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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.
As far as we know, three groups with ties to the Islamic State Friday attacked the city of Paris, France, with the goal of killing as many people as possible. As it stands right now, more than one-hundred were killed, and more than three-hundred-fifty others were injured. France’s president called the attacks “an act of war”, and Pope Francis went so far as to refer to the “Third World War”. If we are paying attention at all, we realize that, just as Jesus described in today’s Gospel Reading, we hear not only of this but also of other “wars and rumors of wars”, what the New English Bible translates as “the noise of battle near at hand and the news of battles far away”. As we hear such noise and news, how alarmed are we? How alarmed should we be? After all, Jesus said, such “must take place”. On this Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, we reflect on the Gospel Reading under the theme, “These things must take place”.
Today’s Gospel Reading follows immediately out of last week’s Gospel Reading. In last week’s Gospel Reading, Jesus in the Temple courts warned His disciples to beware of the Scribes, their taking widows’ money in contrast to the poor Widow’s giving her money (Mark 12:38-44). In this week’s Gospel Reading, as Jesus that same Tuesday of Holy Week was leaving the Temple for the last time ever, one of Jesus’s disciple’s exclamation about the Temple’s wonderful stones and great buildings prompted Jesus to prophesy that certainly not one of the buildings’ stones would be left upon another. Later, on the Mount of Olives, Jesus’s inner-circle of disciples privately asked Him when those things would be and what would be the sign when all those things were about to be accomplished. Perhaps without really answering their questions, Jesus warned His disciples to see that they would not be led astray and to be on their guard as they are led away to be persecuted. Jesus does not tell them when all these things are about to be accomplished, but Jesus does tell them that, when they hear of wars and rumors of war, they should not be alarmed, for such things must take place, and Jesus tells His disciples that, when they are brought to trial and delivered over, they should not be anxious beforehand, for the Holy Spirit will speak through them and the Gospel must be proclaimed to all nations. “These things must take place.”
The memory may be fresher for Emmett and Caroline after Maxwell’s birth, but, in general, any birth mother—and father, if he was there at the time—knows that the beginning of the birth pains is not yet the end of the baby’s delivery, which, in due time, must take place. Likewise, Jesus says false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation’s rising against nation and kingdom’s rising against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, and famines are just the beginning of the end, not yet the end itself. “These things must take place.” We should not expect the end too quickly, nor should we think that it is not coming at all and so be unprepared. Instead, we should see that no one leads us astray, we should not be alarmed about wars, we should not be anxious beforehand about what we are to say when brought to trial and delivered over, but we should say whatever is given us in that hour. In short, we should lead holy lives, when, in fact, we do not. Too often we are led astray. Too often we are alarmed about wars. Too often we are anxious about what we might say when persecuted. In short, too often we sin in these and other ways. We lead unholy lives, for we are sinful by nature and so, apart from faith in Christ, we deserve nothing but death now in time and eternal torment in hell. And, such “must take place”, unless we repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation’s rising against nation and kingdom’s rising against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, and famines are not the only things that “must take place”. Our Almighty God’s divine will not only fashions history according to His plan but also summons us to a right relationship with Him and makes that right relationship possible. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, be delivered over, be crucified on the cross, and on the third day be raised all was necessary, too (Luke 9:22; 17:25; 24:7, 26). Jesus Christ is not only a preacher of the last things, but He is also a participant in the last things; His suffering, death, and resurrection also had to “take place” (Grundmann, TDNT 2:21-25). As prophesied (Luke 22:37; 22:44), those things had to take place for us and for our salvation, just as the Gospel had to be proclaimed to all nations (confer Colossians 1:23), so that we could repent and believe and so have a right relationship with our Almighty God. When we turn in sorrow from our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our being led astray, our being alarmed about wars, our being anxious about what we might say when persecuted, or whatever our sin might be. God freely forgives all our sin on account of Jesus’s death for us, and God freely forgives all our sin in the ways that He has established to forgive our sin.
As Jesus’s death and resurrection had to take place for us and for our salvation, so also our being born from above must take place (John 3:7). For, Jesus says unless one is born from above, one cannot even see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3). In Holy Baptism, Maxwell Aaron, who was baptized this morning, and all of us who have been baptized are born of water and the Spirit, and, so we are rescued and saved from this world, we can enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:6). Now (if not already before) Maxwell believes as we do, and, God being willing, in time, Maxwell will—as his father Emmett will in a few moments—publicly confess that faith for himself and then receive, with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus’s Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. For, Jesus says unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no life in us (John 6:53). Holy Baptism and individual Holy Absolution are both true and right uses of the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and they lead us to this Altar and its rail. And, together, God’s means of grace, His Word and Sacraments, prepare us for the persecution we will face and enable us to endure to the end and so be saved.
In today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 10:11-25), the author of Hebrews encourages us to draw near to God with our bodies washed with pure water in Holy Baptism, with our hearts sprinkled clean, as it were, in the Sacrament of the Altar with the blood of Jesus’s sacrifice for us, and so with true hearts in full assurance of faith, we do not neglect coming together in the Divine Service but come together all the more in these latter days as we see the Last Day approaching. From God’s perspective we have been perfected for all time, but, here in time, we are still being sanctified, made holy. And so, we will continue to struggle with not being led astray, not being alarmed, not being anxious, and all other sins. We will face divisions in our families over the faith (confer Micah 7:6; Matthew 10:35), and we will be hated by all in society, as God’s law condemns all sin and His Gospel claims to be the only way to salvation (TLSB, 1686), but we who daily repent and believe will live together in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and then extend to one another.
In last week’s Gospel Reading we heard part of Jesus’s indictment of the religious life of the Jews of His day, and in this week’s Gospel Reading we heard of a consequence for their not receiving Him in faith, namely, the destruction of the Temple (Luke 19:44). In 70 A-D, the Romans destroyed the earthly Temple and its city of Jerusalem as Jesus prophesied, not one stone was left upon another. We should be careful not to say that what happened in the city of Paris Friday was the specific consequence of a specific sin by the people of the city (as Jesus was careful not to say in the case of the fallen tower in Siloam [Luke 13:4]), but we cannot ignore the general consequences of death and hell for any unrepented sin and failure to believe in Jesus. Jesus says false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation’s rising against nation and kingdom’s rising against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, and famines all “must take place” (not that we necessarily should not do anything to try to prevent them). But, we who repent and believe are not to be alarmed or anxious. Instead, Jesus and we focus on our spiritual well-being and witness. By His grace and mercy, we are not led astray and are on our guard; we are given what to say; waiting for and hoping in Him, we endure to the end, and so we are saved. The earthly Temple and its city of Jerusalem as God envisions it may not exist now, but the heavenly Jerusalem and its Temple—the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb—do exist (Revelation 21). We can, in the words of the Introit (Psalm 48:11-14; antiphon Mark 13:13b), number the city’s towers, consider her ramparts, and go through her citadels. The city is intact and more magnificent than before, waiting for us. The end may not be yet, but, in time, the end will come: all things that must take place will take place. The heavenly Jerusalem will come down, and, in her, as described in today’s Old Testament Reading (Daniel 12:1-3), we who are wise and righteous will shine like the brightness of the sky above, like the stars forever and ever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +