Faith overcomes all the demons

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Reminiscere – Lent 2

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7  +  Matthew 15:21-28

We met the chief demon in last week’s Gospel, the devil himself, also known as the tempter and Satan. This week, we meet lesser demons in the Gospel. But they’re no less harmful. We meet a woman from outside of Israel whose daughter is severely tormented by demons. Demons can afflict people in various ways. In some cases, they’re able to completely possess an unbeliever’s body, and it’s likely that the Canaanite woman’s daughter had been an unbeliever, as that woman herself likely was for much of her life. But demons also have ways of tormenting believers, influencing believers, and, most certainly, tempting believers to sin, and they already have a strong ally in our own sinful flesh.

But the devil’s temptations often become God’s tool for saving people. What the devil does to destroy us and to separate us from God, God uses to bring unbelievers into contact with Him so that, sometimes, they become believers. As for God, He tempts no one, but He does test His children, even as He tested His own Son in the wilderness, in order to strengthen us, to build up our perseverance and character, to bring us closer to Him and His Word, and to accomplish other purposes that we may never even know about. So the temptations and the testing continue in today’s Gospel. They were brutal. And what was it that overcame all the temptations and testing? What was it that overcame the demons? Faith. Faith overcomes all the demons.

The Gentile woman and her daughter from the region of Tyre and Sidon (to the north of Israel) almost certainly started out as unbelievers, who had been raised their whole lives to worship idols, to believe falsehoods, and to live in sin and depravity. That was their upbringing. But when the woman’s daughter was attacked by the demons, it caused her to go looking for help. And we can surmise from her behavior in the Gospel, and from the way she addressed Jesus as “Son of David,” that she had learned about the LORD God of Israel, and of His promises to send the Son of David, the Christ, as a mighty champion, as the one who would save Israel, but whose salvation extended beyond the borders of Israel. She had learned, even in her foreign country, about Jesus and His goodness and power. She had heard that He was the promised Messiah. And faith came by hearing. Faith overcame her pagan heritage and her unchurched upbringing and the demonic lies that she had believed her whole life. See how already the Lord was turning the torments of the demons into something beneficial!

When the woman heard that Jesus had entered her territory, outside of Israel, she knew she had to find Him and seek His help. She cried out to Him over and over again, “O Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is dreadfully tormented by demons.” You might think that the Lord would have jumped at the chance to help her. But sometimes faith needs to be exercised and stretched so that it grows, or else, if it always gets what it asks for immediately, it may well shrivel up and die. So Jesus tests her new-found faith by not replying to her. He said not a word in reply. Surely the demons were there, tempting the woman to doubt His kindness, to doubt His mercy—as you also may be tempted to doubt when God doesn’t seem to reply when you pray to Him for help. But faith overcame the demons, and she just kept crying out for help.

Then another test to her faith arose, this time from Jesus’ own disciples. As she kept crying out for mercy, Jesus’ disciples came and begged him, “Send her away! She is crying out after us!” Surely the demons were there, tempting the woman to take offense at the disciples’ unloving behavior, at their heartless indifference to her suffering, tempting her to despair of Jesus’ help and to run away in shame—as you also may be tempted to turn away from God when other Christians behave badly, as they sometimes do. But faith overcame the demons, and she stayed right where she was, without anger, without despair, ignoring the behavior of the disciples, focusing only on Jesus, still expecting to receive from Him the help she so desperately needed.

Jesus then responded, but not in a positive way. He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now, how to understand those words? Well, Jesus was sent first to the house of Israel, to gather their lost sheep, the ones who had fallen away from the faith and needed to be brought back. 99% of His earthly ministry was devoted to serving the people of Israel, because that’s what He had promised in the Old Testament to do for them. But the Old Testament had prophesied that He would also gather people from the Gentiles into His kingdom. And He had already helped other Gentiles by this point in His ministry. How would the woman understand His words? Surely the demons were there, tempting her to take His words as a dismissal, tempting her to despair, tempting her to give up on God, or to find some sort of sinful racism in Jesus where it didn’t exist—even as the demons may tempt you to think that Jesus came to help everybody except for you, either despairing of His help or charging Him with unfairness. But faith overcame the demons, and the woman fell down before him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

Jesus replied with one final test. He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Clearly He was referring to the Jews as the children and to the Gentiles as the dogs. It isn’t right to take the mercy that was promised to the Israelites, that was intended for the Israelites, and redirect it to the Gentiles. But, of course, that reply implies that God’s mercy is limited! And it isn’t! As the Scripture says, The Lord’s mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! His mercy endures forever. Still, the demons were surely there, tempting the woman to become indignant with Jesus, tempting her to take offense at being compared to a dog, tempting her to become jealous of the people of Israel who got to sit at God’s table as His children—even as they may tempt you to give up on God’s mercy, or to become jealous when it seems as if God favored other people over you. But, once again, faith overcame the demons, and the woman walked through the door Jesus had left open for her, Yes, Lord. But the dogs do eat from the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

Then, finally, after the woman had passed all the tests, after faith had conquered every demon, Jesus spoke those words of praise that He had only spoken once before, also to a non-Jew, Great is your faith! And because faith stayed attached to Jesus, glued to Jesus, as it were, the demons who were torturing the woman’s daughter were also overcome. “Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Jesus’ praise of that woman’s faith overcame still other demons that were tempting Jesus’ disciples and would tempt Christians in the future. The Jews—the children sitting at the table!—were regularly tempted to see the Gentiles as inferior, to treat them like dirt, and to praise themselves for being life-long law-keepers. The disciples might have been tempted to dismiss the Gentiles, to ignore them at best or to mistreat them at worst. But Jesus’ praise of this Gentile woman would ring in their ears in the years to come, because they had seen and would continue to see that very few in the house of Israel showed the kind of great faith that the Gentile woman showed in today’s Gospel, and none of them were praised as directly by Jesus for their faith as she was. And so this brief encounter recorded in today’s Gospel has been responsible for overcoming untold numbers of demons over the ages, whenever the demons have tempted Christians to look down on another person for their race, their heritage, their background, or their upbringing. The Holy Spirit shows that great faith can dwell in anyone, and where faith in Jesus exists, there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free—or black or white or rich or poor—for all believers are one in Christ Jesus.

In today’s world, the kind of unwavering faith shown by the woman in today’s Gospel, the kind that withstands temptation and that holds up under testing, is extraordinarily uncommon, and, as a result, the demons are having their way among men, whether by internal possession, or external oppression, or the influence toward violence, or the instigation to disbelieve God and to believe any and every lie. Worse still, the demons are having their way among many who call themselves Christians but who refuse to submit to the Bible’s teachings, or who insist on living in sin, causing the witness of the Christian Church in the world to be stifled or skewed, or even to become an anti-Christian witness. The demons are powerful, and they will not be overcome by unbelief. They will not be overcome by false doctrine. They will not be overcome by a tepid or timid faith. But, as we learn in today’s Gospel, they will be overcome—all of them—by a faith that clings steadfastly to Christ and His Word. They will be overcome if you fix your gaze on Christ Jesus, hold fast to His word, endure testing with patience, and wait expectantly for His help to come. Then you will see what the woman in the Gospel saw, that faith overcomes all the demons. For, as St. John writes, whatever is born of God overcomes the world (and the demons with it). And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. See to the strengthening of your faith by immersing yourself in the Word of God and by receiving His Sacrament often, and may God, who is faithful, grant you a firm and steadfast faith, the kind that is fixed on Jesus and His mercy toward sinners. Against such a faith, the demons don’t stand a chance. Amen.

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The Apostles’ Creed

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon on the 2nd Chief Part of the Small Catechism

Isaiah 42:1-9  +  Colossians 1:12-23

The Second Chief Part in the Small Catechism is the Apostles’ Creed. A creed is a statement of faith, what a Christian should and does believe. The Apostles’ Creed wasn’t put together or approved by the apostles, or by a Church council. It was put together, starting in the second century, as far as we can tell, for practical reasons, as a way of teaching new converts the basics of the Christian faith, so that, when they were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, they knew the God into whose name they were being baptized.

So the Creed has three parts or “articles,” one for each Person of the Holy Trinity, each of whom is credited as having a primary role in certain aspects of our salvation.

In the first article, God the Father is emphasized. We believe in Him as the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Implied in that belief is the acknowledgement that the account of creation in the book of Genesis is historical and true, that the whole universe, all things, visible and invisible, had a beginning and were created in six literal days, that all life, whether plant or animal or human (or angel!), comes from God, and that man is the crown of His creation, that the human race was (originally) made in His image, according to His likeness, with a rational soul and with a perfectly good and righteous character.

We also believe that God the Father preserves His massive creation, but all for the benefit of a single planet, the one we call “Earth.” (And yes, we say that, even knowing how vast the universe is. God’s creative focal point was always Earth.) He holds it all together and causes it to keep functioning according to the laws of physics that He wrote into His creation. God’s work of preservation includes providence, as He continues to provide for all His creatures the things that we need to sustain this body and life. It also includes protection, as the Father sends forth His angels to shield us from harm and to guard and protect us from all evil, not because we deserve it, but because our Father is good and kind toward all that He has made.

But when you say in the Creed, “I believe in God the Father,” you don’t just mean that you accept these facts as true. You’re saying, “I believe in this Father who has done all these things for His creatures, including me, and I recognize that I owe Him my thanks, and my praise, and my obedience.”

But, as we know, mankind has not been obedient. Mankind quickly turned away from thanking and praising and worshiping God, to seek out his own, sinful path. And so, instead of wiping us out or condemning us to an eternity in hell, God the Father is credited with something else: He planned already in eternity to send His beloved Son into the world to redeem fallen mankind, and then He carried out that redemption in time. That’s the theme of the Second Article of the Creed.

In the second article, God the Son is emphasized, who is both true God and true Man. True God, as we heard in the reading from Colossians, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Firstborn, not in the sense of being the first thing created, but in the sense of being “born,” not created,” the firstborn (or, as He’s called elsewhere, the “only-begotten” or “only Son”) of the Father, through whom and for whom all things were created. But to redeem fallen mankind, the Father sent His Son into human flesh, to be born of the virgin Mary. When you say in the second article that He is “our Lord,” you’re telling the world that you not only know who Jesus Christ is, but that you acknowledge Him to be your Lord and Master, whom you love, whom you serve, to whom you owe your undying allegiance, to whom you owe your very life.

And why do you love Him? And why do you owe Him your life? Because you know Him as your Redeemer, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, so that He might purchase and win you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.

But, of course, your Redeemer didn’t stay dead. His state of humiliation ended with His burial. But then the Father exalted Him. He descended into hell to preach His victory to the spirits imprisoned there, and He rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the Father’s right hand to reign over all things until He comes again in glory, at the end of the age, to judge the living and the dead.

And what was His goal in becoming your Redeemer? His goal wasn’t to set you free and then leave you be. No, He redeemed you that you should be His own, that you should live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from death, lives and reigns forever and ever.

But what is His kingdom, and how do you come into it, and where does it all lead? That’s the theme of the Third Article of the creed.

The Third Article focuses on the Holy Spirit and His work of sanctification. People are not automatically saved just because Jesus died for their sins and rose again. We’re saved by our faith-connection to Jesus Christ. But faith is something we’re born without. In fact, we’re incapable of it by nature. By our own reason and strength we are unable to believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.

And so the Lord Jesus, as He reigns at the Father’s right hand, sends the Holy Spirit into His Church, to call people through the preaching of the Gospel: Repent! Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved! The Spirit is the One who enters our hearts through the word that’s preached, enlightening our eyes to see Jesus as our Savior from sin, death, and the devil. When that happens, the Spirit gives us new birth and sanctifies us, setting us apart from the sinful world and bringing us into Christ’s holy Church. He gathers all those whom He has enlightened and brought to faith into the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints throughout the world, where the Gospel is rightly preached, where the Sacraments are rightly administered, where, through the ministry of Word and Sacrament, He continues to enlighten us with His gifts, forgives us our sins richly and daily, keeps us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith, and abides with us to turn us into holy people who are progressively molded into the image of Christ, our Redeemer.

And where does it all lead? It leads to the Last Day, when our bodies will be raised from the dead and transformed into glorious bodies, like that of the risen Lord Jesus. And then we who have been sanctified by the Spirit in this life will go into the life everlasting, where we’ll live in the presence of our God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, forever and ever.

These are the basics of our Christian faith. These are the things that every true Christian believes. These are the things that we stake our lives—our very souls—upon. So, with the catechism, let us always boldly and gladly confess the Creed, and, after each article add a heartfelt: This is most certainly true! Amen.

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A great High Priest who was tempted as we are

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Invocavit

2 Corinthians 6:1-10  +  Matthew 4:1-11

It says in the book of Hebrews: Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Those words look back, in part, to today’s Gospel, where we watch Jesus, our great High Priest, enduring the temptations of the devil during His forty-day fast, being in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And as a result, we can now approach God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, as someone who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses, as someone who, through His victory over temptation, both earned for us mercy (the forgiveness of sins) and gives us the grace to withstand in the day of temptation.

After His Baptism, where Jesus, our great High Priest, was anointed and placed into office by God the Father, He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. His being tempted was an essential part of God the Father’s plan for Him. Not that God tempted Him; the devil alone did that. But since the devil had had so much success against the human race, going all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was essential that the Son of Man also be made to confront the devil, to see how He would do. Would He stand? Or would He fall, like the rest of mankind has always done? If He stands, He is qualified to be the great High Priest who offers Himself as the sinless sacrifice for the sins of the world, and who will forever stand before God the Father as the one priestly Mediator between God and man, between God and sinners. If He falls, at any point, then mankind belongs to the devil forever. There is no other plan for our salvation.

Let’s walk through the three temptations that are recorded for us in the Gospel.

The first temptation is a temptation to doubt God’s goodness. It comes at the end of Jesus’ forty-day fast. He’s hungry, starving, even, and the devil tries to take advantage. If You are the Son of God. You’ll notice, the devil begins two out of the three temptations with that “if You are the Son of God” condition. It was about 40 days earlier, when Jesus was baptized, when, you remember, God the Father spoke from heaven and proclaimed, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” “Well, if that’s true,” the devil implies, “then You should get some special privileges, like tapping into Your power as the Son of God to turn these stones into bread for Yourself. Wouldn’t that be nice? You haven’t eaten in over a month, right? You could have food right now, this very minute. You’re entitled to it. Right?”

It’s eerily similar to the devil’s temptation of Eve in the Garden, where he tried to convince her that she deserved to have that piece of fruit that was just hanging there in front of her eyes. God had no right to keep it from her. She was entitled to it—even though God had given her all the other fruit in the garden, and every possible gift and blessing was at her fingertips, except for this one thing that God hadn’t given her: the forbidden fruit.

Hasn’t the devil approached you in similar ways, holding forbidden fruit before your eyes, tempting you to doubt God’s goodness, trying to convince you that you’re entitled to things that God hasn’t provided for you (in spite of all that He has provided for you), persuading you to become discontent with what you have, to believe that, somehow, God owes you? “Don’t focus on Him. Focus on your hunger! Focus on your need! Steal, if you need! Fight, if you need to! (Forget the fact that the fruit is forbidden!).”

Turning stones into bread to feed Himself was forbidden to Jesus. He was sent to live in humility, like the rest of us. He was expected to depend on His Father for providence, just like the rest of us. He knew it would have been “cheating” to use His divine power to provide for Himself. Now, Jesus could have argued with the devil. But, instead, He chose to answer the temptation very simply, with the written word of God. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Moses spoke those words to the Israelites, reminding them why God had caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years: And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus, too, had to be humbled, and tested. But unlike Israel, He never complained. He never grumbled against God. He waited patiently for His Father to provide, and so He passed the test and defeated the temptation.

In the second temptation recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, the devil tempts Jesus to doubt His Father’s word—just as he had done with Eve in the Garden of Eden. He took Him up to a high point on the temple and said, If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down! For it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you,’ and, ‘In their hands they will lift you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Yes, the devil can use God’s word. He can pretend to go along with what God says. That should serve as a sobering warning for us, because many people use God’s word today for evil purposes, just as the devil did with Jesus. The devil didn’t quote Psalm 91 to get Jesus to trust in His Father. He quoted it so that Jesus would doubt His Father and put His Father’s word to the test. Would He really keep His word and send His angels to rescue Jesus, if Jesus jumped down from the temple? Only one way to find out!

Hasn’t the devil tempted you in similar ways to doubt the word of God? Did He really create the world in six days, as He said? Was the world really destroyed in a flood? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? If only you could find some proof, something tangible, something scientific! Or, maybe worse, he uses God’s word to lead you into false belief, as he tried to do with Jesus, so that you misinterpret God’s word, so that you end up believing something that God never intended, and then stake your life on it. He never intended, for example, for His promises of angelic protection to lead His children to needlessly endanger their lives.

But Jesus, our great High Priest, knew His Father’s word well enough to stand up to the devil’s temptation. It is written again, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’” Again, He was quoting Moses, who was warning the Israelites not to repeat their past sins of testing the Lord, as they did early in their journeys when they angrily demanded that Moses give them water to drink—as if God had to prove His faithfulness by giving in to their demands. Jesus refused to do such a thing. He would trust in His Father’s word and in His Father’s faithfulness—blindly, if necessary. Nothing His Father said could ever be false, could ever be wrong. And so He passed the test and defeated the temptation.

Finally, the devil tried to get the Son of Man to abandon God altogether so that He could have everything a man could ever want—riches, power, fame, and fortune, the world itself—and have it easily at that, without having to work for it or earn it, or suffer for it, just by switching sides from God’s side to the devil’s side. All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Hasn’t the devil approached you with similar temptations? Have the job or the relationship that you want! Have the pleasure you desire! Have the approval of men that you crave! For once in your life, stop worrying about what God wants. You do what you want! You take what you want! All you have to do is set aside the First Commandment briefly.

Jesus would have none of it. Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ And so Jesus endured every temptation and passed every test. He met the requirement of sinlessness and so became our great High Priest.

Now, since our great High Priest faced temptation just as you do, since the whole purpose of His incarnation was to become the sinless Substitute for sinful mankind and thus to become the perfect Mediator between God and man, since He has now conquered the devil and death itself, Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, to Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Mercy Seat of God, that we may obtain mercy. Come to God with your sin, with your shame, with all the times you’ve given in to temptation, and give it all to the great High Priest! He has already suffered for your sins and offered Himself once for all as the sacrifice for them, the sacrifice that God the Father has accepted. Come to the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, and you will obtain mercy from Him, even the forgiveness of your sins.

And, as forgiven children of God, Let us come boldly to the throne of grace…and find grace to help in time of need. You will be tempted again. You will be tempted throughout your earthly life, tempted as Jesus was tempted, tempted to stop listening to God and to listen instead to that other voice, the voice of the devil and his demons, the voice of the unbelieving world, the voice of your own sinful flesh, nudging you away from God’s commandments, prodding you toward sin and shame and disgrace. In such times, turn boldly to the throne of grace. Remember how your great High Priest used Holy Scripture to withstand temptation, and equip yourself ahead of time with the word of God, so that you have that mighty weapon at your disposal when you need it the most. Pray to your High Priest. He will understand your struggles, will sympathize with them, and will offer you all the help you need to stand strong for Him, as He once stood strong for you against the devil and against all the powers of hell. As it says in Hebrews, Since we have a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Amen.

 

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The Ten Commandments

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the First Day of Lent

Romans 13:8-10  +  Mark 12:28-34

The Lenten fast or “giving up something for Lent” has been around for a long time. And, if used for the purpose of self-denial, prayer, works of charity, or reflection on spiritual things, fasting can be a helpful tool, a useful discipline. We maintain that fasting should never be forced on anyone in the New Testament Church, since God doesn’t force it on us. But during this Lenten season I’ll encourage you to engage in another kind of discipline. During the six Wednesdays of Lent, prior to Holy Week, we’re going to review together the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism. One part per week, starting tonight. And I’m encouraging you, not only to set aside every Wednesday for these services, but to take your Small Catechism out, and read the part for the week at least once a day. If it makes it easier, you can pick up a copy of the weekly catechism reading from the table in the narthex.

This evening, we begin with the First Chief Part: The Ten Commandments. We can’t possibly talk about each one in depth in a single sermon. But it’s my hope that this service will help you to read them fruitfully throughout the coming week.

The Ten Commandments were thundered down to Israel by God from Mt. Sinai, and later written by God’s own hand on two stone tablets. They were part of the Old Testament, the binding covenant which God established with Israel, through Moses, and into which the people of Israel willingly entered. All the words which the LORD has said we will do.

Why do we care? We are not Israelites, after all. We never signed onto that covenant and were never asked to. We care about the Ten Commandments, because we did sign onto the New Testament by being baptized into the name of the same Yahweh God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And in the Ten Commandments, the will of our God for mankind’s behavior is revealed. They reflect who our God is, teach us what His standards are of right and wrong, teach us what we are to do and not do, think and not think, desire and not desire, in order to be holy people in fellowship with the holy God. We care, because the Ten Commandments teach us Christians why we needed a Savior named Jesus in the first place.

As you heard tonight in both Scripture lessons, the Ten Commandments are summarized with the word, “Love.” Love is not optional. It wasn’t for OT Israel, it isn’t for NT Christians, either. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And, as you may remember from your catechism classes, the Law serves as both mirror and guide.

The Law is a mirror. It shows us what we look like—like sinners, who have not kept God’s commandments. As a mirror, the Ten Commandments tell us what we’re supposed to do and not do, desire and not desire, so that we may see clearly how far short of God’s glory we fall. The man who does these things shall live by them. But we haven’t done them. Not all of them. Not all the time. No one has. And so the curse of the Law is pronounced on all men: Cursed is the one who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law…Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But the Law is also a guide. As a guide, it shows us Christians, who have been redeemed from the curse of the Law by Christ, who became a curse for us, the holy lives that holy people are called to live. We are called to walk by the Spirit. And the Ten Commandments are a Spirit-inspired summary of how the Spirit teaches us to walk.

So we turn to the First Table of the Law, the first three commandments, summarized by love for God.

1st: You shall have no other gods. Every form of idolatry is forbidden, every form of worship of any god except for the One who reveals Himself in the Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Instead of serving other gods, we are to fear, love, and trust in the true God above all things, including ourselves. He is to be our all in all, while all that we have and all that we are is to be entirely devoted to Him.

2nd: You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD, or Yahweh, or God, or Jesus, or Christ, is not a name to be tossed around lightly, much less used as a curse, or for needless swearing, lying, deceiving, or practicing witchcraft. His name is to be holy to you. For sacred use only. God’s name is to be used for good, to call upon Him in the day of trouble, to praise Him in front of other people and tell of all His wondrous deeds, to give thanks to Him, at all times, and in all places.

3rd: You shall sanctify the Day of Rest, or, Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. The Old Testament regulation about doing no work from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday has fallen away. But God’s command to hear His Word regularly, to cherish the preaching of it, to use His Sacraments with reverence, and to honor and support the ministry of the Word—that command remains.

The first three commandments summarize how we are to love God directly, by honoring Him, His name, and His Word. The rest of the commandments, the Second Table of the Law, show us how to love God by loving our neighbor. Your neighbor is literally the person next to you, the one whom God places in your direct path, which begins with your immediate family.

4th: You shall honor your father and your mother. God has placed children under the authority of their father and mother, not only demanding outward obedience to them, but also the honor and respect of the heart. That honor and respect are to remain even when the parents are old, even if the same level of obedience to them is no longer required. By extension, this commandment applies to all the authorities that God has placed us under. We are to honor them, serve and obey them, love and respect them.

5th: You shall not murder. No one is permitted to end a human life (and yes, that includes abortion) unless God authorizes it in His word, as He does for the government in the case of evildoers, or as He does for the average citizen if a thief breaks into his home or poses an imminent threat to his life. And if we are to avoid taking another person’s life, then we are also to avoid mistreating our neighbor’s body (or our own bodies!). On the contrary, we are to provide help for our neighbor’s bodily needs as we are able.

6th: You shall not commit adultery. Or as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. God gets to define the terms of sexual relations, just as He gets to define man and woman, husband and wife. He designed marriage to be a sacred, loving, lifelong bond, where husbands and wives love and cherish each other. And He clearly forbids all sex outside of marriage, all homosexual behavior, all pretending to be a different gender than the one He made you to be, and divorce in most, but not all, cases.

7th: You shall not steal. God permits people to acquire things and to own things, and He forbids people from taking things that another person owns, unless the person freely agrees to sell it or trade it or give it away.

8th: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Our tongues and our typing fingers are to take great care, lest we say or write something that may harm our neighbor’s reputation. Lying about our neighbor to get him in trouble is a sin, but so is telling the truth about our neighbor in such a way that we expose a sin that we have no business exposing.

9th: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. This commandment, together with the next, is especially revealing. No human government can regulate your desires. But God can, and does. Not only are you not allowed to take your neighbor’s house from him. You aren’t even allowed to desire it, to set your heart on it, to be discontent with your own house. And not only house, but…

10th: You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, workers, animals, or anything that is his. You are to control your desires, to the point that, whatever possessions the Lord enables you to have, whatever opportunities, whatever place in life the Lord gives you, you are to be content with these. And while you may desire something beyond what you now have, you commit those desires to the Lord, and if He provides it, good! And if not, good! But setting your heart on what your neighbor has, and growing bitter over your neighbor having something that you crave, such desires are forbidden by God.

If you stop and really think about all these commandments, what obedience looks like from the start of your life to the end of it, when you take into account what James says about the commandments, that whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it, it’s clear that all men, including us, are lawbreakers.

But during this Lenten season, we celebrate our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Ten Commandments show us the reason why, because no man can hold up his own obedience to the commandments to God and claim, “See, God! I have kept them all!” Instead, everyone must approach God as a humble beggar and admit, “Oh, God! I am a poor, wretched sinner!”

But sinners are called, not to despair, but to repent, and to run to Christ, the Redeemer, where God promises that sinners will find forgiveness, on the basis of His obedience, on the basis of His suffering and death, which He suffered for all our lawbreaking. So run to Christ and stay close to Him, because where He is, there the commandments can no longer accuse or condemn, because Jesus has fulfilled them all in our place.

But as you stay close to Christ, you dare not ignore God’s commandments. As John says, This is love for God: to keep His commandments. For the redeemed, this is the path. This is the way, each and every day. Do you love the God who has redeemed you? Would you serve the God who has redeemed you? Would you be holy, as God Himself has called you to be? Then, as Jesus Himself said, If you love Me, keep My commandments. Amen.

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Faith, hope, and love, even in the dark

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Quinquagesima

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  +  Luke 18:31-43

Sometimes the ways of the Lord are clear as crystal; the pieces of the puzzle all seem to fit together; the things going on around you make sense. But sometimes the Lord’s ways are about as clear to us as mud. And that’s okay. You’re not supposed to understand everything yet. It’s like when you read a book. Many things that the author understands perfectly well are not understood by the reader, or by the characters in the story, until the end, or close to the end. As the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

What do you do when you’re in the middle of the story, and the Author’s plans seem fuzzy and dim? We learn that lesson from today’s Gospel and Epistle, from Jesus’ disciples, from the blind beggar, and from the apostle Paul. And the pattern we learn from them is simple: Have faith, hope, and love, even in the dark.

As Jesus made His way through Judea to Jerusalem for His final Passover, He began to spell things out for His twelve apostles. See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that were written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be fulfilled. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And they will scourge him and put him to death. And on the third day he will rise again. For His part, Jesus saw everything clearly. He knew exactly who He was—the Christ, true God and true Man; He knew where He had come from—from God the Father; and He knew exactly why He had come: that the world through Him might be saved—saved from sin, death, and the power of the devil; saved from every evil and every trouble at the end of the story. He even saw clearly the path to get there, both because He was the Author of the plan, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and because it had been revealed, although somewhat obscurely, in the Old Testament Scriptures. He would go to Jerusalem at the Passover and allow Himself to be betrayed by His own friend, handed over to Pontius Pilate by His own people, falsely accused, condemned, tortured, and killed. He would do this willingly in order to make atonement for the sins of the world. And then He would rise from the dead on the third day, ascend into heaven, and work, by His Spirit, with the preachers whom He would send out into the world to bring men out of darkness into His marvelous light.

The light of the Gospel, shining on Jesus as the merciful Savior, is clear to all who believe, but it doesn’t always shed a bright light on the path directly ahead of us on our way to the salvation at the end of the story. Even when Jesus shined the light on the path that lay ahead of Him in the coming days, His disciples were like blind men still groping about in the dark. We’re told that they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them. How can that be? It can be, because, when it comes to the ways and the things of God, only the Spirit of God can truly enlighten the mind, and sometimes He has a reason for keeping even the faithful in the dark about certain things, as an author often does in the story he’s writing.

In the case of the apostles, it wouldn’t work out the way it was supposed to if they had perfect understanding of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection ahead of time. They had to be kept in the dark for a little while longer, for their own sake, for our sake, but also for Jesus’ sake, so that He could suffer more. You see, it lessens a person’s suffering to share it with friends, with those who can sympathize and understand. On the other hand, it increases a person’s suffering to go through it alone, without the understanding of family and friends. And Jesus had to suffer alone.

What did they do when they didn’t understand? Well, first they listened to Jesus and pondered what He said, even though they didn’t understand. They listened, and then, later, after Jesus’ resurrection, they were able to remember what He had said. But even before they remembered, they trusted. They had faith in Jesus, that He knew what He was talking about, even though they didn’t. And so they kept following Him, hoping and expecting that things would turn out well, for Jesus and for them, hoping for the details to be made clear when the time was right.

So listen to God’s Word and ponder it, if the path ahead seems blurry or dim, and have faith in the God who has given you His Word, and who has given you His only-begotten Son, and who, through His Son, has also given you His Holy Spirit, to enlighten your minds as much as necessary for the place where you’re at in the story. The Lord has His reasons for not making everything clear to you now. Not that He has hidden His overall plan or His saving works from you. He has revealed more than enough of it in Holy Scripture to bring you to trust in Him, and to preserve you in the faith, and to give you hope that things will turn out well. Have faith! And hope!

Next in our Gospel, we encounter a blind man. Actually, two blind men, according to Matthew, but they believed as one and called out to Jesus as one. Mark reveals the name of one of them. His name was Bartimaeus. He had no physical sight. He was reduced to begging, and the Lord hadn’t revealed to him why it had to be this way. In that way, too, he was left, for a time, in the dark.

But Bartimaeus’s physical blindness, and his blindness to the Lord’s plan, didn’t hinder him one bit from listening to the word of God in the Old Testament, and to the word about Jesus being the Christ, the promised Son of David, and, having heard, he believed. He had faith. And because he had faith, he cried out to Jesus, as soon as he heard that Jesus was passing by, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! And he refused to be silenced, when the crowds told him to keep his mouth shut. He cried out boldly, confidently, and with great hope, Son of David, have mercy on me! So Jesus stopped the procession, called the man over, and asked him what kind of mercy he was seeking. Bartimaeus said, Lord, I want to receive my sight!

And what happened? Jesus said, Receive your sight! Your faith has saved you. Jesus granted his request freely, willingly, gladly. Not only that, but he praised Bartimaeus’ faith as that which led to his healing. Not because faith had the power to heal, but because faith brought him to Jesus, who had the power to heal. The blind man’s eyes were opened, enlightened, just as his mind had already been by the Holy Spirit. His sight was restored. And then, what? He followed Jesus, glorifying God.

It’s really the same lesson as with the apostles. If you confess Jesus as Lord and Christ, as the apostles did, as the blind beggar did, then have faith in Him, even if it’s blind faith, for the moment. And put all your hope in Him, even if it’s blind hope, for the moment. You don’t have to understand everything now. Go along with the story now, as it unfolds. Follow along with Jesus. Do the things He has given you to do, the things you know to do, because His Word has clearly revealed those things. Have faith. And hope. You won’t be disappointed in the end. There will be a cross. But there will also be a resurrection and a glorious future in the kingdom of God.

There’s one more thing God calls on you to do while you remain in the dark, in addition to having faith and hope. St. Paul wrote a whole chapter of the Bible about it, which you heard as today’s Epistle: Love.

We learn love from Jesus in today’s Gospel. The way He stopped and took time for the man in need. The way He spoke kindly to him and helped him gladly. And, of course, we hear from the Apostle Paul in today’s Epistle a beautiful description of what Christian love looks like. Love is patient. It is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. It is not conceited. It does not behave indecently. It does not seek its own. It does not become angry. It does not dwell on evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Being in the dark about the path ahead, being confused or frustrated doesn’t give you the right to behave badly toward your family, toward your neighbor, toward your fellow Christian. On the contrary, you are called to keep loving at all times, with Christ Jesus Himself as the prime example. In fact, you are called, as Christians, to be characterized by love—not love according to the world’s definition, but love as God defines it in His Word, love that is consistent with God’s commandments. Yes, you are to be known in this dark world as people of faith and people of hope. But just as much you are to be known as people of love—the kind of love Paul describes in the Epistle, which will continue into the next life after there is no longer a need for faith or hope, because all that is now dark will be made bright. As Paul says, For now we see through a mirror, darkly; but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part; but then I will know fully, even as I am also fully known. And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Have faith in Christ, whether or not you fully understand. Trust in Him who willingly and intentionally suffered and died for you. Wait in hope for the Lord to act and to reveal things in His time. And be a person characterized by love. In faith, hope, and love, keep following the Lord Christ, wherever He goes, wherever He leads, knowing that your Shepherd will never lead you astray. His path is the path of the cross. But if we suffer with Him in shame, we will also reign with Him in glory. Amen.

 

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