Trinity 25
Beloved. For us, this time of year—with the trees bare of their leaves, with the grey November skies, with the general lack of color, with the generally unpleasant weather—all preaches to us from every side about end and finality. As the calendar year comes to a close, as the growing year has come to a close, as we ponder these things, we are reminded once again of the end of all things.
We are also approaching the end of the current Church Year. Only this week and next remain. The readings also turn our attention to an end—the end of all things. The Church Year readings focus our attention to the end times and to Jesus’ return, when He will come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead. This week, the focus is on the fact and certainty of Jesus’ Second Coming. Next week our attention turns to the fact of the Final Judgment.
In today’s epistle we hear St. Paul telling the Thessalonians about Jesus’ Second Coming. Some in that church were wondering and worried. Their big question was: what about the Christians who had died? Wouldn’t they miss out on Jesus’ return on the Last Day? St. Paul answers a very definite: “No!” He mentions something very fascinating: He says: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Notice what He says: those who have died in the Lord, the dead Christians, will be raised first. Their bodies will be raised from their graves, holy, perfect, and glorified and be reunited with their souls, which have been in heaven since death, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. So first the dead in Christ, the dead Christians, will be raised Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So both the dead but now resurrected Christians and the Christians who are still alive when Jesus returns will be brought soul and glorified body into heaven. And so we will always be with the Lord. The glorious unity of the Church in its full glory—all Christians eternally with our Lord in the joy and bliss of heaven!
Sadly, this most comforting passage of Scripture, is often twisted by many American Protestants into the false teaching of the so-called “Rapture”: Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. Instead of holding to the Apostle’s clear word of Jesus’ sudden return and the glorious resurrection of the dead and the glorification of the living Christians and both being brought into heaven soul and body, they imagine some sort of “secret return” of Jesus in which Jesus takes all His true Christians into heaven, as they sort of disappear from earth. The earth continues on and there is a supposed seven year tribulation and then a visible return of Jesus and a glorious 1000 year of Jesus and His Church here on earth. And here we come to the heart and core of this false doctrine—it wants an outward, visible, glorious kingdom of Jesus. Instead, Jesus told Pilate [Jn 18.36]: My kingdom is not of this world.
But wanting this sort of outward, visible glorious kingdom is not something new to many American Protestants. It is what many Jews were looking for at the time of Jesus. They were expecting the Messiah to come, to kick out the Romans and establish some earthly kingdom of power and glory—the Kingdom of God. Many rejected Jesus, the true Messiah, the one long promised by the Lord through the prophets, simply because He did not fit this bill. He was not that great military sort of leader who would lead them from victory to victory. Instead, He was humble and lowly. He would be crucified. His kingdom definitely was not of this world! But what was Jesus doing? St. Mark [Mk 1.14-15] records that Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
That’s where we come to in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. The Pharisees were the most fervent in looking for and encouraging the expectation that the Messiah would usher in some sort of Golden Age for the Jews. They had all sorts of carnal and worldly expectations for the Messiah. So here, when they ask Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, they weren’t asking Him because they were serious in their question to Him and really wanted to find out. They asked it mocking and ridicule, in contempt of Jesus. They, in effect, were saying that Jesus was preaching the kingdom of God is at hand, so where is it? They wanted to know the time. They wanted hard, clear evidence. Since they were expecting a visible kingdom, they were looking for revolution and upheaval. They were not getting that from Jesus, and so, in mockery and ridicule, the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come.
And what was Jesus’ answer? Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God was not coming as they were expecting it to—outwardly, visible, clear for all to see unmistakably. Instead, Jesus says: the kingdom of God is within you. That little word within is a fascinating word because it can be translated as within you or in the midst of you. You will notice that if you look in various translations. It’s kind of a nebulous word. And since it is the word of Scripture, since it is the very word of Jesus that the Holy Spirit here had St. Luke write, there’s a reason why it is that word and not another “clearer” word. Perhaps Jesus wants to drive home the point that it is both. The kingdom of God is in our midst and it is also within you. It is both. But there is a difference: the kingdom of God in our midst does not help us/ benefit us unless it is also within us. That’s what we see with the Pharisees. The kingdom of God was in their midst —Jesus was there. The kingdom of God was connected with Jesus; He was the One who set it up by His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Jesus, the very God Himself, was in the midst of the Pharisees. But it did them no good. They rejected Jesus. They, then rejected the kingdom of God, that had come to them in Jesus; that was in their midst.
In another back and forth with the Jews who were rejecting Him, Jesus points to His miracles, in particular, when He casts a demon out of a person, and says [Lk. 11.20]: But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. The kingdom of God has come to people, it had come to the Pharisees, as Jesus went about His saving work. But it was without fanfare even though the works of Jesus were obvious. So something can be quite obvious, quite out in the open but people will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ The disciples of St. John the Baptizer came to Jesus asking Him [St. Mt. 112-5]: Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? What was Jesus’ answer? He pointed to His works and preaching in fulfillment of prophecy: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. All of this goes to show what? –That the kingdom of God is connected with Jesus; it is where Jesus is; it came in the person, word and work of Jesus to these Pharisees, these religious leaders of the Jews but they rejected Jesus. But it was not the kingdom of God as they were expecting it. Again, God’s kingdom in our midst does not help us unless it is in our heart.
Where Jesus is, there is the kingdom of God; there the kingdom of God is in our midst. What does that mean for us today, dear Christian? Let’s remember that today Jesus comes to us in His holy word and sacrament. And where the word is, there is Jesus; and where Jesus is, there is the kingdom of God. Especially as we gather around our Lord’s holy word and sacrament, we are in the midst of the kingdom of God. It has come to us! What a great grace of God toward us! But there is also a warning for us as well. Jesus was in the midst of the Pharisees, but they still reject Him. Let us examine our hearts especially before we come to church and before receiving the Holy Sacrament. Am I recognizing that I am in the presence of God, that the Kingdom of God has come to me, and that Jesus is giving me all His graces and heavenly blessings? Let the words ring in our hearts: The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is! We see simple bread and wine—but Jesus is there with His body and blood; we hear the simple word of the Gospel and the absolution, but there is Jesus giving us the greatest gift of the forgiveness of sin.
What does it mean that the Kingdom of God is in our midst? It means that now is the time of grace. Jesus is coming to us now with every grace and mercy. Yes, we don’t see with our eyes the greatness and full glory of this grace. We see only Jesus dead on the cross, we see only the water of baptism and the bread and wine of the Blessed Sacrament. But here is the full glory of the grace and mercy of God to us now, coming to us in rich measure. This time of grace will end—either at our death or on the Last Day. None of us know either. Let us make full use of this grace and mercy as the Kingdom of God is in our midst!
As we make use of the kingdom of God in our midst, let us rejoice, dear Christian, that the kingdom of God is in us, within you. Luther points out in the catechism that God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that He establishes and sets up in the hearts of people—whoever and wherever they may be. He does this by the work of the Holy Spirit in the word and sacrament. Are you a Christian? The kingdom of God has come to you; you are part of/ a member of His holy kingdom. Because the kingdom of God has come to you and has made you a part of it, you believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin, death, devil and hell; you are led by the Holy Spirit into good works—that is, out of love for God you strive to do His will; you have the forgiveness of sins and therefore your heart is full of confidence and joy in the Lord; and because the kingdom of God has come to you and you are part of it, you will be saved in the end—you will be eternally soul and body in heaven.
Again, The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is! What makes you a member of the kingdom of God is faith. Faith is invisible; it is within you. The word and sacrament by which Jesus comes to gather and preserve the kingdom of God are certainly visible, but the kingdom itself is invisible, within the hearts of those who by the Holy Spirit’s work trust in Jesus. But the kingdom of God, the Church, are known to God. That is a great comfort to us in our trials and sufferings. When cares pile up, perils increase, faith grows weak and confidence wavers, how we long to see and catch a glimpse of the glory that is ours in the Kingdom of God. But for now it is by faith, but glorious and certain faith that we are the Lord’s! He will never leave us nor forsake us; we are his dear children and members of His kingdom. First on the Last Day, when Jesus returns, will the Kingdom of God and our true glory and dignity as Christians be revealed. Until then we live in that glorious certainty that the kingdom of God is both in our midst and is within us. INJ Amen.