Fifth Sunday after
Pentecost (Proper 8A)
July 2, 2023
Text: Matt. 10:34-42
There
are at least two big things that may surprise us in our Holy Gospel this
morning. The first is when Jesus says
that He has come, not to bring peace, but a sword (Matt.
10:34). That because of the
Christian faith, children will be against parents, and vice versa, and that a
man’s enemies will be those of his own household. “I thought we were for traditional
family values in this Church!” Well, of
course, we are. But what is
Jesus’ point? Faithful confession of
the Christian faith will, necessarily, result in being rejected by loved ones. Because you are not to love your family
members more than you love Jesus.
When there is a conflict between what Jesus desires and demands, and
what your family member desires or demands, you are to follow Jesus,
even at the cost of your relationship with that family member. When there is a conflict between the Word of
Jesus, and the Word of a loved one, you are to hear and heed Jesus. Love Jesus first. Love your family member, even your parents
and children, second, after Jesus.
That is a rightly ordered love.
To do otherwise is to elevate your parent, or child, or spouse, or
whoever it may be, into the position of God, which is idolatry. It is neither fair to that person, who has no
hope of fulfilling the responsibilities of God to you, nor to God, who alone
has the right to claim your ultimate love and allegiance.
The
second thing that may surprise especially us Lutherans is all this talk of rewards. Receive the prophet or righteous person, give
the cup of cold water to the little child, and you will receive your reward. “Wait a minute! I thought we were saved by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from any merit of reward or
worthiness within us.” Well, of
course, we are. But here we so
often make the classic mistake of replacing the word “reward” with
“justification,” or “salvation.” Jesus
does not say, “Do this and that, and you will be justified.” “Do such and such, and you will be saved.” But Jesus does say, “Do these things
and you will receive a reward.” Justification
and salvation are by grace alone, apart from works, free gift. The rewards Jesus speaks of are not
that. They are, rather, rewards for the
fruits that result from justification and salvation, rewards for the things
Christ does in and through you by His Holy Spirit who lives in
you, namely, good works. Our
Confessions address this in the Fifth Article of the Apology, on “Love and the
Fulfilling of the Law”: “We teach that rewards have been offered and promised
to the works of believers. We teach that good works are meritorious, not for
the remission of sins, for grace or justification (for these we obtain only by
faith), but for other rewards, bodily and spiritual, in this life and after
this life, because Paul says, 1 Cor. 3:8: Every man shall receive his own
reward, according to his own labor. There will, therefore be different rewards
according to different labors. But the remission of sins is alike and equal to
all, just as Christ is one, and is offered freely to all who believe that for Christ’s
sake their sins are remitted. Therefore the remission of sins and justification
are received only by faith, and not on account of any works.”[1] But works will be rewarded.
This
is simply to say, first of all, that there are temporal consequences for
the things we do, good or bad. Touch a
hot stove and you’ll be burned, as we all have to learn early on by experience. Cook food on a hot stove, and you’ll enjoy a
delicious meal. Treat someone with
contempt, you’ll probably suffer contempt in return. Treat people with respect and dignity, you’ll
probably be treated with respect and dignity in return. And so forth.
But even if not… Let’s say your good efforts go unrewarded in
this life, unnoticed, ungratefully received… Or worse, let’s say you suffer for
your good efforts in this life… You confess Christ, and your parents disown you
(it happens!)… or your children wander from the faith… or your so-called
friends no longer want anything to do with you… or you suffer a
good-old-fashioned persecution, complete with beatings and imprisonment and
death. What then? Your Father in heaven sees. And in that case, the reward lies with
Him. Sometimes He rewards you, in spite
of it all, bodily and spiritually in this life.
For example, prayers are answered.
Good works lead to good results in life.
People thank you or honor you, etc.
But even if not, your reward assuredly awaits you in heaven, a reward
from God which cannot even be compared with what you would receive here and now,
nor to the sufferings you may experience here and now.
So,
not peace, but a sword. Many will
hate you on account of Christ, including those you love. And, you’ll be rewarded for good
works. Lutherans aren’t too sure about
either thing, but they are in the Bible, from the mouth of Jesus, no
less, so what are you gonna do? The key
to both difficulties is v. 39: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (ESV). That is, those who look for their life here
and now, in temporal passions and pleasure, in the stuff of this fallen
world… even in the noble and surpassing blessings of marriage and family, work,
or American freedom… will lose it all.
Because these things are passing away.
Many of these things are good and important things that deserve your
love and attention. But they are not
ultimate. They can only ever be penultimate,
and their time will, and must, come to an end.
But those who lose their lives for Christ’s sake, those who
forsake temporal passions and pleasures on account of Christ, who lose their
stuff, their family, their job, or their freedom… maybe even their bodily life
this side of the veil… because they confess Christ… they find their
life. In Him. In Christ. Because, in Christ, what is lost is
found, what is nothing becomes something, sorrow is turned to joy, and the dead
are raised to life. Saints suffer, but
God sees. Sinners are not only forgiven
their sins, they do good works and are rewarded. It is the cruciform paradigm of life, and
death, and life eternal in Jesus Christ, crucified, and risen from the dead.
This
is how it is for you. You are baptized
into Christ. You are clothed with
Christ. You open your mouth and speak
forth Christ. What do you think
will happen? The world will hate you,
even as it hated Him. We heard about
that last week. Will some of your own
family members forsake you? Jesus’
mother and brothers tried to steal Him away from the crowds and shut Him up at
home, because He was embarrassing them, and they thought He might be crazy
(Mark 3:21; 31ff.). Will you have to
suffer? Yes. Yes, absolutely. That is life in Christ crucified. Jesus came… the Father sent Him…
to suffer crucifixion and die for the sins of the world. And what does Jesus say to you? “(W)hoever does not take his cross and
follow me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:38). But trust Jesus. Take up that cross and suffer it. For where does Jesus lead us as we follow
Him? Through the cross and suffering and
death and tomb, to be sure… through the valley of the shadow… and then
out the other side again! To life, and
resurrection, and eternal consolation.
And even to rewards. What will
they be? Who knows? What does it matter? You are there by grace alone, on account of
Christ alone. Eternal life. New Creation.
A risen and glorified body. And
now, rewards on top of it. It’s all so
unimaginable. God is so good to us. What are we to say to all of this? Perhaps the best words are those of Luther in
the Catechism: “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey
Him.”[2] All we can do is believe, receive, give
thanks, and then live life toward Him, according to His Word, and according to
His will.
He
gives us some direction about what that looks like in our text, and it all has
to do with receiving our brothers and sisters in Christ, and caring for
one another. Take your neighbor
up as a cross. Don’t drop him, like a
bag of dead weight. Carry him. Help him.
Cover over his weaknesses and sins with Christian love and patience. Forgive him.
Bear with him. Paul says, “Bear
one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).
And
help him with all that is good. Receive
a prophet because he is a prophet.
That is, receive those who speak God’s Word to you, because they
speak God’s Word to you. And hear, and
heed, those words, because, in receiving the prophet and the Word he preaches, you
are actually receiving Christ Himself, and the Father who sent Him. And you will receive a prophet’s reward, for
you have now had a part in the prophet’s preaching.
Receive
a righteous person… that is, a justified person… don’t
misunderstand, we’re not talking about a person who wows us with all of his
morally upright actions, we’re talking about a fellow Christian, justified
by Jesus Christ… Receive a justified person, a fellow believer, because
he is justified, because he is a fellow believer. And you will be rewarded with the reward of
the justified. Because you, too,
are a fellow believer.
And
what about the little ones? The
children, yes, but also the weak, the vulnerable, the despised of this world,
the young in faith, the poor, the unborn, the widow, the orphan… Whoever gives them even a cup of cold
water because they are disciples of Jesus Christ will not fail to receive
his reward, perhaps in this life, but assuredly in the life to come. And in receiving your fellow believers, you
are received. By them. By Jesus Christ. You have a place. A community. A family that will not reject
you.
In
fact, as it happens, such receiving of one another is its own reward. For this… this gathering here today… is the
new and eternal family of God. As
with Jesus, so with you: Who is your
family? Your mother and your brothers
are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.
And
may I say, in view of our congregation’s present circumstances… The family that
receives God’s gifts together, stays together.
God grant it for Jesus’ sake. In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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