Third
Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7A)
June
21, 2020
Text: Matt. 10:5a, 21-33
“We
should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”[1] So writes Dr. Luther in his explanation of
the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” And the explanation of each subsequent
commandment begins with the words, “We should fear and love God so that…” Fear, love, and trust. We like the love and trust part. But what to do with the word “fear”? Fear is not a nice word. We don’t like to think of God as One to be
feared. Truth be told, we like to think
of Him as our nice grandfather in the sky who winks and nods at our
mischief. But that is not to take God
seriously, and it is not to take our sin seriously. Nor is it to take the Gospel seriously. God is truly righteous and holy. And as such, He cannot abide sin and evil,
all that is not righteous and holy. And
that is us. That is us in our rebellion
against God and His Commandments, His holy will for us. The Gospel is so precious because the
situation between us and God is just that dire apart from the saving
work and sin-atoning death of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. So you should fear God. You know what God would rightly do to you, O
sinner, apart from Jesus Christ? Kill
you, soul and body, eternally, in hell.
God loves you, no doubt. That is
why He sent Jesus. But apart from Jesus,
you would have to be very afraid.
Fear
has its place. The Christian must,
however, understand the difference between disordered fear and rightly
ordered fear. In this life, in this
fallen flesh and in this fallen world, disordered fear reigns
supreme. Old Adam is afraid! And there is so much to fear. These days we fear a devastating and pervasive
virus sweeping through the world, and perhaps more devastating, we fear one
another as pathogens, as agents of death, and we dare not get too close. And we fear the consequences of the
government’s response to the virus, economic devastation due to the shut-down,
and statist tyranny. We fear civil
unrest even as we grieve the tragic death of George Floyd and the racial grievances
brought to the surface once again in very painful ways. Rioting, looting, wanton destruction. The evil one is having his day.
Jesus
points us today to another disordered fear that afflicts Christians in
particular. It is a fear that prevents us
from engaging in the one activity that would actually help bring healing and
wholeness to the world and to our crumbling society. That is the fear of confessing Jesus Christ
and His Gospel when such confession will inevitably result in the alienation of
friends and even family members, the hatred of the world, and persecution,
perhaps even unto death. The disciple is
not above his Master. If they did these
things to Jesus, they will do these things to you. Every Christian is called to be ready to make
such sacrifices. You promised it at your
Confirmation. But none of us wants
to. We fear it. And that is Old Adam in us. It is a disordered fear. Because it does not take into account the
Promises of God in Christ, God’s Promises to you.
The
Promises, which is to say, the Gospel, lead to a rightly ordered fear. First the Law drives you, by the knowledge of
your sin, to fear God’s wrath, which is a real thing. Yes, your sins are just that serious. What are you doing, fearing these earthly
eventualities and calamities, when you ought to fear the living God against
whom you have rebelled? God preaches the
Law to bring you to just that realization, to slay you, to cut you down, to
kill you. So that He may bring you to
life again, applying the healing and life-giving balm of the Gospel. All that wrath you have merited by your
sins? It was poured out on Jesus Christ
on the cross of Calvary. Every bit of
it. Jesus paid for your sins. Jesus died for your sins. He stood in for you. He became your sin. He took your punishment. He swallowed the bitter cup to the very
dregs. Hell on the cross, for you. To make atonement for you. To free you from your sins. To satisfy God’s righteousness, and quench
His wrath. Do you see? You are released! You are forgiven! And more than that, you are alive. For Christ is alive. God raised Him from the dead. The Father has accepted the sacrifice of His
Son. In fact, He is the One who gave His
Son into death for this very purpose, to deliver you from your sins and make
you His own. His own child. Which is what He does in Holy Baptism, where
He washes away your sins by baptizing you into the death and resurrection of
Christ. Where He drowns Old Adam in you
and raises you up, a new creation in Christ.
Where He writes His Name on you in water and blood, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, and brings you into His family, the Church, to be fed and
nourished by His preaching and at His Table.
Now
fear has taken on a different meaning with regard to God. Now you fear Him, not in His wrath over sin,
but as your loving heavenly Father.
Which is to say, you revere Him.
Reverence, a quality we do well to reclaim in the Church. You honor Him. You don’t want to disappoint Him. You want to do what He commands. You want to live according to His good and
gracious will for you. Thus Luther’s
explanations, “We should fear and love God so that…” It is not a quaking in your boots kind of
fear. It is a fear born of love. The love of your Father for you. Your love for the Father who loves you and
makes you His own. That is a rightly
ordered fear. That is the fear of the
LORD which is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10).
So
“do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt.
10:28; ESV). That is disordered fear, to
fear the things and people of this earth who can only rob you of your temporal
life. But this is rightly ordered fear:
“Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” And that is God alone. And immediately upon showing us that we have
nothing to fear in this life, that we should fear God alone, Jesus gives the
Promise: Two sparrows, the meat of the very poorest of the poor, sold for two
pennies, considered insignificant by man, a trifle… not one of them falls to
the ground apart from your Father. And
if that is true of sparrows, what does that mean of God’s care for you? Do you realize, even the hairs of your head
are all numbered? God knows and He cares
when the least, the most insignificant hair falls from your body to the
ground. If that is true, what does that
mean of God’s care for you when you suffer from a virus, or lose your job, or
suffer an injustice? And what does that
mean of God’s care for you when you confess the faith and suffer rejection,
betrayal, persecution, death? Do not
fear those things, because your Father knows.
He knows and He cares and He acts.
What can they do to you? Stop
your heart? Snuff out your breath? They still haven’t killed you. You go on living! You live because Jesus lives! Do not fear them. Fear God.
Love God. Trust God. He loves you.
He sent His Son for you. Confess
Christ. Boldly. Clearly.
And suffer whatever comes to you, because God will be with you in
it. Jesus Christ will be with you in
it. He will never leave you or forsake
you.
Disordered
fear can lead you to deny Christ before men.
Because you fear having to suffer for Him. Then there is reason to fear, as in quake in
your boots, for then Jesus will deny you before His Father in heaven. Repent of such fear.
But
rightly ordered fear leads you to confess Christ before men, because you know
that Christ will not leave you to suffer on your own, and in the end, He will
give you a crown of life. The one who
endures to the end will be saved (v. 22). He will confess you before His Father who is
in heaven. He will say of you, “This one
is Mine!” And the Father will say to
Him, “Amen, my dear Son. And, in fact,
this one is Mine! My own dear
child, baptized into Your suffering, death, and resurrection, redeemed for Me.”
In
Christ, God is not a God of wrath to you.
He is your Father! Fear Him. Love Him.
Trust Him. Not the people and
things of this life. This is Father’s
Day, and what better time to reflect on what it means that God is your Father? Earthly fathers have many sins and failings,
and perhaps you didn’t have a very good father growing up. Then again, maybe you did, but he still fell
far short of the standard. God is the
very definition of Fatherhood. He will
always protect you. He will always
provide for you. And He will always lead
you in the way you should go. Yes, He
disciplines you, which isn’t pleasant at the time, but it is always for your
good. God your Father loves you with a
perfect love. And if you ever wonder
about that, just look what He has done for you in the sending of His Son. Look upon a crucifix. Read of our Lord’s passion and death for you
in the Holy Gospel. Jesus feared His
Father with a rightly ordered fear unto death for your salvation. God so loved the world, loved you, that He gave
His only-begotten Son into the death of the cross, that you not perish, but
have eternal life. God loves you, He
saves you, and He gives you life. That
is what it means that God is your Father.
So when it comes to fathers and to gods, look for no other. Believe in Him. Confess Him.
Suffer for Him. We should fear,
love, and trust in the one true God above all things. Because nothing can rob us of the life He
gives to us in Jesus Christ. In the Name
of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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