+ + + 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.
What is on your mind? What you thought of the Hymn of the Day? What kind of food there will be for the Fifth-Sunday Meal? The latest news about such things as the coronavirus or the U.S. presidential election? On what are you setting your mind? In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus was trying to fix His disciples’ minds on the things of God—such as the need for His suffering, dying, and being raised—but Peter, for one, was setting his mind on the things of people, such as earthly life and well being (Bertram, TDNT 9:232). So, Jesus taught about more things of God—such as the need for His disciples’ denying themselves, taking up their crosses, and following Him. Through the Gospel Reading and our reflection on it this morning, we realize that “Jesus sets our minds on the things of God”.
As you may recall from last week’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 16:13-20), just a few verses earlier Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus had pronounced Peter blessed by the revelation of the Heavenly Father (confer Stählin, TDNT 7:348). But, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Peter rebuked Jesus and effectively commanded that what needed to happen to Jesus for Peter’s and our redemption would never happen, and Jesus called Peter “Satan” and, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew uniquely reports, Jesus said Peter was a “hindrance” to Jesus, what other versions other than the English Standard Version read translate as an “offense” (KJV, NKJV), or “stumbling block” (ASV, NIV, NASB, NEB), a trap or occasion to sin or to fall from faith.
On the surface, Peter’s rejection of Jesus’s suffering, dying, and being raised seemingly out of concern for Jesus’s safety and welfare may seem “benign and well‑meant”, but Peter’s sentimental intervention coincided with Satan’s intent to keep Jesus from accomplishing His Father’s plan for our salvation (Marquart, CLD IX:63-64, referencing Matthew 4:1-11). Similarly, our sentimental concern for other people’s or our own safety and welfare may seem benign and well-meant but can be satanic, especially as that concern gets in the way of our denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus on a similar path of suffering. As with Peter and Jesus, our setting our minds on the things of people can be to others a “hindrance”, an “offense”, a “stumbling block”, a trap or occasion to sin or to fall from faith. We may not want to admit that our whole self has no worth of its own; we may not want to suffer for being a Christian; or, we may not want to give up the ease and advantages of this life (Luther, ad loc Genesis 20:2, AE 3:317). Yet, in trying to love and save our life in this world we may lose our life for eternity (confer John 12:25), and so Jesus rhetorically asked what profit there is for one to gain even the whole world but to forfeit one’s soul. People’s values that are set against their salvation are so opposed to God’s values that they are satanic (Foerster, TDNT 7:158‑160). Based solidly on Holy Scripture, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism teaches us to believe, teach, and confess that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature do not want us, among other things, to let God’s Kingdom come, which Kingdom includes our leading godly lives in heaven for eternity (Small Catechism, III:11, 8).
As Jesus confronted Peter over his sin in regards to the things of God and the things of people, so God confronts us over our sin in regards to the things of God and the things of people, as God confronts us over all of our sin, for any of which sin we deserve death here in time and torment in hell for eternity. But, God calls and thereby enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us by grace through faith in Jesus, and “Jesus sets our minds on the things of God”.
Despite Peter’s being to Jesus a potential “hindrance”, “offense”, or “stumbling block”, a trap or occasion to sin or to fall from faith, out of His great love, Jesus completed the things of God: suffering, dying, and being raised for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins. God in human flesh, Jesus came the power of hell to vanquish (Lutheran Service Book, 621:3). Jesus is the Stronger One Who on the cross defeated Satan and then, as it were, plundered Satan’s house (for example, Matthew 12:29). On the cross Jesus died for us, in our place, the death we deserved on account of our sin. On the cross Jesus truly ransomed us, as no one else could, by giving the price of His life, which was all sufficient (Psalm 49:7-8). We can lose our life in this world because of Jesus and find it for all eternity. For, us who repent, Jesus forgives and gives eternal life through His Word and Sacraments.
On our own we set our minds on the things of people, but “Jesus sets our minds on the things of God”. “Jesus sets our minds on the things of God” as God’s Word is read and preached to groups such as this one, and as His Word is applied to us individually with water in Holy Baptism, with our pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar that are Christ’s Body and Blood. These all reveal and effect His things, forgiving us and so giving us life and salvation. These all change us, transform us, set our minds on the things of God, and enable us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus on a similar path of suffering. For most of us, that journey starts at the Baptismal Font, where we are baptized into Christ Jesus and so also into His death, buried with Him by baptism into death so that, just as He was raised from the dead, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3‑4; confer Colossians 2:12). Along the way, when we know and feel sins in our heart, we privately confess them to our pastor for the sake of Holy Absolution, effected on earth but having results also in heaven. And, our food for this journey is Christ’s Body and Blood, strengthening and preserving us in body and soul unto life everlasting.
Just as Jesus’s path of suffering ended in glory, so also our paths of suffering end in glory. Our temporal death is of benefit to us (confer Luther, AE 37:135), as the gate to our eternal life. Death cannot hold us, for Jesus is the life (LSB, 861:3). And, despite what we may think, we are not so irreplaceable that God cannot use other means to take care of those we might leave behind. Of course, we do not try to hasten our deaths in this world, but we also do not try at all costs to preserve our lives, as if we were ultimately in control of them anyway. So, we can risk our earthly lives for Christ’s sake, including by receiving His eternal gifts through Word and Sacrament, and we can risk our earthly lives also for our neighbor’s sake, taking up not only our own crosses but also helping to bear our neighbors’ burdens (Galatians 6:2; confer Scaer, CLD VIII:9), not treating them as potential sources of disease but loving them as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18).
At various times we surely have on our minds things such as our opinion of the Hymn of the Day, food at our Fifth-Sunday Meal, and the latest news about such things as the coronavirus and the U.S. presidential election, but we keep those things of people in perspective as “Jesus sets our minds on the things of God”. With daily repentance, we live in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God, and we extend our forgiveness to those who sin against us. As we, enabled by Jesus, deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus on a similar path of suffering, He gives us peace and joy. To paraphrase today’s Entrance Hymn (LSB 692:2), with zeal and joy exceeding, we follow where His steps are leading.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +