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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 I this past week was thinking about preaching on today’s Gospel Reading, which we also hear every year on All Saints’ Day, I was contemplating especially the initial two verses of the Reading’s unique introductory narrative to what Jesus said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. So, I had to laugh to myself yesterday, when the Rev. Dr. Ken Schurb, in his Free Conference presentation about Martin Luther and the Reformation, said that Luther’s sermons were less concerned about the narrative and more concerned with what Jesus said. Good thing pastors are not confessionally-bound to emulate every aspect of Luther’s sermons (or you would be here a lot longer, too)! Focusing this morning more on those initial verses of today’s Gospel Reading’s introductory narrative but also on what Jesus said, we realize that “Jesus blesses those who come to Him”. Thus, the theme for this sermon is “Jesus blesses those who come to Him”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last week’s Gospel Reading left off, and some even suggest that we really need one or more of the verses from last week’s Gospel Reading in order to rightly understand this week’s Gospel Reading. You may recall that last week we heard how Jesus and His ministry of preaching the Gospel and healing every disease and affliction among the people were the Great Light that dawned on the people dwelling in darkness and in the region and shadow of death, spreading His fame not only throughout all Galilee but also all Syria, and leading great crowds to follow Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan (Matthew 4:12-25). As we heard in this week’s Gospel Reading, Jesus, having seen the crowds, went up on the mountain, and, when Jesus had sat down, His disciples came to Him, and Jesus, having opened His mouth, began to teach them, saying how they were blessed. Through these Gospel Readings, Jesus speaks also to us, and we realize that “Jesus’s teaching blesses those who come to Him”.
The initial verses of introductory narrative seem to suggest some sort of difference between the great crowds that followed Jesus and His disciples (at least four but no doubt many more) who came to Him, although the crowds appear to have heard enough of what Jesus was saying to be astonished at His teaching (Matthew 7:28-29). We might say that there is also a similar difference between the people who are not here this morning—non-members and members alike—and those of us who are here. And, there may also be a similar difference between those of us who are here: whether we are part of a larger crowd that only “follows” Jesus or whether we are among those disciples who come to Him. Of course, none of us should think ourselves better than others simply because we are here. Each of us should consider whether or not we are disciples who come to Jesus as we should. Are we too often absent for reasons that are not valid, mere dislikes of things about the service or the people who attend? How often do we seek out the sacrament of Absolution or the Sacrament of the Altar? Do we go beyond the milk of hearing God’s Word read and preached in the Divine Service to the meat of studying His Word in depth in Sunday School or Adult Bible Class and Midweek Bible Study? No doubt all of us who are disciples could come to Jesus better than we do, just as we all by nature are sinners who on account of their sin, as we heard in today’s Introit (Psalm 1:1-5; antiphon: Psalm 1:6), deserve to perish. The Lord not only indicts Israel of sin, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Micah 6:1-8), but He also indicts us of sin.
Yet, God also calls and thereby enables us to repent. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 1:18-31), as we who repent are, from the world’s perspective, foolish, weak, low, and despised, God gives us life in Christ Jesus, Who is our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He chooses us! Everything starts with God! He loves and has compassion on sinners without their doing anything! True God in human flesh, Jesus had gone about proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and affliction among the people; if Jesus had not done so, the great crowds arguably would not have followed Him. Jesus saw the crowds and went up the mountain and sat down so His disciples could come to Him, and then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying how they were blessed in Him. Ultimately, Jesus took their and our sin to the cross so that we do not have to perish. 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 sin of not coming to Him as we should, and God forgives all our other sin, whatever our sin might be. We do nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness; we who believe simply receive it through His Word and Sacraments.
God’s Word and Sacraments are how He reveals Himself to us, how He proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom and heals our disease and affliction of sin. He pours forgiveness over us with water in Holy Baptism; He speaks us righteous in individual Holy Absolution; and He puts His Body and Blood into our bodies and souls with bread and wine in Holy Communion, so that we may have His life in us. In all these ways, He draws near to us and enables us to draw near to Him by receiving them (James 4:8). In all these ways, He answers our prayer of today’s Collect to support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations, until we live with Him for eternity.
As those who are at the same time still sinners but also justified, we fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We do not let mere dislikes keep us from coming to Him in the Divine Service and also in Sunday School and Adult Bible Class, and, if our schedules and geographical distance do not permit our coming to Midweek Bible Study in person, then we listen online. We privately confess our sins for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, and we regularly receive Holy Communion. As we sang in the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 842), we are stewards of His bounty and so give freely of the abundance of gifts He has given us. And, when we fail to live in those ways or the others He prescribes, with daily repentance we as disciples come to Him so we can live in His forgiveness of sins.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther might have preferred that we had focused more on what Jesus said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount than on the initial two verses of introductory narrative (but then Luther did not preach on today’s Gospel Reading on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany once every three years, either). Even as we focused more on those initial verses, however, the Holy Spirit has led us both to turn from our sin and to trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. So led, we as disciples come to Jesus, and He opens His mouth and teaches us, saying how we are blessed in Him. For, as we have realized, “Jesus blesses those who come to Him”, both now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +