Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
You and I regularly make decisions based on what we think that we can or cannot do. Can I afford to build that house or to buy that car? Do I have the personal capital in order to challenge my boss or my friend? We relatively-readily relate to the two illustrations, uniquely recorded by the Divinely-inspired St. Luke, that Jesus uses in today’s Gospel Reading: one illustration of first counting the cost of building something rather than enduring mocking for starting it but not being able to afford finishing it, and the other illustration of first deliberating the larger size of an attacking force and then sending a delegation asking for terms of peace, presumably rather than suffering an annihilating defeat. Jesus seems to use those illustrations as part of His teaching the great crowds that were accompanying Him to count the costs of following Him, wanting them, as it were, to deliberate discipleship. This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “Deliberating Discipleship”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus has left the house of a ruler of the Pharisees where he went to dine, as we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Luke 14:1-14). Many crowds are journeying to Jerusalem with Jesus, and He seems to stop and almost confront them. Perhaps because they did not know, Jesus speaks to them about coming to Him and coming after Him, and Jesus gives what might be taken as three requirements of being His disciple (compare Matthew 10:37-38): as Jesus says it, “hating” one’s family and own life; bearing one’s own cross; and renouncing all of one’s possessions—which renouncing of possessions the man building the tower and the king defending the attack arguably in some sense might also have had to do.
Russia’s more-than-six-month war with Ukraine comes to my mind. We might have expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with a military force not outnumbered two‑to-one as in Jesus’s illustration but outnumbered more than four-to-one (GlobalFirepower.com), as Jesus says, to have sent a delegation asking for terms of peace, just as we might imagine that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in first deliberating whether to wage war against Ukraine, probably figured the Russians would have less difficulty with the Ukrainians than they are having. Clearly human counting and deliberating is not always as straight-forward as it might seem.
In Jesus’s illustrations, the man without enough money to finish the tower arguably would not build the tower, and the king with the outnumbered force arguably would not fight the war, and so the person not “hating” his or her family and life; not bearing his or her own cross; and not renouncing all of his or her possessions arguably would not be Jesus’s disciple. Given those expectations, one might understandably stop journeying with Jesus. Those are significant things to do. By nature we cannot do those things on our own, and, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, we have trouble doing them. Too often we sinfully prioritize our relationships with unbelieving family members instead of faithfully confessing Jesus. Too often we sinfully try to avoid suffering for being a Christian. Too often we sinfully try to hang on to our possessions. We sin in these and countless other—sometimes unspeakable—ways, for we are sinful by nature. Because of our sinful nature and all of our actual sins, we deserve nothing but death here and now and torment in hell for eternity.
But, God calls and so enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our not loving Him most of all. God forgives our not bearing our crosses. God forgives our not renouncing our possessions. God forgives our sinful natures and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
For us and for our salvation, God, as it were, counted the terrible cost and deliberated war with the outmatched devil, and, in the seeming defeat of the cross, God paid the price and won the victory for us. Because of God’s love, mercy, and grace, through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven and we have peace with God. God sent His Son into human flesh, and Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem, in order to bear the sin of the world to the cross and, dying there for us, in our place, to be our Savior. And, Jesus rose from the grave, showing God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. Jesus loved God the Father above all else; He bore His own cross, and He renounced all of His possessions. We receive the righteousness of His having kept the Law for us, and we receive the righteousness of His having suffered the death we deserve. We receive His righteousness through His Word in all of its forms.
God’s Word is read and preached to groups such as this one, and His Gospel is applied to us individually with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us and so give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, God brings us into the Kingdom of God that is the Church, and He sustains us in the Church. For example, we who are baptized privately confess to our pastor the sins that we know and feel in our heart, the sins that particularly trouble us. We privately confess them for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. We do not need to be compelled to confess to our pastor, but, if necessary, we would compel our pastor to absolve us (Large Catechism, Brief Exhortation, paragraph 31)! In all of these ways, on the rock of the Office of the Keys that confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraph 25), God builds His Church, and the gates of hell do not prevail against Her (Matthew 16:18), but rather the Church ultimately prevails against all the forces of hell. And, in all of these ways, God transforms us.
Although we once were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5), and so we were unable even to deliberate, much less to choose, discipleship, like the people in the Gospel Reading who already were somewhat attached to Jesus, and like the Israelites of the Old Testament Reading about to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 30:15-20), we now have been enabled to deliberate and so to choose discipleship. Unbelieving family may cut us off, but, through the water of Holy Baptism and the Blood of the Sacrament of the Altar, like Philemon and Onesimus in today’s Epistle Reading (Philemon 1-21), we have new relationships to brothers and sisters in Christ (confer Mark 10:29-30). As we prayed in the Collect, God grants us courage and strength to take up our cross and follow Him. Daily we deny ourselves and risk even extreme affliction as Christians, but the Gospel comforts us, and we know that our suffering has a goal and will come to an end. Renounced possessions may be replaced many times over in this time or at least in the age to come. So, no matter the “hating” of our family and our own life; the bearing of our own cross; and the renouncing of all of our possessions, we choose life and good and blessing over death and evil and curse; we love the Lord our God, obey His voice, and hold fast to Him, for He is our life and length of days.
You and I may or may not regularly make good decisions based on what we think that we can or cannot do. The outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war still remains un-certain. But, God’s victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil for us is certain. In terms of our “Deliberating Discipleship”, when we choose to remain Jesus’s disciples, we can be sure that, because of God’s actions, we, as it were, retain our “saltiness” (Bertram, TDNT 4:837‑839). He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +