+ + + 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.)
“Now and then”—the phrase has been used in English for centuries, usually as an adverb, indicating that something is done only occasionally or sometimes, but maybe not regularly or very often. For example, some people could say that they come to church “now and then”. We might use the phrase with its “now” even if we are not presently doing whatever it is, and we might use the phrase with its “then” whether or not we have done whatever it is in the past or will do whatever it is in the future. The words “now” and “then” can also refer to a contrast between something that is happening now and something that will happen in the future, such as the contrast that we find in today’s Gospel Reading. To be sure, the more‑obvious contrast in today’s Gospel Reading is the contrast between, on the one hand, Jesus’s statements of “blessedness”, what are usually called “Beatitudes”, and, on the other hand, Jesus’s statements of “woe”, threats or denunciations, similar to today’s Old Testament Reading’s statements of who is “cursed”, which statements of who is cursed, in that Old Testament Reading, are also contrasted to statements of who is “blessed”. Yet, today’s Gospel Reading also has a perhaps less‑obvious contrast between “now” and “then”: for example, those who are hungry and weep now will be satisfied and laugh implicitly “then”; but those who are full and laugh now will be hungry and mourn and weep implicitly “then”—not ruling out a possible change in this present temporal life, but especially anticipating the reversal in the future eternal life.
From last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Luke 5:1-11) we have skipped forward a good bit in St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account to today’s Gospel Reading, which began with Jesus’s coming down from a mountain, where He had gone to pray and then called and chosen twelve disciples whom He named apostles (Luke 6:12-16). As we heard, once on a level place, they were met by a great crowd of Jesus’s disciples and a great multitude of other people both from all Judea, including Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus cured those who were troubled with unclean spirits, and He healed others’ diseases. And then, He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and was speaking what is usually called “the Sermon on the Plain” (the “level place”, not an “airplane”, obviously). This “Sermon on the Plain” in St. Luke’s Gospel account is similar to the so‑called “Sermon on the Mount” in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, especially as both begin with similar “Beatitudes”, but only this “Sermon on the Plain” has the clarifying opposite “woe” statements of those who essentially are cursed.
One commentator calls the Beatitudes and woe statements “qualifications” necessary for admission to the Kingdom of God (Plummer, ad loc Luke 6:20-26, p.178). Of course, not everyone who is hungry or weeps now is necessarily admitted to the Kingdom of God, just as not everyone who is full or laughs now is necessarily excluded from the Kingdom of God. We do not qualify ourselves for the Kingdom of God—not by our being hungry or weeping or anything else. On our own, no matter our age, we cannot even choose the Kingdom of God. By nature, we all—even little Theo and Henry—are cursed, as the first man and woman were cursed in the Garden of Eden when they fell into sin and took us all with them (Genesis 3:14-19). Our sinful nature leads us to sin, and so we deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. But, out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace, the Holy Spirit calls and so enables us—even little Theo and Henry—to be sorry for our sin and to trust God to forgive our sin. What essentially determines whether we are admitted to or excluded from the Kingdom of God is whether or not we repent and believe. For, when we repent and believe, then we are admitted to the Kingdom of God, for Jesus’s sake.
The Collect of the Day asked that we who justly suffer the consequences of our sin might be mercifully delivered by God’s goodness, and so we are. Indeed, what is of first importance, as today’s Epistle Reading put it (1 Corinthians 15:1-20), and what is confessed in the creeds, is that Christ died on the cross for our sins and was raised on the third day, both in accordance with the prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures and the recorded history of the New Testament Scriptures. Although true God in human flesh, Jesus, more than anyone else, died materially poor, hungry, weeping, and hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil like the faithful prophets before Him—but He did all that for us, so that we could be saved! In Christ, the Kingdom of God is already ours, we will be satisfied and laugh, and we already can rejoice and leap for joy because we will receive the faithful prophets’ reward. God forgives us who repent and believe, and so we receive the eternal life and salvation that go with that forgiveness. We are forgiven and receive life and salvation through God’s Means of Grace, His Word and Sacraments, preached and administered by those whom He, in our time, calls and sends to us.
As we heard, before the “Sermon on the Plain”, all the crowd sought to touch Jesus in order to be cured and healed; His touch was not absolutely necessary for such miracles then or now, but touch with His Word was and is helpful for our faith. In Holy Baptism, God’s Word is combined with the touch of water, as Theo and Henry found out this morning, to work the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe the words and promises of God about Holy Baptism. In Holy Absolution, God’s Word is combined with a pastor’s touch, giving forgiveness as from God Himself. And, in the Holy Supper, God’s Word is combined with the touch of bread and wine to be the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us, and so they forgive us and also give us life and salvation. In all of these ways, we receive these gifts and have them as our possessions already “now”, even if we will not fully experience them until the “then” that is the Last Day.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the “now” and “then”, the present and future, contrast in both the Beatitudes and the woe‑statements is really only in the middle pairs of each: the first and fourth of the Beatitudes and the woe‑statements speak of present conditions and essentially present results. According to the fourth Beatitude and woe‑statement, as those who repent and believe and so are baptized, absolved, and communed, we should not expect all people to speak well of us, but we should expect people to hate us, exclude us, revile us, and spurn our names as evil on account of Jesus. We must lift our hearts above what our senses and reason tell us about the “now” (Luther, AE 21:44). By faith, we should see the “now” in light of the future “then” (Hauck, TDNT 4:369). As the Gospel Reading said, we are truly blessed already “now” that we will be satisfied and laugh “then”, but, as the Epistle Reading might be taken to suggest, the greatest blessing already “now” is that we will fully experience eternal life “then” (Simek, CPR 29:1, 47).
A more‑obvious contrast in today’s Gospel Reading is the contrast between Jesus’s “Beatitudes” and His statements of “woe” or “curses”, but a less‑obvious contrast is the contrast between “now” and “then”. As the saying goes, not just “now and then” but regularly, very often, we come to church in order to hear God’s Word and to receive His Sacraments. In keeping with the more‑obvious contrast, by God’s grace for Jesus’s sake, through faith, we are not cursed but blessed with the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And, as the less‑obvious contrast reminds us, we have these gifts already now, but we will not experience fully until the “then” that is the Last Day. Thanking and praising God already now, we also will thank and praise Him eternally then.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +