Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (C)

February 13, 2022

Text: Jer. 17:5-8; Luke 6:17-26

            This morning the Prophet Jeremiah defines for us, in general terms, what it means to be cursed, and what it means to be blessed.  That man is cursed, he says, who trusts in man; who puts his confidence in the strength of the flesh, be it his own, or that of another; in a fleshly heart that turns away from the LORD (Jer. 17:5).  That man is like a shrub in the desert (v. 6).  No source of water.  No well to draw from.  Destined to shrivel up and die and be scattered by the wind.  In contrast, that man is blessed who trusts, not in man, but in the LORD; in fact, whose trust is the LORD (v. 7), which is to say, the LORD is not only the object of his faith (that which he trusts in), but also the substance of his faith (the LORD is his trust).  This is how Dr. Luther understood faith.  For him, faith is virtually synonymous with Christ.  Faith is not a quality or a feeling you come up with somewhere deep down inside of you, which you then direct toward the Lord.  Faith is Christ.  You are saved by faith alone, which is to say, you are saved by Christ alone.  Faith comes from Him.  Faith is directed to Him.  Faith, in its substance, is Him.  We should think of faith this way to guard against the idea that faith, believing, trusting, is the one good work I have to do in order to be saved.  No, no, Christ does it all.  The one whose trust is in the LORD, and whose trust is the LORD, is blessed, like a tree planted by water, with roots in the stream (v. 8)… kind of sounds like Baptism, doesn’t it?...  And two things will result for that man, rooted in Christ in the baptismal waters.  First, he won’t fear when heat and drought come.  That is, when suffering and afflictions arise, as they always will in this fallen world, he will know the LORD has not abandoned him.  He will know he is not cursed, but blessed, because the LORD, who is more powerful than the heat and drought, than suffering and affliction, will preserve him.  And second, his leaves will be green, and he will bear fruit.  That is, by virtue of his rootedness in Christ by the baptismal waters, he will live, even in spite of suffering and affliction.  He will live and thrive with the very life of the risen Lord Jesus, and he will bear the fruit of love and good works, the love of Christ, and the works for which God has created him and prepared beforehand for him to do (Eph. 2:10).

            Jeremiah is riffing on Psalm 1, and it is probably this Psalm that our Lord has in mind as He preaches to us this morning in the Sermon on the Plain.  “Blessed is the man,” says that Psalmist, “who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law,” the Torah, the instruction, the Word, Law and Gospel, “of the LORD, and on his law,” Torah, instruction, Word, “he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water”… Doesn’t this sound just like our reading from Jeremiah?... “that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not whither.  In all that he does, he prospers.”  On the other hand, “The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners,” those still in their sins, because their trust is not in the LORD, and is not the LORD… they shall not stand “in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,” and that way is Christ, and His righteousness, His suffering, death, and resurrection for you, “but the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1; ESV). 

            So notice, neither blessedness, nor cursedness, are determined on the basis of outward circumstance.  The determining factor is Christ.  If you have Him, you are blessed, in spite of any and every evil circumstance that may afflict you.  If you do not have Him, you are cursed, damned in fact, in spite of any and every good circumstance you may enjoy.  And in this, all human reason and logic is turned on its head.  This is what we call the Great Reversal. 

            Who does Jesus pronounce blessed in our Holy Gospel?  The poor.  Those who hunger.  Those who weep.  Those who are hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil.  That doesn’t sound right to us.  How can Jesus pronounce those who suffer so, blessed?  Because they have Him!  And in having Him, they have everything.  The poor inherit the very Kingdom of God.  Notice, that is present tense.  Theirs is the Kingdom of God (Luke 6:20).  They have it now, because they have Jesus now.  Then the future tense, which points to the End, when Jesus comes again in glory and sets right all that is now wrong.  Those who hunger shall be satisfied.  The weeping shall laugh (v. 21).  They suffer now, for a time, but because they have the Kingdom, they have no real lack.  And the Promise is as good as fulfilled, for it is as sure as Christ.  And so back to the present tense: Those persecuted are blessed, and they can rejoice, and even leap for joy now, for their reward is great in heaven.  Take the fathers as an example.  They suffered for their delight in the LORD and His Torah in their earthly life.  But now they have received their reward in glory (v. 23).

            On the other hand, those who are rich, those who are full now, those who laugh now, those who enjoy honor and popularity in the world, because they delight in the world’s torah, the world’s instruction, the world’s word, who, like their fathers, despise and persecute the LORD’s holy ones…  Woe to them.  Like the rich man over against poor Lazarus (Luke 16:25), they have received their consolation (6:24).  They think they are blessed.  But in the End, they will find they are cursed.  All their trust is in man, in the strength of the flesh, in their own fickle and accursed hearts.  Like a shrub in the desert, they grow up only to shrivel and die and blow away.  We should never forget the Word of the LORD from another prophet, namely, Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field… The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:6, 8). 

            Now, by any standard, compared with even the most well-to-do in Jesus’ original audience, everyone in this room is relatively rich and full.  And we laugh.  And thank God, so far, though circumstances are rapidly changing, none of us have suffered the extreme persecution that many of our brothers and sisters throughout the ages, and even today in many places in the world, have had to suffer.  We have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood (Heb. 12:4).  Does that mean Jesus says “Woe” to us?  Well, our affluence and comfort do put us in great danger.  There is no way to sugarcoat that.  But again, blessedness and cursedness are not determined by outward circumstance.  Both Christians and unbelievers experience joys and sorrows.  Both can be found on every level of the economic spectrum.  God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).  The point is, woe to those who look for salvation in the stuff of this fallen world, in riches, in being full now, in laughter and merriment now, or we might just say, the pleasures of the flesh, in honor and popularity in the eyes of the world.  That is to put your trust in man.  And that is cursed.  It can only lead to death.  If that is you… “Woe.” 

            It is those who recognize that, no matter their assets, no matter how much money they have in the bank, no matter how much enjoyment they get out of life, or how respected they are in the community, before God they have nothing… It is they who are blessed because the Lord Jesus Himself is their trust, their riches, their satisfaction, their joy, and their eternal reward.  Their trust is in Him, and in Him alone.  So you can be financially destitute and blessed.  You can be wracked with pain on your deathbed and blessed.  You can be waist deep in grief and sorrow, and still you can be blessed.  After all, who was coming to Jesus for healing and relief from demonic affliction?  Those who had diseases.  Those who were troubled by unclean spirits.  Whatever money they had or didn’t have, they knew they were poor.  They needed what only Jesus can give.  They came to hear Him, and be touched by Him, and so be healed, enlivened, and restored.  And in this way, they were blessed.  Because they had Jesus. 

            And that is you today.  You come with your sins.  You come with your sorrows.  You come with your burdens, your pains, your troubles, your afflictions.  You come to hear Jesus.  Your delight is in His Torah, His instruction, His Word, Law and Gospel.  You come for Him to drive away the devil, to forgive your sins, to speak you clean, and relieve you of all that oppresses you.  You come for Him to touch you with His true Body and Blood, as He does in the Supper, perhaps to receive healing even now in your body, but certainly to receive eternal healing and restoration, which is hidden now, but will be fully manifest when He raises your body from the dead.  See, rooted in Christ and delighting in His Word, you are like a tree planted by the life-giving baptismal waters.  No matter what heat and drought may come your way, you are no shrub that will shrivel and die.  Your leaves are green, and you bear fruit.  Because your whole life is in Jesus.  Not in the stuff of this world.  In Jesus.  And so it is as He says.  You are blessed. 

            And that is the reality because Jesus, who is the eternal Son of the Father, became for you the Poor Man, taking your sin, your death, and all your afflictions into Himself, into His Body, to be put to death on the cross.  He hungered.  He wept.  He was hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil.  All for your sake.  And in His death, He is the Blessed Man.  In spite of all appearances.  Contrary to all human reason and logic.  Because in His death, He won for Himself a Kingdom… the very Kingdom of God.  He won you.  And then, all the satisfaction, the laughter, the reward belongs to Him.  For Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  And that is the very definition of blessedness.  You who are baptized into Christ, no matter your circumstances, in spite of all appearances, contrary to all human reason and logic, you… are blessed.  Because you are in Jesus.  It is all because of Jesus.  Always and only in Jesus.  Blessed is the man who trusts in Jesus; whose trust is Jesus.  Christ is the Blessed Man.  He is your blessedness.  And you can ride that blessedness all the way to the Day of Resurrection.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.