The Last and the First: A Meditation on Matthew 20

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, 

which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.

And when he had agreed with the labourers for a [denarius] a day, 

he sent them into his vineyard.

And he went out about the third hour, 

and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, 

and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.

Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.

And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, 

and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. 

He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; 

and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, 

Call the labourers, and give them their hire, 

beginning from the last unto the first.

And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, 

they received every man a [denarius].

But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; 

and they likewise received every man a [denarius].

And when they had received it, 

they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, 

These last have wrought but one hour, 

and thou hast made them equal unto us, 

which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

But he answered one of them, and said, 

Friend, I do thee no wrong: 

didst not thou agree with me for a [denarius]?

Take that thine is, and go thy way: 

I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? 

Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

So the last shall be first, and the first last: 

for many be called, but few chosen.

It should be no surprise that the greatest teacher of Law and Gospel, perfectly distinguishing between Justice and Grace, would be the One in whom these principles both emerge and are united— the very Person of our Lord Jesus Christ who is Himself the incarnate Word of the Father.  The parable from Matthew 20 wraps up a series of teaching Jesus offered His disciples when they began asking questions such as who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, how often should they forgive their neighbor, and what extra was in it for them since they were the first ones to be called?  Part of the trouble revealed in the disciples’ previous questions was that they continued to appeal to God’s justice for their rewards, failing to recognize that God owed them nothing but judgment according to the Law.  Into these hearts Jesus continued to pour the Gospel of grace and mercy, after demonstrating to them just how they stood before God according to the Law.

In the parable above, it’s worth noting that the land owner had no obligation to hire workers for his vineyard.  He could have satisfied the harvest in any number of ways, but instead, by grace, he went into the marketplace and found people willing to receive His gift of employment and wages.  For those who were willing to receive it, it was the promise of a good day’s pay, upon which they were motivated to work for the master of the vineyard.  Later in the day, the land owner went out and found other laborers still idle, and invited them to the same work, saying, “Whatever is right, I’ll give you.”  This pattern continued until the end of the work day, with the master of the vineyard inviting workers into His fields until the last workable hour.

As was customary, the land owner called all the workers together at the end of the day to give them the wage He offered them, and which none of them was really entitled to except by the promise they received.  Beginning with those called near the end of the day, he gave to each one the same daily wage.  As we might imagine, the ire of the first workers was roused when they had worked all day to receive the same that those who worked only an hour had also received.  The land owner told the first laborers that he was free to do whatever good he desired, and that his desire was to give the same good gift to those who came late in the day, as he had offered those who came early… and that if those first laborers’ hearts turned evil because of the owner’s generosity, preferring to live by the justice of the Law rather than the grace of the Gospel, they were free to take their day’s wages and leave.

Jesus was uncovering the bizarre condition of the human heart when it encounters the grace of God.  Twisted in our own sense of self righteousness and pride, people often encounter the gifts of God as something God owes to them, and something they deserve.  Like the laborers in the parable who without work and wages could not feed themselves or their families, every person needs the goodness and grace of God to live, both in this world and the next.  No one is entitled to demand of God that which is authentically His according to the Law, and to make our situation worse, what God actually does owe us according to the Law of justice is condemnation, both now and forever.  Jesus was helping His disciples to see that their calling, their work, and their gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation was not on the basis of the Law, but rather on the Gospel He would offer them through His sacrifice on Calvary.  The disciples, like the laborers of the field in the parable, or like us today, could never work enough to merit God’s favor, or even to pay for the debt of evil we have incurred by own wicked thoughts, words, and deeds— the things we have done, and the things should have done, every moment of our lives.

Of course, like the disciples, everyone is free to receive this good and gracious gift of God.  He continues to go out by His Word and Spirit into every time and place, calling to everyone of every situation and circumstance to enter into His Kingdom by grace through faith in Jesus.  Some hearts are young when they heed His call, and others are older; some have been brought up in the fellowship of the Church, and others have languished in darkness and despair; some are washed in the waters of Holy Baptism from just days after birth, and some are finally brought in even as their sight and breath are failing them.  Like the laborers of the field, those who are saved by God’s grace can be tempted to think of their gifts as something owed to them, to judge other laborers based upon the comparative length or ardor of their work, rather than giving thanks to God for the unfathomable divine love which comes to seek and to save us all.

What then can we say, regarding those who were first, and those who will be last?  First, that no one saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ has the right to judge by the Law their neighbor who stands by the same grace, and in the same faith.  Like every soul who receives the call of our gracious Lord by faith, we will each stand before our God to gift an account of our lives and service, not to be judged according to the Law which Jesus has satisfied in our stead, but by the Gospel of Jesus’ love, forgiveness, and grace.  Secondly, that those who respond earlier in their lives, who bear the heat of the day’s persecution and tribulation for the service of their neighbors and the proclamation of God’s Eternal Word, have the inestimable gift of time spent in the gracious fellowship of our saving Lord.  Those who may come later have the sadness of knowing how many days were spent apart from Him and His grace, whose sufferings under the demonic lash of our age were wasted and unnecessary pain.  Like the Holy Angels, all the saints are called to rejoice over every sinner brought to repentance, whether that occurs early or later in this short temporal life, because the grace of God seeks to save each and every soul for eternity.  While a few years or decades may seem long to us now, how brief will they seem when we look back on them 10,000 years hence, gathered around the Lord’s banquet table in His Kingdom, basking in the love and fellowship of every creature who abides in His grace?

To you this call comes today.  No matter if you’re young or old, sick or well, rich or poor, the Word and Spirit of the living God calls you to His fellowship this day, and all the saints and angels wait to rejoice in your welcome return to the Author of Life.  Hear Him today, repent, believe, and live forever.  Amen.

Forgiveness: A Meditation on Matthew 18

Then came Peter to him, and said, 

Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, 

and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, 

Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Forgiveness may be among the hardest things for people to offer each other, even while knowing it is the thing everyone needs most.  In the Gospel lesson for this week from Matthew 18, St. Peter asked Jesus a seemingly generous question, thinking that forgiving his neighbor up to seven times was far beyond any custom or social necessity.  And who would quibble?  If my neighbor stole my lawnmower once and asked forgiveness, what kind of heroic soul would authentically forgive the same neighbor for stealing from him seven times?  In practical terms, Peter’s suggestion seemed beyond gracious, and frankly beyond what almost anyone is ever willing to do.

Jesus, however, knew that while Peter was heading in the right direction regarding grace for his neighbor, he had failed to see the depths of his own need for grace, which had given him a false sense of piety with his offering.  First, Jesus bowled Peter over with a symbolic calculation that multiplied his number by 70 (a number which signified completeness or totality) and then illustrated the point with a parable.  In that story, a king began settling accounts with his servants whom he had trusted to steward his resources well.  Coming across a servant who owed him 10,000 talents— a sum beyond imagining which the servant had lost of his king’s wealth— the king issued the decree that this incompetent embezzler be sold, together with his wife and children, so that some recovery of his debt might be made and some approximation of justice be satisfied.  Since a talent of gold was more than a year’s wages for a worker (around 75 pounds of gold would be over $1M dollars in contemporary value, so 10,000 talents would be somewhere north of $100B,) even this would repay only a tiny fraction of what was lost.  The servant begged his master to have mercy and patience with him, making an impossible promise to repay everything, knowing that he couldn’t live long enough to even make a dent in that much debt.  The king, moved with compassion for the doomed servant and his family who stole unfathomable riches from his treasury, did the unthinkable:  he forgave the servant the entire debt.  Rather than selling the servant off, punishing him, or enslaving him under that debt for the rest of his life, the king forgave it and freed the servant from the debt and justice he was owed.

In converse, that same servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii— roughly 100 days wages for the average worker.  It was not an insignificant sum, as I’m sure most people would think 1/3 of their annual paycheck was nothing to sneeze at.  He seized his fellow servant and demanded payment.  When the servant asked for patience and mercy to repay the debt— something that given time and effort, he could probably do— the first servant mercilessly threw him into debtors prison to work off the sum he owed, caring nothing for the impact it would have on the man and his family to be locked away in slavery for months, no longer able to support, house, clothe, or feed his wife and children.  The king’s other servants were grieved over what they saw, and reported the abuse to their master.  The king’s fury was swift and devastating, demanding to know why this wicked servant who received so much life-saving grace from him, could not extend even the smallest amount of grace to his neighbor.  Thus the king gave the unforgiving servant back his unplayable debt, and handed him over to the torturers until every penny was repaid— an imagery of hell’s eternal torment, where infinite time cannot erase the debt and scandal we have caused in the universe, perverting and destroying God’s good creation, and wasting His riches on our pride and debauchery.

And so, Jesus’ Word comes to everyone today, just as it did to St. Peter and the Disciples.  This Word reminds us that every human soul is a debtor before God, and everyone who lives, lives by His grace, mercy, love, and compassion.  To receive the forgiveness of God, a debt we could never live long enough to repay and which we could never deserve, yet not reflect that same grace and forgiveness to those whose petty sins against us are mere droplets compared to the ocean of our own sins against God, is to sin not only against the Law but against Grace.  We who live by grace through faith in the Son of God have had our incalculable debt forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus upon His Cross, where the infinite merit of God alone could be our salvation.  Thus standing by grace through faith in Jesus, we have no appeal to God according to justice and the Law, as if to demand something be owed to us, when instead of the hell we deserve, we have instead been given the Kingdom of Heaven as our inheritance.  We are a people marked by grace, living in the faith and love and compassion which was given so freely and undeservingly to us, and called to reflect the same to everyone around us.

Hear the Word of the Lord which comes to you, that you might by faith and repentance live in the mercy and compassion of your saving King.  Let go the debts of justice you think you’re owed by those who have sinned against you, and instead reflect God’s love and forgiveness to them, so that they, too, might know the same unfathomable riches which you have freely received.  Forgive your neighbor, not because he deserves it, nor because you think he might repay you later— but because you know that you are a debtor who’s sins are washed away in the blood of Christ, and that God’s love for you is for your neighbor, too.  Hear the Word of Christ, turn from your demands for justice or vengeance, that both you and your neighbor might be forgiven and live.  Amen.

Humility: A Meditation on Matthew 18

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, 

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child unto him, 

and set him in the midst of them, And said, 

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, 

and become as little children, 

ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, 

the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, 

it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 

and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18 begins with a very human question which Jesus’ disciples ask him:  Who is greatest…?  Perhaps one can assume a little tacked on piety by amending the question with in the kingdom of heaven, but ultimately the heart of man is revealed in the premise about who specifically is greatest.  Lest we think the disciples any less human than the rest of us, St. Matthew faithfully records this embarrassing episode between them and Jesus, so that we might hear Jesus teach us what He taught them.  As Jesus so often did, He went to the heart of those who asked the question, rather than directly to the question itself.

In using a child for His response, Jesus took a person who was generally without any rights or dignity in the surrounding culture.  Certainly the Jewish Law provided for recognizing the humanity of children based on their divine Creator’s image given to them, and the Law of love pertained to them as well as anyone else, forbidding that they be murdered or abused.  But adults in every age have a way of using their physical and social power against those weaker than themselves, and so children have often been abused, murdered, ignored, or manipulated for adult interests.  In our own day we see much the same— child abuse of every kind and sort, sexual slavery and kidnapping, degeneration of public services for children (such as decaying and violent schools, social policy engineers using them as experimental subjects in gender and sexuality wars, etc.,) and when children are unwanted by their sexually libertine and self-absorbed parents, they are abandoned, aborted, and murdered.  The sad reality is that children are easier to abuse and manipulate because they have less physical power than adults, generally have little legal standing in society, are less educated, are more naive and less corrupted by the perversions of society at large, and they depend upon adults to protect, nourish, and guide them into their own adulthood.  This is partly why child abuse is often passed from one generation to the next, as the survivors of abuse learn their future behavior from their childhood abusers.  Cultures across the world have been guilty of abusing children, and ours is no exception.

But a child, as Jesus points out, is necessarily humble.  They know they need their fathers and mothers to care for them, that they are not strong enough to defend themselves against the evils of the world, and that they don’t know enough about how to survive and thrive in adulthood.  Of course, there are examples of children who were too prideful or rebellious to recognize these truths, and such children often find their ends in graveyards, prisons, or destitution.  There are also examples of children who through divine providence escaped the abuse and perversion of those who sought to harm or destroy them.  But a child who is raised by their loving parents in the fear and love of their Maker comes naturally to see their humble state, knowing that they live and grow by the grace given to them.  Such a child trusts both their parents and their God to care for them, to give them what they cannot provide for themselves, and to love others as they have been loved.  They see their parents and their Savior sacrifice themselves for the good of their children, and they learn that no greater love can a person have, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  They learn duty and courage, faithfulness and perseverance, respect and dignity, justice and compassion, from those who have demonstrated these virtues in caring for them.  Such children are humble as a reflection of their order in creation, and by their humility, receive the grace to grow into honorable adults.

Juxtapose that concept with what the disciples were really asking.  At this point, they didn’t see themselves in need of grace, but rather in the pursuit of power.  To ask Who is greatest is to reveal the heart of pride and selfishness that would abuse and use other people to reach a pinnacle of lordship over others.  This heart could never even enter the kingdom of heaven, let alone be great within it, which by pride and lust for power desires to stand before their suffering, sacrificial, and compassionate God, only to seize for themselves greatness.  Like ignorant or rebellious toddlers who petulantly demand what their parents have denied them due to their own immaturity, the disciples reveal the heart of all fallen men who think they can seize greatness with their tiny fists from the Almighty and Everlasting God.  What’s more, Jesus reveals that not only is their heart corrupt and unworthy of entrance into heaven, but the wounds they and others impose on the humble— be they children, or adults who have become humble as children before their saving Lord—are deserving of the most brutal condemnation.  Jesus teaches them that it is better for a person to be maimed, disfigured, blinded, or even drowned in the sea, rather than to harm, offend, or lead into corruption one of these humble little ones.  The heart of pride which seeks to know who is greatest, is also the heart inclined to abuse others in the pursuit of greatness, and thus Jesus pierces their hearts with a devastating Word of Law which cuts them to their core:  not only have they no hope of seizing greatness in the Kingdom of God, but they are worthy of eternal torment and condemnation for the abuses they have already perpetrated upon those humble souls to whom God has given His gracious presence.

And yet, with such withering Words of Law, comes also the hope and consolation of the Gospel.  Jesus does not leave them condemned in their sins, but calls them to faith and repentance which is marked by humility, love, mercy, and compassion.  Rather than trying to take or work for the greatness they covet, He invites them to see themselves as they really are— blind, weak, and helpless in a dark and deadly world.  He calls them to understand their fate apart from God’s grace, and to return to Him that they might abide in His grace.  Knowing that His disciples and the whole world are enslaved by their fallen nature to sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, Jesus calls them— and us —to trust in Him for all the things which people cannot earn or take by their own power:  forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Name, all for the sake of His sacrifice on Calvary in our place.  In such recognition comes the humility we need to receive the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ, which then in turn grows us and matures us into people who reflect His great love, mercy, hope, compassion, joy, and victory over every foul and loathsome force at work in this fallen world.  There, in Jesus, the humble of heart and mind become the blessed children of His Heavenly Father, inspired by His Holy Spirit to live in Jesus forever.  There, composed of the humble who live by grace through faith in Christ alone, is the Kingdom of Heaven, where the just live by faith, the Communion of the Saints share hallowed eternal fellowship with their Savior and with each other, and where the greatness of Almighty God pours out as a life-giving river to nourish everyone who abides in Him.

To you, this Word of Law and Gospel comes today, to warn and convict you of your pride and malice, and to offer you something you could never earn, take, manipulate, or steal.  This love of God comes to you this day, freely offering grace and mercy, love and compassion, to all who would repent of their wickedness and become like humble children before their loving and gracious Father.  Hear Him as He calls to you this day, that you might repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

If any man shall come after Me: A Meditation on Matthew 16

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, 

If any man will come after me, 

let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: 

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

For what is a man profited, 

if he shall gain the whole world, 

and lose his own soul? 

or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

For the Son of man shall come 

in the glory of his Father with his angels; 

and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Jesus’ hard words at the end of Matthew’s 16th chapter come after His strong encouragement to Peter and the disciples regarding their good confession just a few verses earlier.  Unsatisfied with Jesus’ path to the cross, where He would make satisfaction for the sins of the world by laying down His own life for theirs, the disciples tried to dissuade Jesus from the whole purpose for which He came.  In rebuke, Jesus identified the satanic influence motivating Peter and the others, and took the opportunity to teach them something they desperately needed to understand:  a life focussed only on this fallen world, is a life doomed to eternal perdition. 

Had Jesus come to live in this world and be honored like the pagan gods of Rome and Greece, He certainly could have done so.  He could have used His power as the Only Begotten Son of God to gather for Himself riches, prestige, and secular power.  He could have taken for Himself all those temptations the devil had earlier offered to Him when He was hungry in the desert, lived for His own glory, and been far greater than any mythical Hercules or Apollo.  Healing the sick, creating food, casting out demons, raising the dead, turning water into wine— and all His other manifest demonstrations of His divinity could have been used to make Him the earthly king so many men have tried and failed to become.  But instead, Jesus used all His divine power for the eternal good of mankind, rather than for himself.  He did not take the devil’s bait to serve Himself, or the people’s desire to have Him satisfy only their fleshly cravings.  Looking far deeper into the souls of all mankind, Jesus perceived the true desperation of all creation—chained in death and destined for the eternal fires of hell together with their demonic masters—then in love and selfless compassion, laid down His life, His dignity, His power, to save us all.  The only true God, second Person of the Holy Trinity, creator and king of the universe, condescended to be incarnate in human flesh, born of the Blessed Virgin, live, teach, be rejected, scorned, and die at the hands of evil men— all so that mankind might be freed from their hellish prison of death, and have eternal life in His fellowship restored by His grace.

And of course, Jesus’ words cut His disciples to the quick, just as they do people of every age.  Who among us is so willing to lay down our honor, our prestige, our wealth, or our comforts for the sake of others?  Who lives so selflessly that they give no regard to the present life’s baubles and accolades, but instead peers beyond them to see the true eternal realities in which every person struggles, and lays down his own life and resources to care for them?  Which of us wakes up each morning with more concern for others, than they do for themselves?  And to us, as to the disciples when Jesus taught them, His word burns with convicting fire:  If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

In truth, none of us fallen and sinful creatures have the power to deny ourselves as Jesus denied Himself; to take up and bear the same means of our own sacrifice as Jesus took up His Cross; or to follow Jesus on the path of perfection, holiness, and righteousness that He flawlessly walked.  Jesus is indeed the greatest example of love, truth, justice, and holiness which we could ever seek to emulate, but if He were just our example, He would only be a mirror which showed our own failure to be like Him, revealing in every way how far short we fall with every selfish breath we take.  Jesus as our model or our coach saves no one, as we are unable our ourselves to break the chains which bind us, or avoid the just fate of all selfish, prideful, callous, lustful, vindictive, lazy, and wicked souls.  But thanks be to God that Jesus didn’t just come to show us the way to life, presenting us the most perfectly polished mirror of the divine Law, but to actually do the work of saving us from the consequences of that Law, and offering to us the immeasurable grace of His saving Gospel.  Thus Jesus comes to be more than our call to righteousness, but in deed and truth becomes our righteousness; more than our example of the good life marked by selfless love and compassion, but becomes our very life, our love, our compassion; more than our encouragement to walk the narrow path which leads to eternal life and reconciliation with the Father, He is Himself our Way, our Truth, and our Life.  His Word comes to us not only as the condemning command of the Law, but as the free gift of His saving grace.

And how are we to respond to such a Word as our Lord Jesus Christ has brought it to us?  With faith— a faith which He gives to everyone through His Word by His Holy Spirit, which is able to perceive the justice of His Law, and the wonders of His grace.  Leaving not even the work of faith to be done by sinful hearts, Jesus gives this gift to any and all who will hear Him.  His Word, unlike the words of muses and poets, mythical gods and false prophets, is alive and able to accomplish the ends for which it comes:  the salvation of each and every soul.  Into our darkness, our chains, our prison, our despair— our world which we have twisted into the demonic image of selfishness and evil— Jesus comes by His Eternal Word, calling all people to repentance and living, saving faith in Him.  No one is excluded from His call, just as no one was excluded from His sacrifice, nor excluded from His selfless love and compassion.  It was your chains, your prison, your death He saw as He walked resolutely to Calvary, to be humiliated, despised, rejected, condemned, and die.  It was for you that He descended to the dead, and on the third day rose again triumphantly over every power of wickedness and evil in the world.  It was for you that He crashed the gates of hell, that it would no longer be your prison nor your eternal fate.  It was for you that he died, that death might no longer be your master.  It is for you that He lives, that you might forever live with Him.

Hearing Him, what else can we do, but live in Him?  Knowing Him, what else can we do but follow Him?  To the one who has heard Him, known Him, and believed Him, what else can one do but turn from the selfish ways of death and hell, and reflect the selfless love of Jesus to everyone around us?  We who have received the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation in His Name, how can we not deny ourselves the passing trifles of the world, so that others around us might receive the same eternal gifts we have been given?  Having our eyes opened to the distinction between the temporal and the eternal, to the wages of sin and the gift of God’s grace, how can we speak anything other than the fullness of God’s saving Word of Law and Gospel into our lost and dying world?  Knowing the sacrificial, saving love of God for us in Jesus, enlivened in Him through His Holy Spirit and reconciled to the Father for all eternity, how can we see our neighbor with anything less than the love God has shown for both them and us?

And so it is true that the Lord shall come again as He has promised, in the glory of His Father together with all the Holy Angels, and judge every person on the Last Day, giving to every soul that which accords with the life they have lived.  For those who have lived for themselves, disregarding the sacrificial love of God, despising His grace, rejecting His gift of faith, and preferring the chains of their dark prison, theirs will be the fires of hell, bound together with their demonic masters forever.  But for those who have heard the Word of the Lord and kept it, who have embraced the faith and grace they were given and striven to turn from a life of evil, theirs will be the blessed fellowship of the Holy Trinity and the communion of the saints and angels forever— not by the merit of their own works, but by the righteous works of Christ who saved them, and continued to work through them for the good of the whole world.  While the selfish and wicked shall be judged by the severity of the Law apart from the Gospel grace they rejected, the righteous will be judged in the Cross of Christ’s Gospel, who’s blood has saved them from the just consequences of the Law, and whose works in them become their works which follow them into eternity.

To you this saving Word comes today, with all its warning and all its hope, just as it has echoed though the halls of history for thousands of years, and into the ears everyone who would listen.  Hear Him, turn, believe, and live.  Amen.

On this Rock: A Meditation on Matthew 16

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, 

he asked his disciples, saying, 

Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: 

some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, 

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, 

Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona:

 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 

but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, 

That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; 

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: 

and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: 

and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Few passages of Scripture have given the Church more fits and controversy over the centuries than this text.  Used as a proof-text, taken alone and apart from the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, the New Testament, or the canon of Scripture as a whole, it can seem to offer up several controversies, not least of which is the role that St. Peter would play among the Apostles, and by extension throughout the history of the Church.  On one side of this controversy, Roman Catholic theologians have used it to claim power and authority (both ecclesiastical and political) over the entire Christian world— a innovation of doctrine which began several centuries after the death of St. Peter, and which eventually caused the Great Schism between Rome and the Eastern Patriarchs in 1054, then later the western Reformation of the 16th century.  This political application of Jesus’ Word toward power and coercion has brought over a thousand years of conflict, schism, division, bitter polemics, and generational feuds sometimes emerging as open war.

Of course, reading this text together with the rest of St. Matthew’s Gospel and the other three Evangelists, it is plain that Jesus intended no such application of His Word.  Church Fathers such as St. John Chrysostom of the late 4th century, bishop of Constantinople who died a persecuted martyr, revered by the Church both East and West as a universal doctor (teacher) and one of the greatest preachers who ever lived, wrote of this text in his homilies on Matthew that while Peter was indeed a receiver of great blessings, a leader of the Apostolic choir, and sent as a witness to the west with the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, the power given to Peter and every other Apostle with their successors was founded on their faithful confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Specifically not contained in this text is any mention of an earthly political structure, or the intrigues of bureaucrats angling for the control of money and power.  Nowhere does Jesus tell His disciples to establish an earthly kingdom through which every bishop, priest, deacon, or layperson must swear fealty from every corner of the globe, nor for kings of every nation to seek confirmation of their political rule through the successor of St. Peter.  The Keys promised to Peter in Matthew 16 are the same which are given to the rest of the Apostles after Jesus’ resurrection (recorded clearly in John 20), came with the same commands and promises attendant with abiding in Jesus’ Word by grace through faith in Him, and are carried by all those who have succeeded the Apostles as the Church has ordained them through every age and place.

Together with St. Peter and his successors, every legitimate pastor who has received faith in Christ through His Word, and who by the Church has been sent into the world to carry that Word as a witness and living icon of Jesus, carries the Keys of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to every sick and dying sinner, that just as Jesus breathed out His healing and saving Word among His disciples, so too He would breath it out forever through His servants who continue to abide in Him.  Nowhere is there a sign of contention or prestige among the Apostles, but rather a Spirit of common fellowship in the same Savior, whose same Word was life and hope to all who would repent and believe in Him.  Far from what His sinful people would at times try later to contrive for the sake of their own opulence, the gifts and calling of Jesus founded on His living Word, secured for them through His divine authority and by His sacrifice for the world upon His Cross, forever and continually given to them by the power of His Holy Spirit working through His Law and Gospel, was a trove of riches beyond earthly imagining.  This gift of pure grace was reconciliation with God the Father through the Crucified and Risen Son in the communion of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever— a gift of life which transcends death, and a peace which knows no fear in this world or the next.  It is a gift of faith, hope, and love which flows forth from God’s love and forgiveness to the world, calling everyone everywhere to turn from the paths of death and hell, and walk with Him in the path of light and life.

While political kingdoms either secular or religious will always be susceptible to the overthrow of wicked and manipulative men, the Word of God which works faith, conversion, and eternal life is immune from such human or demonic contrivance.  There is no army which can stomp out the forgiving love of God, no terrorist blade or flame which can abolish it.  There is no intrigue of any city or time or place which can crush it, nor any prison cell which can contain it.  And beyond even the crass tools of wicked men, there is no force of hell strong enough to withstand it, no demonic horde which can abide it.  The devil and Hell itself is plundered of its spoil of souls, as the Word of Christ binds the evil one, and breathes eternal life and forgiveness to everyone who will hear and believe in Him.  Jesus’ Kingdom, founded and built by Him upon His Word, multiplied in every generation by the living stones who believe, confess, and live in Him, is an eternal Kingdom which knows no end, and suffers no defeat.  

This eternal Kingdom of Jesus Christ is open to you this day, as His Word comes to you, calling you to repentance and faith in Him.  He has sent His servants forth with His Keys to absolve the sins of those who repent in faith, while also declaring to those who refuse to repent and believe that they are still bound in their deadly sins.  Hear the Word of Christ as He comes to you, calling you into His eternal Kingdom, that you might never need fear the scourges of sin, death, or hell forever more.  Allow the Word of Christ to craft you into a living stone of witness to Him and His saving love for the world, and be built into His Kingdom which has no end.  Amen.

Beloved: A Meditation on Romas 11

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, 

being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, 

and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, 

thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, 

and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: 

on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, 

if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, 

shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.

For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, 

and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: 

how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, 

be graffed into their own olive tree?

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, 

lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; 

that blindness in part is happened to Israel, 

until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, 

There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, 

and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes:

 but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

For as ye in times past have not believed God, 

yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Even so have these also now not believed, 

that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, 

that he might have mercy upon all.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 

how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.

Given the rise of racism and nazism in our recent times, it is worth dwelling a bit longer upon St. Paul’s words from chapter 11of Romans, which is our appointed epistle reading for this week.  Paul is culminating this section of his letter to the church at Rome by elucidating a few points which the people needed to remember, lest they become arrogant in their ignorance.  Of central significance to Paul has been the doctrine of Justification by grace through faith in Christ alone— that all the world has been shown to be under the wages of sin and death, and that only through Jesus is the world forgiven and reconciled to God the Father.  Paul makes clear that this reconciliation was prophesied centuries before Jesus came in His incarnation, and that as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the only begotten Son of God, only Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross could exchange our eternal condemnation with His eternal life.  Jesus, fully a human Jew according to His human nature received from His blessed mother Mary, and fully God according to His divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, was and is singularly able to reconcile the fallen world to its Creator.

In the practical life of the Church, however, this produced a tension.  While many Jews became Christians in the first century, receiving the grace of their Jewish Savior by faith as a fulfillment of the centuries of Prophets who foretold His coming, many Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and persecuted the Church as they had Him.  Similarly to the way the Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilot with false charges and vitriol demanding His death, these Jewish leaders also wound up the Jewish and pagan crowds to murder and persecute those who believed in Jesus.  Naturally this created a tension between Christians (who were devoted to peace and compassion, and by Jesus’ command refused to try and impose His Kingdom on the world by violence and compulsion, since faith, hope, and love can never be compelled in the first place,) and the Jewish leaders who cooperated with the pagans to either directly or indirectly murder and imprison Christians whenever they could.  

In parts of the Church, this tension began to produce hostility of mind between Christians and Jews.  Many of the early Church Fathers refused even to read the Old Testament Scriptures in their native Hebrew, since they distrusted the Jews to have manipulated them after the time of Christ, and preferred old Greek translations which pre-dated the 1st century (and which also were in the more native language of the converted pagans, as was the Greek New Testament).  When Christians finally found general favor in the Roman Empire after several hundred years of brutal persecution, some Christian leaders fell into turning the tables on their Jewish neighbors, using secular power to get vengeance on their previous persecutors.  This was, of course, still contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and as evidenced in all times of history down to our present today, power and wealth has a tremendous propensity for corruption and evil in the hands of fallen men.  The Word of Christ never changed, but people and empires often did.  And so, even in our time, there are people with power and hatred attempting to persecute and murder each other, some who even claim the name of Christ, whose Word they so obviously ignore.

But what of the Jews?  St. Paul is clear that even if the ones who did not and do not yet believe in Jesus are enemies of the Church concerning the Gospel, they are still beloved of God for the sake of the promises made to their Fathers.  Just as God so loved the entire world that He sent His Son to save every tribe and nation under heaven, even so He loves the Jewish people, too— just as much as He loves Germans, Finns, Ethiopians, Nigerians, Polynesians, Peruvians, Koreans, Mongolians, and every other people of the world.  Since all the world is enslaved by the evil one through their fall into sin and death, God’s love for the whole world goes out to all for conversion of heart, for repentance and faith in the Savior He sent to redeem and liberate them.  The Jews indeed are a peculiar people, because through them God breathed out His Word which we have recorded by the Old Testament Prophets, and through them His Word Incarnate came to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world.  Through the Jews the world continues to receive the testimonies of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and all those of ancient times who heard His voice, believed and lived in Him.  Through the Jews the world received the Messiah, the Son of David, Son of Mary, and yet the very Son of God.  Through the Jews the world receives the testimony of the Apostles written down in the New Testament, and the histories of the first several centuries after Jesus’ Ascension.  And as mysterious as it sounds, somehow, at the end of the age, St. Paul tells us the remainder of the Jewish nation will be reconciled to Christ, which will result in the final Day of resurrection and judgment for the world.

So how ought we now live, in light of this knowledge?  In repentance, faith, and humility before God.  For if God was and is willing to let the ancient Jewish people through whom His Law and Gospel have come into the world be broken off from His fellowship through their unbelief, that the world of Gentiles and pagans might be grafted into Him by grace through faith in Jesus, then we must remember the goodness and severity of God:  upon those who reject Him in unbelief, severity in their own condemnation, but upon all who turn from evil and trust in His Word, compassion and restoration in Jesus.  And so today, as in Paul’s day, the Church is called not to coerce or condemn, nor to seek retribution or oppression of any people, but rather in love and compassion to call all people to their Savior.  Jesus did not give His people torches and clubs to beat and murder in His Name— rather, He gave them the Word of His forgiveness, life, and salvation to heal the nations, and to salve every fevered and wounded soul.

This Word of Life is the Word by which the people of God are sustained in every age, and so too in our own.  Today, may the Word of God call you to humble faith and repentance in Jesus, to love of your neighbor no matter their tribe or race, that our eyes may see the reconciliation of the world, and the turning of death into eternal life.  Amen.

You give them something to eat: A Meditation on Matthew 14

And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, 

and was moved with compassion toward them, 

and he healed their sick.

And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, 

This is a desert place, and the time is now past; 

send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, 

and buy themselves victuals.

But Jesus said unto them, 

They need not depart; give ye them to eat.

The story of Jesus feeding the multitude in Matthew 14 reveals a number of things that might go unnoticed in too quick a read of a familiar passage.  It could first be noted that Jesus retreated to the wilderness to be alone after hearing that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been unjustly beheaded in prison by the wicked King Herod.  Being fully human like all of us, except without sin, Jesus was impacted by the murderous death of his kinsman, and perhaps like many of us, desired time to be alone in His mourning.  Regardless of his grief, thousands of people followed Him into the wilderness to receive from Him wisdom and healing.  Like mobs in our own day, they tend to be somewhat careless in pursuing what they desire, inconsiderate of the sufferings or struggles of others around them, or perhaps even of the sorrows they inflict upon those from whom they demand their interests.  Such was the mob— 5000 men, plus women and children— who flocked to Jesus in His grief over the loss of His cousin, begging of Him the healing of their bodies and souls.

Despite His own pain, Jesus looked on the crowd with compassion, and healed their sick.  He embraced them, taught them, cared for them, and made them whole.  When the day was far spent, and Jesus’ disciples realized how remote they all were (and perhaps how tired they themselves had become,) the disciples urged Jesus to send the multitude away, ostensibly so the people could buy themselves food.  Surrounded by thousands of demanding, insensitive, selfish, and needful people, far from the comforts and resources of a local village, likely exhausted both physically and emotionally, Jesus took the opportunity to teach His disciples something about the way they would be called to serve both God and their neighbor.

To get their attention, Jesus told His disciples that they need not send the people away for want of food, but rather that they should give the people food.  In shocked disbelief, the disciples responded that they could identifying no more than a little bread and fish which wouldn’t even begin to address the people’s needs, and He directed them to bring the food to Him.  While the people’s resources were woefully insufficient for the task of feeding thousands of hungry people, Jesus took the small offering, multiplied it exponentially, and distributed the gifts back to the people through His disciples.  What the people had to offer could not save or nourish them, and the disciples were powerless in themselves to redistribute their resources in a way that could save or nourish the people.  However, when it was Jesus giving His gifts, the resources were boundless for every soul’s need, with abundance and excess filling baskets of reserve.  Learning a point that Jesus would later make clear to His disciples before His Passion, apart from Him, the disciples could do nothing— they could not save, nourish, teach, feed, cloth, heal, or otherwise care for the people apart from Him.  The offerings and works of people are laughably insufficient for the needs of even an individual soul, let alone the souls of the whole world; but the gifts of God’s mercy, forgiveness, grace, and life are of super-abundance beyond the imaginations of every mortal mind.  Those who would seek to save or serve themselves are destined to ruin, but those who receive the good gifts of God by His hand are nourished and preserved, no matter where they may be.

It is also important to note that Jesus provides all these riches of grace and mercy through His own appointed means, and according to His own divine terms.  He doesn’t tell the crowd to create a communal body politic and establish utopia through a secular government.  He doesn’t direct the people to wander around in the wilderness and try to find God behind the beauty and severity of nature.  He doesn’t tell the people to work harder at their own salvation, and bring better gifts to the table.  He doesn’t tell people to become self-feeding entities who solve their hunger before approaching Him.  He doesn’t tell the people to clean themselves up and make themselves presentable or worthy for the feast.  Rather, Jesus directs the people to hear Him, to obey Him, and the receive by faith and repentance the good gifts He pours out through the hands and mouths of His servants.  What the people needed was not in their power to earn or manipulate out of God, but rather it was the free gift of grace which could only be received by faith.  What they disciples had to offer was nothing more than what Jesus would give to them to distribute in His Name, according to His own design and institution.

And so Jesus comes to His people today.  He has established His Word as the foundation of the world, and the fundamental Means of His grace.  To every soul He offers the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation by repentance and faith in Him, carried out into all the world through the servants He raises up to declare His Law and Gospel, and administer His Sacraments as He established and ordained them.  While Jesus comes to give His gifts to all mankind, He does not leave such gifts to human imagination or machination.  Instead, He works through people according to His Word and Sacraments, to give the super-abundance of grace, mercy, and life which everyone of every time and place so desperately needs.  Thus we learn, with the disciples who labored with Him in the wilderness and disciples of every age, that we ought not waste our lives looking for Jesus apart from where He has declared Himself always to be, and we ought never doubt that He is always at work for our salvation in His Word and Sacraments which He ordained and established for us in His divine love and compassion.

Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, that you might turn from the empty pursuits of human works to save your weary soul, and rather rest before the crucified and risen Jesus, who pours out to you freely by His grace the salve which you so desperately need, which is the very medicine of immortality and the bread of eternal life.  Amen.