Trinity 24
Dear friends in Christ. Today we are almost at the end of the Church Year—only next week remains for the present Church Year. As we come to the close of the present Church Year, and even soon into the new Church Year, we have the theme: the end of the world. How perfectly this fits. We even have nature around us driving home this theme as the days are noticeably shorter, reminding us that just as the daylight hours are diminishing so is the time of this present world.
All throughout the Church Year we have heard of our Lord’s life and work for our salvation; we have heard His teachings He has given the Church to proclaim to the world; now, since the work of the salvation of the world has been accomplished, there is only one thing left: Jesus’ return on the Last Day. This teaching of the Lord’s coming and the Last Day and the Final Judgment will especially sound in our ears next Sunday as we hear our Lord’s call to us to be prepared [Mt. 25.13]: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Today’s Gospel reading in which we hear Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead is not only Jesus giving us a prophecy of His own resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday and His defeat of death, but it is teaching us that He can and will raise all the dead from their graves on the Last Day—just as we confess in the Creed: And [Jesus] shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead….And I look for the resurrection of the dead, And the life of the world to come.
But when we think of Jesus’ return on the Last Day and the judgment, what sort of thoughts/ images come to mind? Certainly our Lord’s almighty power and strength, His strict wrath and punishment of sin for those who have rejected Him and His saving work, for those who, like in today’s Gospel, laughed at him. Yes, very stern and powerful images—indeed frightening thoughts come to mind.
But now—at least so far—is not the Last Day, the day of Jesus’ return and the judgment. Now, it is much different. We don’t have Jesus sitting in glory on His throne in judgment. Now, Jesus seems to be very different; now He is as God the Father describes Him in our text from Isaiah: He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench… Notice how gentle Jesus is now—much different than He will be on Judgment Day. Now is the time of grace when our gentle Savior is calling us to Him into His kingdom so that He may give us every grace and blessing that He won for us by His holy life and His suffering and death on the cross for us. As we examine our text today we will see that now Jesus’ kingdom is gentle and peaceful. He set up/ established His Church gently and peacefully and our life in His Kingdom—His Church—is gentle and peaceful.
1. It was precisely by His humility and gentleness that Jesus set up His kingdom/ the Church. Notice what God the Father says of His Son, Jesus: Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is called a servant. Here is that humility of Jesus—He is the true God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, of equal power, glory, majesty with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and yet what does He do? He obeys the Father’s will and humbles Himself and becomes also true man—taking on human flesh and blood in the womb of the Virgin—so that He, the holy, perfect, sinless God-man, can place Himself under God’s holy Law to keep it for us/ in our place—as God demands of us if we are to enter heaven; and He also became true man so that He could take all of our sins upon Himself, become the world’s sinner, and suffer and endure all of God’s wrath and punishment for all the sins all of us have committed so that God’s perfect and righteous anger and punishment for sin might be stilled and we sinners reconciled to the holy God.
Precisely by His gentleness and humility, Jesus sets up His Church. He became a servant to His Father, carrying out His will to save us from sin, death, devil and hell; and He also became a servant to us poor sinners bringing about salvation by giving with His holy life—facing and overcoming temptations greater and far worse than we face or imagine—that perfect obedience to God’s holy Law and by His innocent suffering and death paying the penalty for our sin.
All throughout His earthly life as Jesus was humbly carrying out His life as servant both to the Father and to us sinners, He mostly kept His true glory and majesty as true God hidden/ concealed. St. Paul puts it like this [Ph 2.6-7 AAT]: Although [Christ Jesus] was God, He did not consider His being equal with God as a prize to be displayed, but He emptied Himself, made Himself a slave, became like other human beings... That’s why in our text, as the Father introduces the Messiah, Christ Jesus, He says Behold my servant. Behold! Jesus must be pointed out. That’s how gentle, lowly, humble He is. Jesus did not set up His kingdom, His Church, with great military might; according to human standards, He did not look like a great ruler/ look the part. In fact, even still today people do not think that the suffering, bleeding, dying Jesus can be/ is their Savior, that in Him alone heaven is opened, that in Him we have every heavenly blessing, that in Him our spiritual enemies are defeated and we need not fear anything from them. To this very day people are offended at Jesus, offended at His cross which proclaims both our sin and its consequences and at the same time our salvation. They want to hear nothing of sin and a Savior from sin because it means that we cannot gain heaven by ourselves/ our own works. They think the message of sin and grace puts people down, instead of freeing them in every way. God the Father still says today: Behold my servant –to those who reject Jesus it is a preaching of judgment, but to His dear Christians who love Him it is a great preaching of grace. How different the Last Day will be when Jesus returns in all His glory as Judge. Then there will be no doubt as to who Jesus is—but it will be too late for those who rejected Him and laughed at him.
Because in/ by His great humility Jesus set up/ established His Church, we need to hear the Father’s pronouncement, Behold my servant, because we are still sinful flesh and blood, because we have that old sinful nature in us that works together with the devil to lead us to doubt and question: Is this really all true? Is Jesus really the Savior of the whole world—my Savior? It all seems so impossible. Dear Christian, do not doubt, but in Spirit-worked faith, with the eyes and ears of faith see Jesus standing before you and hear the Father saying: Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him. Be assured that, yes, Jesus is that Servant: Behold my servant; be assured that the Father has established Him in His office as Savior: whom I uphold; be assured that He was from all eternity chosen to bring about the salvation of the world: my chosen, in whom my soul delights; be assured that He was endued for His work of bringing about the world’s salvation and the difficulty of that work: I have put my Spirit upon him.
2. Jesus set up His gentle, peaceful kingdom by His humility and meekness and He now expands His kingdom in a very gentle and peaceful way—by the preaching of His word. Notice how the Father introduces Jesus: He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street. Unlike so many who want make a show or spectacle to attract a following, Jesus doesn’t do that. Instead, He works quietly and hidden. Look at today’s Gospel reading, He first healed Jairus’ daughter when the crowd had been put outside. Think of when the Lord revealed Himself to the OT prophet Elijah [1 Ki 19.11, 12]: And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. In that whisper/ small voice—that’s where the Lord was. That’s how Jesus works in His kingdom today—through His simple humble word, be it the word that we hear in the Gospel or absolution or be it in the word made visible in the holy Sacraments. Don’t be impressed by outward show—the Lord’s not there; He’s in the low whisper of His word and sacrament. Our Lutheran Confessions [SA, 3, VIII, 10] state: We must constantly maintain this point: God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit—without the Word and Sacraments—is the devil himself.
Just as Jesus’ kingdom is a gentle and peaceful kingdom so is His way of expanding that kingdom—working quietly, in secret through the gentle and peaceful word and sacrament. But just because Jesus works this way, does not mean His work is ineffective. The Father says of Him in our text: he will bring forth justice to the nations and He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Jesus brings justice to the nations, that is, the legal pronouncement of God—“Forgiven!” That pronouncement comes to us through His holy word and Sacrament. Each time we hear the Gospel and absolution, Jesus brings us God’s pronouncement “Forgiven!” and through that word the Holy Spirit is mightily at work to create faith in our hearts to believe it. He did that at our baptism and He continues to do it throughout our lives to strengthen our faith. Jesus working quietly and hidden is a mighty work in which He brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith—and that’s His work of expanding His kingdom and bringing us into it. And what’s just as wonderful is—He will not grow faint or be discouraged. Jesus will continue to come to people until the Last Day and bring forth justice to the nations—to people from every place and time, including you, and pronounce us righteous. Yes, we are Christians; Christ has already come to us and brought us justice, God’s pronouncement of forgiveness; we are already in Jesus’ gentle and peaceable kingdom, the Church. But He still has to come to us because we are so often battered in faith, so often our faith is weak and beaten, so often attacked by the devil who tries to destroy that faith which alone saves us.
We, dear Christian, need Jesus to continue to come to us in His word and Sacrament, because we are, in the words of our text: a bruised reed … and a faintly burning wick. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. Here a picture of weakness—us in our struggles, us with broken and contrite hearts. To us Jesus comes—not as He will on the Last Day in all of his power and majesty—but like He did with the woman in today’s Gospel with the flow of blood who touched the fringe of his garment– gently. She saw Jesus in all His humility—unthreatening and unassuming, not terrifying and she reached out in faith—not seeing just the gentle, merciful Jesus but also the one true God who alone can and would heal her. Jesus received the weak and suffering who followed and sought His help and He dealt personally with them. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. Like He did the people in today’s Gospel reading, so too He comes to us today clothed in humble means of word, water, bread and wine. He invites us to come to Him now in this time of grace, in this time where His true glory and majesty is hidden and to come into His kingdom, the Church, to enjoy His mercy and peace and forgiveness. INJ Amen