St. Matthias/ Sexagesima
Beloved. Today’s Gospel is Jesus’ parable of the sower: A farmer went out to sow his seed. In this parable Jesus tells us of the end result in a person’s heart of the preaching of the Gospel. Not all who hear the word of God believe it; and not all who believe it remain faithfully in it to the end. As we look at this parable, we see that the one going out to sow/ cast the seed on the ground is Jesus Himself. That’s what He did all during His earthly ministry. St. Mark [1.15] records: Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel. Jesus continues to go out and sow the seed of the word of God. He does this in and though the Church and His dear Christians as we faithfully pass on the saving word we have been entrusted with. Especially do we remember the work of the holy Apostles. In a wonderful and special way, Jesus equipped the holy apostles mightily on the day of Pentecost to go out, proclaim the word and establish His Church. As each generation faithfully passes on to the next what it has received, building on that foundation, Jesus, in and through that word is calling people into His Church, working in them faith and giving them every heavenly blessing.
Today is the day the Church remembers St. Matthias. As we heard in today’s epistle, St. Matthias is the one chosen by the Lord to take the place of Judas, who betrayed Jesus. We are reminded here of Jesus’ care for His Church that she have the full number of the apostles to go out into the world to establish the Church. Look at the qualifications of apostleship: St. Peter said, “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. Only two met the qualifications—of having been with Jesus all during His earthly ministry to hear His preaching and see it confirmed by the miracles; and of having seen the resurrected Christ.
Then we read the prayer the believers prayed, You, Lord, who knows the hearts of all…. The Lord knows the hearts of all. That is a very vital thought for us to ponder this season of Pre-Lent and into Lent: The Lord knows my heart. Of course, that ties in with Jesus’ parable of the sower. He knows whether or not there is truly faith in Him in my heart; He knows whether I fear, love and trust in Him for all things; He knows whether I am putting my trust in Him for forgiveness of sin, life and salvation. He knows whether that word He has sown into our hearts is still there yielding a rich, abundant harvest or whether that faith has long ago withered away, just having the sham outward appearance of Christianity.
Having heard that, let us use the upcoming Lenten season, especially, as a time to examine our heart and life. Where we still find love of sin, desire to serve self and sin, let us repent. As we very much feel and recognize our sin, as we see how greatly we have sinned, as we desire to love the Lord and serve Him but don’t see that reflected in our lives like we’d like, let us also take comfort of the Lord’s word from our text, recorded by St. Isaiah: Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand had made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” What a marvelously comforting word—the almighty God of heaven and earth looks upon us humble and contrite sinners who love Him but who feel nothing but our sin and unworthiness. In fact, He regards our contrite heart as His most beautiful court and palace and dwells within us.
What an amazing thing this! Do not forget who/ what God is: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. He is king of all and rules over all. There is nothing outside or beyond His control. The entire creation is subject to Him. In fact, He made everything, All these things my hand had made, and so all these things came to be, and so everything is His. The very One Whom the heavens and earth cannot contain, who made heaven and earth—He looks upon and regards us. He knows us each—personally and individually—and He wants to dwell within us. Jesus tells us [Jn 14.23]: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. The most beautiful court, palace and temple of God—the almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth, who rules all things by His almighty power—that most beautiful palace and temple is the heart of His dear Christian, the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at [His] word.
God’s most beautiful palace and temple is not the outwardly magnificent buildings, but the heart of the contrite sinner. And really—isn’t that the way God works? When He came to this earth, not only was He born a Baby, but a Baby in poverty. What were His royal robes—the robes of the almighty God and Maker of heaven and earth? Swaddling cloths! What was His royal palace? –A manger in a stable. So why would it be strange that He desires to dwell in the heart of the one who is: humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word?
So, does this mean God does not want churches? What is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of my rest? Is God condemning churches or at the very least saying they are unnecessary? –Absolutely not! What He does not want is that people confine Him to the four walls of a church building as if He were only there and live their lives any way they want and apart from Him. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What He does not want is for people to think that they have “done their duty”, “worshipped” Him as long as they simply go through the motions in a church but live their lives contrary to His will; as if that satisfies Him.
God wants there to be churches where His word is proclaimed and His sacraments given. He has given the Third Commandment for that purpose so that we don’t despise the preaching of His word and the assembling together. Church and the gathering together is for our good, the good of a Christian. For here as we are gathered together, God gives us the forgiveness of sin, strengthens our faith, gives us His body and blood to nourish us on the path to heaven. Our highest praise of God happens as we receive in faith the gifts and blessings He gives us. He wants to be praised in these churches by faith and deed as Christians come together. But there can be no praise of Him in the churches unless God first dwells in the heart. Where He dwells in the heart of His dear Christian from that heart—that most beautiful court and palace of God—full of faith and love flows all praise and worship; from there flows all love of Him and His word, work and will. There He is not confined to the four walls of a building but worshipped 24/7.
No matter how beautiful we make our churches—and they should be beautiful and the best we can do because that is a reflection of our faith and a confession that the One we meet here in church is the almighty God Himself who loves us and is our Savior—but the most beautiful court and palace of God is not the outward churches but it is the humble and contrite heart. And that’s why He gives us that glorious comfort and promise in our text: But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. The one that the Lord looks at and regards with favor, the heart that He condescends Himself to live in is that of the lowly, contrite sinner. And again, who is the Lord? –Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; … All these things my hand had made, and so all these things came to be.
Each of us can say with St. Mary, our Lord’s mother [Lk. 1 46,47]: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. Although, obviously St. Mary’s circumstance was different, God has come to us because he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. He saw us in our sin and wretchedness, slaves to sin and with hell awaiting us. But He came to us in the word—that same word St. Matthias and all the apostles received from the Lord and preached, that same word of holy baptism—and worked faith in Him in our hearts, made our hearts His dwelling, His most beautiful court and palace.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Where is there room for any merit or worthiness on our part? Where is there anything on our end that makes God “have to” come to us, that make us stand out as so worthy and deserving of all His blessings? There’s nothing! It is only His grace and mercy to us that He comes to us in His word. With that and the parable of the sower of today’s Gospel in mind, let us examine our attitudes toward the word of God, which He in grace has come to us.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. This is the perfect description of the Christian, not only as we approach Lent but always. As we take God’s holy word of Law into hand, how can we not be humble? After all, we see all of God’s holy demands and how often and how grievously we go against them. How we are humbled as we recognize our lack of good. If we are sincere and honest in our examination, how we must despair of any hope of heaven and salvation from our end! How we then hunger and thirst for a righteousness and salvation that comes from outside of us—from Jesus. This great spiritual poverty and humility is what God sees! His omniscience/ that He knows all things is a great comfort to us. He hears us yearning for forgiveness and to be made right once again before Him. And what does He do? He looks upon us with His favor! And He comes to us to make us spiritually rich by giving us the forgiveness of sin fully and freely and eternal life. He dwells in our heart, making it His most beautiful court and palace, filling us with His spiritual richness.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Another way to speak about the spiritually humble and the poor in spirit is to say, as the Lord does here, contrite in spirit. When the Lord comes to us and dwells in us by faith, we have that glorious peace of conscience! In Jesus things are right between me and God! In that faith, we then carry it to the next level—that is, we do not and cannot indulge our sin and lusts by continuing on them. Instead, in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, we strive to recognize the beginnings and temptations to those sins and fight all the more against them. Remember—that as the heart of the humble and contrite Christian is that beautiful court and palace of God, God is there! The Holy Spirit is there! He is resting upon us, filling us, guiding and leading us, restraining us from evil; spurring us on to do the good, and to love what is right.
And now treasuring the word of God, by which He came and continues to come to us, we tremble at His word. We desire it all the more. We recognize it as the word of the almighty God Himself but who in grace has brought that word to me. That’s why we want to delve into it and as we live according to it, we have great peace as we cling to His holy word of law, condemning our sin, and gospel, announcing and giving us forgiveness for that sin.
How glorious for us: the most beautiful court and palace and temple of God is the humble and contrite heart. That humble and contrite heart that trembles at God’s word, God has prepared for Himself as His most beautiful temple and palace. The very fact that we feel our sin and fight against them and yearn for God’s grace and forgiveness is their beauty to the Lord. INJ Amen