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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.
Fresh from Reformation Day and our observance of All Saints’ Day, we find ourselves on the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, what in this Church Year essentially is the second-last Sunday of the Church Year, with its focus on the Last Things. In today’s Gospel Reading, fresh from condemning the institutions of Jewish religious life (Mann, ad loc Mark 13:1-2, p.499), Jesus essentially “condemns” the Jewish Temple. Jesus’s statement about the destruction of the Temple responds to one of His disciple’s exclamation about the glory of the Temple, and we probably could devote a whole sermon to our own cases of “church envy” and seeking the glory the world imagines instead of seeking the glory God gives, hidden under both the cross of Christ and our own personal crosses. But, devoting a sermon to what sets up the central teaching of the Gospel Reading would be to miss that central teaching of the Gospel Reading. That central teaching of the Gospel Reading comes after a group of disciples privately asked Jesus about the destruction of the Temple, when it would be and what would be the sign of its being about to happen, and, in the verses that we heard this morning, Jesus responded with a series of signs and what should be His followers’ responses to those signs. A more-conservative interpretation of the Gospel Reading may understand its primary focus to be on the then‑coming destruction of the Temple, but the for us now‑past destruction of the Temple is prophetically typical of God’s destruction of the world on the Last Day, and so the signs and responses that Jesus describes also apply to us. As we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading this morning, then, we direct our thoughts to the theme “Signs and Responses”.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus seems to give a series of five “Signs and Responses”, and Jesus arguably emphasizes not the signs but the responses (Voelz, ad loc Mark 13:1-37, pp.942, 949-950, 975-976). Jesus says that many will come in His Name saying that they are Him, but His disciples are to see to it that no one leads them astray. Jesus says that nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be earthquakes and famines, but His disciples are not to be alarmed. Jesus says that people will deliver them over to councils and they will be beaten in synagogues and stand before governors and kings for His sake and serve as a witness so that the Gospel will be preached to all the nations, so His disciples are to be on guard. Jesus says that they will not be the ones who speak but the Holy Spirit, so His disciples are not to be anxious beforehand but say whatever is given them in that hour. And, Jesus says that they will be delivered over to death by family members and be hated by all for His Name’s sake, but His disciples who endure to the end will be saved.
In light of the ongoing, if not intensifying, fulfillment of the signs that Jesus describes, are we responding as we should? By frequent attendance at a faithful Lutheran Church and frequent participation in Bible Classes and Studies, do we see to it that no one leads us astray? By taking in polarizing media and soaking up conspiracy theories, are we not alarmed? With arrests more likely due to rising restrictions on religion, intolerance, and persecution, are we on our guard? Are we already anxious about what we would say at a trial, or do we trust God to give us what to say? Do we want peace in our families and among our friends and other associates so badly that we back away from confessing our faith, or do we endure to the end so that we will be saved? If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that, in light of the signs, we do not respond as we should. We are sinful by nature, and we sin in these and countless other, sometimes unspeakable, ways. Because of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve both death here and now and eternal torment in hell, apart from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
With the destruction of both the first temple before the time of Christ and the second temple after the time of Christ, God also worked deliverance, and to some extent all of today’s Readings also have that same dual theme of destruction and deliverance (confer Rusnak, CPR 31:4, 48-49). Even in the Gospel Reading, Jesus speaks both of the Gospel’s being preached to all nations and of the one who endures to the end’s being saved. Jesus spoke the Reading’s words early in Holy Week and primarily prophesying of what His disciples would experience years later, but to some extent His words also anticipated what happened to Him days later, namely His own betrayal to death, trial with His faithful confession, beating, and enduring to the end, not to mention things such as the earthquakes at His death and resurrection. God in human flesh, all that Jesus did and experienced was because He loved all of fallen humanity and in order to save all of fallen humanity. Jesus took our sins to the cross, and there He died for us, in our place. As today’s Epistle Reading put it, Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, and we draw near to Him with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:11-25).
The Gospel of the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is preached to all nations, whether by His disciples’ bearing witness to governors and kings, or by His called and ordained servants preaching to groups such as this one. That same Gospel is applied to individuals with water as they are baptized in His Name, with the pastor’s touch as they are absolved in His Name, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for you and the Blood of Christ shed for you. The Old Testament Reading’s mention of the Book of Life may make us think especially of Holy Baptism where our names are written in that Book of Life (Daniel 12:1-3), and the Epistle Reading seems also to refer to Holy Baptism by describing our being washed with pure water, as that Reading also seems to refer to the Sacrament of the Altar by referring to our entering the holy places by the blood of Jesus. To be sure, Jesus Himself says that those who feed on His flesh and drink His blood abide in Him and He in them (John 6:56). Such abiding in Him and He in us is part of our enduring to the end and being saved.
Today’s Collect connects our receiving God’s forgiveness in Word and Sacrament with our standing firm until the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, as the Epistle Reading said, we do not neglect meeting together in the Divine Service, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another (perhaps through sermons such as this one), and all the more as we see the Day drawing near. Until that Day, or until our death, whichever comes first, we see that no one leads us astray; we are not alarmed by wars and rumors of wars (or anything else that happens in society); we are on our guard for persecutions; we are not anxious what we are to say but say whatever is given us in that hour; and we endure to the end and so are saved. We are passive in the saving, and to some extent we are passive in the enduring, for God strengthens us with all power for endurance (Colossians 1:11), for He is the God of endurance (Romans 15:5). Faith in God and the sure and certain hope that comes with faith lead to endurance: as faith and hope lead us actively to do good works in keeping with our vocations, so faith and hope also lead us passively to suffer and bear such things as people’s hatred and even potentially our own family members’ betraying us to death. We endure such things not with complaining and grumbling but bravely and calmly. (Confer Hauck, TDNT 4:581-588.)
This morning we have considered the Gospel Reading under the theme “Signs and Responses”. We have realized that, in light of the signs, we do not respond as we should, but that, when we repent of our sin, then God forgives us, and He enables us to do such things as endure to the end and so be saved. The same Divine necessity that brought forth the beginning of the birth pains of the end also brought forth the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, so that we can endure and so be saved. Whatever our mis‑perceptions of glory might be, the purely preached Gospel and the rightly administered Sacraments truly are the “glory” of Christ’s Church on earth. May He preserve them among us until the end.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +