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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
A 26‑year-old man who went on a shooting spree last month at an Oregon community college killed one of his teachers and eight classmates, apparently driven in part by religious rage and hatred towards organized religion. Witnesses said the gunman seemed to seek specific revenge against Christians, telling them they were going to see God in about one second and then shooting them in the head. We might feel sorry for all those affected, especially those killed who had declared their faith, but as we reflect on the Gospel Reading appointed for today, All Saints’ Day, we might ask whether or not we should feel sorry for those killed who had declared their faith. For, in the Gospel Reading, what is usually known as “The Beatitudes”, our Lord Jesus Christ says in part, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” As we this day reflect on that whole Gospel Reading, we do so under the theme “Persecuted Saints”.
The content of the Gospel Reading is largely unique to St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, in which Jesus, having seen the great crowds following Him—from Galilee and the Decapolis, from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan—went up the mountain, and, when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him, and, having opened His mouth, He began to teach them—to teach them about who is now and will be in the future truly blessed by God, Who graciously acts in Jesus Christ for people’s good. For example, Jesus says the poor in spirit and those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake already now have the Kingdom of Heaven, and those who are pure in heart in the future shall see God. And, Jesus not only says those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are blessed, but He also more‑directly includes His disciples, saying, they are blessed when others revile them, persecute them, and utter all kinds of evil against them falsely on Jesus’s account, for their reward is great in heaven, for so people persecuted the prophets before the disciples.
In the New Testament, religious persecution implies guilt on the part of the people doing the persecuting, such as the 26‑year‑old gunman in Oregon, but, as we reflect on the Gospel Reading this day, we might also consider our own guilt. For, as Jesus describes it in the Gospel Reading, religious persecution is a privilege for the people being persecuted and, as He describes it elsewhere (Matthew 5:44), religious persecution is a sort of test for the persecuted. (See Oepke, TDNT 2:229-230.) We might ask whether or not we have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake or on Jesus’s account. Although we should never seek out such persecution, if we have not been so persecuted, could that lack of persecution be because our righteousness or affiliation to Jesus is not obvious enough to others in order for us to be so persecuted? If we have been so persecuted, for righteousness’ sake or on Jesus’s account, have we rejoiced and been glad? Or, if we are reviled and people utter all kinds of evil against us truly, for things that we have done that deserve such treatment, do we nevertheless consider ourselves innocent victims? Too often that may be how we regard ourselves in relationship to God, asking why bad things happen to such good people, when, with us and God, the better question is why anything good happens to such bad people. We all are by nature sinful and, for our countless and sometimes unspeakable sins, we deserve nothing but death now and torment in hell for eternity.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus not only says that those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake already now have the Kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus also says that those who are poor in spirit now have the Kingdom of Heaven. While Bible commentators debate the precise meaning and application of the phrase “poor in spirit”, we can safely say that those who recognize their spiritual poverty apart from God and look to Him for all spiritual blessings truly are blessed already now with the Kingdom of Heaven. When we turn in sorrow from our sinful nature and our actual sin, when we trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and when we want to do better than to keep on sinning, then God forgives our sin, and so we have the Kingdom of Heaven. We who otherwise are spiritually poor become spiritually rich for Jesus’s sake.
True God and true man, Jesus Himself was persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Jesus was reviled, persecuted, and had all kinds of evil uttered against Him falsely on our account. On the cross, Jesus bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, was pierced for our transgressions, and was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5; confer Roehrs-Franzmann, 19). Because of Jesus’s persecution for our sake, God graciously forgives our sinful nature and all our sin—whether our sin is not obviously enough being righteous or affiliated with Jesus to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake or on Jesus’s account, whether our sin is not rejoicing and being glad when we are so persecuted, whether our sin is considering ourselves innocent victims of the suffering that we deserve. Because of grace for Jesus’s sake, God forgives all our sin, whatever it might be. And, He forgives our sin in the ways that He sets apart for us to receive that forgiveness: the reading and preaching of His Holy Word, Holy Baptism, individual Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. His Word and His Sacraments assure us of His good will towards us who are persecuted and make us, who repent and believe, holy, and so we are called “saints.
When we speak of “All Saints’ Day”, however, we primarily think of all those “saints” who have departed this life and are with the Lord. This morning, we already have recalled Leland, Harold, and Paul, who “transferred” from our congregation to the Church Triumphant in the last twelve calendar months (really the last two!), and we may recall other loved ones who have gone before us in the faith. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us, as if to encourage us as we complete our “race” through this life (Hebrews 12:1). Right now, we remain in the Kingdom of Grace, where we are subject to our own crosses and other tribulation, while they are in the Kingdom of Glory, where, instead of crosses, they have crowns (Pieper, II:389, with reference to Matthew 5:10-12 and Romans 8:18 ff.). As our Hymn of the Day put it, “We feebly struggle, they in glory shine” (Lutheran Service Book 677:4). Yet, our persecution here for righteousness’ sake on account of Jesus should not surprise us. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther wrote about the persecution mentioned in The Beatitudes,
… if you want to have the Gospel and Christ, then you must count on having trouble, conflict, and persecution wherever you go. … because the devil cannot bear it otherwise, nor will he stop egging people on against the Gospel, so that all the world is incensed against it. (Luther, 1531 Exposition of Matthew 5:12, cited by Plass, #3801 on p.1193.)
And, years later, in expounding another passage, he referred back to The Beatitudes and wrote,
… if Christians want to keep the Word, they must not be offended or frightened when they see the devil breaking his reins and running wild, or the whole world in tumult, or tyrants in a rage, or sects arising. But they should know for a certainty that these are signs, not of terror but of joy, as Christ interpreted them when He said (Matt. 5:12): “Rejoice and be glad.” (Luther, ad loc Gal 5:11 in 1535, AE 27:44-45.)
So, we “Persecuted Saints” are blessed already now with the Kingdom of Heaven, even if we have yet to realize and appreciate that blessing the way the departed saints do. Nevertheless, as the Collect prayed, we follow them in all virtuous and godly living. By God’s mercy and grace, we, too, will come out of what our Introit’s antiphon, the Gradual, and First Reading referred to as “the great tribulation” that is this life (Revelation 7:14b). Whether at the hand of a gunman hostile towards Christians or some other way, we will come to see God. (This afternoon’s Symposium, which our congregation in part sponsors and for which I am a panelist, will discuss in greater detail our free exercise of religion in this country “At the Intersection of Church and State”.) Today’s Epistle Reading (1 John 3:1-3) says truly that “what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” And, though we may be few in number here, we will join the great multitude that no one can number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches of victory in our hands, crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +