Trinity 12
Today’s Gospel begins right after the account of St. Peter’s beautiful confession of faith when Jesus asked the disciples, But who do you say that I am? In the boldness of faith, St. Peter, speaking for the other disciples and for Christians down through the ages confessed: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus declares Peter blessed—and all who down through the ages confess the same thing as he did in that glorious gift of Spirit-worked faith. On the rock of the ministry of this confession, Jesus builds His Church: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And then comes our Gospel: From that time—the time of St. Peter’s confession of faith—Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. How did Jesus do this? Most certainly like He did with the disciples on Easter Sunday afternoon on the road to Emmaus [Lk. 24.27]: And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Jesus went to the OT Scriptures and showed that He/ the Messiah would have to suffer and die and then enter into His glory. How much it did not make sense to the mind of St. Peter that the Christ, the Son of the living God would have to suffer all these things! Certainly the Christ, the Son of the living God would go from glory to glory. And so Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But the suffering of Christ was clearly proclaimed in the OT and definitely part of His saving work.
And although it was Jesus’ suffering and death—and His suffering and death alone—that reconciled us sinners to the holy God and brought forgiveness of sins and peace with God, the Christian, too, is called upon to follow Jesus in suffering. As Jesus also tells us in the Gospel: If anyone would come after Me, let him deny Himself and take up His cross and follow Me. The image is clear and appalling—especially to the 1st century hearer—a long line of condemned prisoners marching to the place of execution. What Jesus is talking about here is the life of a Christian. It will be a life of suffering—like His life was. For us it means, as St. Paul writes [Gl. 5.24; Col 3.5]: crucifying/ putting to death our old sinful nature. We do this in baptism; we do this as we fight sin; we do this as endure sufferings, trials and even persecutions on account of our faith in Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our living out that faith in a world that is increasingly hostile to it.
The thing is, we don’t understand the ways of God perfectly. Even among one so blessed, like St. Peter, there is still much incorrect and faulty thinking so that Jesus has to correct him: For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Peter thought He was setting His mind on the things of God, but he wasn’t. It was frail, sinful human logic that when Jesus was talking about His suffering, Peter was trying to correct Him—Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to you. That’s how our thinking is and Satan uses that faulty, frail human thinking to drive doubts and despair into our hearts in order to separate us from Jesus. Our human reason is a good gift of God to us and one we must use. But, at the same time, it cannot understand God and His ways perfectly and rightly. And we, then, dare not judge God and His ways according to our reason. That’s why Scripture is absolutely vital. There God reveals to us some of His ways and reasoning. Like St. Peter thought that suffering and death was not fitting for Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God, so also we often think the ways God is dealing with us and what we are enduring is not right/ not fair.
That’s when we have great struggles. We think God should act one way/ do one thing but He does the opposite. In our text, we again meet the OT prophet Jeremiah. We had met him earlier this summer in our readings [20.7 ff] where he was accusing God of tricking/ forcing him into the prophetic ministry and complaining to Him about the way he was being treated. It’s good for us to see that doubts and trials and anguish fill the hearts of great servants of the Lord—like the prophet St. Jeremiah, to see that St. Peter also at times had not [set his] mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. The great saints and great heroes of the faith were frail sinful people like you and me, with their struggles and doubts. That’s a great encouragement to us to continue on our path of faith and holiness, no matter what doubts and despair we may have and how “unholy” we feel ourselves to be.
But when we think about ourselves as Christians and the great sufferings and trials, doubts and despairs, faulty understandings we may have and even the persecutions we may endure on account of our faith, let us never forget first and foremost what great joy our Christian faith is. It is a glorious thing that when we think about it, it fills us with the greatest joy. Because by faith, we know that things are right between us and God, that we are His dear children and heirs of heaven, that our sins are forgiven us , that an eternity in heaven awaits, that we are the object of God’s love and mercy. Is it any wonder that the devil wants to snatch this away from us; That he wants us to take our eyes off the joys that are ours in Christ and lead us into doubt and despair? Dear Christian, don’t let him. Keep always before you the great joys and blessings that are yours in Christ. Yes, your sufferings and trials are real and traumatic but don’t make them your focus. Keep Christ and His word and promise and work front and center.
The thing to remember is that our Christian faith brings us joy—true, lasting joy! Even in the midst of his great sufferings—and sufferings precisely because of his prophetic ministry for the Lord—St. Jeremiah has the greatest joy: Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. How beautifully this describes the joy of the believer! Here is how we come to the great joy of faith: Your words were found. The word of the Lord was found—we found them without exertion or expectation. Although it looks like we find the word of God, the word of Christ, it is really the word/ Christ finding us. Through His word, Jesus calls to us. By His promise of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life He calls to us; by His gracious invitation to us in His word [Mt.11.28], Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, He is calling us to Him; by His calling to us, take, eat and drink, this is My Body and My blood given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins, He is giving us—into our very mouths—His body and blood and uniting with us most intimately.
What a beautiful description of faith: Your words were found, and I ate them. This word of Jesus that not only promises but gives us the forgiveness of sin, peace with God, eternal life is the very word that we so eagerly grab ahold of in faith and say “Yea and Amen” to. Precisely this word gives us joy, and in faith we eagerly lay hold of it as the Lord offers it to us! That’s the description of “eating” that St. Jeremiah gives. It’s something done eagerly. And not only is it done eagerly but we want/ we strive for that word of God and the gifts He gives us in it and through it; we want to make it part of us: Your words were found, and I ate them. We don’t ever want to lose it! And as we hear and ponder and take to heart God’s word—inwardly digest it—it permeates our inmost being bringing us great joy and delight. That’s the joy that our Christian faith brings us.
And this joy isn’t just when we come to faith. This joy is ours throughout our lives! Just like the food we eat supports and nourishes our bodies, so the word of God is our true support and food for our own spiritual life. When we feel our sin; when our consciences accuse us; when guilt rises up; when we hunger for righteousness—we long for that spiritual food of our Lord’s word! We long for the Gospel and absolution; we long for the Blessed Sacrament. Receiving and taking and eating that word, what joy we have! And in that joy, we desire all the more to do the Lord’s will, to do what pleases Him.
And then there’s those most wonderful words: for I am called by Your name, O Lord, God of hosts. As His word comes to us and as we in faith eat them/ make them part of us, the Lord claims us as His own. We belong to Him. That’s real cause for joy. Here is one of the glorious gifts of Holy Baptism—in Baptism the Lord makes us His own. He washes away our sin and brings us into His holy family, giving us the Holy Spirit. Now we are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a life of holiness, a life of faith and good works.
It is precisely here where the struggle comes in; precisely here the joy of our Christian faith brings us trial and hardship. The simple fact is, is that as we are led by the Holy Spirit, living a life in the Lord of joy, living our faith there will be blowback! By Christians living lives of joy in the Lord, led by the Holy Spirit Christians living lives to the glory of the Lord, their living lives of holiness is a rebuke to the unbelieving world around us. It does not want to see the Christian’s joy in the Lord and holiness because it rubs salt into the wound; it reminds the unbelieving world of their own sin—which they are trying to deny and to silence conscience; it reminds them that something is not right in their lives, that in spite of how they may seem outwardly to have it all, they are still missing the great peace of the puzzle for true happiness and contentment—the Lord; that right and proper relationship with God. St. Jeremiah experienced that because of what he was preaching—repentance and the doom of Judah and Jerusalem. What he preached made him unpopular: I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because Your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation. Notice that line: because Your hand was upon me. Jeremiah was impelled by his divine commission and authority; he couldn’t not do it. The same thing happens with us—we have the Holy Spirit; we have eaten the Lord’s word—it has permeated our innermost being; —we cannot but live or at least strive toward a life of holiness.
But what happens? We often feel ourselves as “outsiders” in the world. We do not and cannot go along with everything that is being promoted in the world. We have standards of what is right and wrong. Often we get branded as hateful or intolerant because we actually believe things are wrong/ sinful despite the world’s screaming that it isn’t and must be accepted. Our supposedly “tolerant” society becomes intolerant of us. Like St. Jeremiah in our text, we find it isn’t easy to live out a life of faith and holiness today—even among those closest to us. Perhaps doubts even arise in our own minds like they did in Jeremiah’s: Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? God doesn’t answer his question. Like He did with Jeremiah, the Lord calls on us to walk by faith not by sight [2 Co 5.7]. How easy it would have been for St. Jeremiah to conform to the ways of the false prophets and make his life easier. How great the temptation for us to “go along to get along” and not strive for that life of faith and holiness! But in the joy of faith and what it is and does, we can’t!
We struggle with the devilish temptations and trials in the midst of the joy of our Christian faith knowing that the Lord is faithful and will bring us through, giving us the crown of life. In the meantime, we pray as did the prophet:
O Lord; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your forbearance take me not away; know that for Your sake I bear reproach. Our Christian faith brings us great joy but also struggle. INJ Amen