The Commemoration of the Reformation

The Commemoration of the Reformation (observed) – October 27, 2024

Psalm 34; Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28

St. John 8:31-36

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

“[Our churches] teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight.”[1]

The Commemoration of the Reformation is primarily an occasion of giving thanks to God for working through an insignificant Augustinian friar to return the Church to her first love – Christ and His pure Word.[2] It is meet, right, and salutary to learn about the history of our faith. The Reformation was the most significant event in the western church since the Second Council of Nicaea, and Martin Luther was the instrument, chosen by God, to spark that Reformation. Luther was a theological genius. He was a prolific writer. He knew how to strike out against the proud sinner and console the suffering conscience.

But if we allow our minds to focus the history of the Reformation on the person of Martin Luther, we are no better than the Medieval Roman Catholic Church who worshiped the saints. If today we sing the praises of Martin Luther as having worked to reform the Church by his own means, then we may as well pray to St. Jude that all children who have renounced the faith return home.

“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”^[3] Our Lord is speaking these words to the Jews who had believed in Him. These are the ones who heard the Word of God and were amazed. Their intellects were intrigued by the teaching of this One who taught not as the Pharisees but with authority. They are standing in the place of the Medieval Church and Christians of all time who hear preaching that pricks their consciences but do not yet understand. 

And yet these Jews could not help themselves but lie. “We have never been in bondage to anyone.”^[4] They make this statement during the Festival of Booths, that occasion where the people of God recalled the deliverance from slavery in Egypt by the hand of God. They have not forgotten their own history. Rather, Christ’s admonition to abide in His word has pricked their consciences. The Law of God has struck their hearts. They have not abided in God’s Word. They have not familiarized themselves with the basic teachings of the Scriptures. They have not treated the Word of God as being spoken to them by the lips of their heavenly Father.

The immediate reaction of these Jews to such an accusation of the Law is to lie. “We’ve never been enslaved – not in our lifetime, nor our father’s, nor ever since the time of Abraham. We’ve never been enslaved physically, nor spiritually enslaved to the worship of a false God. Why would we need to be set free?” What’s more is that these Jews have placed their salvation in being descended from Abraham. They have the right blood in their veins and so they will be loved by God.

There is a temptation for Christians that whatever occurred in the life of the church during the time most significant to me is the purest form of the Church. For many of us, it might look like our childhood. The way our childhood church was conducted is the height of Lutheranism. Perhaps it was during our middle age, when we had a close group of friends in the church – that was the height of Lutheranism. Perhaps we are tempted by descriptions of history. The way Luther conducted the service, THAT was the height of Lutheranism.

All are error and all are sin. They are sinful because they rely on the actions of humans to determine the height of the Truth of the Word of God. Christ is calling us to abide in His Word, and this Word is Truth, and this Truth shall make you free. There is nothing new under the sun. There were just as many erring pastors in the age of Martin Luther as there are today. There were just as many sinners in the Church of the fourth century as there are in the twenty-first. The ideal Church is not found on earth, it is found in the worship of heaven. It is found in the Word of God.

It is easy on a day celebrating the Reformation to claim, “We are Lutherans, sons and daughters of Pure Doctrine. We’ve never been enslaved to anyone!” especially for those of us raised in the church. Perhaps a slightly different claim is harbored in your heart: “I belong to the right church, therefore I am saved! I have the Lutheran blood in my veins therefore I am loved by God!” You probably can’t remember a time before your Baptism. You can’t remember a time when you were a slave to sin who did not know “Jesus Loves Me.” The memory of man is short and just as likely to lie as remember anything at all. All men are conceived in iniquity and born in sin. You were born as a child of wrath.

Jesus gently rebukes these Jews and tells them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever.”^[5] To sin against the Word of God by ignoring it or preferring the desires of your own flesh, wraps a chain of bondage around you. The more you struggle against the Word of God, the more you give in to your flesh – be it neglecting the Word of God, hating your neighbor, or lying against your conscience – the tighter the chains become and the easier it is to sin. Sin becomes your habitus, your way of life.

No matter the “purity” of your church, no matter the warm feelings your church family may give you, no matter how Christian you feel, no matter the claim of membership in the right Church or the claim of your family in the right church – sin makes you a slave. The slave of sin may dwell in the House of the Lord for a time. He may dwell in the House of the Lord his entire life on earth. But the slave of sin will not dwell in the House of the Lord for eternity. The slave of sin will be cast out into hell.

There is, however, an important distinction to be made. Our Lord says, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” We are born slaves to sin, and all unbelievers are slaves still. They are slaves by nature. “But a son abides forever.”^[6] The Christian is a son by nature. In Holy Baptism, you were adopted as a child of the Heavenly Father, an heir of the Kingdom of God. You are a child of heaven. Children of the Father remain in the House of the Lord forever!

The Christian is not a slave to sin by nature but to continue in sin, to commit sin returns you to a life of slavery. The chains of your bondage have been removed by the cleansing flood of Baptism and yet to return to sin, as a dog returns to vomit, is to once again pick up your chains and wrap them around your wrists. It is for this reason we, whose conscience has been made clean, must flee from sin. We must abhor sin. We must be disgusted by sin; by our own sin and by the sins of those around us. And when you find the steel links tightening their grip upon you, hardening your conscience and weighing down your soul, seek relief. Seek relief in repentance. Seek relief in the Word of God. Seek relief in confessing your sins. Seek relief in the Words of the Holy Absolution, proclaimed by the Pastor with his hands upon your head. Then, the chains will release their grip, climb the arms of your Pastor, sail past his shoulders and onto the shoulders of Christ.

“If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”^[7] Jesus Christ, True God and True Man has set you free by his Blood. He who knew no sin, humbled himself to be bound with the chains you deserve. He wrapped himself in the chains of your sin and bore them to the cross. Those chains, your chains, weighed him down such that the torture of crucifixion, usually lasting hours, if not days, took only three hours to kill him. The weight of the sin of the world is great and it was born by Christ.

This same Christ rose from the dead to make you free. He bore the chains of your sin into the grave so that in his Resurrection, he could break the chains of your bondage. The Son has made you free in his death and Resurrection. This freedom was then delivered to you in your Holy Baptism. You have been made free indeed.

This freedom is not the freedom of this world. Especially as Americans and descendants of the Enlightenment, we think of freedom as freedom of opportunity, if not freedom of outcome. We think of freedom to act as we please and then the freedom to endure the consequences, be they positive or negative. This is not the freedom of God. American freedom is freedom of the flesh and the flesh profits nothing.

The freedom won for you by Christ is the freedom from sin such that you are free to serve God and neighbor. The freedom won for you by Christ is the freedom to live as a child of God. You do not need to obey the Law of God under the threat of losing your salvation. As a child of God, you have the Law of God to teach you how to live in your freedom. When you abuse that freedom, when you return to your flesh, then the Law once again pierces your heart and accuses you of sin. On this side of glory, such will always be the case.

Yet the New Man wrought within us by the death of Christ longs to obey the Law, not out of threats, but out of love. The New Man desires to be the ideal child of God. This is the man who has been set free by the Son and is free indeed. He is free to submit himself to God, to His Law, and to His Love.

This freedom of Christ is also a freedom to recognize the work of the Holy Ghost within his saints. It is by this freedom that we recognize what a miracle was wrought in Martin Luther. Only by the working of God and the incredible, heroic faith bestowed upon that lowly friar, was Luther able to accomplish any of what he did. Today, we reap the benefits of what God did through Martin Luther and we give thanks that the Lord saw fit to bless us in this way.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] AC IV. Romans 3-4.

[2] This is an edited and updated version of the sermon preached in 2021.

[3] St. John 8:31-32.

[4] St. John 8:33.

[5] St. John 8:34-35.

[6] St. John 8:35.

[7] St. John 8:36.

The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity – October 20, 2024

Psalm 119; Isaiah 25:6-9; Ephesians 6:10-17

St. John 4:46-54

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

The nobleman in our text today went on a journey in three parts.[1] First was his trip from Capernaum to Cana to meet with our Lord. Second, he journeyed back to Capernaum after hearing of the promise that his son lives. Finally, there is the reunion in Capernaum. This three-fold journey will serve as the basis for our understanding of this text.

Although we don’t know for sure where Biblical Cana is located, Scripture indicates that it is about a day’s walk from Capernaum. The nobleman was desperate enough to leave his dying son behind and make a two-day trip to and from Cana to entreat Jesus. We know that this man had heard the Word of God sometime prior to making this trip. Perhaps he had been at the wedding in Cana and knew of Jesus from the miracle performed there. Perhaps he had even returned to Capernaum with Jesus after the wedding, hearing Him teach along the way.[2]

What we know for certain is that this nobleman had faith at the beginning of our text. If he didn’t, he would not have risked leaving his dying son in the care of servants. What kind of faith did he have? We can answer this in two ways.

The tiniest drop of faith is all sufficient for the salvation of man. The newly baptized child has the same faith as Elijah, the great prophet of God who was carried into heaven without experiencing death.[3] The young man newly converted to faith in Christ has the same faith as St. Paul, who endured scorn, beatings, prison, and martyrdom on behalf of Christ.[4] The lonely widow weeping over the death of her son has the same faith as Blessed Luther, risking his life to proclaim the purity of the Gospel against the Pope and his minions. This saving faith is one and the same. There is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”[5] It is not the work of man but the free gift of God, wrought in you by the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Gospel – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

At the same time, this faith necessarily needs to grow and be strengthened.[6] It is one thing to possess something. It is something entirely different to care for it, use it, and benefit from it. This faith is exercised in three ways – meditation on the Word of God, prayer, and affliction.[7]

Meditation on the Word of God is best illustrated by a cow chewing her cud. She eats of the grass, chews and swallows into her first stomach, but only a small portion of her nutrition is gained. The grass is brought back into her mouth to be chewed a second time and swallowed again. More nutrition is gained. This continues over and over again until the full measure of nutrition is gained from the mouthful of grass. In this way, we are to chew the cud of the Word of God. The first eating of the grass is hearing and reading the Word of God. Each subsequent chewing is revisiting this Word in contemplation – reading the Word again and again and filling your mind with it. For the cow, there is an end to this process. For the Christian, it is a life-long endeavor.

Prayer exercises faith in taking the spiritual nutrition gained from the Word of God and turning it into action, into words given back to God. The Word of God forms our own words, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit of God gives form to our prayers.[8] Not only is prayer an act of turning our hearts and minds toward God and expecting all good things from Him, but it also trains our flesh to do the same. By turning to God in prayer, we train our flesh for all future times when we find ourselves needing Him. It trains us to turn to Him always; to expect all good things from Him always; and to trust whatever He delivers to us to be for our benefit.

Finally, there is affliction or suffering. Our Lord promised that all who follow Him would suffer in this world. In a sense, our suffering is doubled because we know that we deserve it. When we suffer in this world, we know that it is on account of our sin. We also know that we deserve this suffering because of our sin; even as the beloved children of God. In fact, because we are beloved children of God, we hate our sin and wish to be free from it. We desire that God would purge our bodies and souls of sin, of the love of sinning, and of sin’s effects. And we endure this suffering because we know that God chastens those whom He loves.[9] We know that the suffering of this present age is nothing compared to the joys of the world to come.[10] A wise man loves the rebuke of his Father because he knows by it, he will be wiser still.[11]

As the nobleman journeys to Cana, his faith is weak. He insists that Christ come to his son. He trusts enough to know that Christ’s presence is the one thing his son needs but his faith is weak because it believes that his son will not be healed without the physical presence of Jesus. This is why our Lord rebukes him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”[12] The nobleman wants a display of the power of God in signs and wonders. He is already suffering the sickness of his son and now he wants a great miracle of God in grand visible gestures.

But he will not receive it. Our Lord offers a second, albeit subtle, rebuke. “God your way; your son lives.”[13] It is as though Jesus is saying, “My Word is enough for you and for your son. Your weak faith needs to be nourished and to grow. Let it be nourished on My Word alone. Go in the promise of this Word and your soul shall be healed.”

The nobleman must now make the journey back to his son. This journey is fraught with more anxiety than the first. He now has a clear Word of God, but he does not necessarily know the meaning. He is like Martha after Jesus said to her, “You brother will rise again.” She answers, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”[14] The nobleman must be meditating over and over again on this Word of Jesus. “When I get home, will my son have breath in his body? Or will he live in the life eternal?”

It is not until the nobleman is almost home that he receives an answer. His servants meet him outside his home and announce the healing of his son. They even repeat the words of Jesus, “Your son lives!”[15] The father recognized that his son had been healed at the very Word of Jesus the night before. He receives confirmation of his joy, and his faith is now praised in the eternal Scriptures.

As we near the end of the Church year and the celebration of Advent, our minds begin to turn toward the last things, toward the time when Christ will reveal Himself to the world for the final time. The three-fold journey of the nobleman can be seen as an allegory for our journey in the church.

The journey from Capernaum to Cana signifies our faith in its infancy. It is complete unto salvation, but it is unformed by meditation, prayer, and affliction. When we encounter suffering, the only outcome we can imagine from God is according to our wishes. It does not occur to us that God’s ways are not our ways. We know what we want from God, and we demand that He give it to us in grand and splendid ways.

Then, as we mature in the Word of God and begin to be formed by meditation, prayer, and affliction, we join the man on his journey home. We know and hear the Words and promises of God, but we do not have visual confirmation of them. Faith has grown and it continues to grow. This is the majority of our life on this side of glory. This knowledge of the Word of God, while it exercises our faith and results in its strengthening, also leads to more frustration and anxiety. This is because Satan wants nothing more than to drive the Words and promises of God from your heart. I’d say the nobleman was in greater danger of losing his faith on the journey home than the journey to Cana. And yet the nobleman endures. He endures because he holds to the Word of God and continues to contemplate it in his heart.

The joyous reunion at Capernaum is the consummation of our faith. It is the glorious revelation of our Lord in glory. It is that day when faith will no longer be necessary because the promises of God will be manifest before your very eyes.[16] It is the reunion with all the faithful in heaven and the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.[17] In that day, there will be no tears, save tears of joy and rejoicing.[18] On that side of glory, you will look back at your time of affliction, your time of suffering, and realize that the joy and bliss of heaven was made yours at that very hour, before you ever set foot on the final leg of your journey home. It was in the Words and promises of God given to you from the very lips of Jesus. 

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] This outline of the text is loosely based on Fred H. Lindemann, The Sermon and The Propers, Volume 4 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1962), 111-112.

[2] St. John 2:1-12.

[3] 2 Kings 2:11.

[4] 2 Corinthians 11:22-33.

[5] Ephesians 4:5-6.

[6] Hebrews 5:13-14; Proverbs 9.

[7] This is a reference to Martin Luther’s oratio, meditatio, and tentatio.

[8] Romans 8:26-27.

[9] Hebrews 12:6.

[10] Romans 8:18-19.

[11] Proverbs 9:8-9.

[12] St. John 4:48.

[13] St. John 4:50.

[14] St. John 11:23-24.

[15] St. John 4:51.

[16] Job 19:27.

[17] Revelation 19:6-9.

[18] Revelation 21:4.

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – October 6, 2024

Psalm 78; Genesis 28:10-17; Ephesians 4:22-24

St. Matthew 9:1-8

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

The friends of the paralytic are rightly concerned about him. They do not take him to see a physician nor to the Pharisees. It is possible that they’ve already tried these other remedies. Scripture is silent as to whether this is their first course of action or a last-ditch effort on behalf of a sick friend.

Our Lord’s response would suggest they have brought their friend to see Jesus as soon as they heard He was near. He is impressed by their faith. These men heard the Messiah had come back to Capernaum and they knew just what their friend needed.

Remember, this is said to be Jesus’ own city, that is, Capernaum, the city He adopted as a base of operations in His adult life. We can infer that this paralytic and those who brought him were known to Jesus and that they knew Jesus prior to the beginning of His miracles in Cana. These are the good ol’ boys from down the street. They didn’t grow up with Jesus, but they did know Him as an adult.

 Notice their behavior when they bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Our text does not record any speech on their behalf. Even the parallel accounts, each giving a few different details, do not give words to the friends. They just lay the paralyzed man before Jesus.

From this, we learn how to pray for our friends, our brothers, and our sisters. Seeing the paralyzed man, Jesus does not ask the diagnosis. He does not ask the opinion of the doctors or how it happened. The friends are not eager to share the details of how this man fell from the roof while patching it or stumbled down a small cliff while carousing. Jesus does not probe for more information regarding the difference between a spinal injury or a neurological disease. The men lay their friend before Jesus, trusting that the Son of Man would heal him in body and soul.

It is this faith that moves Jesus to forgive the man his sins. The paralytic may very well have been disappointed. “My friends went to all this work and there is nothing to show for it. They even impressed this Jesus fella and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Or not. Perhaps the paralytic is included in the ones who had faith. Perhaps he is one of the “they” whose faith impressed Jesus. In this case, he is content to have his sins forgiven. There is a very real chance that this man’s conscience is in fact more bothered by his sins than by his sickness. He is content not because it made feeling return to his legs but because he trusts that whatever Jesus was going to do, it was the right thing for him. Faith is trust without verification.

Jesus came into this situation to forgive the paralytic, in effect, telling him that forgiveness is the greater portion and the paralysis is a cross he must bear in this world. This is the purpose behind our Lord’s statement, “Be of good cheer; take heart; be courageous!” He is saying, depart in the forgiveness of sins to bear the cross of your paralysis for you will be greatly rewarded in the life to come.”

This is the response that is most common to our prayers for healing. Rarely are we given relief from the physical ailment. But we are told to receive the peace that is beyond all understanding. This peace is not just regarding our conscience. This Peace, Christ Himself, does provide relief to our flesh. It is beyond our comprehension how this Peace settles our body and soul, but we have the promise that it does. So, pray for healing. Pray for the healing of your neighbor and know that your faith has healed you.

To pray for someone, especially as we do in the Divine Service, it is enough to lay them before Jesus. God knows what he needs. I don’t need to tell God. If it is good enough for God for the person to be laid before Him, then it is also good enough for me.

Why then, might your pastor ask for more information about someone you’ve asked to be put on the prayer list? It is to help him diagnose the state of your soul. He wants to know what kind of care you might require. As for your paralytic friend, it is enough to lay him before Jesus. It is enough to place his name among the sick and the sorrowing, those who mourn and the lonely, those in need and distress, the homebound and the infirm.

It is enough in your prayers to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. It is enough to lay them before Jesus for He knows what they need. Demanding more information does nothing but satisfy your curiosity. If the desire for more information is for the sake of helping, that is, actually attending to their needs, then it is best to obtain that information directly from the one in need. Details are a matter of care, not a matter of knowledge.

On the one hand, Jesus already knows the cause of this man’s paralysis. We even see Him peer into the hearts of the scribes, knowing the evil that is going on behind their closed lips. But it is also instructive to us that He does not ask for the details of the sickness. The most important thing to know about paralysis, or any affliction, is that it is caused by sin. The sinful state of man is the root cause of all sickness, distress, and death. Therefore, the treatment most necessary is the forgiveness of sins. That is what matters more than remedies, medications, and surgeries.

Which brings us to a detail of today’s account that is easily overlooked. These men brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a bed. They did not sit at home and wait for Jesus to drop by. They did not expect Jesus to hear from Sue, who heard from Louise, who heard from Jim that someone had palsy. A man was paralyzed and they took him to Jesus.

What does this mean for you? If you are sick, if you are injured, if you are grieving, if you are sorrowful, pray to Jesus and call your pastor. Do not expect others to communicate on your behalf. Every child knows the dangers of communicating important information via a game of telephone. Do not wait for the pastor to hear through the grapevine what you need. It doesn’t work. If you were experiencing a heart attack, you wouldn’t lay on the floor and hope the ambulance driver comes by soon, and then blame the ambulance for not arriving soon enough. You would call the ambulance immediately. You wouldn’t call your sister and ask her to tell her friend to get the ER prepped. You would call 911. Why expect the Church to operate any differently?

Jesus is God. He knows all things. For a time, He set aside the use of His divine attributes and yet, in our text, He makes a momentary use of them to know the thoughts of the scribes. Yet even with the all-knowing Son of Man, these men bring the paralytic to Him.

It is true that these men are helping their paralytic friend. They are interceding for him. But what they aren’t doing is seeing a friend in need, then sending a messenger boy to tell someone close to Jesus what is going on. Nor are they standing next to the paralytic and yelling into space what their friend wants. They pick him up and take him to Jesus. They do the thing he is incapable of doing. He can’t move so they move him. They fill his lack, nothing more and nothing less.

After Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, He commanded Him to get up, gather his bedding, and go home. The paralytic, immediately healed, obeys Jesus’ commands. He does not groan over needing to carry his ragged bed mat. He does not sigh with being told to get back to daily chores. This healing miracle probably meant more hardship for the paralytic. Now he has to work. Now he has to engage with other people. Now he has to feed himself.

Yet the paralytic doesn’t complain. He doesn’t talk back to Jesus. You might be thinking, “Of course, he’s just happy not to be paralyzed anymore.” I’m sure that’s true. But the concise language suggests that this man arose and set about his new life as one charged by Christ, as a new man, as a new creation of Christ. He does not need years of therapy to overcome the mental anguish of having been paralyzed. He will need to adjust to his new life. He will need to be taught or at least relearn how to do the physical labor that will be required of him. He will be reintroduced to pain in the lower back, something he couldn’t feel when paralyzed.

But the text doesn’t give a single word to these struggles. It is enough for the man that his sins are forgiven. It is enough to obey the words of Christ. It is enough for him to go about his new life in Christ with the knowledge that He is forgiven. It is enough for him to set about his vocation knowing that his identity is found in the God who created, forgave, and recreated him.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.