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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.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, spoke at length with His disciples about His being separated from them—separated both for a shorter time between His crucifixion and resurrection and for a longer time between His ascension and final coming. As the Divinely‑inspired St. John uniquely records in today’s Gospel Reading, and as we have been considering recently in our Midweek Bible Study, Jesus told His disciples that where He was going they could not come, at least not at first (John 13:33, 36). Humanly speaking, we might understand the disciples’ hearts being troubled—stirred up, disturbed, unsettled, thrown into confusion, confused maybe both mentally and spiritually, producing an agitation that may even have been evident by outward tumult (BAGD). But, spiritually speaking, Jesus tells them to stop having troubled hearts and instead to keep believing in God the Father and in Him. Specifically, they should trust that He is going to prepare a place for them and would come again to take them to Himself, so that where He would be they would be also. Jesus said that they knew the way to where He was going, but Thomas’s question about that and Philip’s request for the disciples to be shown the Father showed Jesus that their emotion was getting in the way of their faith, to the extent that they really knew and believed in Jesus and the Father at all.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus told His disciples “Let not your hearts be troubled”, and Jesus tells us “Let not your hearts be troubled”. Of course, the disciples’ issues are not our issues. We are not facing shorter and longer periods of separation from our beloved teacher of what is usually thought to have been three years. We have the benefit of the post-Pentecost perspective on Jesus’s crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and final coming. We have this record of His promise to prepare a place for us and to come again to take us to Himself so that where He is there we may be also. We have the fuller revelation of Jesus as the way to the Father, with Whom He mutually dwells. Yet, to the extent that we really know and believe in Jesus and the Father, our faith can also be subject to our emotion.
What troubles our hearts—stirs them up, disturbs them, unsettles them, throws them into confusion, confused maybe both mentally and spiritually, producing an agitation that may even be evident by outward tumult? Are our hearts troubled by the tumult going on around us in the world? Are our hearts troubled by loved ones’ or our own work or financial insecurity? Are our hearts troubled by loved ones’ health situations? Are our hearts troubled by our own possibly becoming sick and dying? Are our hearts troubled by doubts that God can enable our loved ones to get along without us? Are our hearts troubled by doubts that the place Jesus has prepared for us is really better or that our being where Jesus is is really God’s purpose and end result?
We sin in these and in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. From all our sins, God calls and enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. God called out through John the Baptizer for the way of the Lord to be prepared (for example, Matthew 3:3, quoting Isaiah 40:3), and, the Lord Himself prepares that way for Himself in us, bringing about our repentance, as Jesus prepared our ultimate destination in His Father’s house.
As we heard Jesus say in the Gospel Reading, He Himself is the only way to our dwelling with the Father. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Working through His human nature, the Son of God spoke the Father’s words and did the Father’s works. Their Holy Spirit leads us to recognize them! Out of God’s great love for you and for me, the Father sent His Son to do arguably the greatest work of dying on the cross for our sins, dying in our place, dying the death that we otherwise would have deserved. Jesus establishes the way for us to—the connection to—the Father, from Whom we had been alienated by our sin. That way is reliable, and that way gives us eternal life, the life that matters more than this one. We do not have some vague or undefined trust in Jesus, but we believe, for example, that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, and we believe that He died for us as individuals. When we so believe, then God forgives our sin, all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake, and God forgives our sin through His Means of Grace.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus called His disciples to believe on the basis of what He said and what He did. We also believe both on the basis of Jesus’s Words—His Words read and preached, to groups like this—and on the basis of Jesus’s Works—His Words applied to individuals with ordinary means such as water in Holy Baptism, the pastor’s touch in individual Holy Absolution, and bread that is His Body given for us and wine that is His Blood shed for us in the Sacrament of the Altar, which give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Especially the Sacrament of the Altar leads to our mutual dwelling with God! For, Jesus said, that those who feed on His flesh and drink His blood abide (or “dwell”) in Him and He dwells in them, and so we also dwell in the Father and the Holy Spirit and They also dwell in us (John 6:56). Through the Church’s use of all of these Means of Grace, sins are forgiven and eternal life is granted, arguably greater works than at least some of those works that Jesus did directly, as these are done in light of His resurrection, include more Gentiles, and reach a greater number of people.
Prayers for the right and effective use of God’s Means of Grace, which ultimately by the power of the Holy Spirit glorify Jesus and the Father, are especially those prayers that are rightly asked in Jesus’s Name and granted by Him. Of course, we can ask God for everything that is covered by His Divine will, and, as far as we are Christians, our will coincides with God’s will, but, as far as we are still sinners, our will may pray beyond God’s command and promise, and we should not expect God to grant any sinful or arrogant petitions (see Pieper, III:82; Kretzmann, ad loc John 14:12-14, p.490). For example, we do not know what God’s will is regarding the coronavirus. We might think about how our faithful mothers, as they knew better generally granted or did not grant our requests of them, as we are also thankful for those mothers who faithfully fulfilled their vocations, especially bringing us up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Not only those of us put into churchly offices like St. Stephen of today’s First Reading (Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a, 51-60), but also each one of you in the priesthood of the baptized, as in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Peter 2:2-10)—according to our respective vocations, we both offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ and proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
As Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Believe in God; believe also in Jesus. As we prayed in the Collect of the Day, God grants that, among the many changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found: namely, in the Person, work, and Means of Jesus Christ. Far better than our preservation in this life is the Lord Jesus’s both in His time taking our souls to Him and on the Last Day raising and glorifying our bodies, so that where He is we may be also, and there live for all eternity.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +