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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
This weekend Pastor Galler is with the ladies of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League at their Texas District Convention in Frisco. He revised for our use this morning a sermon on today’s Third Reading that was written by the now‑sainted Rev. Samuel Boda for the 19-83 edition of Concordia Pulpit, and is used by permission of both Rev. Boda’s daughter and Concordia Pulpit Resources’ editor. The revised sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There would probably be some shrieking and surely a great deal of strong protest if we heard that the public school teachers in our nation were explicitly training our children in the tenets of atheism. Such training is precisely what is happening in a number of totalitarian countries in Eastern Europe.
Teachers there are hired to teach children, from age 4 on up, the fundamentals of atheism and communism. According to Evangelical sources in Eastern Europe, Children are exposed to statements such as these: “Believing in Christ is just an old fairy tale, just for old people. Children should be wiser than all that and should not be influenced to believe in Christ.”
Parents who protest are quickly subjected to persecution of every sort, along with their children. Christian church leaders also are experiencing an increase in persecution in non-Christian countries.
In one province of Ethiopia, 33 churches and 31 preaching centers reportedly were closed, as persecution of Christ’s people stepped up in that country. Similar reports come from other parts of the world denied the freedom to worship as one chooses.
Our Lord Christ’s words of prophecy that we heard in the Third Reading continue to be fulfilled in our day: “If they call the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of His household! (Matthew 10:25b).
If Jesus, as God’s own Ambassador from heaven, did not come away unscratched—holy and innocent in every respect though He was, and One Who taught “the way of God in accordance with the truth” (Matthew 22:16)—we should not expect to come away unscathed either, if we really and consistently live out the Christian faith and life as our Lord Christ expects us to.
St. Paul reminds us, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). In describing the revelation he received, St. John uses striking, picturesque language to underscore the same truth: “The dragon [that is, Satan] was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring [that is, Christians]—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17).
If we in our nation have been spared the agonizing mental and painful physical persecution going on elsewhere, might there be reasons? One Christian writer hazards the opinion that the lack of persecution here might be an embarrassing result of our lukewarm witnessing. The lack of persecution might also be the result of some among us accommodating the Gospel to the world.
Also, a goodly number of believers for the most part move about in Christian circles and so are fairly well insulated from the world’s persecution. If they do experience persecution at all, it’s of a mild and more-tolerable form. Those who are more bold in their witnessing, as we all should be, will surely meet and feel increasing opposition.
God does not desert those who rise up to witness for Him. He Himself will have the last word in His dealings with those who persecute His followers. God will one day expose the tactics and inner machinations of those who deride and try to suppress Christ’s committed believers. So, our Lord Christ encourages us in the Third Reading, saying: “Have no fear of them. For,” he continues, “nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26). God will reveal the thoughts and secrets of those who attempt to thwart and frustrate His work, and, unless there is genuine repentance on their part, He will deal justly with them in His time.
The earth and everything in it serve as Christ’s footstool (Acts 7:49). We are to defend courageously His holy causes with God-given courage and not fear the consequences of evil people’s wrath. In the Third Reading He says, “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27). In other words, be open about your faithfulness to the holy God, for He has placed limitations on people’s threats and persecutions. He reminds us that they cannot touch believers’ souls, saying “Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28b). Even in the face of the possibility of personal injury and death, Christians can show the highest respect for God and render Him a fitting, humble obedience. Christians’ dedicated reverence for God can far outweigh any fears they might have of earthly persecutions.
The Lord Christ does not send His own into the world without cover. He “covers” us, as a policeman covers a fellow-officer who goes into a risky and dangerous situation. If God looks out for the common, seemingly insignificant sparrow, which was used by people in New Testament times for food (at “two for a penny”), Jesus assures the Twelve and us that He will more surely look out for us. Were these lowly birds really worth the time and concern of a God who fills the galaxies and whom the “heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain” (2 Chronicles 6:18)? God Himself determined that they were indeed worth His care; they were, after all, His creatures. He keeps track of each of them in His divine “computerized” way. “Not one of them [thousands upon thousands though they be] will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29)—so particular is God with what He has placed on earth. If persecutions come, they will come only to the degree that God allows.
So, Jesus says in the Third Reading, “Fear not … you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). He was on His way to put the highest price tag possible on each of us who possess living souls—that price tag of His holy, priceless, and innocent blood. His shedding that blood on the cross for you and for me means that by grace through faith in Him we are forgiven of all our sins, even our sins of failing to stand up to persecution.
In the Third Reading, our Lord Christ adds another astounding truth for our comfort: “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). None of us knows the exact number of hairs on his or her head, and, even if we did, we could not possibly keep track of those we are losing from day to day. Yet our meticulous God does keep track of the exact and changing number. The psalmist says He also counts the number of tears we shed and the tossings we experience during sleepless nights: “Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?” (Psalm 56:8).
What a sensitive God we have! He is always fully aware of every movement we make, of every loss we experience, and of every pain we feel. God’s awareness is as if it were all happening to Him, for “whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8).
When our Savior and Lord urges us to take a consistent and firm stand for Him, He also provides solid encouragement for us. There will be compensatory blessings! He says in the Third Reading, “Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father Who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). But the reverse will also hold true: “whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before my Father Who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). The boldness and inner courage that we all need for this task are Christian virtues that Christ’s Spirit will increase in us as we continue seeking them through His Word in all its forms, including Baptism, individual Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar
Martin Luther writes from much personal experience when he encourages Christians to face persecutions fearlessly. Luther writes:
When the heart is cheerful, everything looks happy, even the cross and persecution. . . . But the highest joy is to rejoice and be glad in every persecution and upheaval. Let the Christian know that though all else has been taken away, Christ has not been removed from him, and let [the Christian] spurn everything outside of Christ. (AE 17:258-59).
Theologian William Barclay describes the patience ascribed to Job as being “that gallant spirit which can breast the tides of doubt and sorrow and disaster and still hold on and come out with faith still stronger on the other side.”
Our Lord Christ walked into the teeth of the fiercest of all persecutions when He made His way slowly but determinedly toward the altar of the cross. He tasted the worst of tortures that He might win for us the finest of blessings, including an eternity free from all harmful persecutions and griefs.
That moving love of the Lord Christ gave a woman named Maria Durant the inner strength to make of her life an exemplary and inspirational model for all succeeding generations. She took the kind of stand that can be taken in confrontation with persecution, even of the severest sort. She lived in southern France during the 17th century. Described as attractive and intelligent, she was also a deeply spiritual person and did not hesitate to take a public stand for her Savior when the situation called for it.
In her part of France, persecution for one’s Christian faith was more stinging than in other areas. She was not intimidated by threats from the authorities, even when ordered to be silent. Her open and continued public witnessing to Christ, her Savior, led to her imprisonment. She could have been released, had she been willing to compromise her faith and renounce her Lord as her captors were insisting.
But her witnessing remained undiminished and untarnished. Life, with its possibilities of the bliss and joy of marriage and a family, began to pass her by. For 38 years she refused to budge from her loyal commitment to her blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Throughout all these years she was constantly victimized by her persecutors and subjected to much privation. This drained her strength and eventually took her life. She became a shining example of one of Christ's martyrs who remained faithful to Him even when it called for total sacrifice. Tourists have made trips to pay their respects to her stalwart confessing of Christ as Savior. They have looked with deep regret but also high admiration at a slogan which she purportedly had scratched on the dungeon wall where she had been held, a single word of challenge: “RESIST!”
Our Lord Who shows us “Divinely Computerized Concern” calls on us to take a stand for Him at every opportunity, and, by the mighty working of His Spirit within us, He Himself will provide us the strength to do so.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +