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Sermon for Reformation Sunday
2 Chronicles 29:12-19 + Revelation 14:6-7 + Matthew 11:12-15
Once a year (and only once) we interrupt the regular series of Scripture lessons that the Church has been using for over a thousand years in order to include a festival that is relatively young—only about 450 years old. We Lutherans celebrate Reformation Day. We have chosen October 31st as the actual day, because it was on October 31st, All Hallows’ Eve, 1517, that the monk/priest/doctor of theology named Martin Luther nailed 95 statements or Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and it was that act of faith and courage that first got the attention of the whole Holy Roman Empire and that blazed the trail for the Lutheran Reformation of the Church.
But we don’t celebrate the Reformation to praise the 95 Theses or Martin Luther. Or the formation of a “new” Church called the “Lutheran” Church. We are not a new church; we are the same Church, the one Church that the Holy Spirit has been building, living stone by living stone, since the time of Christ. That’s why we read today from 2 Chronicles. All those Levites didn’t go into the temple to start a new temple, but to cleanse the one temple that had been adulterated by false teaching and idolatry. The Reformation, too, is about the restoration of God’s Word to its rightful place—its rightful place of authority in God’s Church and its rightful place of being read in Christian homes. It’s about the restoration of the clear proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ after centuries’ worth of false doctrine had weaved its way throughout Christendom. It’s about, not one man’s courage or one man’s faith, but about the Spirit-worked faith and courage that led simple Christians throughout the world to rise up against the false doctrine of the Roman papacy in the face of persecution and even death.
In other words, the Reformation is about the conquest of God’s Word and of the kingdom of heaven as it advanced forcefully against the devil and his allies in the 16th Century, even as Jesus described the kingdom of heaven in today’s Gospel. Today we celebrate Jesus keeping His Word that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. That was Matthew 16. Back in Matthew 11, our Gospel, Jesus alludes to this conquest of the kingdom. From the days of John the Baptist, till the days of Luther, right up to the present, the kingdom of heaven advances forcefully.
Our New King James Bible translates Jesus’ words this way: From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. “Suffers violence” is a possible translation. The new NIV translates the same way. Here’s a case where I think the old NIV did it better: From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing. Either way it’s translated, Jesus is referring to the fact that, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist, people had been breaking into the kingdom of heaven left and right. Beginning with the ministry of John, the kingdom of heaven was forcing its way into the world.
How so? With sword and bloodshed? Jihad or terrorism? Not at all! But by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By the preaching that began with John the Baptist, “Christ has come! The kingdom of heaven has drawn near! Believe the good news that God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners!” And as John preached that Gospel, and as Jesus preached it, and as his apostles would later preach it, the kingdom of heaven grew and grew and advanced throughout Judea and Samaria and Galilee and became firmly established in the world.
But, the kingdom of heaven advancing forcefully looks nothing at all like the kingdoms of this world when they conquer. The kingdom of heaven advances as the Holy Spirit works faith in men’s hearts through the preaching of the Word of Christ. It’s a hidden kingdom, and you can’t necessarily tell with the eyes that it’s advancing. Do you know in what context Jesus said these words about John the Baptist? John the Baptist was wasting away in prison at this time, put in chains by King Herod because the mighty king didn’t like John’s preaching. Very soon John the Baptist would have hit head chopped off. How’s that for the kingdom of heaven advancing?
In the same way, the kingdom of heaven would advance forcefully…as its King would lose most of His disciples until Holy Week, as the leaders of the Jews and the rulers of the Gentiles would reject the kingdom of heaven and condemn its King to death, as the King would be abandoned by all and hung on a cross, and the people would esteem Him to be smitten by God, stricken by Him and afflicted. That’s the kingdom of heaven forcefully advancing? Its preachers are imprisoned, beheaded and martyred? Its King dies on a cross? Yes! The blood of the King purchased men for God. His Gospel, preached over the centuries by apostles and priests and pastors, melts stony hearts and brings sinners to repentance and faith, and by that faith—faith alone—the Holy Spirit cleanses sinners with the blood of Christ and brings them into the kingdom of heaven that has now forced its way into this world.
The march of the kingdom of heaven throughout the world didn’t cease between the time of the apostles and the time of Luther. But the Word of God itself eventually became rare as it was hardly ever preached anymore, and it wasn’t available in the language of the people anymore. The Gospel became obscured through false teachings like purgatory and indulgences, praying to the saints, and salvation by works. But God raised up the right men at the right time to wield the only weapon that exists in the kingdom of heaven—the Word of God.
In spite of impossible odds, in spite of powerful opposition from practically the entire hierarchy of the Church and the State, Luther was enabled by God to return to the simple Gospel, in which “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by his faith.’” The righteous demands of the Law of God cannot be met by any sinful man and all men are sinners. But there is another righteousness of God—not a righteousness that He demands from us but a righteousness that He gives to us, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, given to us by the preaching of the Gospel, by Baptism and by the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and received by faith. That Gospel is proclaimed throughout the Scriptures. It is the theme of the whole Bible. And as Luther believed, so he preached. And as he preached, so his hearers and readers, too, came to believe. And so the kingdom of heaven forcefully advanced in the world.
And, Jesus says, the violent take it by force. Or better translated, forceful men lay hold of it. But who are these “forceful men” who lay hold of God’s kingdom? They’re not the people who are considered “forceful” by this world’s standards. Just the opposite. Those who lay hold of Christ by faith are usually the most insignificant people this world knows. The poor are often rich in faith. Little children and the simple layman are, in God’s eyes, wiser than the wise and learned scholars of this age. Lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners, soldiers, the sick and the lame, the humble and the oppressed—they were the ones hearing the Gospel from the lips of John and from the lips of Jesus, repenting of their sins and crowding their way into the kingdom of heaven. Why? To be close to Jesus, who was merciful to them and welcomed them into His kingdom. They were the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness from God, as starving beggars who grab the loaf of bread out of the hand of the kind Donor.
So, too, at the time of the Reformation, forceful men took hold of the kingdom of heaven. Peasants and princes had been taught for so long that they had to work hard to earn God’s forgiveness, even pay for God’s forgiveness. Even the Mass had been turned by the Roman papacy into man’s sacrifice to God to try to earn His forgiveness. But Luther restored the truth: that God’s forgiveness had already been earned for all by Christ, and that right here in the Mass is where God hands out the forgiveness of sins in the body and blood of Jesus. The Mass is not intended for the lazy and the content, but for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are the ones who come and forcefully take hold of the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says, For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. “The prophets and the law” is a reference to the entire Old Testament. The entire Old Testament prophesied about the coming of the Christ to fulfill God’s Law for us, to offer up His life as a sacrifice and to rise from the dead. And the final prophecy in the Old Testament was of the coming of “Elijah,” who would come right before the Christ and usher in the kingdom of heaven by turning the hearts of the people to repentance and to faith in Christ. Jesus says, that’s John the Baptist. That’s what he did. So, by declaring John the Baptist to be Elijah, Jesus was declaring Himself to be the Christ.
That’s all Luther did, really. Like John the Baptist, pointing his finger at Jesus, like the angel flying in the midst of heaven in the Epistle reading from Revelation, Luther preached the everlasting Gospel. Luther pointed his finger away from popes and saints, away from human reason and human works, pointing his finger straight at Jesus, the kind and merciful Savior. Fear God and give glory to Him! Hear the Word of Christ! Trust in Him only—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, by God’s grace the Reformation of the Church has happened. And it has reached you here, almost 500 years later. The kingdom of God has forcefully advanced through the centuries, all the way to your hearts, and the forceful have laid hold of it. You have the Word of God, in your home, in your church. You have the Gospel. You have the Sacraments. You have every opportunity to hear and learn, every opportunity to confess your sins and receive God’s full absolution—opportunities that few people had in the centuries leading up to the Reformation. Now listen again to Jesus’ words in our Gospel: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Do not squander the Gospel that has been passed on to you by pure grace. Do not grow lazy with it or apathetic towards it. Instead, be like beggars who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Be like little children who hear and believe the simple Gospel, who crowd around Jesus and yearn to be close to Him. And don’t become discouraged if it looks like the kingdom of heaven is failing all around you, if our numbers are few and our adversaries are many. The kingdom of heaven is still forcefully advancing. Jesus says so, even if you don’t see it. And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife—let these all be gone. They yet have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth. Amen.
