The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity – August 25, 2024

Psalm 74; Leviticus 19:9-18; Galatians 3:16-22

St. Luke 10:23-37

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

The certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is representative of mankind. He is every man. He is you in this parable. He is going the wrong way. He is leaving Jerusalem, the city of peace which God has appointed for His holy habitation.[1] He is going to Jericho, the city that God commanded never to be rebuilt. In fact, God said that should Jericho be rebuilt, it would be built in the blood of the firstborn and youngest sons of the one who rebuilt it.[2] In the days of evil king Ahab, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho and sacrificed both his firstborn and youngest sons to Baal in the process.[3] In other words, the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho describes humanity’s fall into sin and the ever-present desire to sin that clings to our flesh.

The thieves who meet humanity on the road are Temptation and Satan. Every day of our journey on this side of glory, we are beset by Temptation and Satan. In his fallen state, man falls victim to these thieves who leave him half dead. He is “half dead” because he is spiritually dead even if he is physically alive.[4] The man is left helpless to save himself. He lays dying on the road to perdition and there is nothing he can do to prevent his damnation.[5]

At this fortunate moment, a priest and a Levite come down the road as well. Together, these represent the Mosaic Law and the Levitical priesthood, specifically the Temple regulations and sacrifices. The priest and the Levite are also coming down from Jerusalem. They have finished their service at the Temple and are returning to their homes. This signifies that the Law and the sacrifices have done their job. They have shown man his sin, revealing to him the ways in which he has disobeyed God’s will.[6] The sacrifices have accomplished their duty in pointing man to the mercy of God and His forgiveness. There is nothing left for them to do because faith in the Law and faith in the sacrifices of goats and sheep cannot save the man.[7] Their duty is accomplished and so both pass by on the other side of the road.

Finally, a Samaritan, who is on a journey, comes to the man. The Samaritan is far from his home. He is something other than the man himself and yet descends into the ditch to be with the man. The Samaritan is the very figure of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He journeys from the Father, into our flesh to be with us. He descends from His heavenly throne into the ditch of creation to be with His beloved mankind.[8]

Seeing the sorry state of man, God has compassion on him. He is moved in His inward being and determines to rescue man.[9] God is moved by His great love for man to descend into our flesh, into our sorry state. Christ bandages man’s wounds with oil and wine. The oil is the consolation of a clean conscience before God, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of the Gospel—Christ’s own sacrifice for your sins that you would be reconciled to the Father. The wine, which stings as it cleans and disinfects the wounds, is the cross given to all who believe to bear in this life.[10] This cross is affliction, give to man by God that he would ever be mindful of the sorry state which is the result of sin. This sting reminds man that he is not made for sin nor to endure in this physical life forever but has the eternal life of glory to live for.[11]

Christ raises man up out of the muck and mire of our sin and places him on His own beast of burden. He gives us His relief, His place upon the animal, and takes for Himself the burden of our sin.[12] He walks in our place. His feet tread the burning sand and sharp rocks created by the fall of our first parents in our stead. That which we deserve, Chris endures for our sakes.

Upon this beast of burden, Christ carries man to the inn. This inn is the established location for the care of man. It is the hospice designed to care for man as he concludes his life on this side of glory and enters into eternity. It is the hospital where man is nursed back to health to face life on this side of glory. It is the gym where man is trained, strengthened, and equipped to life the life of the righteous man before the world. The inn is the Church. It is that place where the beloved of God gather to hear the Word of God and receive His holy gifts in the Sacraments.

These Sacraments are the two denarii which the Samaritan given to the innkeeper. They are the means given to provide for the care of Christians: Holy Baptism to wash away sin and rebirth the Christian as one born of God, and the Holy Supper, given to feed, strengthen, form, and forgive the Christian as he continues the journey on this side of glory.

To whom are these denarii given? They are given to the innkeeper, the man given authority to administer the Holy Sacraments of God. The innkeeper is the pastor, whose solemn duty it is to preach the Word of God and administer the Holy Sacraments for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of Christians in body and soul.[13] He stands in the stead of the Samaritan who has delivered the injured man to the inn and cares for him as the Samaritan has directed.[14] He receives his orders from the Samaritan and is called to execute them according to that divine command.

Finally, the Samaritan promises to return. He will return to repay the innkeeper and to retrieve the injured man as the Samaritan returns on His journey to His Father. Christ has promised to return to gather His elect into the heavenly mansions He has prepared.[15] He has also promised to return and give to His servants, His undershepherds, the honor due their service. Pastors will be judged more harshly than all others because of the severity of their charge but they will also be rewarded more handsomely for their faithful service because of the value of the souls given to their care.[16]

Now, this parable is given to the certain lawyer as the answer to the question, “And who is my neighbor?” The lawyer is trying to find the loophole in the commandment to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. He doesn’t want to know who it is he must love. He wants to know who he doesn’t have to love to inherit eternal life. He wants to narrow the field and make it possible to keep the Law of God.

The beauty of the parable is that Christ transitions the definition from passive to active. The lawyer defines the neighbor as the one who needs help—the passive person in need. Jesus defines the neighbor as the one who shows mercy—the active person who helps. Even the lawyer acknowledges this as being true. When asked who was a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves, the lawyer responds that it was the Samaritan, the one who showed mercy who was his neighbor. And Jesus responds, “Go and do likewise.”

The parable is unquestionably about our salvation being achieved by Christ alone. It is about the inability of man to save himself in any way, shape or form. Every step of the man’s healing is the work of the Samaritan, not the man himself. And yet, Jesus’ command remains, “Go and do likewise.” For those who have been grafted into Christ, who are the baptized children of the Father and who find themselves united to THE Good Samaritan, it is a necessary consequence that we find ourselves imitating Him. We are to look to Christ our Salvation and see the very model of the perfect man. We are to look to Him and see what righteousness is. “Who may abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord? Who may dwell in His holy hill? He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart.”[17]  “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul…Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation…Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way.”[18]

Everyone in the world is a candidate for you to show mercy to but not everyone in the world has been placed before you. You have been placed in a specific location with particular people around you. These are your neighbors, and these are the people for whom you are called to be a neighbor. No one chooses for whom he is a neighbor. God has placed you in a particular place among particular people. It is their needs, their bodies and souls to which you have been called to show mercy—not for the sake of earning the inheritance of eternal life but as one who has been shown the ways of the Lord and taught to walk along His paths. 

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] Isaiah 4:3.

[2] Joshua 6:26.

[3] 1 Kings 16:34.

[4] Genesis 2:17.

[5] Psalm 14:1-3.

[6] Romans 3:19-20.

[7] Hebrews 9:11-15.

[8] St. John 1:14.

[9] St. John 3:16.

[10] St. Mark 10:39.

[11] 2 Corinthians 12:7.

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21.

[13] 1 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Romans 15:4.

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

[15] Acts 1:11; St. John 14:1-4.

[16] James 3:1; 1 Timothy 3:1.

[17] Psalm 15:1-2.

[18] Psalm 25:1, 4, 8.

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – August 4, 2024

Psalm 55; Jeremiah 7:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

St. Luke 19:41-48

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

A den of thieves is the place where the robbers feel safe. It is where they store their stolen treasures and plot their next crime. A den of thieves is where the criminals hide from justice even as they prepare to break more laws. In this way, we can see what our Lord is condemning on Palm Sunday.

The money changers had turned the Court of the Gentiles into a market. Money changing was necessary. The Temple had its own currency, and it was necessary that foreign currencies be exchanged so that the Temple tax and tithes wouldn’t be offered in coins bearing foreign gods or idols. It was also necessary that sacrificial animals be bought and sold in or near the Temple. The Passover was coming and Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims who had travelled great distances to offer sacrifices. It was impractical and sometimes to expensive for them to travel with the necessary animals for sacrifice. So they needed somewhere to purchase the animals to offer to the Lord God, Almighty.

The sin comes in that the money changers had turned the court of the Gentiles into a market. The one part of the Temple reserved for Gentile believers was overrun by commerce. The Jews had refused the children of God by faith a place at the Lord’s Table. This is what makes God’s house of prayer into a den of robbers – not the exchange of money but the theft of a rightful place in the house of God to those of a different birth.

Our Lord wept over Jerusalem because she failed to recognize the time of her visitation; the time when God came to her for her salvation. Jerusalem was too busy seeking profit and power, long life and health to see her Lord had come.

In the year 70 AD, this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled. The city of Jerusalem was surrounded and destroyed by the Romans. This destruction fulfilled two purposes. First, it was a judgment against the mighty city on the hill who time and again murdered the prophets and rejected God. Second, it was the very hand of God destroying an idol. Mankind is very good at making idols. We are twice as good at making idols out of good things given to us by God. Jerusalem was built as the city of peace, the site of the Lord’s habitation, His own dwelling. The Temple was built as the House of God, a monument in stone showing the presence of God among His people.

Then, when God descended into the flesh of man, He took a new dwelling. He began to dwell with His people, not in buildings of stone, but in flesh. At the crucifixion, the Temple curtain was torn in two to show that God no longer dwelt behind the curtain but with His people. The need for the sacrifice of animals was over. They were only ever a shadow of the final sacrifice of Christ. The end of sacrifices meant the end of the need for the Temple and the Temple priesthood.

But, given the opportunity, man will turn even the good gifts of God into idols. The Book of Acts and the Epistles are full of controversy over the necessity of keeping the food laws and circumcision. In general, just how “Jewish” do Christians need to be? Phrased this way, the question itself is wrong. No one needs to be Jewish by blood or ceremony to be a Christian, and this has been true since Adam and Eve were created! It is true that God chose one nation, one people, one ethnai to be His people. This was for the purpose of the lineage of Christ. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samson, Samuel, and David were and are saved by faith. No one has ever been saved by his blood or his heritage.

God is no respecter of persons. This is why He took such great offense when the money changers had taken over the Court of the Gentiles. It is true, the distinctions of the Temple were still enforced at this time, but God made provision for the Gentile believers. Remember, every time a centurion (Gentile by definition) is mentioned in the New Testament, his faith is commended. In Isaiah 56, the Lord God Almighty says,  

“Also the sons of the foreigner

Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,

And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—

Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,

And holds fast My covenant—

Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,

And make them joyful in My house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

Will be accepted on My altar;

For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”[1]

“For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all Gentiles, all nations, all people.” Immediately after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, Christians of Jewish descent began demanding that all Christians be circumcised, restrict their diets, and live according to Jewish laws. For a time and in certain places, St. Paul and the other apostles recommended bearing with these weaker brothers so as not to destroy their weak faith. However, there would come a time when these weaker brothers would also need to be strengthened. They could not claim to be children in the faith forever because their particular weakness made outward actions necessary before faith could enter in. Requiring the Jewish laws meant God would only save those who first committed outward acts of obedience. Salvation by works, not faith.

From Adam to today, and on to the very last day, salvation is by faith alone. No one is saved apart from faith nor in a way other than through the saving blood of Jesus Christ. The modern nation of Israel has nothing to do with the children of Israel in the Old Testament, aside from occupying roughly the same geography. The promises of God to His people Israel are His promises to the Church – the people of God. There is no necessity of a third temple, a sacrificial red heifer, or new priesthood within a modern nation for the salvation of man nor the return of Christ. These are lies first systematically taught by John Nelson Darby in the 19^th century and made popular in the heretical Schofield Study Bible.

Looking to the nation of Israel as the harbinger of the return of Christ is precisely to miss your visitation. To be focused on the ethnic Jewish people as somehow a continuation of the children of God is to hide your eyes from the one thing that makes peace with God – the blood of Jesus Christ.

Christ our Lord stood overlooking the same city for which Jeremiah wept and shed his own tears. Jesus wept for Jerusalem because he loves her and all her inhabitants. Jerusalem was the city chosen to receive the Incarnate Lord, given the Word of God and the promise of everlasting life. Yet Jerusalem had rejected her Savior. Jerusalem had killed the prophets and neglected the Word of God.

Our Lord weeps over Jerusalem because he loves her. He loves the Pharisees and Sadducees, the chief priests and scribes, the leaders of the people, the Romans, and the Herodians. If this were not the case, he would not bother to rebuke them nor shed tears on their account. He desires not the death of a sinner but his conversion. Jesus weeps for your sin. I’m not so certain that Jesus isn’t weeping as he cleanses the temple with a whip of cords. He weeps for your sin and then bears it to the cross of Calvary.

The same Jesus who chases out the money changers will shortly thereafter submit to these same authorities. He will not struggle against them. He will not seek asylum. It is Palm Sunday when he weeps for Jerusalem and cleanses the Temple. Jerusalem who kills the prophets and silences the Word of God will soon kill the Prophet like Moses, the Incarnate Word of God, the King of Kings, and Eternal Priest of the Most High. Jesus will submit to the death of a criminal so that the money changers don’t have to; so that you don’t have to.

Every drop of water in the Bible points to Holy Baptism, even the tiny drops of Christ’s tears. He sheds these tears to cleanse you of your sin. He sheds his Holy Blood to pay the debt your sin has incurred. He rises victorious to proclaim his word of forgiveness and victory over sin, death, and the devil; to claim you as his trophy. His tears, his teaching, his life, death, resurrection, and ascension are all accomplished for you, whether you like it or not. This is what Christ has to deliver to you through the lips of a sinful man.

A parent who enjoys spanking their child is an abuser. Chastisement truly hurts the parent as much or more than the child because we love them. The Heavenly Father chastises us for our own good. Christ cleanses the temple for the good of the money changers, so that they would repent, then listen to his teaching. Immediately after cleansing the desecration of the Temple, Christ teaches the crowds. He restores the Temple to its purpose – that place where the Holy God dwells with his people, distributing his Word of forgiveness and his gifts of salvation.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] Isaiah 56:6-7.

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – August 21, 2022

Psalm 55; Jeremiah 7:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

St. Luke 19:41-48

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

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand the seeming contradiction between God’s wrath and His mercy. God’s wrath is the enactment of His rightful justice against evil. God’s mercy is the withholding of His punishment against the same. It is true that the destruction of evil brings glory to God. It is also true that God desires all men to be saved. It is true that Christ died for the sins of every man ever born and that same Christ sentences the unrighteous to eternal torment in hell. God is Love and God is Just.

Thanks be to God that we do not have to reconcile these difficult attributes of God. We must, however, pay attention to them. We must realize the true meaning of God’s wrath so that we might understand the severity of our sins. Knowing the depth of our condition and the totality of God’s wrath against sin, we must cry out for help. We must plead that God would sustain us in the faith so that we would be counted among those who receive His mercy.

On Palm Sunday, as our Lord approaches Jerusalem, he weeps over the city. He weeps over Jerusalem because he loves her. He loves the people of Jerusalem, the people given to dwell with the Lord at his Temple, and yet they have rejected him. They have rejected Christ and perverted his Word. In so doing, they have invoked the wrath of God. As a parent weeps over the rebellious child who has disowned the family, Jesus weeps for Jerusalem.

These tears of our Lord signify four things.[1] First, they bring comfort by proving Christ to be True Man. He shares in the lament and pain that only man can know. Great sadness and frustration wells up within him. “The shedding of tears is a very human trait.”[2] There is no pain known to mankind that our Lord did not take upon himself. Even today, risen in glory, our Lord retains his complete humanity, exalted on high, such that we would know our unity with him.

Secondly, the tears offer satisfaction. They are obviously not the atoning sacrifice of the Cross, but Christ became poor that we would become rich, and he wept that we would have eternal joy. “Christ’s tears have paid [for all Christians] so that God can later wipe away all tears from [your] eyes.”[3]

Thirdly, they are tears of consolation. God desires not the death of the sinner and mourns the sins of man. God’s justice requires punishment for sin and it deeply grieves God to mete out such punishment and yet it is the hardness of man’s heart that rejects the love and mercy of God. Sinful man has chosen his own punishment and in God’s perfect justice, the unrepentant sinner is turned over to the lusts of his own heart. These tears flow from the deep well of Christ’s heart. “When one’s heart is wounded by sorrow, tears flow from one’s eyes just like blood flows from a bodily wound.”[4]

This is also why it is a dangerous error to believe that God has chosen some for condemnation. If God had made an eternal decree that certain individuals would go to hell, why should Christ mourn? Why mourn over that which God himself caused? No. God desires the salvation of all and mourns the loss of even one who would reject this salvation.

Finally, these are tears of exhortation. Christ weeps over sin to call us to repentance. If we have put on Christ in our Baptisms, should not we also weep over our sin? The life of the Christian is a daily battle against the world, the devil, and our own flesh. Daily we must return to the waters of our Holy Baptism, that we would mourn over our sins, and cling ever more tightly to Christ.

With the tears of Christ comes a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. The walls, the Temple, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were brutally slaughtered by the Romans in 70 AD. This was the first fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, and yet it was not the Romans alone who enacted judgment against Jerusalem. The Lord delivered a prophecy to Isaiah saying, “I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, and I will raise siegeworks against you.”[5] God Himself was judging Jerusalem for her lack of faith; for turning to worship false gods; for crucifying Christ.

The earthly Jerusalem was to be the shining city on the hill; that place where God came to dwell with His people: first in the Temple and then enwrapped in the flesh of the Incarnation. The Jews who dwelt at Jerusalem were given the Word of God to be a light to all nations, being a blessing to all who blessed them.

But this was not the case. Already in the time of Jeremiah, the Jews were worshipping Baal in the morning and Yahweh in the evening. They offered their children on altars fire then sacrificed a bull to Yahweh without seeing the contradiction. By the time of our Lord’s Incarnation, the temples of Baal were gone but they had been replaced by banking and commerce in the Temple. Even worse, those most prepared to receive the Savior rejected Him as dangerous to their way of living.

You, dear Christians, are the most prepared to receive the Savior. You have the Word of God delivered to you in easily available bibles and preached from this pulpit. But much like the Pharisees, such familiarity easily breeds contempt. You confess that the Small Catechism is the right teaching of the Word of God but when was the last time you opened your copy? Or said the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, and Lord’s Prayer more than once a week? Is reading the bible in the morning and evening a danger to your way of life? We are far more like the Pharisees than any of us wants to admit.

Thanks be to God we have their example. We have the example of those who reject the Savior, seeking to destroy Him with hellfire. We have the example of these wicked men, whose actions foreshadow our own, being slaughtered by the Romans; being judged by God for their lack of faith and infidelity with the gods of their own pleasures.

The example of the Pharisees and the prophecy of destruction are a warning to you. See it for what it is. Prepare yourself for the end of days, when the heavens and the earth with pass away. In that day, will you know the time of your visitation? Will you know that Christ comes not to destroy you but to bring you to Himself? Or will you hide from the Lord?

Do your actions today and every day speak of a preparation for the coming of the Lord in power and might? Do you cry out to God, “King of majesty tremendous, who dost free salvation send us, fount of pity, then befriend us! Think, good Jesus, my salvation caused Thy wondrous incarnation; leave me not to reprobation! Guilty, now I pour my moaning, all my shame with anguish owning: spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning! Worthless are my prayers and sighing; yet, good Lord, in grace complying, rescue me from fires undying. With Thy favored sheep, oh, place me! Nor among the goats abase me, but to Thy right hand upraise me.”[6]

You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus has died for you. You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus has washed you in His blood when you were baptized. You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus Holy Body and Precious Blood are here to strengthen and preserve your body and soul unto life everlasting.

Yet the sin which clings to your flesh can take such confidence and turn it to pride. This is the folly of the Pharisees. They were confident in their salvation because they had kept God’s Law, or as much of it as they thought necessary. They had no need for the teachings of Jesus, nor His forgiveness. Lest you, too, fall into this trap of pride, humble yourself before God and remember always to pray that He would have mercy on you.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

_____________________________

[1] This enumeration comes from Johann Gerhard, Postilla: An Explanation of the Sunday and Most Important Festival Gospels of the Whole Year, Volume 2, translated by O Marc Tangner (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2007), 109-119.

[2] Gerhard, Postilla, 111.

[3] Gerhard, Postilla, 112.

[4] Gerhard, Postilla, 113.

[5] Isaiah 29:3.

[6] Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning, stanzas 8-9, 12, 14-15.

The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

 The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity – October 17, 2021

Psalm 48; Isaiah 55:1-9; Ephesians 5:15-21

St. Matthew 22:1-14

In the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The uncomfortable truth of today’s text is that many are called but few are chosen. Christ teaches this lesson in two parts: first the invitation to the wedding and then the man without the wedding garment.

God the Father is the king who has arranged a marriage between His Son and the Church. God desires all men to be saved and thus sends the invitation out to all. First, this invitation went to Adam and Eve, but they were not willing to come to the wedding. Contrary to God’s will, they saw the fruit was good to eat and preferred the food of their own choosing rather than the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Still, the invitation of the King was valid after the Fall. “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear My Son. He will crush the head of the serpent and consummate the wedding in righteousness and purity.”[1]

The invitation was handed down from Adam to his sons, from Seth to Enosh and on down the line. But again, the sons of God took wives from the daughters of men, turning away from the invitation of the King to be joined to His Son. “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”[2] Through the Flood and the dispersion of the nations at Babel, still the invitation was valid.

As Abraham sat on the plain of Haran, the LORD began to send out new servants to renew the invitation. These servants are the patriarchs, judges, and prophets, the holy men of old. They bore the Word of the King, inviting the nations but especially the blood descendants of Abraham to the wedding feast. Some made light of it and returned to their farms and businesses. These are the people who worship God with their lips but owe the devotion of their hearts to Mammon. Others were enraged by the invitation. These believed the Word of God to be mocking them. They seized the prophets, treated them spitefully, and killed them.

Such were the scribes and Pharisees. They believed the Son of God to be a threat to their power and prestige. They heard the Word of God and called it blasphemy.[3] They killed not only the servants of the King but his Son. Their actions and the evil in their hearts caused the wrath of the Father, the King. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD is a fulfillment of this parable as God destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. He judged the false worship of the Jews and condemned them as idolaters and blasphemers.

Yet the invitation is still valid. The final round of servants to be sent are the Apostles, Evangelists, martyrs, and pastors. They are sent to proclaim the Word of God to all nations, the wicked and the good, gathering them into the wedding hall. While the invitation of the King was always meant for all people, Jew and Gentile, it would be the Gentile nations which would now receive the invitation most readily.

Such a spiritual interpretation of this parable is true but do not think that it is all in the past. The invitation to the wedding has been the same since God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden, promising the salvation of man through the death and resurrection of Christ.[4] So too, the heart of man has remained unchanged since the Fall. There is nothing new under the sun.[5] Hell is a very real place and although all mankind is called to salvation, very few are chosen.

The death and resurrection of Christ atoned for the sins of the whole world – every human ever to have been born and every human yet to be born. All sins have been paid for. But man begins his life an enemy of God. He is born set against the will of God. By nature, he rejects this salvation. Therefore, it is not against the loving and merciful nature of God to condemn man. God is not the first actor in condemnation – man is. Man has already set himself against God. The condemning action of God is a reaction to the rejection of Man. The invitation has gone out to the four corners of the earth and when that invitation is rejected, the King sends out his army in judgment.

“God stands justified, justified not only as one who deals righteously, but also as a gracious, friendly, and compassionate God, even if millions are lost. For He has offered for the deliverance of all fallen men the greatest and most precious gift, His only-begotten Son… He invited them, but they did not come. He proffered the hand of reconciliation, but they rejected it. Again He turned His reconciled face to them, but they insolently smote Him in the face and turned away. Hell itself will become silent when the heavens praise God’s eternal mercy. It will then pass sentence upon itself, and weeping loudly cry out, ‘Lord, You are righteous and Your judgments are upright. You have not damned us, but we have damned ourselves.’

“Therefore, if you who secretly quarrel with God hear that only few are elected and that most men are lost, pause for a moment! Fall on your knees and in humility worship Him who wishes to save all men and condemns only those who do not want to save themselves, who want to damn themselves. And should there be a person among us who does not want to accept the invitation to the marriage of grace, who wants to persevere in his unbelief, who wants to know nothing of the reconciliation through Christ, let him know: His hope that God still will not eternally damn him is a sacrilege. God does not first judge him who does not believe; he is judged already. Over him who does not believe God’s wrath does not first burst into flame; God’s wrath which had risen upon him long ago merely remains upon him. For him who does not believe God does not first create hell; he has elected hell for himself, which was created alone for Satan and his angels. He condemns himself.”[6]

Though an uncomfortable truth, it is easier to consider the fate of the wicked world and eternity in hell for the manifest unbelievers of the world. The second half of the parable, the man found without a wedding garment, if far more difficult for Christians. It is difficult because the man without the garment is in the Church. In the eyes of mortals, he appears to be a Christian. He goes to church. He volunteers. He places an envelope in the plate every week.

The King sees what we cannot see.[7] This man has spurned the wedding garment. Everyone who comes into the wedding feast is given a gleaming robe of white, the only attire appropriate for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, the only bridal gown worthy of the Bride of Christ.

This gown, according to St. Paul, consists of two parts. First, there is the complete gown of Christ’s righteousness. This you received in Holy Baptism, as St. Paul says to the Galatians, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”[8] This robe marks you as the Baptized, is the everlasting sign of the faith which has been born in your heart, and grafts you into the Body of Christ. Within this garment, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female. All are heirs of Abraham according to the faith delivered in the first invitation to our first parents.[9]

This gown was won for all in the death and resurrection of Jesus but not all receive this gown. Many deny it. The man found without a garment has publicly confessed his faith but has rejected his baptism. He makes a show of faith by following the actions. He treats the assembly of saints as a social club, the opportunity to make friends and influence people. If he must endure a sermon or hymn that he doesn’t care for, it is worth it because the church exists to serve him in his sin.

Make no mistake, we are all guilty of putting off our Baptismal garment. If you’ve ever knowingly committed a sin but justified it to yourself because, “no one will know,” then you are guilty of casting aside your baptismal gown. If you’ve ever neglected to forgive your brother because, ‘well that was a long time ago,’ you’ve slipped out of your white garment and forgotten that you daily pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”[10] Most common among us all is denying the Word of God. “My Jesus wouldn’t say that,” or “My Jesus would accept everyone,” or “My Jesus would sing my favorite songs,” are all examples of making a God in your own image and then calling him ‘Jesus.’ Repent of such foolishness and return to your Baptismal garment.

The second part of the wedding garment is the embroidery and the jewels which adorn it. These are your good works, the life of sanctification. St. Paul says to the Ephesians, “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”[11] Refusing to obey the Ten Commandments or insisting on inventing good works of your own choosing are both ways of tearing the adornments of sanctification off your wedding garment, marring its purity.

It is true that all our works are marred by the stain of sin which still clings to us on this side of glory, but that doesn’t mean that you can stop trying to obey the Ten Commandments. This is allowing the perfect to become the enemy of the good. Just because you can’t love your husband perfectly doesn’t mean you are free to have an affair. Nor does it mean you are free to treat him like your slave or nag him to get your way. All wives are called to submit to your husbands as Christ submits to the Church. That means he is your head. You are to show deference to him by obeying his commands and following his direction. Love him by serving him. Love him as his beloved.

Men are called to love your wives as Christ loves the Church. This means you are to die for her. It also means you are to lead her. Christ does not defer to the Church or forsake his headship because the Church is strong willed. He loves her enough to call her to repentance, to tell her how to live, to protect her, and to guide her into all righteousness. Be a man for your wife by looking out for her good, not submitting to her sins. Jesus dies for the Church so that she would receive His inheritance. This is male headship.

Many are called, but few are chosen. The entire world is called to faith through the atonement of Christ made for all people. Only few receive this call and receive the garments of faith and holiness. Fewer still bear this wedding robe to the end. Many in this world will spend eternity in Hell. Many within the church on earth will share the same fate for they are hypocrites. They worship God with their lips, but their hearts are far away.[12] Only the chosen few will endure unto life eternal.

If you find yourself asking, “Will I endure? Is my faith strong enough?” First repent of relying on your own faith. The strength of your faith does not save you. Rather, ask the biblical questions, “Did Jesus die for the whole world? Am I part of the world?” The answers are both an emphatic yes! Jesus died for you, and you have received the gleaming robe of white.

Should you then find yourself questioning if you are the hypocrite who has cast off his baptismal gown, ask, “Am I baptized?” When you see the answer is yes, then you know your garment is secure. Then go to your pastor for confession and absolution, in which you will hear that the salvation won by Christ is yours. It has been won for you and given to you by the shed blood of Jesus. Finally, say aloud the creed so that your own ears will hear your voice confess, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.”

None of this relies on you. Even your sanctification does not rely on you. Your holiness relies entirely on the work of the Holy Trinity. All you, who have been called and find yourselves in the wedding hall, must do is receive that which has been won for you, walking in the way of the Lord as one whose sin is already conquered. Do not turn aside the salvation of Christ nor the holiness of your sanctification. Look to Christ and see that the Lord is good. See that the Lord is good and submit to him as his own beloved Bride. Come to the wedding feast, for the oxen and fattened calf are already prepared. Receive salvation, holiness, and eternal life in the Body and Blood of Christ. Receive them and do not spurn that which you’ve been given.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14.

[2] Genesis 6:5.

[3] Matthew 9:3; 26:65.

[4] Genesis 3:15.

[5] Ecclesiastes 1:9.

[6] C.F.W. Walther, Gospel Sermons, 182-183.

[7] Matthew 6:4, 6, 18; 22:11

[8] Galatians 3:27.

[9] Galatians 3:28-29.

[10] Matthew 6:12, 14-15.

[11] Ephesians 4:24.

[12] Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6.