A man who stood. A Church that stands.

Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation

Revelation 14:6-7  +  Matthew 11:12-15

The festival of the Reformation must be pretty important. It’s the only festival in the entire Church Year that has been added to our liturgical calendar of festivals, the only “new” festival in well over a thousand years, celebrated already in the 1560’s in some parts of Germany, and it’s become an annual celebration for Lutherans ever since.

And what are we celebrating? Well, we’re celebrating the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as we do every Sunday. But specifically, we’re celebrating how that Gospel was proclaimed by a man who stood, and by a church that stands.

But let’s back up for a moment and consider the words of today’s Gospel from Matthew 11 and see how it applies to this celebration.

John the Baptist was in prison for preaching God’s Word. He had sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus was the Christ who was to come. We’ll look at that part of Matthew 11 in just a few weeks, during the season of Advent. John, you recall, had been a forceful preacher of repentance. He stood against the Jewish religious leaders who had strayed from the right understanding of the Law of Moses. He stood against King Herod, who had married his brother’s wife while his brother still lived. He stood against his own disciples when they wanted him to keep his popularity even after Christ came on the scene. He stood, not on human reason, not on the decrees of any councils, but solely on God’s Word. He said what needed to be said, no matter what the consequences may be.

In our Gospel, Jesus says, If you are willing to receive it, he—John—is Elijah who is to come. We can see the similarities between John and Elijah. Elijah was also a forceful preacher of repentance. He stood against the idolatry of the northern kingdom of Israel. He stood against the powerful rulers of his day—wicked King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. He stood against the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel as the lone preacher of the LORD God of Israel.

But what does Jesus mean, “Elijah who is to come”? Remember the prophecy at the end of the book of Malachi: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. God promised to send “Elijah” before the coming of the day of the LORD. Many of the Jews thought that God would literally send the man Elijah from heaven back down to earth, but Jesus explains that “Elijah” was to be understood figuratively, about a man who would come and preach like Elijah once preached, who would stand like Elijah once stood. John was the promised man who stood for the true God in the face of much opposition, as Elijah had once done.

And, you recall, Elijah eventually had to flee for his life as Jezebel sought to destroy him. He ran away to a mountain where God spoke to him and comforted him, much as Jesus did with John in the words just before our Gospel. And there on the mountain, God revealed to Elijah that, for as alone as he felt, God had preserved a remnant—7,000 in Israel—whose knees had not bowed to the false god Baal.

In the same way, partially through John’s preaching, God had preserved a remnant in Israel at the time of Jesus. He had turned the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, as Malachi prophesied. Many people in Israel were repenting, being baptized, and turning to Christ. Hear again what Jesus said: From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. “Suffers violence” is a possible translation. But here I favor the old NIV’s translation: From the days of John the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. In other words, through John’s forceful stand for the truth, God had raised up forceful men who were laying hold of that truth and rushing into the kingdom of heaven, daring to confess their sins, daring to be baptized, daring to put their faith in Jesus as the Christ, daring to stake their soul’s eternal salvation, not on human reason, not on the popular teachings of the Church at that time, but solely on the Word of God which centers on God’s mercy in Christ Jesus. God was raising up for Himself a Church that stood on the Gospel.

Now, how does all that apply to this celebration of the Reformation of the Church?

We’ve chosen October 31^st as the actual date for celebrating the Reformation because of what Luther did on that day in 1517, nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. But it’s not the Theses themselves that we celebrate. Don’t get me wrong. They were good and well-reasoned. They touched on important questions that would affect the Church for centuries to come: How far does papal authority actually reach? Does it reach beyond the city of Rome? All the way to Germany? All the way to purgatory? What good are the indulgences that the pope signs? How can he claim to forgive the penalties imposed by others? Worse, how can he charge money for the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God?

Still, it wasn’t so much the issues discussed in the 95 Theses that were so striking, but the simple fact that a lowly priest, in that 16^th century environment—not unlike the environment that John the Baptist faced in early first century Israel—should question the status quo or even try to discuss doctrinal inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. The pope and the leading men of the Roman Church were to be supported and believed, not questioned—certainly not publicly! —and not doubted.

But there stood Luther, defying pope and emperor, insisting that the Holy Scriptures must be the source and the arbiter of all our doctrine. There stood Luther, convinced by Holy Scripture that the penalties paid by Christ on the cross are the sufficient and only price of mankind’s redemption and reconciliation with God. There stood Luther, pointing to Jesus as the one Mediator between God and man. There stood Luther, pointing to faith in Christ Jesus as that by which alone God justifies any and every sinner.

We can and should thank God for what He accomplished for His Church through Martin Luther, as through a divinely sent messenger or “angel,” like the one we heard about in today’s Epistle from Revelation 14, whom many Lutheran theologians have applied to Luther himself: an angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Now, if Martin Luther had stood alone, all by himself, on the truth of God’s Word, then the world might still be filled with nothing but the deviant version of Christianity which was being taught by the Roman Church of the 16^th century, with countless souls still cowering for fear before the righteous God, still putting their hope in the Virgin Mary and in the other saints, still living in fear of purgatory, still following the superstitions of monkery and relics and manmade forms of worship. But because Luther stood, God was able to use him to bring the light of the Gospel to countless others, to free them from the superstitions of Rome, to put the Bible into their hands so that they could read it for themselves and allow the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures instead of relying only on the pope to interpret it for them. Forceful men laid hold of the kingdom of God, refusing to be bullied by Rome or by the emperor, refusing to be silenced by those who claimed to be wise, but whose opinions were built on nothing but human doctrine. And so, although the Roman Church continued to oppose Luther until the day he died, the Holy Catholic Church stood by him and stands by him still.

That’s what we celebrate today. The man who stood on God’s Word, and the Church that stands on it, too. Not that we give the glory or the credit to Luther or even to the Church. No, to God alone be the glory. But Christians through the ages who have stood firm on the Gospel of Christ Jesus have been God’s tools and instruments to bring the Gospel to us, pure and untainted by the doctrines of men.

What will you do with it? What will you do with this gift of the pure Gospel of Christ, handed down by the apostles, preached in the Church throughout the ages, obscured by human errors and abuses but then magnificently restored through Luther and men like him? We’ve seen the pure Gospel obscured again since Luther’s time, both by Protestant groups and by many who claim the Lutheran title. We’ve seen people abandon the Lutheran faith for the sake of apathy, for pride, for convenience, for persecution and ridicule, for love of this life and the trappings of the bigger church. What will you do with the Gospel?

Will you be meek with it? Timid? Will you treat is as of minor importance in your life? Will you be ashamed of it? Will you toss it away when the weight of the cross becomes heavier than you wish to bear? Far be it! Far be it from you who have been cleansed, from you who have been washed in Christ’s blood, from you who have received, from the pure grace of God, the everlasting Gospel in the purest form in which it exists on earth! Far be it from you to be intimidated by those who mix truth with error or by those who don’t know the truth at all! Far be it from you, who are truly faith-ful, to behave as those who live by sight and not by faith!

Instead, recognize the treasure you have been given, the comfort of a faith founded on the immovable rock of Holy Scripture, on the sure and certain Means of Grace, the Gospel in Word and Sacraments, on the actual, historical, apostolic faith once delivered to the saints. Give thanks for it! Treasure it! And then stand! Stand on the truth of Christ! Stand on it against the devil, against the world, and against your sinful flesh. Stand on it in the face of error. Stand on it in the face of despair. Stand on it in such a way that the world around you knows where you stand.

Stand on it, together with the true Holy Catholic Church of all times. Stand on it with Luther, and let his words before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms become your own words: “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.”