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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.)
When I am up in Arkansas visiting my mother, one of the things that I enjoy doing is reading the weekly newspaper’s “Police Report”, which frequently embellishes some of its assorted accounts in a rather humorous way. Not funny, however, are its regular reports of people who have fallen victim to various scams: whether in person, over the phone, or via the computer. Of course, one does not have to live in a gated retirement community to be so victimized: one of my non-church Kilgore‑friends not long ago was taken for a considerable amount of money. If the Lord Jesus were updating today’s Gospel Reading for our present circumstances, maybe, instead of speaking of both a thief’s approaching our heavenly treasure and a thief’s coming and breaking-in, He would speak of a thief’s from a distance remotely hacking‑in. Not surprisingly, even without such an updating, today’s Gospel Reading with its two “thief” mentions still applies to us. With the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Jesus comes like a thief, but no thief approaches our heavenly treasure”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last Sunday’s Gospel Reading left off, after its reporting a man’s request for Jesus to tell his brother to divide his inheritance with him and after Jesus’s warning against covetousness and the so‑called “Parable of the Rich Fool” (Luke 12:13-21). Where last week the rich fool, who ostensibly stored‑up treasure for himself on earth and was not rich toward God, got caught in God’s judgment at the man’s own sudden death, this week the disciples are warned about so worrying about their earthly needs and over‑relying on God’s providing both their earthly needs and their heavenly treasure that they do not properly wait and watch and so get caught in God’s judgment at the Lord’s sudden return at the end of the age, when He comes like a thief in the night (confer, for example, 1 Thessalonians 5:2).
To be sure, whether at our own sudden deaths or at the Lord’s sudden return at the end of the age, there will be judgment. And, on account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve to be found guilty and sentenced to eternal torment in hell. Too often we are anxious and worried about our lives, what we will eat, and about our bodies, what we will wear. We are unable to add a single hour to our span of life, and yet we somehow think that we can do other things over which we have no control. Too often we forget the great value that our Heavenly Father puts upon us, that He knows the things that we need, and that He adds them to us. We may not give as we should, either to help the needy or to support this congregation and, through this congregation, to support the Church‑at‑large. Too often we are too fixated on our earthly treasure: what we used to have, what we have now, or what we think we need to have or will have in the future. Like Abram in today’s Old Testament Reading (Genesis 15:1-6), we may be afraid that God will not fulfill His promises to us. Too often we fail to turn in sorrow from our sin as we should and to trust God to forgive us, and so we fail to be waiting and watching for Him when He comes like a thief. By nature, we are those of no faith, but, when we have even a little Holy‑Spirit‑given sorrow and trust, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us not because we have repented, served Him, or done anything else, but God forgives us only for Jesus’s sake.
In today’s Gospel Reading, in between Jesus’s speaking about our anxieties over earthly things and about our watchfulness and faithfulness, Jesus also speaks about our treasure in heaven. The greatest comfort comes from Jesus’s words that we, His little flock, are not to fear, because it is our Heavenly Father’s good pleasure to give us His Kingdom. From eternity God elected us in Christ and in love predestined us for adoption as His Children, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:3-6, especially KJV and ASV). As we sang in the Introit (Psalm 147:8-11; antiphon: v.7), the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love, or, His “mercy”. As God through Isaiah told “little Israel” not to be afraid, He helps, He is the Redeemer (Isaiah 41:14, confer NIV84). God in human flesh, Jesus came to serve by giving His life as a ransom for all (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). In the form of a servant, He died on the cross in our place (Philippians 2:7-8), and then He rose from the dead. In Abram’s offspring Jesus are all the families of the earth blessed (Genesis 12:3). As today’s Epistle Reading described Abraham’s seeking a heavenly homeland (Hebrews 11:1-16; confer Greeven, s.v. ejpizhtevw, TDNT 2:895), so we seek God’s Kingdom. By faith, we are among Abraham’s countless children, and that same faith is counted to us as Christ’s righteousness.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus not only warns against the disciples’ failure to wait and watch with the illustration of His coming like a thief in the night, but Jesus also encourages the disciples’ waiting and watching with a promise of His blessing them by serving them (Lenski, ad loc Luke 12:39, pp.704-705; Marshall, ad loc Luke 12:39, p.538). Even before Jesus served the world with His death on the cross, Jesus served His disciples by washing their feet (John 13:1‑17), and even now, through His ministers—under‑shepherds of the Good Shepherd (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1‑4)—Jesus serves us, who are baptized and absolved, bread that is His Body given for us and wine that is His Blood shed for us. Thus we in repentance and faith receive the forgiveness of sins and so also life and salvation. In this way already now we are provided with what Jesus calls moneybags that do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches.
We certainly realize that our earthly treasures all too easily can be lost to a thief, but Jesus says no thief approaches our treasure in the heavens. Here and now, false teachers may try to steal and rob us in the little flock from the Good Shepherd, but we do not listen to them, and we flee them, for we know our Good Shepherd’s voice, and we follow Him, and no one is able to snatch us out of His or the Father’s hands (John 10:1-8, 27-30; confer Deuteronomy 32:39). Jesus seems to describe “littleness as the way to greatness” (Michel, s.v. mikro", TDNT 4:654). We do not stick with the misled multitudes, but we stick with the faithful few (confer Luther, ad loc John 3:16, AE 22:350). To be sure, the devil sees our little flock and wrongly thinks that he will devour us in a moment, but the Lord protects us from him and his evil horde (confer Luther, ad loc Genesis 28:16, AE 5:226), what the writer of today’s Sermon Hymn called “hell’s satanic crew” (Lutheran Service Book 666:3).
“Jesus comes like a thief, but no thief approaches our heavenly treasure”. As we live each day sorry for our sin and trusting God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, we live each day in God’s forgiveness of sins. Thus we are waiting and watching, so that we are ready for the Son of Man, even when He comes at an hour that we do not expect. We can and do try to avoid such things as scams, whether in person, over the phone, or via the computer, but, even when we might fall victim to such scams and lose some earthly treasure, God still adds to us all that we need, and no such earthly thief approaches our heavenly treasure. We can and do give from the abundance that God provides (Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22), though we cannot merit the Kingdom, for only God can give it (Preisker, s.v. misqo", ktl., TDNT 4:718). In God’s Kingdom, we already now have His peace and joy. Thanks be to God, now and forever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +