised to be called such. They are surprised because they thought themselves to be Sheep. They thought their actions had proven the wool of their Sheep coats.

The difference between these two animals in the parable is the presence of faith. The Sheep and the Goats are separated based on what they are. One is a new creation, having received the Word of God in faith and growing into that Word accordingly. The other is the Old Creation. The Goats may have heard the Word of God, but it took no root in their hearts. The Goats may outwardly appear to be sheep but are little more than Goats in wool coats.

What does it mean, then, that faith take root in your heart? In this parable, it is presented as the works born of faith. The blossoming of faith is described as feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, housing the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned. Associating the hungry, thirsty, stranger, etc., with Christ, Himself, tells us that the object of these good deeds is those who have brought the faith to you. It is the way in which the Sheep have treated their brothers and sisters in Christ. In a general sense, we can say the division of the Sheep and the Goats is based on the reaction each has shown to the hearing of the Word of God.

However, the Scriptures get more specific in this parable. Christ says, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”[6] When our Lord speaks of “His brethren,” it is a reference to the Apostles. More specifically, it is a reference to the Apostles when they are acting in the stead of Christ. So, while it is true that the division of the Sheep and the Goats speaks to your reaction to and treatment of the Church, this parable speaks specifically of your reaction to and treatment of the ministers of the Church.

Some of the actions listed are necessities. It is necessary that the ministers of the Church have food, drink, and clothing. It is not necessary for this life, that he be taken in when he is a stranger. It is not necessary that he be visited when he is sick. What this tells us is that Christ is speaking of more than meeting the basic needs of His ministers. He is speaking also of hospitality shown toward them.

In this light, we can see that the Sheep recognize the Office of the Holy Ministry to be the vocation of highest honor on this side of glory. They recognize the difficulties of the Office and that a man of flesh and blood must fill this Office. The Sheep also recognize that it is the ministers of Christ who bring to them the one thing needful – Jesus. The Office is honorable, difficult, to be respected, and mentioned in this parable not because of the men who fill it. The Office is honorable, difficult, and respectable because of who instituted this Office – Jesus.

On this side of glory, men are placed into the Office of Christ so that His Word would continue to work faith in the hearts of man. Men are placed into the Office of Christ so that His Body and Blood would continue to feed and sustain His church. Men are placed into the Office of Christ so that your sins would be forgiven through the Words of a human mouth—a human mouth in poor imitation of the lips of the One who died for your forgiveness.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


[1] Romans 10:17.

[2] St. John 20:21-23.

[3] St. Luke 10:16.

[4] Jude 1:3.

[5] Ephesians 4:4-6.

[6] St. Matthew 25:40. Emphasis added.

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