Trinity 17
The Old Testament reading is a song the prophet Isaiah sang about the Lord and His love for His people. In it, he describes how the Lord did everything for the Israelites, comparing them to a vineyard that had every advantage: it was on a hill, and the Lord, or My Beloved, as St. Isaiah calls Him dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; He built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes, that is rotten grapes. This was a call for Israel to confess and turn to the Lord, the Lord who loved her and had given her every blessing and advantage. But instead of producing the good grapes of faith and good works, Israel was producing only a rotten mess of idolatry and wickedness. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant planting; and He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold an outcry! The Lord, through St. Isaiah, reminds the people of His love toward them and now their response—far from what would be expected. So, when the Lord punishes Israel for their sin, isn’t He right in doing so? Can He be accused of unfairness or injustice? Hardly!
In the Gospel, Jesus during His final teaching and call to repentance in Holy Week, has this song of Isaiah in the background. In His parable He’s warning the religious leaders of the Jews that He knows what they are planning on doing: Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him; and He is warning them that by rejecting Him, they are bringing judgment upon themselves—God’s just punishment and wrath. He is giving them one last opportunity to repent and toturn away from their evil plans. Of course, we know that they didn’t: they saw to it that Jesus was crucified. For their rejection of Jesus, Judah, Jerusalem and the temple were all destroyed by the Romans about 40 years later: He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons…Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
The lesson for us is very clear, dear Christian. We have been given every spiritual advantage. What are we doing with it? Are we returning to the Lord the fruits He expects from us, the good fruits of a life of faith and good works? God is not mocked. He bears with us; He shows us mercy; He gives us a time of grace. But like it did for the Jews, it came to an end. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. The Lord will come looking for the fruits of faith and good works. And where He doesn’t find them, Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And He will be perfectly right and just in doing so. Let us see by the example of the Israelites in Isaiah’s day and of the Jews of Jesus’ day, our Lord’s seriousness in looking for the good fruits of faith in our lives—in us to whom He has given every spiritual advantage, after all we have been baptized; we have the word; we have the holy absolution; we have Jesus coming to us bodily in Holy Communion.
But take heart! Since the Lord is giving us every advantage, it means that now is the time of grace for us! Let us make the most of it and examine our hearts and lives in light of the holy Ten Commandments, recognize our sin, sorrow over our sin, turn to the Lord for forgiveness and seeking and by the power of the Holy Spirit strive to live a life free of sin. When it all comes down to it, our lives as Christians are lives of faith and of striving for holiness and toward heaven. That’s what St. Paul writes in our text:
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What comforting words from the holy Apostle! Even though he was the great apostle, called by Christ Himself to be an apostle; even though He was a great instrument of the Holy Spirit and one in whom He was powerfully at work, St. Paul was one who was still striving in this life to produce the fruits of faith, still striving toward heaven—not taking for granted the great gifts and advantages the Lord had given him. May we follow St. Paul’s example and make full use of the graces and advantages the Lord has shown us.
The Christian’s life has a solid foundation. Look at what St. Paul writes here: Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Literally St. Paul is saying: I press on if also I may seize, since also I have been seized by Christ Jesus. Notice what he says—and what is the foundation of faith— Christ seized us. Jesus is the agent of our conversion; He converted us and brought us eternal salvation. Think about St. Paul’s rather dramatic conversion; it is really a picture of the conversion of us all. He was going his own way, away from the Lord. He describes himself in the epistle as a proper Israelite, from the tribe of Benjamin. Not only was he an upright Israelite but he followed the law of God and the man-made law of the rabbis—he was a Pharisee; and he goes on—as to zeal, a persecutor of the Church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. His background and supposed holiness kept him going in one direction, away from Christ, and he would have kept on going that way—until that encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. And there Jesus seized him, made him His own!
That’s the same with each of us. For most of us, we encountered Jesus in the waters of Holy Baptism where He claimed us and made us His own washing away our sin, uniting us with Him in His death and resurrection, giving us His righteousness, giving us His Holy Spirit, creating in us the gift of faith. For others, maybe you encountered Jesus later on in life, perhaps somewhat as dramatically as St. Paul. But the point is clear: we are Christians today because Jesus seized us and made us His own. And why? –Jesus seized us so that we might seize Him and have life in Him. Jesus always has to make the move first. Yes, we believe; yes, we come to Christ—but only after He has first come to us and worked faith in Him.
This is an absolutely tremendous comfort to us, dear Christian. We need never doubt whether we are “worthy” enough—Jesus came to us and claimed us. He called and converted us and therefore He is serious about bringing and keeping us in the faith unto eternal life, as St. Paul wrote earlier [1.6]]: He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Our seizing/ grabbing hold firmly of Jesus is our faith. As our faith holds to Jesus, it does not err. Our faith has the right object—Jesus and His saving work. The wonderful and comforting thing is that when our faith holds to/ seizes Jesus and His saving work—even though it does so weakly or even just tries to or wants to—there is still that true faith that saves. Even though we may hold on to Jesus ever so weakly in our weak and imperfect faith, remember: Jesus has seized us and made us His own. Where there is that foundation of faith in Jesus, there is love of Jesus and the desire to grow in faith and love of Him, to know Him better.
As we hold on to Jesus by faith and as He has seized us and made us His own, that means that we receive what is His—His holiness and righteousness before God. So when we give Jesus our sin in confession, He gives us the forgiveness of our sins and His perfect holiness. That’s what faith receives as it holds to Jesus and as Jesus holds to us. But even though, through faith, we have Jesus’ righteousness and experienced the power of His death and resurrection, that does not mean that we have attained perfection. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. We are not perfect; yes, we have the perfect holiness and righteousness of Christ which He gives us and which faith receives, but we are not holy and righteous in and of ourselves. That is something that we strive for but will never reach this side of eternity. But this striving is what fills our life with the good fruit of faith and good works. That’s why the life of a Christian is marked by faith and striving.
As Christians, seized by Christ and seizing Him in faith, we still live our lives in this sinful world; we still have our old sinful natures within us; we have the devil and his allies all around us tempting and leading us into sin; so, long story short—until we get to heaven we will not be perfect: we will not know Jesus perfectly and fully and we will not be free of our sinful weaknesses. Only in heaven will we be perfected and do what God created us to do in the first place: to know Him perfectly, to behold Him and to love Him. It’s vital that we realize that in this life, although we have great spiritual blessings, they have only begun and will only be fully realized in the life to come. That means we should not despair when we see ourselves fall into great sin or even feel great sinful desires; instead, run to the Lord for forgiveness, live a life of confession and absolution like St. Paul here says: But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead; that “forgetting” is fighting against sin and saying no to the way of the sinful flesh daily and continually. Recognizing that our perfection will only come in heaven, not only keeps us from despair but from self-righteousness, that somehow we are better than other poor sinners; what we think is perfect is really imperfect.
The Christian life is one of struggle and striving: But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Look at that imagery of the Christian life—although we are Christians and have every spiritual blessing in Christ we must still run, battle, strive. It’s a seeming contradiction but both things are true: while we strain against our sinful nature, the world and the devil, at the same time our soul is at perfect peace under God’s grace and promises. Our striving is daily to increase in saving knowledge of Jesus, true faith, and in godliness/ good works. That’s our joy and delight as Christians—even as we face great obstacles and so often stumble and fall short.
Lest we get weary and want to give up the struggle for the faith, lest it seem too “pie-in-the-sky”, lest we be tempted to give up our grasp of faith on Jesus, St. Paul encourages us: I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Notice our goal: the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That prize—eternal life, eternity in heaven with the angels and all the saints and beholding the holy Triune God—that prize is there, ready and complete; it has been won for all Christians. When we were called to faith, when Jesus seized us, that prize was set before us. We dare not lose sight of that goal and prize in the midst of our earthly struggles; if we do then all is lost! This is the glorious thing about faith—faith sees beyond the senses to a deeper and higher reality. Faith keeps our focus on heaven; faith strengthens us for the struggle/ striving assuring us that we belong to Jesus, that He has made us one of His own. Confident that Jesus made us His own and knowing that we are not yet perfected, let us fervently press on toward our heavenly goal. By His Holy Spirit at work in word and Sacrament, He will bless and strengthen us in it. The life of a Christian—one of faith and striving. INJ