All Saints’ Sunday
Dear friends in Christ. Today on All Saints’ Sunday, we remember those who have gone on before us in the faith and whose souls are now with the Lord in heaven. They have fought the good fight of faith and by the Lord’s grace and preservation they are now resting from their labors and enjoying being in the eternal joy and bliss of being in the presence of the holy Triune God. This is the end/ goal of the holy Christian faith—to be with our Lord and to behold Him eternally in heaven.
In our daily lives, as we fight against sin and temptation; as we fight against the assaults of the devil and his allies, the sinful world around us and our old sinful self within us; it is very easy to forget about the blessed joy that awaits us in heaven—and which those who have died in the Christian faith are already now enjoying. That’s why it does us good to celebrate All Saints’ Day—it focuses our attention to heaven; and that the Lord is faithful to His word and promise to us [Rev. 2.10]: Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
As you can see in our bulletin, our Lutheran Confessions—what we as Lutherans hold to be the correct exposition of Holy Scripture—approve honoring the saints in three ways. The first is thanksgiving. That is, we thank God that He showed them mercy; and that the saints are now examples that God wants to save us: they are, after all, in heaven. The second service in honoring the saints comes as it strengthens our faith. When, for example, we see their sins forgiven, we are all the more encouraged to trust in the Lord and His grace and that He indeed forgives us our sin. The third way we honor the saints is by imitating them—first and foremost, their faith, as the apostle writes [Heb. 13.7]: Remember those who are leading you, who have spoken the word of God to you, consider how their lives ended, and keep imitating their faith. Honoring the saints, though, does not mean praying to them. Prayer is an act of worship and therefore reserved for God alone. He alone can hear and answer our prayers. Yet, although we do not pray to the saints that does not mean that they don’t pray for us. Just as when they were alive they prayed for the Church, so now that they are in heaven, they still pray for the Church.
As the Church Year comes to a close, the final Sundays of the Church Year focus in on our Lord’s return on the Last Day. How fitting that today we remember the saints in heaven who with us are awaiting our Lord’s return and the resurrection of the body on the Last Day! As we remember the saints today, we rejoice with them in the Lord’s grace and work for them and us. And we are strengthened in our faith—just as the Lord brought them through this earthly life so will He do the same with us; and just as He was faithful to that promise so will He be faithful in His promise to return on the Last Day and bring His dear Christian soul and body with Him into heaven.
The saints in heaven are the ones we especially remember today. But let us also not forget that we are saints. We, dear Christian, are the holy ones of God. Christ’s Church is made up of the saints—She is, as we confess in the Creed, the Communion of saints—made up the Christians in heaven and the Christians on earth.
Although we don’t often fit the image of what we normally think a saint is: a holy person, nevertheless we are already now saints because in Christ our sins are washed away and we are clothed with His perfect holiness. “Saints”—that’s what St. Paul calls the Christians in the congregations he writes to, even though they were still sinning often and at times grievously. Because of Jesus and His work bringing you forgiveness of sins you, dear Christian, in spite of your sin—not matter how great—are a saint. We go from saints on earth to saints in heaven.
1. Today’s Gospel account—the Beatitudes—is a glorious description of the Christian. As we closely examine the Beatitudes, we see that they are not law: you have to do/ be this or that in order to be a Christian; instead, they describe what the Christian is in this life and the blessing that belongs to the Christian. Why do the Beatitudes describe the Christian? Because they first of all describe Jesus, who is in and at work in His Christians; our lives reflect Him. That’s what we’ll see today as we examine the third Beatitude, Blessed are the gentle, For they shall inherit the earth: Jesus is the Gentle One and He calls us to His gentleness.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Gentle—or as most translations have it here “meek”—what a glorious description of Jesus! Gentleness/ meekness is not a passiveness; it is not being a milquetoast; just letting anything happen that will happen because you can’t do anything about it. Instead, gentleness is strength under control. The 90 lb. weakling is not meek/ gentle if he gives way to the 500 lb. gorilla. That’s just “common sense” or survival. But if the 500 lb. gorilla gives way to the 90 lb. weakling, that would be gentleness/ meekness; it would not be using/ controlling the strength he has. When the gentle are wronged or abused—even though they have every right to and can—they show no resentment and do not threaten or avenge themselves. They are not vehement, bitter, wild and violent. The gentle are ready to endure and to suffer and bear without complaining; they are not filled with self-righteousness, pride, conceit.
What clearer example of gentleness/ meekness—strength under control—do we have than in Christ? After all, He is the almighty God Himself, the maker of heaven and earth. All power in heaven and earth is His. But what did He do? He became also true man, was born a Baby of the Virgin, and suffered untold humiliations and sufferings. He—the almighty God—knew all this going into it as He told the disciples [Lk 18.31-34]: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. And they will scourge Him and put Him to death; and yet He still did it; He did not use His divine, power, glory and majesty—all so that He could be our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell.
That’s precisely how Jesus set up His kingdom—by His gentleness. Had He used His divine power to avenge Himself, had He resisted His arrest, beatings, crucifixion, there would be no kingdom, no Church and we would all still be condemned, lost sinners with no hope of rescue. Jesus willingly endured all this to save us. He is Gentle—He had strength—all power—but did not use it, instead He endured all to save us from our sins that we may be His saints! St. Peter puts it this way [1 Peter 2.23]: When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. This gentleness is the sign of Jesus’ lordship. People are to recognize Jesus as the Savior precisely by His gentleness. On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of the prophecy that He would be gentle and by His gentleness set up His kingdom [Mt. 21.5]: Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold your king is coming to you, humble/ gentle, and mounted on a donkey. Jesus goes in the way of gentleness into death and victory—and we enjoy the fruit of that victory. Blessed are the gentle, For they shall inherit the earth.
Precisely that gentleness of Jesus draws us to Him. Jesus calls us [Mt. 11.28-29]: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus’ gentleness attracts us to Him. He doesn’t come—as He rightly could, in His absolute righteousness and demand of us perfect sinlessness; He doesn’t come adding more laws upon laws for us to do if we hope to enter heaven. Instead, He is gentle. He invites us to come to Him; He speaks tenderly to us; He comes to us and promises us rest for our souls—that is, He comes to us giving us the forgiveness of sins and peace with God. He comes and invites us to give Him our sin, guilt and wretchedness and He will give us that rest of conscience as He frees us from the burden and sting of sin. Not only, did Jesus set up His kingdom by His gentleness—suffering and dying on the cross for our sins—but He also now extends His kingdom, His Church, as by His lowliness He draws us to Him. He is our gentle Savior, not coming to us in might and displays of holiness, which would frighten away us sinners, but He gently comes to us wanting to give us His every gift and blessing—and He does so in His lowly means of word, water, bread, wine.
2. Precisely here is that glorious description of the Christian: Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Because Jesus is the Gentle One par excellence, He calls us to His gentleness. Gentleness describes the Christian because Christ, the Gentle One, is in us. That’s because of our Baptism. Baptism connects us with Christ. We are in Him and He is in us. The Christian’s life will be marked by gentleness because He’s in us leading and strengthening us. That’s why Jesus describes the Christian in our text: Blessed are the gentle. Unlike Jesus, though, our gentleness will be far from perfect. We still have that old sinful nature that wants to give others what they “deserve”; we still will have feelings of revenge or avenging perceived wrongs done to us. For that, may we examine our hearts and lives, recognize and repent of it—and go back to the Gentle Christ calling to us in the Gospel, offering us forgiveness for our sin—not giving us what we deserve. Although Jesus is perfectly and in every way the “Gentle One”, gentleness is, for the Christian, the characteristic—but one which we, sadly, often fall far short of.
Yet, whenever we do fall short of it, and we recognize our sinfulness and lack of gentleness—seeing, instead, our rashness and vengeful spirit—and we in faith return to the Gentle One—return to our baptism—He fully and freely forgives us. Led and empowered by Him we, then, become more gentle because we humbly recognize our sin and our own need of the Lord and His gentleness toward us. Rejoicing in His gentleness toward us and in being our Savior, how can we be full of pride, conceit and self-righteousness in our dealings with others? How then, will we not all the more seek peace and endure all sorts of guile. Being the beneficiary of our Lord’s gentleness, how can gentleness not be a distinguishing characteristic of us: Blessed are the gentle, For they shall inherit the earth?
The holy absolution declares us unworthy ones to be accepted and honored by God for Christ’s sake; in Baptism our sins are washed away and we are made part of Christ’s kingdom, the Church; in the Holy Supper, Jesus comes to us and gives us with the bread and wine His very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sin. In this way, then, gentleness comes to us from the Gospel. Now we are certain, in Christ, in the Gospel, that the Lord delights in us, loves, us, cares for us. That’s why the gentle are blessed—for they shall inherit the earth. Since we are certain that the Lord delights in us, we can use the earthly gifts He gives us with joy and a good conscience; we are certain that the Lord will provide for us in the best possible way for us—as a loving, heavenly Father would do. As His dear children in Christ, we then recognize that God is directing all things for our benefit and that all things work together for our good. Even though we may suffer, even though the wicked may grow mighty, we are certain of God’s goodness and mercy following us all our lives. As we trust in the Lord, we commit our way to Him, and wait patiently and confidently that He will bring us help, rescue, deliverance. Being the beneficiaries of the Lord’s gentleness, and so led and empowered by Him and relying upon Him, our lives on earth will be marked by gentleness. Blessed are the gentle, For they shall inherit the earth. INJ Amen.