God’s anger and punishment will end for the believer

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 14

Isaiah 57:14-21

Chapter 57 of Isaiah is the 9th and final chapter in this second set of 9 chapters in Isaiah 40-66, which means we’re about two thirds of the way done with our walk through Isaiah’s prophecy. The Lord has gone back and forth, rebuking the secure idolaters and comforting the penitent believers. The first part of the chapter was a strong rebuke. But the second part before us this evening offers strong comfort.

And one shall say, “Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people.”

Israel hadn’t been allowed to return from captivity earlier. The way was blocked. The punishment for their idolatry and rebellion had to remain, until now. Now the Lord commands the stumbling block to be removed from the path, so that His people can return to their homes, and, much more importantly, to Him.

For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Listen to how God describes Himself. He is high and lofty. God is so far above and beyond our mortal, earthly lives. He inhabits eternity. He isn’t affected by time or by events, as we are. Our bodies wear out. Our minds slip. We can get into accidents, or others can impose their will on us. But God is above all that. He’s outside of the story. He doesn’t need anything from us, or from anyone. And His name is Holy. He’s perfect. He’s sinless. He’s unapproachable by sinners and by mortal men.

Except that He makes Himself approachable. Or rather, He condescends, He chooses to come down and dwell with…whom? With him who has a contrite and humble spirit. We use that word “contrite” or “contrition” sometimes. It means to be crushed. In this case, crushed by sorrow over our sins. Crushed by the weight of our sorry situation. Crushed, not proud. Crushed, not “doing just fine.” The one who has been crushed by the weight of what he or she has done, who has a humble spirit before God, not trying to make excuses for himself, not insisting that God owes him something—God chooses to dwell with such a person. The high and lofty One comes down low, to meet sinners in their weakness and in their desperation.

To do what? To gloat? To rub it in? No, but To revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. These are comforting words, and they apply to all the humble and to all the contrite, because it’s a description of who God is, always, all the time. In His way, in His time, He will meet the humble and the contrite and bring them back to life.

For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made.

Again, pure comfort. Yes, God contends for a while with sinners. He rebukes, He threatens, He punishes. But when the sinner finally comes down from his pride, when he finally admits his sins, when he finally abandons all hope in himself—and in his idols! —, then God stops rebuking and threatening that person. The earthly punishment may still remain for a little while, until the lesson has sunk in as far as it needs to. But God’s anger against sinful men has an end. If it didn’t, God knows that no one could survive. He knows that the spirit, the soul that He made can’t take His perpetual anger, even if we deserve it. And so He promises an end to His anger for the penitent in Israel, and also for us.

For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

God is talking about Israel here, about the nation in its state of rebellion, in its state of every man looking out for himself, enriching himself, turning away from God’s word and from God Himself. God tried punishing Israel, sometimes with an attack from a foreign nation, sometimes with blight or famine or plague, sometimes by not sending a prophet for a long time, depriving people of His Word. And, as it says in this verse, it was never enough. “He went on backsliding in the way of his heart.” And so the punishment of the Babylonian captivity had to happen. But after that severe punishment did its work…

I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners. “I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” Says the LORD, “And I will heal him.”

The Lord knew Israel’s rebellious nature, just as He knows the rebellious nature of all men. And yet He promises healing and guidance and comfort. And that’s the kind of healing that Jesus really came to bring. Yes, He healed physical diseases. But this is the true healing He came to bring: comfort to those mourn, forgiveness to those who humble themselves in contrition and repentance. To them, the Lord says, “Peace! Peace!” He says it to him who is far off and to him who is near, to the one who has gone so horribly astray as to ruin his life, and also to the one who maybe hasn’t fallen into such grievous outward sin, and yet still needs God’s forgiveness and peace. He says it to those who have spent their lives outside of the Church, and to those who have grown up in it. Peace! Peace! I will heal him! For the believer, God’s anger and punishment will end. Indeed, they have ended already for him who believes in Christ.”

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. “There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”

Isaiah concluded chapter 48 with those words, and now he concludes chapter 57 with the same words. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” We still need to remember that. Our world still needs to hear that. The God of heaven denounces as wicked many of the things that this world celebrates. He has tender words of peace and comfort and healing, but those words are not intended for those who wish to continue to live in their sin, away from God, away from His Word, away from Christ Jesus. For such, there is no word of peace, only God’s wrath and anger and eternal punishment. To such, the Lord cries out, “Repent while there’s still time! And then, in repentance, come to know the peace of Christ Jesus, who was pierced for our transgressions, who was crushed for our iniquities, upon whom was the chastisement that brought us peace, by whose wounds we are healed.” Amen.

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Go and do likewise, with faith and thanksgiving

Posted on September 1, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

Last week, we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan who treated with such kindness that man who had been mugged and left for dead on the side of the road. This week, we hear of another good Samaritan, not in a parable, but in his actual encounter with the Lord Jesus. And just as we were instructed by Jesus last week to “go and do likewise,” to go and show the Samaritan’s kindness to our neighbor who needs our help, so we are guided by the Holy Spirit in today’s reading to “go and do likewise,” to show the kind of faith, and the kind of thankfulness, that the Samaritan showed in the healing of the Ten Lepers.

First, why does Luke include all these accounts with Samaritans? Samaritans lived in between Judea in the south and Jewish Galilee in the north. They were essentially foreigners, as Jesus calls the Samaritan in today’s account. But that’s exactly why Luke includes them, and why the Holy Spirit guided Luke to include them. They teach a very important lesson to the Jews who thought of themselves as the VIP’s in God’s kingdom, who thought that their race, that their ancestry automatically made them acceptable to God. Now, there were certainly advantages at that time to being a Jew. But there’s nothing automatic about being acceptable to God. You don’t gain God’s acceptance by having the right parents or the right genes. The only way to gain God’s acceptance is by trusting in the One whom God sent to make us acceptable.

Now, on to the story itself. There were ten men (including one Samaritan) with the disfiguring disease called leprosy. Even in the secular world, showing signs of leprosy often forced people to quarantine away from the healthy people. But in the Old Testament Law given by God through Moses on Mt. Sinai, lepers were strictly prohibited from interacting with Jewish society, including the synagogue, including the temple. It was a lonely, lonely life.

God was teaching Israel a vital lesson in how His Law dealt with lepers. God’s Law absolutely insisted that a person had to be “clean” in order to be acceptable to God. Clean and unclean were themes throughout the whole Old Testament. There were many ways to become ceremonially unclean, and specific procedures for becoming clean again. Leprosy was the ultimate form of uncleanness, a disease that couldn’t be cured, that couldn’t be washed away, because it was an ugliness that infected the skin and the body. Leprosy didn’t really have a cure, but if a person did somehow recover from it, God’s Law specified a very elaborate process, involving the priests, for examining the person and then performing the rituals needed to pronounce the person ceremonially clean.

Now, the outward disfigurement of leprosy that affected a small minority of people symbolized the inner disfigurement of sin that affects all people. There is a deep-seated uncleanness that infects us all. We call it original sin. And it’s ugly in God’s sight. Every time the Israelites saw a leper, they were to remember, that’s what I look like on the inside, unclean and isolated from God! That’s why I need the spiritual cleansing that my God provides in the sin offerings, and, ultimately, in the promised Messiah!

The promised Messiah, Jesus, has a very brief but meaningful encounter with some of these lepers in our Gospel. Ten of them had heard the word that was going around about Jesus. That He had come from God. That He was able to heal all kinds of diseases. That He was kind and merciful and ready to help anyone who came to Him. They heard it, and they believed it. And since they believed it, they called out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

And just like that, without requiring anything of them, Jesus replied, Go and show yourselves to the priests. He didn’t need to spell out for them what that meant. They knew that the priests were the ones who had to examine lepers and pronounce them clean. They understood exactly what Jesus implied: “I have mercy on you. By the time you get to the priests, you will already be clean!”

So they went on their way. We don’t know how far they got before they noticed that their leprosy was gone. They had believed what they had heard about Jesus. They had asked Him for help. He had spoken to them a cleansing word, a promise to cleanse them of their leprosy. And they had believed that promise and had acted on it. And now the promise had been kept.

Then what? They all celebrated their cleansing. They never thought it was possible, until Jesus came along. And now their hopes had come true. Their faith in Jesus’ promise had been confirmed. But then something terrible happened. Nine of them forgot about Jesus.

But one of them, the Samaritan, didn’t forget. He remembered the source of his cleansing, and his heart was filled with gratitude. So he turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. And he fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking Him.

Now, Jesus wasn’t surprised that the man had been healed. What surprised Him, or at least what clearly disappointed Him, was that only one out of ten came back to give glory to God. Were not all ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except for this foreigner? Some of the nine, maybe all of the nine, were Jews who should have known better, whose first thought upon being healed should have been acknowledging the God who had healed them. Instead it was a foreigner, a Samaritan, someone who had no ancestral claim to God’s acceptance, who demonstrated both faith and the thankfulness that flows from genuine faith.

And so Jesus both commended him and assured him: Rise and go. Your faith has saved you. And the clear implication is that everyone who reads this account, everyone who hears it, should “go and do likewise.” Believe as the Samaritan believed, and give thanks to God as the Samaritan gave thanks.

Outwardly, the Samaritan began as a leper. Inwardly, spiritually, you and I all began as unclean lepers, with that “flesh” that St. Paul talked about in today’s epistle to the Galatians, that flesh that lusts against the Spirit, that flesh that is opposed to the Holy Spirit, that flesh whose works are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, murders, drunkenness, debauchery, and things like these. Not only did you begin that way. But here’s the hard thing to hear: Your flesh is still that way, eager to engage in works like those the apostle mentioned. There’s no “cure” for the flesh, as long as we still live in this world.

But there is a cleansing before God. There is a way to be accepted by God, and it has nothing to do with your ancestry, or with your works. It’s hearing the word about Jesus, that He came from God, that He is the very Son of God, that He is kind and good to all who come to Him for cleansing. It’s hearing the word about Jesus, that He suffered and died for your sinful flesh and for the works that have come from your sinful flesh. And then it’s hearing and believing the promise He now makes: All who believe in Him are cleansed before God. All who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of sins, are made acceptable to God, are given a status that is clean and new and beautiful. The Samaritan leper believed the promise of Jesus, and his faith saved him. That is, his salvation came as a result of faith in Jesus. You should believe it, too. Go and do likewise!

Not salvation from leprosy, though. Not salvation from every illness, or from poverty, or from tragedy. Jesus hasn’t promised salvation from those things during this lifetime. What He has promised is salvation from sin, from death, and from the power of the devil. Believe that promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and your faith will save you, too.

But faith ought to be accompanied by thanksgiving, as it was with the Samaritan in our Gospel. If it isn’t, then there’s something wrong. And you can all think of times when you’ve received a wonderful gift from God that you went on to enjoy without actually thanking Him for. Let today’s Gospel lead you to repent of that inborn thanklessness and to follow again the example of the Samaritan leper.

And as you do, notice that the Samaritan didn’t just stop where he was on the road and say a silent prayer to God in heaven. No, he returned to where Jesus was present for him, to where Jesus made Himself available to people. You can do something similar. Jesus isn’t located in this place or that place since His ascension into heaven. But He has promised to be present in a special way where Christians gather together in His name, to hear His Word and to receive His Sacraments. He’s here among us today in that way, and He gladly hears and accepts your prayers of thanksgiving, whether sung or spoken. He gladly accepts the thanksgiving you bring as you come to His holy Supper, the Eucharist. And as you kneel, in humble thanks, to receive the very body and blood that He gave into death for your sins, just as the Samaritan once knelt at Jesus’ feet, He speaks to you, just as He spoke to the Samaritan, Rise and go. Your faith has saved you.

The Samaritan came to Jesus with His uncleanness and sought His help. He believed in Jesus’ word of cleansing and returned to give Him thanks. Go and do likewise, over and over again, with faith and with thanksgiving. Having been cleansed of the works of the flesh, make it your daily purpose to put to death the works of the flesh, to walk by the Spirit, and to produce His fruit in abundance, with thanksgiving. Amen.

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The righteous are spared, the idolaters are condemned

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 13

Isaiah 57:1-13

The righteous man perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away while no one understands, for the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute. Whom do you mock? Against whom do you open wide your mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering; you have offered a grain offering. Should I relent concerning these things? On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your memorial; far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their nakedness. You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and made them go down to hell. You were wearied by the length of your road; yet you did not say, “There is no hope.” You have found renewed strength; therefore, you did not faint. Of whom were you afraid or fearful when you lied and you did not remember Me, nor give Me a thought? Have I not held My peace for a long time so that you do not fear Me? I will declare your righteousness, and your works, yet they shall not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind shall carry them all away, a breath shall take them away. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain.

Isaiah 57. In this final chapter of the middle section of Isaiah’s prophecy that has dealt especially with the Messiah’s coming to suffer for sin, the Lord returns to the main reason why the people of Israel had to go into captivity in Babylon, and why the Messiah had to come: Because Israel had turned away from worshiping the Lord to serving false gods. Over and over again Isaiah returns to this pattern. He (1) exposes Israel’s idolatry, (2) announces their punishment for it, (3) calls them to repentance, (4) announces comfort and peace for the penitent, and, finally, (5) repeats the condemnation that awaits the impenitent.

The chapter begins with a little bit of that comfort and peace for the penitent. The righteous man perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away while no one understands, for the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. These are some precious verses in the Bible. It’s not uncommon for tragedy to strike a good person. Sometimes “the good die young.” Sometimes the righteous man perishes before he reaches old age and merciful men are taken away in the prime of their life. How does that fit with the promise attached to the 4th Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, that it may go well with you, and that you may enjoy a long life in the land the Lord is giving you”? Here God spells it out for us. Sometimes the righteous man, the merciful man, the good man or woman, the faithful Israelite in the Old Testament or the faithful Christian in the New, dies and doesn’t enjoy a long life in the land. But it’s literally for their own good.

Now, if you don’t believe in the life after this life, then that’s an absurd claim. But if you do, then understand that God wanted to spare that person from the evil that was coming. Sometimes believers are forced to live through dark times here on earth. But sometimes God, in His mercy, takes some of His people out of this life to spare them from those dark times. Sometimes He says to the Christian, “Come home! Come home now. I have to send some severe punishment against the people where you live. Dark times are coming, and I don’t want you to suffer it with everyone else. You have served Me faithfully. Come into your Father’s kingdom!”

It’s just the opposite, though, for the unrighteous, for the impenitent. But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute. Now the Lord is about to lay into the idolaters in Israel. He calls them “sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute,” which may be literally true, in some cases, since sorcery and adultery literally go hand in hand. But throughout this chapter God is mainly exposing the spiritual sorcery and adultery that Israel had been committing. How? By turning away from the forms of worship that God had instituted, by turning away from the “marriage vows” they had made with God and by turning instead to false gods.

Whom do you mock? Against whom do you open wide your mouth and stick out your tongue? It seems that some of the people were so brazen as to make fun of the God of Israel. God would speak to them through their prophets and they would stick out their tongues like little children. It’s exactly how our own culture now behaves toward the God who revealed Himself in the Bible. They poke fun at Him and at anyone who dares to uphold His Word as true, at anyone who dares to confess the Lord Christ as He truly is. But God exposes them for what they are.

Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering; you have offered a grain offering. Should I relent concerning these things?

Many of the Israelites were literally going out to the trees of the forest, or to the lone tree in a desert region, setting up their idols and their altars there. They would offer sacrifices. They would perform pagan rituals. Apparently they even practiced child sacrifice. In today’s world, there are still some who participate in cultic rituals. But much more common is for people to sacrifice their children through abortion as they worship their careers, and their pleasures, and their freedom from God and from religion. Much more common is for people to worship at the altar of “science,” or of popularity, or of politics. It’s all idolatry when people devote their lives to these things instead of to the God who has revealed Himself to us in Christ.

On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your memorial; far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their nakedness. You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and made them go down to hell.

Another description of idolatry, here compared to fornication or adultery and lewd practices. The daughter of Zion had made herself a prostitute by worshiping other gods. Again, this is what our culture has done, prostituting itself to every degenerate practice and belief. Listen and see if St. Paul’s words about the Gentiles of his day apply to the world we live in: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

You were wearied by the length of your road. Serving idols and worshiping demons is a “long and tiring road” that leads to nowhere. The false gods can’t actually improve your life. Yet you did not say, “There is no hope.” You have found renewed strength; therefore, you did not faint. Even though the false gods weren’t getting them anywhere, they kept serving them anyway, just as our culture does. Our society continues to get worse and worse, and yet they keep pursuing the policies of failure, out of reverence for their false gods.

Of whom were you afraid or fearful when you lied and you did not remember Me, nor give Me a thought? Have I not held My peace for a long time so that you do not fear Me? I will declare your righteousness, and your works, yet they shall not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind shall carry them all away, a breath shall take them away. In other words, when God held His peace, when God didn’t immediately punish them for their wickedness, they stopped fearing that He would ever punish them. But that’s foolish. God does sometimes postpone punishment for the wicked, not because He’s oblivious, not because He’s doesn’t care, but because He’s giving unbelievers time to repent before ending their time of grace permanently. But God’s patience will run out, and He will bring judgment, and none of the wicked, none of the impenitent will survive.

But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain. Finally, the Lord brings back a word of comfort and peace for the penitent. Just because the vast majority of Israel had prostituted itself with idols didn’t mean that the Lord would destroy the righteous together with the wicked. His eye was upon those who still trusted in Him and on those who repented of their wickedness and turned back to Him for mercy. The same is true for us. Just because the world around us has fallen into rampant idolatry doesn’t mean the Lord will wipe out His beloved Christians who still trust in Him. In a little while, God’s people will inherit the new heavens and the new earth. May God keep you faithful to Him, that you may always be found among the righteous! Amen.

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A Law to frighten the secure and to guide the forgiven

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22  +  Luke 10:23-37

I saw a post on one of the Las Cruces community groups on Facebook this week. A local man was recounting how he had noticed a young woman, a complete stranger, being followed by a scary-looking man at a gas station, how he kept an eye on the young lady, gave her some advice, followed her to her car and scared the stalker away. It sounds, just a little bit, like the deed of a “good Samaritan,” doesn’t it? Now, did he do the right thing there for that stranger? Absolutely! Should every man offer that kind of assistance to a woman who may be in danger? Absolutely! But the question I’d like you to consider this morning is this: Did that man earn himself a place in heaven because of that good deed? The answer is, absolutely not!

And yet, some people are confused about the parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel. They think that’s exactly what it’s about, that Jesus is commanding people to go around doing good deeds for strangers in order to earn themselves a place in heaven. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You have to read this parable in context, as with all of Scripture. And what is the context of it? Luke tells us. An expert in the Law of Moses was testing Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life? It’s a strange question, because you don’t normally “do” anything to “inherit” something. You inherit something based on your relationship to someone, not because you’ve done a good deed. But this expert in the Law was confused, as many people are confused on this point. He was confusing the promises that God had made in the Old Testament to Abraham and his Seed—promises of the free gift of an inheritance—with the laws commanded by God through Moses, laws that had to be kept, that had to be obeyed, where God agreed to do His part if the people of Israel would do theirs.

Jesus asked him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Remember, “the Law” refers to the first five books of the Bible, starting with Genesis. Jesus was giving the man the opportunity to cite the promise God made to Abraham and his Seed in the book of Genesis about the inheritance. But instead, the man cited a portion of the law-covenant from Mt. Sinai: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. That’s a good summary of the whole moral Law. Complete and utter devotion to God, from the heart, and devotion to one’s neighbor has always been God’s will for mankind. And that will of God was codified and written down at Mt. Sinai, where the people of Israel all agreed: (1) This is what is good and right, and (2) we will do it. All the other laws proclaimed by Moses were examples of putting this law of love into practice.

So, since the expert in the Law wanted to focus on God’s moral commands, and since he believed that keeping those commands was the way to inherit eternal life, Jesus went along with him. You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s your end of the bargain. That’s what you have to “do” to inherit eternal life—if you get it by “doing something.”

But if you do—if you gain eternal life by doing—then there’s always a follow-up question: “And how do I know I’ve done enough?” How do I know if I’ve loved the Lord enough, or if I’ve loved my neighbor as myself enough? You see, the expert in the Law was left in doubt. He understood that his own law, the law he loved so much, only made his hope of eternal life more doubtful. And so he tried to “justify himself.” He asked, “And who is my neighbor?” You see what he was getting at. If he can narrow down the list of people he’s commanded to love as himself, maybe he can at least pretend he’s done it. But if “his neighbor” includes too many other people, he knows he has no chance.

So Jesus answers the man’s question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest (a servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. A Levite (another servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. But then a Samaritan came by. Samaritans lived in Samaria, north of Jerusalem. They had a little Jewish blood left in them and some Jewish practices and beliefs, mixed with pagan practices and beliefs. The Jews hated them. But this Samaritan came along and, when he saw the injured man, went right over to help him and offered every sort of help you could think of, including caring for his wounds, taking him to an inn, caring for him there, and then paying the innkeeper to keep looking after him while he was away on his journey, adding the commitment to return and pay any additional expenses he might incur.

Then Jesus turns to the expert in the Law and asks: Now which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Mercy, which is nothing but a form of love. Mercy and love were at the heart of all God’s commandments. And so, with one parable, Jesus turned this man’s religion upside down, forcing this expert in the Law to look at what his Law really demanded of him: mercy and love toward everyone he encountered on his earthly journey, not once, not once in a while, but at every single opportunity.

And then Jesus spoke those terrifying words: Go and do likewise. What must you “do” to inherit eternal life? This is what the Law of God demands. If you would be saved by that Law-covenant, by doing your part to obey God’s commands, while God does His part to pay you the wages of eternal life, then you must do as the Good Samaritan did, showing genuine over-the-top mercy at every turn, in every way, with every person, at every opportunity, in every setting. Not just for injured (or endangered) strangers you come across, but for your parents, for your children, your brothers and sisters, your husband or wife, your coworkers, your boss, your friends and acquaintances, your fellow citizens whom you encounter day after day after day—and also for your enemies. Mercy. Self-less love, love that’s just like the kind of love you would have others show to you. And that’s just what God’s Law requires that you do toward your neighbor. We haven’t even touched on all the things you owe to God directly, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, to honor His name, to worship Him, and to cherish His Word above all things.

Terrifying, isn’t it? It should be, if you’re honest with yourself. And that’s the point. In fact, that was always the point of the Law, to reveal the sin that already lives inside each of us. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, “The Law was added for the sake of transgressions,” that is, that the Israelites and that all people might have God’s will spelled out for them so that they could see just how much they transgress it. Because sin is there in your heart and in your being, whether you can see it or not, whether you help the occasional stranger or not. The Law simply reveals it for what it is.

And then, once you’ve been beaten to a pulp by the Law, once it’s left you for dead on the side of the road, unable to lift a finger to save yourself, along comes this Samaritan—the Son of God, true God and true man, though despised by men. He comes along with the very, genuine, heartfelt mercy and compassion that He demands of us, because He made us originally in His image and wanted us to be like Him. But now, having come as a man, the Lord Jesus shows this mercy, not only as our example, but first and foremost as our Substitute. He gave His life on the cross for us out of mercy, as the payment for our sins. He began to heal us through Holy Baptism, where He forgave us our sins and gave us His Holy Spirit and made us heirs of eternal life—heirs who will inherit eternal life, not by doing the right things, but by believing in the Lord Jesus, who did everything we were supposed to for us, because we couldn’t.

And then, before He ascended to heaven, He put us battered, weak, still-sinful believers into the charge of the “innkeepers,” the ministers whom He has called into His Church, to keep tending to the spiritually wounded, to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life, to spur us on to love and good works, because while we received the forgiveness of our sins in Baptism and live now under God’s grace, we are not yet what we should be, what God is healing us to become: truly good Samaritans whose hearts are as full of mercy for our neighbor as the heart of Jesus Himself was and is.

We call that aspect of healing “sanctification,” the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of turning believers into the image of Jesus in how we think and in how we live. So the same “go and do likewise” that first was intended to strike terror into the heart of secure sinners becomes, for the believer, our marching orders, to go and be like Jesus. It begins in the heart—hearts that have been renewed and recreated by God’s mercy and grace toward us. And then it extends to our hands and to our whole life. “Go and do likewise.” Go and walk in the footsteps of Christ, with mercy toward your neighbor, toward everyone whom God places next to you on your path through life, until He determines that your time here is done, or until He returns from His “journey,” and He brings you at last into the eternal life that all who persevere in the faith will inherit, not by doing good works under the Old Testament, but by believing in Christ Jesus, who has made us coheirs with Him in the New Testament in His blood. Amen.

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Words of instruction, encouragement, and disgust

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 12

Isaiah 56:1-12

After the gracious invitation of chapter 55 to come and eat and drink at the Lord’s table, to seek the Lord while He may be found, to receive the free gifts of His forgiveness and salvation, the Lord has some words of instruction in chapter 56 for those who accept the invitation. He also speaks beautiful, tender, encouraging words to the eunuchs and the foreigners, which we’ll discuss in a moment. And, finally, He has some harsh and bitter words of disgust for the useless religious leadership of Israel.

First, the words of instruction: Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it;”

You come into God’s kingdom for free. And once you’re in, you still don’t earn your stay there. It’s always a gift. It’s always grace. But there are rules of the house that the house members are expected to keep. Keeping justice. Doing righteousness. Obeying God’s commandments. Those things are expected of the Church of God, whether of the Old Testament or the New Testament. It doesn’t matter. God’s teaching about right and wrong, must be followed. In other words, God’s people are expected to be holy and to grow in holiness throughout this life, and God promises to bless them when they do.

But you’ll notice in the next words that there is a difference between Old Testament obedience and New Testament obedience. Blessed is the man who does this…who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” “Who keeps his hand from doing any evil” applies to everyone, all the time. That’s easy. But “who keeps from defiling the Sabbath”? Here it’s helpful to remember that God is speaking most directly to the hearers and readers of Isaiah, who lived some 700 years before Christ was born. That’s 700 years during which the people of Israel were still under the Law of Moses, under the Ten Commandments in their full original force, which included keeping the Sabbath Day holy, not doing any work for those 24 hours, business owners closing up their shops, farmers staying out of their fields, etc. Why does God mention that commandment in particular? Because that was the commandment that required real sacrifice on the part of the Israelites. Not a painful sacrifice—who wouldn’t want to rest, right? But for 24 hours, it required a conscious decision not to do the things you would regularly do during the rest of the week, simply because God told you not to do them. It was a unique sign of devotion to God to keep the Old Testament Sabbath Day, and failing to take the required rest was essentially a rejection of the whole Law, and of the rest God had promised in His heavenly kingdom.

In the New Testament, we aren’t under the strict Sabbath Law anymore, so we don’t defile the commandment by failing to rest on Saturday (or Sunday). But we do defile the commandment when we despise preaching and God’s Word, when we pretend that it no longer matters if we attend church services or not, or if we belong to a church at all. God still instructs the members of His household to hear the preaching of His word and to support the ministry of it. So let God’s words of instruction here guide you in those things, and certainly in keeping your hand from doing any evil.

Next, the Lord speaks some tender words of encouragement that He addresses especially to the “eunuchs” and to the foreigners (non-Israelites by birth): Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the LORD Speak, saying, “The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off.

Even in Old Testament times, God opened wide His kingdom to the Gentiles; it was not only open to the physical descendants of Abraham. But the Gentiles couldn’t remain as they were. They had to join themselves fully to the people of Israel and to the covenant God had made with Israel if they were to be counted among the people of God. They had to be circumcised. They had to keep the Sabbaths and observe the rest of the Laws of Moses. They had to lay aside their pagan practices and beliefs, and the culture that was tainted by pagan beliefs. But if they did that, they were given equal status with the children of Abraham.

As for the eunuchs, they were more common at that time among the Gentiles than one can possibly imagine today—men who would allow themselves to be castrated (or were forced to be castrated) in order to be full-time servants to a noblewoman. There were probably a good number of them in Babylon, where the Jews would be held captive. But the Lord reaches out to them, too, and assures them, it doesn’t matter that you can’t have children. If you come into My house, says the Lord, you won’t have to have children to pass your name down. “I’ll give you an everlasting name.” In other words, you will never die. It’s a promise of eternal life!

“Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants— Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant— Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

This is why Jerusalem was so important! This is why the Jews had to return there after the Babylonian captivity! Because God had made His house, the temple in Jerusalem, to be the one place on earth where anyone could go, even the Gentiles, to find the true God and to find a welcome into His kingdom, if they would join themselves to that people of Israel and become part of the Church of Israel, under the covenant God had made with them. I’m sure you remember that Jesus quoted this verse from Isaiah 56 while He was cleansing that temple in Jerusalem. Because God had wanted all nations, even in Old Testament times, to hear His Word, to find Him, to worship Him, and to receive salvation from Him in Jerusalem.

That happened to some small degree as Gentiles did make their way to the second temple, after Israel’s return from exile in Babylon. But it would happen much more fully after the time of Christ. Because now, in Christ Jesus, the city of Jerusalem is meaningless and temple in Jerusalem is meaningless, because Christ is where God wants to be found. Christ is where God accepts people and welcomes them and gives them eternal life. Where Christ is preached and where Christ is confessed, that is the house of God, that is the holy mountain of Israel, wherever it may be in the world, even here in New Mexico. As Paul once wrote to the Ephesian Christians, Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Finally, God has some words of disgust for the useless religious leaders of Israel: All you beasts of the field, come to devour, All you beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind, They are all ignorant; They are all dumb dogs, They cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs Which never have enough. And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain, From his own territory. “Come,” one says, “I will bring wine, And we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink; Tomorrow will be as today, And much more abundant.”

God calls on the beasts to come and devour the worthless watchmen, the useless pastors. Isaiah’s description of them is echoed in Jesus’ description of them as hirelings who care nothing for the sheep. They’re lazy. They fail to warn the sheep about the dangers of sin and impenitence and false doctrine. They’re greedy, looking out for themselves, for their own gain, for their own enjoyment. And they’re blind to the judgment that’s coming against them and against all the impenitent, as if Christ weren’t returning for judgment. And God expresses here His disgust with such spiritual leaders, because He wants all nations to come into His house, but, because they refuse to preach the truth from God, they’re keeping many people out.

There were plenty of examples of this in Isaiah’s day, and later in Jeremiah’s day when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. There were plenty of examples during the intertestamental period, and again in Jesus’ day. And the examples are not hard to find in our day, either. So let’s watch out for them and not allow ourselves to be misled by them!

Yes, let’s take to heart all these words of Isaiah, words of instruction, of encouragement, and disgust, that we may remain in God’s house all the days of our lives and inherit the blessings of His people, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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