Friedrich Wyneken‘s call for pastors to serve in America was very successful. From the beginning of his missionary work in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, Wyneken wrote one letter after another to friends in Germany, church newspapers and anyone who would listen. A few pastors joined him on the frontier, but not nearly enough to meet the needs of the ceaseless flood of immigrants settling there. In 1841, one of these pastors came to Fort Wayne and Decatur to care for his parishes. He decided he needed to press the case in person. The General Synod agreed to send him home to do this and seek treatment for a throat ailment.
From October 20th, 1841 to July 5th, 1843, Wyneken met with people throughout Germany, raised funds, and recruited missionaries. He met with Wilhelm Löhe, who had already been working to send men to America, nicknamed Sendlinge (Sent ones) and Nothilfer (emergency helpers). They formed a friendship that shaped Löhe’s strategy, who would prepare second career men for service in America and send them to an American seminary to round out their education in country. He also helped Wyneken polish his appeal into the very successful Distress of the German Lutherans in North America. The first seminary to benefit from these students was the Ohio Synod’s german language institute in Columbus, Ohio.
175 years ago, Wilhelm Sihler, Friedrich Wyneken and the Sendlinge met in Cleveland. The American Lutheran church bodies were proving to be not very true to Lutheran doctrine and practice. Of special concern was the form of the words of institution used by the Ohio Synod (“Jesus said, “take, eat…”), which allowed for Reformed tradition Christians to commune with Lutherans, and that the Columbus seminary would not exclusively teach in German. In addition, the first issue of C. F. W. Walther’s Der Lutheraner indicated there were other confessional Lutherans in America. The wrote a joint letter, the Document of Separation, in which they all resigned from their respective Synods. They agreed to reach out Walther and the Saxons about the possibility of forming a new synod and to Löhe to found a seminary in Fort Wayne.
Dear saints, last Sunday we encountered the merciful Samaritan. This week we encounter the thankful Samaritan. He is afflicted with leprosy, a disease that killed the body and separated you from both your family and worship community. Life with leprosy was a lonely proposition, and so you would build something of a community with others like yourself. And this is what we hear this morning: ten leprous men lived in something of a community outside the village that Jesus happens to be entering.
The men stand at a distance and cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Using master indicates they recognize power and authority in Jesus, but not his deity. Jesus looks to them and, bestowing that requested mercy, tells them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” He tells them to perform the duty required of the leper under the Law of Moses. They are to go to Jerusalem, present themselves to the priest, and perform the rituals and cleansing. After this, they may return to their families and again worship in the Temple.
Being told to go, but not being told they would be healed, they turn and begin their journey. And as they went they were cleansed. We are not told how long into the journey they were, and we do not know how long they were clean before they noticed. But we know that, whenever they realized they were healed, nine of them continue on, presumably heading up to the Temple as instructed. But one does not. He turns back and returns to Jesus. He falls on his face at the Lord’s feet and gives him thanks.
Of the ten, only one returns. Nine Jewish men travel to the Temple; the Samaritan returns to the Lord. And looking down at this man, Jesus tells him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
That the man who returns is a Samaritan is shocking on a couple of different levels. First, we recall that Samaritans were looked at as inherently impure by Jews. They were seen as half-breeds. Jews did not associate with Samaritans. But here, a Samaritan has joined nine Jews who shared a condition with him. Despite the prejudices Jews had against them, nine Jews with leprosy were willing to welcome this Samaritan into their group. Their lot was so bad and desperate, they welcomed the company of anyone. Even a Samaritan.
The other is that, of the ten, only the Samaritan recognizes Jesus for who he is. Samaritans only held the first five books of the Bible as authoritative. This may be the reason Jesus tells the woman at the well, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
But recognize Jesus is what this man did. He turned with the other nine to go to Jerusalem. Yet when he realized he was healed, that he was cleansed, he turned back. But instead of calling from a distance, he boldly approaches Jesus and falls on his face at his feet. He gives thanks. He takes the position of worship and praises God.
All this happens as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, which means he is on his way to the cross. And that reminds us why things like leprosy exist. Without sin, we would not have maladies like leprosy or cancer or deadly viruses. Without sin, we would not die. Without sin, our God would not need to take on our flesh and die in our place to save us. But we have sinned. And, as I have said before, there is no better comparison to our disease of sin than the disease of leprosy.
As I mentioned, leprosy separated you from not only your family but from your worship community. You were unclean under the Law. There was no cure, so it was also a death sentence that would cause you to suffer while waiting.
Sin is similar. It may alienate you from your family, but it always alienates you from your God. It always makes you unclean and unrighteous. It is always fatal. There is no human cure. Like leprosy in the ancient world, it is always and only God that can cleanse you from sin.
All of humanity are like lepers. We are deathly ill with no hope of surviving. We need mercy. The lepers in our lesson this morning call out to Jesus seeking mercy. He shows it to them by telling them to go to Jerusalem and show themselves to the priests there. He shows them mercy by healing them as they turn and go. And yet only one of them returns to him and worships him.
Jesus shows us mercy by taking on our flesh and dying for our sins on the cross. It is a death that forgives the sins of all. Yes, all sin is forgiven by the death of Christ. In the miracle of our text, we see the cleansing power of Christ. But not all realize what mercy has been shown upon our race. Many remain in their condition unaware of what has been done for them. Others are thankless and abuse it. And some fall at the feet of Jesus in worship and thanksgiving.
And that is what we have come here to do this morning. We cry out, “Lord, have mercy!” We listen to his word. We receive and believe him in the absolution. And, in a few minutes, we will fall to our knees before the altar in thanksgiving. There you receive your Lord and Savior and obtain from him forgiveness.
At the end of our lesson, Jesus looks to the cleansed man and says, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.” As you rise from the rail, he tells you to depart in peace. He tells you that you are forgiven. He tells you that he has given you faith and it has saved you. You may go in peace knowing he has made you clean. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ever the great catechist, Jesus, gives us, his catechumens, the same lesson in a different form. We ought to forgive one another so that we might be reconciled to one another but more importantly be reconciled to God our heavenly Father who forgives us or debts for the sake the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered on the cross for the sins of the world. We are after all children of a Father who forgives.
Peter’s question gives Jesus the opportunity to give the parable of the unforgiving servant. We might want to be like Peter, “Lord, how many times do I have to forgive?” He still does the same thing over and over again. He never says he is sorry for what he does. There does not seem to be any genuineness. Do I really need to give forgiveness? When is enough, enough?
It is so much easier to give forgiveness when the person who committed the sin against us says they are sorry. But perhaps we need to take a step back. In today’s world repentance, confession, and absolution are all confused. Peter along with the disciples didn’t seem to get it right away either, as his question reveals.
Only when we identify sin as sin, are we able to then move on towards repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Knowing sin comes by knowing God’s Word where He defines it. Because let’s face it, if we do not know what God defines as sin, we will not be able to tell a person that they sinned against us in order that we forgive them properly as God desires us to do. Also, when we sin against someone else it difficult to repent of something, we don’t know to be a sin. And if we don’t believe what we are doing to be sin, then we certainly will not seek the forgiveness of sins found in Christ Jesus.
So first we need to know what sin is. And we should also add in we need to know what the consequences of sin is. God tell us straight up: “The consequence of sin is death.” But God does not desire the death of the sinner. That is already established. In His great mercy, God has given us His Son Jesus Christ as the one who stands in our place, taking into himself the punishment of death and hell that should be for us. Christ comes proclaiming that God has been reconciled to his creation in the giving of the Son at the Cross. Forgiveness of sins comes by way of the cross where the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ flowed.
Yet, we keep on sinning. We still transgress against every single one of those 10 commandments. We are sitting ducks for the hungry serpent seeking to devour his next victims, especially if our consciences are so seared that we feel no guilt, regret, or shame for our sinful words and deeds. The world has thrown the Law of God out the window and the really the word sin, except for the most egregious things or the sin of being politically incorrect, or speaking against the tide of culture. You can see the moral degradation all around us. And what is worse is that we, who ought to know better being Children of God by Holy Baptism, go along with it. Like the World, we sin against God thinking we know better than He. Or we think we can declare God’s Word to be obsolete and behind with the times and thus follow the flow of culture. We allow our own children and grandchildren to follow in the ways of the world far too often, to do things which are contrary to God’s word. Sins which we let go unchecked causes pain to not just the person who commits the sin but there is also collateral damage done. A so-called individual sin that shouldn’t hurt anyone hurts a lot more people than you think and can lead many to their own sins too. And he heard what should happen to someone who causes a little one who believes in Christ to sin. Repent. Yes, we all have left sin unchecked. We have failed to identify sin as sin. We have failed to seek out our brother when we have been wronged. And we have tried to cover up our own actions and deeds where we have sinned against someone else.
We need to be made aware of our debts. And if we are honest our debts are to numerous to count. Unfortunately, this practice has all but been lost, especially in our Lutheran Churches, but when Luther lived He went to confession. Private Confession. Now at the time it was taught that you must confess every sin that you had ever done since your last confession. In other words, you had to innumerate your sins. Luther could spend hours at a time in that confessional booth. On one occasion Luther left the confessional only to come running back to the booth because he forgot one or two sins. The Church no longer says that we need innumerate our sins. For who can know all of his errors? But knowing our debts and our sins are important because then we just can see how merciful our Lord and God is to us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by our Lord’s messengers, the Gospel is proclaimed so that faith in Christ be created. We hear Christ was crucified for Me. He died for Me.
For we are like the one with a 10,000 talent debt. We have sin up to our eyeballs and we won’t stop sinning. There is no way we can pay what we owe. We can only throw ourselves at the mercy of the Judge. Lord, mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. And God has had mercy on us for the sake of Christ, who came to die for the sin of the world, paying the debt we owe. Paying not with gold or silver but with his holy and precious blood poured out for us and the world at the cross.
Last Sunday we talked a little about how God deals with the problem of sin in the Kingdom of Right, the Church, by going to the heart and changing them. Ezekiel talks about a heart transplant. When our hearts are changed by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we then can forgive those who have brought us pain, suffering, and grief because of sins. A sinful heart will not forgive. But a heart made new in the image of Christ will. Mercy has been shown to you by God your Father in Heaven. If you are children of the Father in Heaven, you then will also show mercy to your brothers and sisters. For God did not send Christ only to pay for your debt, but Christ paid the debt of all mankind. Christ died for the sins of that person who has sinned against you, so then you also should forgive them. Just like God forgives you. It plays out time and time again when you hear the news of a senseless death, if Christians, the family will speak forgiveness to the person. One such event the brother of such a victim spoke directly to his brother’s murderer and said “I hope you go to God with all your guilt, all the bad things you might have done in the past, I know I speak for myself, I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask Him, He will forgive you. And I love you just like anyone else.” The world cannot even begin to deal with this type of behavior. At the time political activists and journalists came unglued and unhinged at the forgiveness given by this man to the murderer of his brother. They wanted hate to spewed. The did not want forgiveness to be offered but anger to held on to. But you, a child of the Heavenly Father, forgive your brother, for your Heavenly Father has forgiven you.
But it is hard to do! It is hard to do because we are still sinful and we are still sinned against! We still agonize over the hurtful and angry words spewed our way because of our own positions and opinion. We don’t like to give forgiveness to some who can’t say “I am sorry.” We hurt when people do not take our words in the kindest way. We can get burned by those whom we confront about a sin they do not really want to have exposed. And it hurts too when you know you have sinned against someone and try to ask for forgiveness but rather than hearing “I forgive you,” you get “its okay.” That is not the same as hearing absolution. Use the words Jesus has given us to speak his love to one another. Forgive one another for the sins that you commit against one another.
So how are we able to do all this in the midst of being so hard and so contrary to the way of the world? Be where Jesus is, acknowledge your own debts to the Lord, your own sins for what they are, deserving of death and hell. But call upon God to be merciful and Just, as He has promised to be. For again, he does not desire the death of the sinner, but that the sinner turn and be reconciled to Him. And God has done all the work to forgive and reconcile us to Himself. He has had mercy on you. He sent His Son to be your Savior from sin, death, and hell. And having been made a child of the Living God, be like your Father, who continues to show His mercy to us who sin constantly against him, let us show mercy to those who sin against us.
Be made ready and capable to pass this mercy of your Heavenly Father on by filling up with Christ’s mercy at His Supper. Therefore be a vessel through which the mercy of the Lord may be made known to those who may have never seen God’s mercy before. Forgive richly because you have been richly forgiven by your Heavenly Father for the sake of Christ Jesus your Lord.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Encore Post: After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit sent him into the desert alone for forty days to fast and pray prior to beginning his ministry. The number forty was important to the Jewish people. Their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert. God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark for forty days. For them, the number forty stood for a period of testing. The church took its cue from these periods of testing when it chose to make the season of Lent forty days long.
After the forty days were over, Satan appeared to test him. He said: Why not turn stones into bread? Why not prove to everyone you are the Christ by jumping off the temple so that angels will catch you? You can avoid the cross by worshipping me? After all, I can give you the world!
Jesus could have blown Satan away, but He chose to face temptation in every way that we are tempted, but he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) He quoted the will of God from the Scriptures instead. In God’s Word is the power to overcome the Devil — and the world and our flesh, too.
Satan gave up for awhile. He knew he would have other opportunities. Ahead of Jesus was still his sufferings and death for our sins. Because He faced temptation as a human, we know He understands us and is ready to help. So, we go with him this Lent, walking with him to Jerusalem, to and through Good Friday and on to Easter.
Dear saints, you do not need to be a Christian, or even a Theist, to know about the Good Samaritan. Many people think they know the parable and its meaning. We have organizations, nursing homes, charities, hospitals and other groups who take on the name. Many of these entities do a lot of good work. They do a lot to love and serve their communities. But if you asked many of those who work and volunteer at those places, they would probably tell the meaning of the parable is to simply love and serve your neighbor. Now, they would be telling you to do a good thing, but they would also be giving you a moralizing and Law-based meaning. They are missing the point of the parable.
The reason for this is because many do not realize what the context for the parable is and why our Lord tells it. It is not just a moral story about treating your neighbor well. It is theologically deep and meant to draw a man to trust in Jesus. So, let us jump in, shall we?
Jesus sent out seventy-two men in pairs to preach about Him before he came to that city or town or village. When they returned, they were excited because even the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. The passage that bridges the return of the seventy-two and our parable is just as important. Jesus gives thanks to God that what he calls the little children are the ones who see and understand rather than the wise and understanding. He says to his disciples, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
The prophets and kings of old heard God’s promises. They heard and believed the Gospel. But they did not get to see it. The disciples get to see Jesus with their eyes and hear him with their ears. They get to see and hear the Gospel. The ancients saw the shadow; the disciples see the real thing and hear the details.
Today we hear a lawyer stand up to test Jesus. “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Already there is a problem. What does one do to inherit eternal life? The question does not make sense. You inherit something not because of anything you do. You inherit something because of what and who you are.
Jesus knows the lawyer is asking the wrong question and that he is being tested by him. But Jesus also cares for and loves this lawyer. And so, he engages the question but does not answer it. Instead, he asks his own question: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The lawyer answers rightly. He gives the correct summary of the Mosaic Law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus affirms the answer. “Do this, and you will live.”
And it is there that the lawyer knows he is in trouble. He knows he has not fulfilled the requirements of the Law and its summary that he just gave. And so, he looks for a way out. If he can prove that his neighbor is limited; that he can dictate who his neighbor is…perhaps he can ‘do this, and live.’ Perhaps he can find himself justified based on what he has done. And so, when he asks Jesus who his neighbor is, Jesus responds with the parable.
The scenario is not farfetched. There were dangerous roads and routes then just as there are now. An unnamed man goes down the mountain from Jerusalem to Jericho and is beaten and robbed. He is left for dead. And as he lays there, a priest also comes down along that way. He sees him, goes to the other side of the road, and continues on his way. A Levite does the same.
But then an outsider comes. A Samaritan. An outcast and hated man. This man stops and checks on the half-dead man. He has compassion on him. He cares for him, puts him on his animal, and bore the burden of the journey to an inn. There he cares for this stranger overnight and then gives the innkeeper two days’ wages to care for the beaten man, promising to come back and pay whatever bill the stranger might incur.
It is at this point of many sermons that the priest and Levite are typically beaten up on. They are shunned because they did not come to the beaten man’s aid. I am not going to do that. Instead, I want to ask, “Why didn’t they do anything to help him?” The answer begins with the context of the lawyer’s test. He is an expert in the Law. He knows it back to front. And he looks to it for his right standing before God.
And so, he tests Jesus with his misguided question. Jesus turns the tables on him and causes him to feel the burden of the Law upon his shoulders. This is because the Law was never meant to save anyone. It came 430 years after God’s promise and covenant with Abraham. That promise is where salvation lies. Not from the law which was given because of sin. This is we heard from St. Paul. The Law does not and did not replace God’s promise of the Offspring. The promise of Christ.
So, when the lawyer asks what he must do to be saved, Jesus has him answer using what the lawyer thought the standard was: The Law. And by rightly confessing that he was to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mid and to love his neighbor as himself, he knows he had just condemned himself.
At a minimum, his instincts tell him he has not loved his neighbor as himself. And so, if he can limit who his neighbor is, perhaps he can again trust in his righteousness through the Law. This is why Jesus mentions the priest and Levite. They are the keepers, performers, and protectors of the Law. They ensure purity. And so, the priest and Levite have a code they must live by. If they are traveling along that road to perform a duty, they cannot touch a dead body, become unclean, and still perform their duty. The man looks like he may be dead. Thus, they walk away from where he is so that they do not become unclean. Or, maybe they just finished serving and they are anxious to return to their families. If they were to touch a dead body, they would be unclean and thus be delayed in their return to the families.
They do not help the man because they cannot. And that is the point. The Law is powerless to save unless you keep it perfectly from fertilization, and, well, good luck with that. The priest and Levite can do nothing but pass the man by. But the Samaritan is not under the Mosaic Law. He is an outsider and despised. The Samaritan has mercy and aches for the battered man.
The compassion the Samaritan has on the beaten man has both a physical and monetary cost. He puts himself in danger to attend the man. After all, this could have been a ruse and the beaten man only acting. And so, putting himself in danger, he uses oil and wine, the day’s version of antibiotic and cleaning agents, to clean up the injured man. He bears the burden of lifting the man onto his animal and walking rather than riding to town. He bears the burden of caring for the man overnight.
And then he bears the cost of paying for the man’s night, two additional nights, and whatever the man would rack up in costs between the time he leaves and comes back. All this is done without checking to make sure this beaten man is honorable. Is worthy or trustworthy. The Samaritan simply does it for this stranger.
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? The lawyer asks who his neighbor is. Jesus shows what it is to be a neighbor. And the lawyer must answer that the Samaritan, the one who showed him mercy was the neighbor. The one who, no questions asked, saved the half-dead man.
The lawyer should realize that he is the beaten and half-dead man. He has fallen into the hands of his own sin and the devil, who have beaten him, stripped him and left them for dead. But then, the Samaritan comes: Jesus. The Son of God, who is rejected and seen as an outcast. He comes to be the merciful neighbor of the beaten and abused man, the lawyer, and you.
That is the point of the parable. Because of sin, we are born worse than half-dead. We are fully dead spiritually. We have already been killed by sin. But Jesus has compassion. He comes to you. He bears your burden. He pours water, and sometimes, oil upon you in baptism. He gives you his blood under the wine in the Holy Supper. He fully pays for you. He puts and keeps you in his care. Put simply, he shows you mercy.
The message of the Good Samaritan is not, “Try harder,” or, “Be nicer.” The message of the Good Samaritan is you are condemned under the Law. You are beaten up by the Law. And Jesus comes and rescues you. Our wonderful and merciful neighbor saves us by dying in our place on the cross. And we receive that mercy daily.
The parable ends with Jesus telling the lawyer to “go, and do likewise.” Jesus tells us to do the same. Not to justify ourselves, like the lawyer sought to do, but because we have received mercy. And because we have received mercy, we want others to receive that same mercy. Let us always cling to Jesus, our Merciful Neighbor. And may we also show mercy as we bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Dear saints, last week we saw that we cannot be sufficient in ourselves. We cannot be righteous by looking at our own actions and deeds. Nor by noting the good things we do and contrasting them with the evil things others do. Remember the cry of the tax collector: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Today we have it confirmed that our sufficiency is from God.
We find our Lord is in a Gentile area, the Decapolis. He has recently been in Tyre and Sidon where he healed the demon-possessed daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, a woman who showed our Lord extraordinary faith. And now he is brought a deaf man with a speech impediment. Those bringing him to Jesus beg the Lord to heal the man.
The man and those who bring him are probably not Jewish. They may know of Jesus as a healer, but likely not as the foretold Messiah. The man is brought in the hope of the power of healing. And we hear that Jesus takes the man away from the crowds and, in private, heals him. But this healing was just a bit different. Jesus does not simply look at the man and say, “Be healed.” He could have. He has done that; in fact, he has healed someone who is not even near him, as he does the demon-possessed daughter in the previous passage.
This time, Jesus is physical. He puts his fingers in the man’s ears; he uses saliva and touches the man’s tongue. Finally, he speaks. He looks to heaven, he sighs, and says, “Ephphatha.” The word St. Mark uses for sigh is found six other times in the New Testament. Five of those six the English word is a form of groan. This is not a positive or happy sigh. It indicates an undesirable circumstance. In the New Testament creation groans, believers who are suffering groan, and Jesus groans. He does so in today’s lesson and also in frustration at the Pharisees. Groaning in the New Testament comes from sorrow. Because of suffering that is the result of sin.
This groaning of Jesus and the words, “Be opened,” accomplish what they set out to do: The man’s ears are opened, and his tongue is released. The man who had deaf ears and a speech impediment can now hear and speak. But not only can he speak, but he speaks plainly. With no practice, with no therapy, he speaks rightly. Jesus makes his ears and mouth work perfectly.
This account is a historical narrative. It really happened. And it really happened like St. Mark tells us it did. Yet just because this is a historical account, it does not mean there are not spiritual things that we should glean from it. So, what is there for us in this account?
Did you catch it? Did you hear our word for speech impediment? It is found in the tongue of the mute, as it will sing for joy. This is wonderful news for all who hear! But what is it referencing? The prophet foretells the coming of the Messiah. It is the Savior who will do these things. It is Immanuel who will tread for his people the Way of Holiness.
However, there is a problem. And the problem is that all people are by nature blind, deaf, lame, and mute. All people are by nature unable to see the Truth, to rightly hear the Word of God, to walk in holiness, or to speak rightly concerning our Creator. We are numbered among the people in the chapters leading up to what I read from Isaiah who deserve destruction, for we are among those who rebel against God. And if we had any doubt about this, we would only need to hear the Apostle Paul when he reminds the Romans that, “None is righteous…no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside…no one does good, not even one.”
And yet, out of mercy, we are among those who have been made whole. Though we are unable to hear and comprehend the Word of God, God comes to you and to me and interferes with us. Last week, the tax collector goes down to his house justified because he relied on God for his justification and righteousness. But he could only do that through the work of God through the Holy Spirit. This is precisely what we confess: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
By the work of the Holy Spirit, your spiritually maligned body is made whole. Blind to the Truth, you now see. Deaf to God’s Word, you now hear and receive it gladly. Unable to walk, you are made strong and put on the straight road of righteousness. Unable to speak rightly, you now learn and confess the orthodox, the correct, faith.
It is as if God himself touched you and wiped saliva on you. It is as if the Lord said to you, “Ephphatha.” And in a sense, he did just that. When Jesus puts his fingers into the ears of this man, he was opening the man’s soul to faith via the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But for you, he takes you into his arms through his called minister. That man, whoever he was, spoke the Word of God over you and put water upon you. And with that, the Holy Spirit works upon you the miracle of opening your ears and fixing your tongue.
Your Lord continues to speak to you through his Word and his ministers. He speaks to you that your opened ears would be open to not only instruction but to the grace he offers. Indeed, our sufficiency is from God. He takes on our flesh. He keeps his Law for us. He dies in our place. He overcomes the gates of hell. And he rises from the dead, guaranteeing that we will too.
Our natural response to all this is praise, for our God does all this out of compassion and steadfast love for us, his lost creation. We confess, like the tax collector, that we are sinners. We plead for his mercy, that he would atone and wash away our sins. We confess that we require his grace. And he comes to us and reminds us of what he has done. That he has forgiven our sins. He has made atonement for you and has cleansed you of your sins. He graciously comes to you and heals your soul. By his grace, he justifies you. And, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is working continually in you and through you. Working until the very day he calls you to himself, making you into the person He created you to be. Praise be to God! His work is sufficient. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Encore Post: Sin is one of those church words everyone knows. After all it is what is wrong with the world. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just move to a remote place with just Christians. Then we would be in a good place (a utopia), where there is no sin — or where sin is manageable — right? Then we would be with only people who try to be good. That is what many Christians have thought in the last two thousand years. Yet it never works. Why? Because Christians, even the best of us, are still sinners. We can’t leave it behind because we bring it with us. There is no place that is “the good place” — at least not in this life!
At it’s basic level, sin is breaking God’s law. It may be by not meeting its standards (being good, but not good enough, like not lifting a hand in anger ever, but swearing at people under our breath or behind their backs). It may be by transgressing his law, going over the bright lines it lays down, or being lawless, living as if we can do anything we wish, as if there was no law. We invent good deeds that impress us to do — we fast, we go on pilgrimages, we create rituals and perform them, we advertise donating to the poor. We will do anything, except follow God’s word. Yet actual sins, things we think or do, is not the root of the problem. It is not what do, but who we are.
Since Adam and Eve committed the originalsin, we have all been born as sinners. In trying to be like God, our first parents stopping being righteous, like God. Now we are all born as slaves to sin. Just like a slave cannot free himself, we can not free ourselves. Our thoughts are curved in on themselves, even what we think are good thoughts and deeds are colored by self-interest. Because he is holy, God cannot tolerate this. So we are destined to live separated from God forever. And so we die. So, someone must set us free.
That is why the Son of God was born of a virgin. As God, he was (and is) without sin. As a human, he is able to die, taking our place in paying the full price of our freedom on the cross. When he died, we died to sin. When he rose, we rose from death with him as a child of God. In baptism, he sets us free from sin and the compulsion to sin. Now we are free people, Children of God. Sin’s power over us is broken. Now we can live a new life in him.
Dear saints, this morning’s parable is probably familiar with most of us. As we hear it, there is likely one character who seems attractive to our sensibilities, and there is another whom we would find reprehensible. One we would want our daughters to date, and one who we would want them to run away from. One who is an upstanding citizen, and one we would see as a traitor to our people.
Just look at the Pharisee: He does not extort people. He is not unjust. He does not commit adultery. He is very religious, fasting twice as often as his law requires and tithes on things he does not even have to tithe on. He seems like the very guy that we would want to be like. The type of guy we want our sons to be and our daughters to marry. On the other hand, we have the tax collector. If the Pharisee is the model for us to follow, this man is the model of whom we would flee. He is the type we would not want to associate with, let alone be friends with.
Our impressions of our fellow man can often be off, as they would be here. Jesus sees not only their actions but also their hearts. Our lesson begins with this parable being told to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. It immediately follows another parable in which his disciples are encouraged to always pray and not lose heart. This morning’s parable is addressed to the scribes and Pharisees:
Jesus says, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The two men come to the Temple just as we come here. They come to worship. They come to where God’s presence was at that time. Just as God’s presence is here and we come to worship him and receive his gifts.
The prayers are offered at one of the two daily times public prayers were offered: when the morning and evening sacrifices of atonement were made. The reason the Temple, and before it, the Tabernacle existed was for sacrifices of atonement. A lamb would be sacrificed; incense would be burned that the people would be forgiven of their sins. And so, these men come at one of these appointed times of sacrifice. The sacrifice that pointed to the promised sacrifice of The Lamb, the One who would take away the sins of the world once and for all.
With that context, we hear the prayers: “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!’”
First, we note their content. The Pharisee’s prayer is not giving thanks for what God has done for him. He does not petition God for his needs because he does not think he has any. He asks God for nothing because he thinks he needs nothing. He thinks he is already perfectly righteous. Which is why when he does thank God for something, he is thanking God for himself. He is exalting himself even while speaking ill of others, specifically the tax collectors. The Pharisee is busy in his prayer telling God how much good he is. The prayer of the Pharisee is no prayer at all.
The tax collector, however, has a completely different attitude. He does not stand out in the crowd and boast before everyone. He stands apart from the rest, he takes a humble stature, not even lifting his eyes to heaven, and beats his chest saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He comes to the Temple to pray.
Most English translations use the word merciful. It works; it is easy to understand. Yet the word the tax collector uses is not ἐλέησον (eléēson), as in Kyrie Eleison, “Lord, have mercy.” He cries out to God, “ἱλάσθητί!” (hilasthēti). It is from the verb ἱλάσκομαι (hilaskomai), and means, “to make propitiation for.” I understand why the word is rendered ‘mercy.’ But we lose a lot of meaning when it is.
Remember, it is at the same time the atonement sacrifices are made. And he asks God to be merciful, or even more precisely, he cries out to God that he would be propitiated. That his sins would be wiped away and forgiven. That the sacrifice being made would be applied to him. As these two men pray, the lamb is being sacrificed to make atonement; to wipe away and remove the sins of the people. The tax collector is begging God to apply that sacrifice to him, for he knew his sins were many.
Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector is relying fully and only on the Lord for his salvation and righteousness. He does not put any stock in what he has done. He is praying to God to have mercy on him. That is why he goes down to his house righteous when the Pharisee returns to his with only his own self-righteousness. The righteousness which earns him nothing before God.
Yet even though we know the tax collector is the one who goes home justified and righteous, we still far too often act like the Pharisee. I am not saying we go out into a public place and compare ourselves to others and thank God that we are not like them. We might do it on social media. But we do do it in our own minds. “I’m so glad I’m not like that politician.” Or like the car salesman who preys on those who do not know that they are being taken advantage of. Or the real estate agent who tries to make a property look better than it is so they can make a better commission. Or the activist who asserts another’s guilt of something they, and not the other person, is guilty of. When we compare ourselves to others, we minimize God’s Law. We undermine God’s Word. Instead of realizing we do not keep the Law, we try and get out from under it by comparing ourselves to someone we think is worse than us to alleviate the sting and the burn of the law on ourselves. Law that is showing us that we do not keep it or measure up to it.
Perhaps the more sinister way of being like the Pharisee, however, is by looking at what we do. For example, we know that we are saved by grace through faith. But when we think about why we are saved it is easy for us to think instead about what we do. We think about the boards we have served on. The meals we have prepared for shut-ins. The good deeds we have done with things like giving to disaster relief efforts. Even simply giving to the church. These are all good things to do. In fact, they are good works. You should do such things and more! The issue with this is not the action but putting your trust in these works rather than the work of Christ for us on the cross.
This was the fault of the Pharisee. He did not compare himself against the demands of the Law. He compared himself to other people. And when he did so, he saw himself as better and thus justified. He looked at what he did. And when he did, he saw in himself a good person who had to be worthy of God. He does not fear, love, and trust God above all things. He trusts in himself. Therefore Jesus tells the parable against those who trusted in themselves for righteousness. Like faith, righteousness only comes from God.
Right before our parable, Jesus asks if he would find faith on earth when he comes. The parable this morning answers that question with a resounding, “Yes!” Yes, Jesus will find faith when he returns. And where will he find it? He will find it in the likes of the tax collector. Faith will be found in the most unlikely of places. Even in people who we sin against when we look at them and think them unworthy of faith. Like when the Pharisee looks at the tax collector with scorn and disdain in his heart.
Though we are broken and sinful, remember that God sent his own Son to be your atoning sacrifice, nailed on a cross nearly two thousand years ago. When we pray God hears our prayer. And more than that, he answers it for the benefit of our soul. So, take comfort and know that as one baptized into the family of God, you are a child of the Father. He has washed you clean, clothed you in righteousness, and forgives, feeds, and nourishes your soul. You can know that when you return to your home that you are justified and declared righteous. Thanks be to God. The Atonement Sacrifice is applied to you. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Peace Lutheran Church Alcester, SD
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The salvation of the Lord has gone out. He is walking from village to village announcing the time of the Lord’s Jubilee. Comfort and peace, making the waterless places an oasis, making the wilderness and the desolate places like Eden, that is paradise. Listen. Look at Him, and know Who He is by what He says, and confess Him.
We have learned by reading Matthew now for a little bit that his book is written like a catechism of sorts. He has set the goal for you, the reader, to be taught the truth of Jesus by hearing the words of Jesus, Himself. Matthew desires you like John to know that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you will have life in His Name. So far this summer you have gotten to listen to the teaching of Jesus, some of his parables, and throughout it all you were being given lessons about who Jesus is and what He has come to do. Remember the parables of the sower, the weeds, and the treasure. Those three parables lay down the work of Jesus in great imagery. Jesus is the sower of the seed which is His Word, which enlightens you to know Him and know Him as your Lord and Savior. The parable of the weeds speaks to the condition of the current world, after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin in the garden of Eden, everything that had been declared good went bad. Nothing good was in the world and all the fruit of the people were like sour grapes unsuitable for anything. But in the same parable we learned that the Lord of the field had planted the good seed, the seed which corresponds to the Sons of the Kingdom. The very Son of the Kingdom was sent into the world, and planted into the heart of the ground when He was buried in order that He bear a harvest of many brothers and sisters.
The parable of the treasure tells us how much your Lord cares for you. He takes his time searching for you, and once he finds you, He gives everything He has in order to have you forevermore. He purchases you, paying for you with his own body and blood at the cross.
So, you the catechumen, like the disciples, have been hearing the Son of the Kingdom’s Word, and it has been transforming you into a Son of the Kingdom. By the preaching of the only begotten Son you are being conformed to His image. Being made new, you actually desire to pursue righteousness, actually seeking to walk in the Way of the Lord. So now in our Gospel Lesson after a number of lessons learning the cost of our Redemption, God paying with his very own blood, Jesus has a midterm exam for the disciples and us.
Jesus hardly ever speaks of himself as anything but the Son of Man in the book of Matthew. This should always make you recall the image from Daniel chapter 7. There, Daniel the prophet who was in Babylon, saw at the end of days, coming on the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, taking the place on the seat of judgement. All authority was given to one who looked like a Son of Man, in other words human. When Jesus speaks about the Son of Man, He is really speaking of himself. And this is confirmed at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me.”
So, the first question of the confirmation midterm if you will, is this question: Who do the people say the Son of Man is? The disciples answer with the answers of the people: People say the Son of Man is John the Baptist, Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. All the answers they had gathered from the people were partially right in that each one of these men mentioned embodied some aspect of the Son of Man in one way or another. They all served as types and shadows of the one who was to come. But being partially correct means you are totally wrong, as some people as in Acts made John the Baptist into the person deserving worship and not the Son to whom John pointed and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Thankfully these men were corrected by the Apostle Paul, but yet still there are some people who hold to John being the Messiah even to this day. And in the Jewish Religion they still await Elijah’s return and have an empty seat for him when it comes to the Passover.
The first question was an objective question; it did not involve saying the disciples own thoughts or at least outright. But Jesus does not let them off so easily. They had been walking with him for a good while now. They had been called to be his disciples and bear witness to what they had seen. So, Jesus asks them that personal question: Who do you say that I am? Yeah, what do you believe? What do you believe about me?
And Peter gives the answer: You are the Christ the son of the Living God. Bingo! Winner winner chicken dinner! But note that Jesus does not commend his answer but commends the one through whom Peter has been brought to this confession. The confession of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the Living God is not something that a person finds on their own. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
So who do you say that Jesus is? Yes, who do you say He is? The world might still call him a good teacher. But if you watched some news outlets you might have seen a bible or two burning at one of the many riots across our country. Jesus is just another teacher, just another man, who was probably overall good, but is no longer right with the times. Certainly not confessed to be the son of the living God. But who do you say that Jesus is?
Friends in Christ Jesus, you, like Peter, have been granted this knowledge to know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God by the grace of your Heavenly Father. For God the Father has called you to be his own child in the waters of Holy Baptism. You have been brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who has died and risen for you and your eternal salvation. And via Holy Baptism you enjoy the rights of being united to Christ’s death and resurrection: forgiveness, eternal life. The Son of Man comes into the world to accomplish your redemption. The Christ, as we will learn as we read Matthew just verses after where our reading ends today, has a mission to accomplish. He is to suffer and die and then rise from the dead. It must be that way. He does it in order that the weeds of this world be made new and produce the fruit that is right in the eyes of the Heavenly Father. Fruit produced in you, which really is his own.
Confessing Christ as the Son of the Living God is a confession that will come with a cost. You will not be liked in this world. You will be persecuted for it. You will likely have a difficult time coming to church. Look to a few particular states, and you will see how the church is treated. Look to the Middle East and the faithful are being led like sheep to the slaughter, dying for the sake of confessing the truth of Jesus Christ. “The world will hate you because it first hated me” says Jesus. And this confession will also have an enemy in your own flesh. Yes, your sinful flesh will fight against the desires of the new man created in you in the waters of holy baptism. That is why we are called to daily put to death the Old Adam in us by contrition and repentance.
Things are getting a bit dicey out there even in our neck of the world. Covid-19 has only made hatred towards the Church and her confession more visible. Being a confessor of Christ is more difficult now than ever before for us in America. But don’t lose a grip on this confession. It is the only solid ground you have. Everything else is sinking sand. For by this confession you have the keys of the kingdom of heaven along with St. Peter and the rest of the faithful who confessed Christ until their own deaths. And they are not really dead but alive with the Living God, The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know Christ by the preaching of his Word which has been proclaimed to you. By that Word the Holy Spirit has worked faith into your heart. The good seed has been planted and has sprouted forth. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Be where Christ promises to be so that you might be nourished in the trying days ahead. Our days will likely only get more hostile. There will be days when you will be attacked for this confession of Christ. Stand steadfast. For the battle has already been won, Christ has done what he set out to do when He came from the right hand of His Father. He accomplished your salvation by taking your sin, the sin of the world to the cross, and died with it all there. He broke the stranglehold that sin, death, and Satan had on you. And having now beaten death by being raised from the dead on the 3rd day, we can stand steadfast on the Rock, Jesus Christ, knowing that whatever happens, whatever befalls us in this body and life, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Christ and those who take refuge therein.
The true Church confesses the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. May we never walk away from the confession of our namesake, St. Peter, but now more boldly than ever confess Christ as the only way, the only truth, the only life, knowing that this has been made known to us by the grace of our Heavenly Father. That grace of our Lord was shown to you likely in the form of your parents, grandparents, and your pastors of yesteryear. That grace of God came via hearing the word of Christ. May we all be the vehicles which God uses to extend his grace to another generation, another family, and neighbor, so that all may come to right confession of Jesus Christ and be receive adoptions as Sons, having been adopted unto to life everlasting with the ever living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we ever be ready to stand and confess.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
