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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. So can I say that the political situation is even getting crazier right now? And it makes one wonder a question that I’d like to ask you. Do you believe that God uses the plotting and scheming of evil men to accomplish His holy will? Now that’s a question to consider. Does God use the plotting and scheming of evil men to accomplish His holy will?
And the greatest example of God using the plotting and scheming of very evil men to accomplish His holy will… it’s set before you right above the altar in that brass cross with Christ upon it. For your salvation, the most important will of God, was accomplished through the plotting and planning and scheming of evil men. And if God can accomplish your salvation, which He did, and we’re banking on it, we’re going to die on it, then we ought not fear anything that’s happening in the political arena anymore. Let alone in the world stage of nations and kingdoms and wars and rumors of wars.
God will not allow any evil men or their plans to ever thwart His will. And in fact, He even uses evil men and evil plans to save evil men in Christ’s death on the cross. Now, though the Reformation happened recently, 499 years ago, or we should say that it began to take fire, it was smoldering ever since Christ came and risen and ascended into heaven. Because the truth always was a part of the church. It just never got the forefront like it did during Luther’s time.
Thanks be to God for not only Luther’s being protected by the German princes and he wasn’t burned at the stake like Jan Hus… And thanks be to God for the invention of the Gutenberg Press in order to get information out in a timely fashion, printed material. But the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that God saved you through the plotting and scheming of evil men, nothing thwarted His will for your salvation, and your faith clings to it.
Yes, you can look around. And every church is losing attendance. If you take a survey, and there have been many made, and look at it, church attendance as a whole in this country is waning, not waxing. This is a part of evil men’s plans. And it will not thwart God’s gospel. It will not thwart the comfort that you close your eyes with every single night of sins being forgiven in Christ Jesus. It is this message that saves you and your children and your grandchildren. It saved your parents and your grandparents. And it is powerful and effective.
But it does not look like it. And that’s why the world… It’s a Lutheran Christian sermon. When he says, from the days of John the Baptist, the reign of the heaven has been violently attacked and violent men are trying to snatch it away. Well, it shouldn’t take a deep thinker long to look around and say, is the reign of the kingdom of God being violently attacked day in and day out by the world? Yes. In fact, in some countries, it’s even worse than in others. In the continent of Europe, and far parts of North America, it’s being violently attacked. And violent men are seeking to snatch it away. That’s what he meant by that statement.
And it has been that way when Jesus spoke those words at that time, 2,000 years ago, and it’s that way today. And it will be that way till you and I and all are brought into the kingdom of heaven on the day of the resurrection of the dead and the living. It is that next statement that is very confusing, it seems, but it’s really quite clear. He says, and he’s referring to his peers, But this generation is the same as that one. So we can say the same thing.
To what shall we compare this generation in which you and I live and breathe and move about and proclaim this gospel message? He says this. It’s like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. Now we’ve got to know who the children are, and we’ve got to know who the playmates are to get this squared. The children are sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates. The children are the children of the world. The playmates are you and I who live in this world but are not of this world.
And the two foremost playmates that the world has, He says. Notice, he adds this for clarification. John came neither eating nor drinking, and what do you say he has? He has a demon. That’s because John didn’t fit their bill, did he? He didn’t dance to their tune, and he didn’t bow down to their dirge. And they called him a demon. And he was the one that said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Through him did God make it very clear who Jesus is.
And then on the flip side, Jesus comes eating and drinking. And what do they say about him? Jesus says they call him a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. This world is continually trying to see whether the church will cave to its point of view or whether the church will not. And Jesus is making it very clear. You thought John the Baptist was me, and he wasn’t, was he? Because he came with all kinds of mighty thunder and vigor. And what did you end up calling him, you children? A demon.
Then you see me come, the bride’s groom, coming to the bride, eating and drinking with the bride, and you say I’m a glutton and eating and drinking with tax collectors. This message that you and I have, the world looks at and you know it and sees it as being unnecessary. It sees it as being only needed for old women and children. It does not see it for vigorous young men, young couples. It does not see it as being beneficial to anyone because it’s so exclusive, isn’t it? And yet His gospel is so inclusive, isn’t it? All who believe and are baptized shall be saved.
So though this world rages against us as a church, as a tiny parish, compared to some other churches in this city and some other churches in this country, yet we proclaim the same truth that Jesus proclaimed when He proclaimed this to the Pharisees who balked at Him and called Him a glutton and a drunkard. Hmm. You know the people of Jesus’ time, that generation. You know what they had been praying for for so many centuries prior to this? They had been praying, Lord, let your Messiah come. Let your Messiah come. Lord, bring your Messiah and deliver us from this world. Deliver us from this government. Deliver us from this oppression. He came and John pointed to him, and they killed him.
You and I pray many times, as you’ve watched this country go through her political turmoil, and we pray, Lord, come. It’s okay if you come, Lord. I don’t need to owe any more money on my house or my car. Let’s pay it off with one big, you come home and take me home to heaven. Solve the problems in which I’ve been thrust into as a human being, a sinful human being in this sinful world.
And He says very clearly, here I am. Here I am. Receive me. Eat and drink me. Let me clothe you. For the only people that think I am something that I’ve proclaimed to be are the naked and needy who are only receivers, not givers. Crazy, isn’t it? God doesn’t want a giver. He wants a receiver. The giving comes. And He’ll make us give as He pushes us into this world. But we are always and forever standing before Him because of that gospel as naked and needy receivers.
Then He’s the one who feeds us and not ourselves. And He’s the one who clothes us and not ourselves. And He’s the one who gives, and we only receive. And we don’t give anything back because what can be added to what the Lamb of God did? So fear not the evil schemes of evil men in this world. God will accomplish His will through it, just as He accomplished your salvation through it.
And God will rescue naked and needy receivers always, for He eats and drinks with them, and you are those with whom He eats and drinks. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
