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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. (Amen.)
As you may have noticed especially this past week, the Democratic and Republican nominees for President and Vice‑President have been going back and forth about the size of their crowds. A poll out this past week suggests that more people think that Former‑President Trump typically attracts bigger crowds at his campaign rallies, while a nonpartisan organization that tracks political gatherings across the United States says that the facts are that Vice‑President Harris is attracting bigger crowds at her campaign rallies (Miami Herald; LA Times). The candidates certainly want larger—not smaller—crowds, and, in general, surely Jesus also wants larger—not smaller—crowds, though in today’s Gospel Reading we might say that Jesus’s crowd essentially goes “From 5,000 to 12”.
You may recall that Jesus had miraculously used five loaves and two fish in order to feed five‑thousand men (Mark 6:30-44), not to mention women and children (Matthew 14:21), and that the next day at least some of those people were seeking Jesus and found Him in Capernaum (John 6:22-25). What Jesus said to them—and perhaps to other people, inside and perhaps also outside of a Capernaum synagogue, over that day and perhaps also over other days—is usually called “The Bread of Life Discourse”, and today’s Gospel Reading is the third Gospel Reading in a row in which we have heard overlapping portions of that “Bread of Life Discourse” (John 6:22‑35, 35-51, 51-69). And, over the run of the “Discourse”, as I have pointed out, the number of those listening to Jesus went down, from however many there might have been at the start, to perhaps only His twelve closest disciples at the end.
Already in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading, the Jews, who thought that they knew Jesus’s parents, grumbled at Jesus’s claim that He came down from heaven, and then, in today’s Gospel Reading, those Jews went from grumbling to disputing among themselves about how Jesus could give them His flesh to eat—in both of those cases, we might say that the Jews rejected the idea that Jesus was the Son of God in human flesh, what we call Jesus’s Incarnation. As Jesus spoke more about the need to eat His flesh and drink His blood, even many of those in His larger group of disciples grumbled about what He was saying, and, when Jesus did not change His teaching but pushed further with a statement about their possibly seeing Him ascend to where He was before, they turned back and no longer walked with Him—we might say that many of those in His larger group of disciples rejected the idea that Jesus could be and would be really, physically present in His Holy Supper, what we call Jesus’s Sacramental Presence.
Of course, still today, religious Jews reject Jesus’s Incarnation, and many who consider themselves to be Christians reject Jesus’s Sacramental Presence. Faithful Lutherans confess both Jesus’s Incarnation and His closely‑connected Sacramental Presence, in both teaching and practice (for example, Formula of Concord VII and VIII). Yet, maybe you do not believe and confess either Jesus’s Incarnation or His Sacramental Presence, or maybe there is some other essential aspect of Christian doctrine that you either do not want to hear about or do not want to practice. Whether we sin in those ways or in other ways, by nature, you and I are no better than those in today’s Gospel Reading. We cannot bear to hear God’s Word (confer John 8:43), and our fallen human flesh is no help at all. Because of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve present and eternal punishment, and there is nothing that we can do about it. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot (Romans 8:7). As Jesus said again in today’s Gospel Reading, no one can come to Him unless it is granted by the Father. Thanks be to God the Father that His Holy Spirit calls and so enables us to be sorry for our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives us, for His Son Jesus’s sake.
As Simon Peter confessed on behalf of the twelve closest disciples, Jesus is the Holy One of God. The Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that the Child born to her was the Holy One, the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Sent by the Father, as the true Bread of Heaven, the Son of God came down from heaven and gave His flesh for the life of the world. The Word became flesh (John 1:14) and was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; confer v.36). Jesus died on the cross for all people, including you and me. Then, Jesus rose from the dead, and, forty days later, He did ascend to where He was before (Acts 1:3). Jesus’s death paid the price for all sin; He earned God’s grace for all people. Though, sadly, not all people repent, and so not all people are forgiven. Some do not believe, but others do believe. As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus said both that the Spirit gives life and that the words that He had spoken were spirit and life, and, led by the Spirit, on behalf of the twelve closest disciples, Simon Peter confessed—he said back to Jesus what Jesus had said to him, as did we in the Alleluia and Verse—that Jesus had the words of eternal life (confer Matthew 16:16-17).
We believe, teach, and confess that, in order for people to obtain saving faith, God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry, providing for the preaching of the Gospel and the handing‑out of the Sacraments, through which He gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:1-2). And, our churches teach (or at least our churches should teach) that no one should preach the Gospel or hand‑out the Sacraments unless he is properly called, which proper call arguably includes his being ordained (Augsburg Confession XIV). Under normal circumstances, the Ministry and those Sacraments are necessary for a person’s salvation. As Jesus says elsewhere in St. John’s Gospel account, unless a person is born of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism, he or she cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5-6), and, likewise, as Jesus said in today’s Gospel Reading, unless a person eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks His blood in the Holy Supper, he or she has no life in them. We who feed on Jesus live because of Him. Jesus can be and is really, physically present in His Holy Supper, because He is the Son of God in human flesh. On the Office confessing Jesus as the Son of God, He builds His Church, against Whom the gates of hell do not prevail (Matthew 16:18; Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope ¶25).
Once the Holy Spirit has called and gathered us into the Christian Church on earth, then we can make a sanctified choice to remain in His Church: to believe, teach, and confess the truth of Holy Scripture as expressed by the Lutheran Confessions, not picking and choosing what to accept and what to reject. As in today’s Old Testament Reading (Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18), we and our families choose both to fear and to serve in sincerity and faithfulness, not the false gods of the land in which we dwell, but the Lord Who redeemed us. With our remaining in Christ and His remaining in us, we should expect to be treated as He was treated, such as being opposed and deserted (Luther, ad loc Jn 6:59-60, AE 23:158), going, as it were, “From 5,000 to 12”. Yes, we care about and want each individual to be saved, but each individual can be saved only by true faith, so, like our Lord, we do not change the teaching to accommodate those who are grumbling or disputing. Not a majority of votes at a Synodical or District convention, or at a Circuit Forum or Pastors’ Meeting, not a majority of votes at a congregational Voters’ Assembly, or at a Church Council or Elders’ Meeting can effectively overrule the teaching of Holy Scripture as expressed by the Lutheran Confessions. We try to walk together, but, as described in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 5:6-21), we look carefully at how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, as children of light, as we prayed in the Collect of the Day, in the way that leads to eternal life.
Even in the political realm, crowd size can be misleading, for what matters in the end is not actual crowd sized, or perceived crowd size, or even the frequent polls, but the final tally after Election Day. In the spiritual realm, even now not either 5,000 or 12 but the few dozen that we can see join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, and, on the Last Day, raised from the dead, if necessary, and in glorified bodies, our few dozen that we can see will be part of the great multitude that no one can number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in our hands, and crying out in worship of God and the Lamb forever and ever (Revelation 7:9-17).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +