Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Romans 8,14-24. Septuagesima Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Romans 8,14-24 1314

Septuagesimä 020

Onesimus, disciple and helper of Paul, Bishop of Byzantium, Martyr at Rome, 90 or 95

Philip Melanchthon (birth), Confessor

16. Februar 2014

1. O Heavenly Father, gracious in mercy and justice, You sent Your Only-begotten Son to redeem us from sin and the curse of sin. We are prideful. We are demanding. We fail to fully comprehend Your good will. Pour out upon us God the Holy Spirit and give us the same mind as Your Beloved Son, Christ Jesus, for as He teaches us in today’s parable, You give eternal life equally to all people regardless of who they are. Help us to spread the joy of this parable to our borough and neighbors for in doing so we are pointing them to Jesus who brings the good gift of life everlasting. Amen.

2. »For For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry: „Abba! Father!“ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?«

3. Jesus teaches in today’s Gospel Lection: »For the reign of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.... And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman: „Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.“ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. So the last will be first, and the first last.« (Matthew 20,1.8-9.16).

4. In this parable, Jesus teaches that His grace is undeserved. The last are first, the first are last and everyone, including those in the middle, all receive a generous payment. In the parable, the vineyard owner pays everyone a full day’s wage. In the spiritual realm, Jesus teaches that all who believe, whether it is from their infancy, their adolescence or on their deathbed, all who believe in Jesus as their Savior are saved. The Apostle Paul writes it this way in his Epistle to the Romans: »For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons« (Romans 8,14-15). The Gospel according to Matthew and the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans both show us the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. In a capitalist economy, the action of the vineyard owner might be viewed as unfair to those who have worked longer hours in their labor. Where is their overtime or bonus for working all day as opposed to those who put in a mere hour in the vineyard? In an economic setting, such questions are rightly asked and overtime or bonuses rightly may be expected, although not always demanded. Likewise, an adopted child might ask his or her parents: Do you love your natural born children more than me? Siblings often ask at some point when they are young: Do you love me equally with my brothers and sisters. If some siblings are adopted, this question may take be an anxious concern. Usually, the question is asked by a sibling to quell their concerns that maybe mom and dad love their brothers and sisters more than him or her. Perhaps they see how they are treated differently or encouraged to participate in other activities or hobbies. They want reassurance that mom and dad really do love them. On the other hand, the sibling may be asking the question for selfish reasons because they feel they deserve to be loved more because they are the firstborn, the better student or the best behaved child in the family. It is easy to imagine how a sibling might tease an adopted brother or sister by telling them that mom and dad don’t love them as much as they do me because you’re adopted. We all want the validation that me, and me alone, deserve love above and beyond everyone else in the family.

6. In human families, parents obviously love all their children, but clearly they love each child differently. Some children need more encouragement, attention or discipline than their siblings. It is the way it is. Even Jesus loved his apostles and disciples differently. Peter, Andrew, James and John seem to form an inner circle with Jesus as they are privileged to experience activities and dialogues of Jesus that the other eight did not. Take last week’s Gospel Lection: only Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration. Mary Magdalene was also a close disciple, and she alone was the first to see the risen Lord on Easter. But these instances do make the case that Jesus did not love all His apostles and disciples. He did indeed love them, but some were closer to Him than others. We experience this in our families and friendships: we are closer to some siblings, but we love all of them; we have close friends among our group of friends, but we love all of them. Thus we share certain events and activities with certain siblings and friends but not others.

7. In His parable, Jesus reveals that the workers hired at the beginning of the day are slighted and offended when they receive the same daily wage as those hired later. This attitude reveals our corrupt human nature that feels and believes that we are owed our wage. We were hired, we worked all day long and we earned our wage. Those who worked a single hour did not earn their daily wage. In the spiritual realm, this sinful attitude manifests itself with the belief that we earn our salvation; but Jesus condemns this wrong attitude which boasts that we deserve it as one who has faithfully served Yahweh all our lives. First in the Gospels, Jesus challenges and condemns this attitude as it was expressed by many of His Jewish peers. Most of the Pharisees believed that you earned your way into heaven and eternal life. Many of them honestly believed that they had indeed earned the right to sit at the heavenly banquet feast because they had kept, nay, they had gone beyond what the Mosaic covenant demanded. They were righteous, pious, saved and the first in line because all their good works obedient to the law proved them to be those who gave 200% of what the covenant demanded. Christians are still prone to fall into this phariseeism too. We might even say we are justified by faith through grace without the works of the law, but deep down in our corrupt heart we hold onto the thought: „yes, but I do deserve it because I’ve tried to be a good Christian.“ We are loathe to give up that little bit of works-righteousness on our part that tells us we did at least earn it in some small, infinitesimal manner. We often convince ourselves that we earned our salvation with our small contribution to believe the gospel. Truly our human nature is corrupt because we want to hold on for dear life some tiny semblance of earning our righteousness instead of just receiving it as a gift freely given by God.

8. Jesus is trying to get this idea of gift and Giver past our thick skulls so that it permeates our minds and hearts and sets us free in gospel liberty. In the parable, Jesus explains that it does not matter if you are first or last, righteous or sinner, because all of you are going to enjoy the benefits of eternal life in heaven based on the gospel that He gives you the gift of salvation and righteousness. It doesn’t matter if you are a natural son of God (a Jewish person who believes in Christ) or an adopted son of God (a Gentile person who believes in Christ), because God loves them both as His sons and both are saved on account of Christ.

9. This is a challenging teaching to comprehend. Even the apostles, yes, the closest of Jesus’ apostles did not comprehend the vastness of God’s mercy. Following today’s Gospel Lection, Jesus tells His apostles for the third time that He is going up to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise again (Matthew 20,17-19). Then James and John ask Jesus to grant them the prestigious honor of being seated at His right and left when He enters into His glory. They did not understand what they were asking, for the places of honor at Jesus’ glory were the crosses to His right and left sides on Good Friday.

10. On that cross, Jesus became last in the eyes of His Heavenly Father so that we would become first in God’s eyes. Jesus became the sinner, bearing all the world’s sinfulness, so that we would become righteous. Jesus fulfilled the law, so that we would be set free in the gospel. Jesus became the son dishonored on the cross so that we would become sons and daughters adopted into His family. The crucified Christ is the Christ who is seated in His glory, for there He is the Son of God laying down His life for all mankind.

11. By this act of obedience and vicarious sacrifice, Jesus has redeemed all mankind back to God the Father. In Holy Baptism, the Triune God washes our sins clean and adopts us into the Heavenly family. In this Holy Sacrament, the Triune God declares us first in His sight. Thus the Apostle Paul writes: » The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we share the same suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.« Being a child of God does not exempt us from suffering and tribulation. Jesus Himself endured such contempt from the world, and we who bear His Name will also suffer for the mere fact that we are heirs of heaven. But Paul will not let us dwell on that suffering, for he quickly moves us to the glory of heavenly life: »We consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.«

12. „Al those who have left anything behind for the sake of Jesus’ Name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. In light of this promise, all comparing now must be put aside. For this is how it is in the reign of God. The last will be first, and the first will be last“ (Gibbs 993). We are not to compare ourselves to others and boast that we have been a Christian longer than they have been. We are not to boast that we have toiled longer, suffered more and patiently endured it while other Christians have suffered less and complained more than have we. Everyone is equal in the heavenly reign. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with Peter who preached the gospel in Rome and was martyred for his faith, Paul who traveled 10,000 miles across the Mediterranean preaching the gospel and was also martyred in Rome, Mary Magdalene who first beheld and embraced the risen Jesus and Martin Luther who preached the gospel in all its purity, yes, we stand with them as heirs who receive the same reward and inheritance of everlasting life, because every Christian receives the same gracious gift of salvation. And yet, even more, for Jesus promises that in His heavenly reign we will recoup one hundredfold what we suffered as loss in this temporal life because we remained steadfast in the Christian faith. The gift of eternal life and the rich blessings that await us in Yahweh’s presence are incomparable to all the wealth on this terrestrial earth. Do not despair. Be of good cheer. Remain steadfast in the faith that clings to Jesus alone for salvation and forgiveness. For the gift of eternal life by God’s grace is a treasure that surpasses all others. „God has His own way with each one of us. He is the Lord; we are given to by Him who is bountiful beyond deserving or calculation“ (Nagel 66). Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, we present our pleas before You because of Your great mercy; hear our petitions and graciously answer them so that we may remain steadfast on You when the tribulations of this world would drive us from You. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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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 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, February 17, 2014

Romans 8,14-24. Septuagesima Sunday

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