Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Luke 19,1-10. 14. Trinity

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Luke 19,1-10. 14. Trinity

Luke 19,1-10 5120

14. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 059

Amatus, Bishop of Sitten in Wallis ✠ 690

13. September 2020

1. O Almighty God, plenteous in mercy; kindle in our spirit the light of faith, so that we can rightly know You, the One True God, as You reveal Yourself in Your Word and Sacraments. Amen. (Starck 209 ¶ 3)

2. »Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was about to pass that way. And when Jesus arrived at the place, He looked up and said to him: „Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.“ So he hurried, came down and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled: „He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.“ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord: „Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, then I restore it fourfold.“ And Jesus said to him: „Today salvation has entered this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.“«

3. Last week we heard Jesus exhort us to love God and our neighbor. Today we hear how Jesus loved His neighbors, the 10 lepers, and healed them.

4. In Luke 19 we hear another story of Jesus loving His neighbor: Zacchaeus. The Pharisees taught, and most 1. century Jews believed, that to be rich meant God had blessed you, but they also taught the tax collectors or notorious sinners. So Zacchaeus is a contradiction: he is a wealthy man, but he has a despised vocation, thus his wealth is ill-gotten and he is therefore a sinner to be avoided by the Pharisees and the Jews.

5. Jesus’ response is quite different from the Pharisees. He said that He must stay at Zacchaeus’ house. Presumably, Jesus ate with Zacchaeus. This caused a grumbling from the crowd, particularly from the Pharisees. To reside and eat in the home of a tax collector and sinner violates the table fellowship of avoiding association with sinners, and thus makes Jesus the equivalent of a sinner an outcast. Whereas the Pharisees avoided sinners and outcasts, Jesus accepts them. Jesus arrived to bring salvation even to a chief text collector, for Jesus arrived to seek and save the lost.

6. The same happens in our Gospel pericope. Lepers had to separate themselves from the community because their leprosy might be contagious. People avoided lepers like the plague. Stay 6 feet apart was likewise the rule in Jesus’ day when lepers were around. Jesus saw the lepers as neighbors and healed them. One was even a Samaritan, a man who was doubly outcast in Jewish society. Declared clean, these men were able to rejoin society.

7. We see throughout the Scriptures that Yahweh’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) impacts creation in tangible, physical ways. The Prophets often spoke of the Messianic age as one of cosmic consequence. The Messiah would have wisdom, understanding and knowledge (Isaiah 11,2). The Messiah will bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42,1). The Messiah would bring the gospel to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, release those bound in prison and proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor (Isaiah 61,1-2).

8. The Messianic age would arrive with effects for the entire cosmos; the whole creation will be affected (Gibbs 29). The heavens would be rended and the mountains quake (Isaiah 64,1). The wolf and the lamb graze together (Isaiah 65,25). The earth would reel and rock, the clouds surround Him, the lightning flashes, the sea channels are seen and the foundation of the world is laid bare (Psalm 18,7.9.12.14.15). The stars, sun and moon would go dark (Ezekiel 32,7-8; Isaiah 13,6-13). Nature reacts to the Messiah’s arrival (Gibbs 190-91).

9. The teaching and miracles of Jesus affect all of creation and particularly people. Creation reacts when the Messiah is crucified. Darkness was over the whole land from 12-3 p.m. and the sun’s light failed (Luke 23,44-45). The temple curtain was torn into (Luke 23,45). There was an earthquake when Jesus died and when he rolls (Matthew 27,51.54; 28,2). Throughout His ministry, creation reacts to Jesus’ teaching and miracles to herald that the Messiah is in our midst; creation reacts to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection to herald that the Messiah has redeemed all creation.

10. In Luke 19 the arrival of Jesus as a guest is the means by which God’s reign arrives (Just 721), and there is no doubt for Jesus declares: »Today salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house.« Jesus seeks to save the lost: rich and poor, healthy and sick, man and woman, Jew and Gentile.

11. The gospel is promise (promissio) (Bayer 139), God’s promise to deliver us and all creation from the bondage of sin. God the Father fulfilled His promise in Jesus Christ. To see God is to become aware of His righteousness and justice (Bayer 208), which is displayed in full at Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. We see in Christ that God suffers with us and for us to redeem us from every sinful cause and effect. The gospel gives us what it promises: forgiveness, salvation and freedom from the injustices of sin. The gospel gives us Christ and His righteousness. Next week we will hear Jesus exhort us to seek this righteousness. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, who shows compassion to Your children; help us to show compassion to others, so that we have a opportunity to point them to the grace that is found only in Christ. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Luke 19,1-10. 14. Trinity

No comments:

Post a Comment