Trinity 13

Luke 10:21-37 - Trinity Thirteen - September 14, 2014
Jesus Is The Neighbor We Need

Jesus thanks his Father that he has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.   This here requires two things to be clarified.  First of all, who are the wise and prudent and who are the babes?  And second of all, what are “these things” that are hidden to some and revealed to others? 

The wise and prudent are those who know the law, but who don’t know what it is for.  They think that the law is intended to help them become righteous on their own.  They are foolish.  The babes, or the little infants, on the other hand, are those who know that they are sinners.  They are those who are helpless to fulfill what the law requires, because the law demands that they love from pure hearts.  We do not love as God requires.  We cannot.  We have neither the will nor the way, because we are poor miserable sinners who have been lost and condemned since before we were infant babes.  We know the law.  The law works wrath.  It is good that we know this.  For what is hidden from the self-righteous wise and prudent is revealed to us who have been born from above by water and the Spirit.  And so in simple faith we receive what Christ freely gives, as little children who desire true spiritual milk. 

Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22 - Trinity XIII - August 25, 2013

What the Law Can Do for You

Our salvation is extra nos.  That’s Latin for ‘outside of us.’  They don’t require that we learn Latin at the seminary, but there are a number of Latin phrases that any Lutheran pastor worth his salt cannot help but have had drilled into his head.  Now, you don’t have to learn the terminology like I did, but you had better learn the concept.  Extra nos.  Outside of us.  The moment that one begins to require that certain conditions be met within the sinner by the sinner in order for him to be saved is the moment that the gospel is completely denied and turned into something that it’s not, namely, the law.  Our salvation is outside of us.  Because it begins and ends with God’s pure love toward sinners.  Period.  What God planned for us from eternity to rescue us from our sin and from his wrath God accomplishes outside of our control. 

And thank God.  We’re not as reliable as he is.  The fact that he is in control of the most important need in our life is of great comfort to the Christian.  That is, of course, if we know the character of this great God in control.  And we do.  He loves.  He speaks kindly to those who have wronged him.  He forgives.  He keeps his promises.  We see his character clearly revealed toward us in the vicarious death of his Son Jesus Christ who on the cross atoned for all our sins.  The same thing that teaches us that God is good and loving also teaches us what God has accomplished.  It is where our Savior said, “It is finished.”  

Trinity 13

Luke 10:21-37 - Trinity XIII - September 2, 2012
Seeing Jesus with the Eyes of Faith

The parable of the Good Samaritan is a great story.  It is impossible not to be moved by what it relates.  It’s a tale of compassion and mercy, of over-and-above service and help all coming from the least likely of characters – a social outcast.  This story puts to shame hypocrisy, self-importance, and the false pretense of holiness—all while exalting such rare and godly virtues as humility, self-sacrifice, and true kindness.  If more people were to take this lesson to heart, the world would be a better place!  It’s true. 

But Jesus did not tell this story simply in order to give us a moral lesson. 

Trinity 13

 Luke 10:23-37- Trinity 13- September 18, 2011
Blessed Are the Eyes that See
the law Fulfilled in Christ

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is probably the best known parable that Jesus ever told.  But I would first like to re-read that portion of this morning’s Gospel lesson that we do not ordinarily associate in our minds with it:  “Then turning to the disciples [Jesus] said privately, ‘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.’”  So begins the text which we now consider. 

What exactly was it that they saw?  Well, obviously they saw Jesus.  They saw the eternal Son of God who had taken on flesh and blood and who performed countless miracles and acts of mercy before their eyes.  And they heard Him too.  Jesus taught them by opening up Scripture to them.  In the things that they had the privilege of witnessing Jesus do and say, the disciples learned about the kingdom of heaven, and of the Father’s love for all sinners.  They were taught that the purpose and fulfillment of God’s countless promises in the Old Testament were found in Jesus Christ who had come to earth to bear the sin of the world. 

Certainly this is what so many prophets and kings longed to see and hear.  But they couldn’t.  They weren’t born yet.  Just as Moses only got a glimpse of the Promised Land, but was not permitted to enter it, just as King David received instructions on how to build the Temple, but was not permitted to construct it, so also all the prophets and kings had to wait until long after they had died to see the day when God became man.  St. Paul says in Galatians 4 that it was not until the fullness of time had come, that God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman.  The fullness of time… It was a specific point in history that God chose for Jesus to earn our salvation from sin, death and the devil.   It was this specific point in history that the disciples were privileged to witness.  No doubt many of you have considered how awesome it would have been to be able to walk and talk with Jesus.  And it was!  Blessed are the eyes that saw what they saw and the ears that heard what they heard.