Trinity 7
Beloved. St. Paul tells us in the epistle: For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. What glorious and comforting words! But are they true? Are they true even when, for example, we endure all sorts of trial and hardship in life? Absolutely! –Nothing at all will ever be able to separate us from God’s love. What does that mean for us when we are suffering or in some sort of trial? It means that we are still enjoying/ still the object of God’s love. Our old sinful nature works together with the devil to try to get us to think that God has abandoned us, that something has separated us from His love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is the devil’s attempt to try to get us to despair, that maybe God doesn’t love us, that maybe our sin is too great to be forgiven, that maybe God is “out to get us”. But what is St. Paul’s confidence? That nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, again, what does that mean? What does that mean when we are suffering or in trial or full of sorrow? It means that in the midst of those things God still loves us; we are still the object of God’s love; we have not been separated from His love for us in Christ Jesus. St. Paul writes a few verses before in the epistle: We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Dear Christian, when God called you and brought you to faith through the water and the word, He was sincere. He was not “playing” with you. His intent is to bring you to faith, keep you in the faith and lead you to heaven. He doesn’t bring us to faith and then let us flounder for ourselves; He doesn’t abandon us or hang us out to dry. Instead, that same love that led Him to bring you to faith is mightily and powerfully at work now, as St. Paul writes in another epistle [Ph 1.6]: He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God, in love, is mightily and powerfully at work precisely in and through our sufferings and sorrows to bring us safely to Himself in heaven. He will be with us in our sufferings; He will bring us through them; He is leading us to heaven. He loves us!
The thing is, God is committed to our salvation. That’s what we see in Jesus’ parables in our text: they show God’s absolute commitment to our salvation. Jesus said: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. So what is the kingdom of heaven? In short, it is God’s work in Jesus; it is all that God does to bring us to faith, to keep us in the faith and, then, to lead us finally to Himself in heaven. Our salvation is not part God’s work and then we have to add something to it, our part. No! Our salvation is all God’s work start to finish. That’s the first thing we notice in Jesus’ parable: God’s commitment to our salvation is absolute!
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. How does God see us/ how does He regard us? –A treasure! Look at the joy that the man in the parable had. That’s God with us! He has great joy in us. After all, remember He created us—and with what love He created Adam and Eve! How perfectly He made and set up the world/ creation for humanity and placed its stewardship into our hands! What delight He had in the creation of humanity! And even when Adam and Eve had fallen into sin, and brought sin and death and corruption into the world, God did not just simply destroy them and the world He had made for them. Instead, He promised to send a Savior who would save them from their sin; who would reconcile them to Himself. That’s how much God loves us. That’s God seeing us as a treasure! When you think about it—what is a treasure? –It’s something you really want; something you really prize. And what’s the saying? “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. We, dear Christian, are that treasure that was buried/ hidden in a field. We are the ones who are all covered over with all sorts of filth and corruption. We are the ones who by our sin are corrupt and vile, rotten and decaying. As we confess: we are by nature sinful and unclean. But we are the treasure that God wants! It’s not because of who and what we are; it’s not because we are so good and virtuous; it’s not because of anything we have done. Instead, God’s love for us and His commitment to our salvation is absolute! To God we are—in spite of ourselves and our sins/ in spite of only earning and deserving hell—to God we are a treasure; we are what He wants. We are that one pearl of great value. And He wants to save and rescue us from our sin, from death, and devil.
Remember: The kingdom of heaven is God’s work for us in Jesus. We see in the parable God’s absolute commitment to our salvation by all that the man does in the parable. We see described by the parable the great lengths that God goes through to save us. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Look at the lengths the man in the parable goes through. He doesn’t just take the treasure out of the field, instead he reburies it and jumps through all of the legal hoops; he goes through the rigmarole of selling all his stuff. All so he can rightly have that treasure. That’s dedication and commitment! That’s God for us! And then in the other parable, God is depicted as a merchant in search of fine pearls. Notice the words: in search of. It means that it required work, effort on his part; it means seeking and pursuing; it means diligence and dedication, going far and wide, enduring all sorts of conditions to obtain that one pearl of great value. Think of all that God had to go through to save us from our sins, death, and hell! Just as we see all the man had to go through to get the treasure of the field, just as we see the great efforts of the merchant to get that one perfect pearl—how much more and how much greater was God’s work in saving us! How much greater and more reliable was His commitment to save us! So how can we ever doubt God’s love of us? How can we ever doubt His desire and commitment to save us? How then can we ever doubt our salvation?
Again note the description of Jesus’ Church—which is made up of all Christians from all time and places. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. The first thing we notice is that the Church is a indeed a treasure but one hidden in a field. And what is that field? The field is the world! The Church is hidden in the field of the world; that means that there are Christians scattered throughout the world; Christ’s Church is in the midst of an unbelieving world, a world that is hostile to her. That’s part of the trouble that we face as Christians and the Church. That’s one reason why being a Christian and living out our Christian faith and life is not easy. And that’s why we take great comfort at God’s commitment to our salvation. As difficult as it is to live out our faith and to hold on to it in this world that is hostile to Jesus, His word and teaching; in a world that puts up many obstacles to the faith; a world that works together with the devil and our old sinful nature to destroy our faith, how comforting and reassuring to know that God’s commitment to our salvation is absolute! Not only has God done everything to bring about our salvation but He is working to keep us in the faith, faith that holds to Jesus and keeps receiving from Him all of His gifts and blessings of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. That’s why He gives us His holy word through which—as we hear and read, study and ponder it—the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work to keep us, strengthen our faith, and keep us in the faith as it is attacked. That’s why Jesus gives us in His holy Sacrament His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sin and strengthening of faith and unites with us. That’s why we have our baptism—that concrete act and moment of time where our sins were washed away, faith was created and we were brought into God’s holy family, and we were united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. Each day as we confess our sins, we go back to the font of holy baptism and reclaim those blessings of the forgiveness of sin given us there.
What is behind all this? Faith—faith that believes, sees and holds to God’s absolute commitment. Jesus’ work, God’s commitment to our salvation is what our faith holds to: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Because of God’s commitment to our salvation, our salvation is absolutely certain. Look at those lovely phrases Jesus uses: he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field and on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Notice that language Jesus uses—language of selling everything and buying. And in particular there’s that phrase: all that he had. This is the ultimate price that God paid to save us. He withheld nothing—not even His own Son. That’s what St. Paul brings out in the epistle: He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all… We look at the work of Jesus and what did He do? St. Paul describes it like this elsewhere [Ph 2.7]: Jesus, the true God, emptied Himself. And what did He do? Jesus Himself tells us [Mt 20.28; 26.28]: that He came to serve and give His life as a ransom for many and at the institution of the Blessed Sacrament: This is My blood…which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. This is all that He had—His very life. Jesus did not withhold anything in acquiring His holy Church. How much more certain can we be of our salvation? How much more certain can we be sure of God’s absolute commitment to our salvation? The Father did not spare His own Son; Jesus, the Son, poured out His very blood/ life for us. St. Peter tells us [I 1.19]: you were…redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ. That’s the price that God paid for His Church—you, me and all Christians—the treasure hidden in the field and that one pearl of great value. And like we see in Jesus’ first parable: the man bought the whole field for the sake of that treasure, so too, Jesus paid the price for the sins not just of His Church/ His dear Christians, but for the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus paid the price for/ atoned for more than will in the end come to faith and be saved, more than just those who would be Christians. And this, too, is a great comfort—no person can ever doubt that Jesus paid for his/her sins since Jesus paid for the sins of all, whether they receive it—His dear Christians—or not—the unbelievers: Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. But let us not take God’s commitment to our salvation for granted: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let us greatly rejoice that God has had mercy on us and spared nothing to save us. We have been bought at price—our salvation is sure. It is all God’s work! INJ Amen