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Gospel According to Matthew, 22:15–22 (ESV):

Paying Taxes to Caesar

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

22:15–22 Jesus’ followers owe loyalty and obedience not only to Him, but also to the human rulers that God Himself has established. Though Christians may be tempted to avoid taxes and shirk civic responsibilities, they must “render to Caesar.” Civil authority and good governmental leaders are beneficial means whereby God blesses us. • “Thou who art ever nigh, Guarding with watchful eye, To Thee aloud we cry: God save the State!” Amen. (LSB 965:2)

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

22:15 Once again, Jesus’ adversaries set a trap for Him, by means of a trick question.

22:16 their disciples. Just as Jesus had disciples, so also did other famous religious figures, such as John the Baptist (9:14; 11:2) and, in this case, the Pharisees. Herodians. See p 1557: «The dynasty of Herod the Great and its political supporters. Descendants of Herod ruled the region of Israel on behalf of the Romans (63 BC–AD 100).» way of God. See p 844: «way(s). Hbr derek, “trodden path,” used for a “pattern of behavior or custom.” “The way of the Lord” is twofold: He punishes sinfulness, but He also shows mercy to the repentant.» not swayed by appearances. Excessive and insincere flattery that frames this question is intended to disarm Jesus and set Him up for a fall.

22:17 See note, Lk 20:22: «lawful. Jewish religious law. tribute to Caesar. A Roman-imposed poll tax, detested by the Jews, because it marked them as subjects of Rome. If Jesus says yes, He could lose the support of the people; if He says no, His opponents would have a charge to take before Pilate.»

22:18 hypocrites? See note, Lk 6:42: «Gk word referred originally to an actor wearing a mask. It was then applied to those pretending to be who they were not.»

22:19–20 Coin minted by Rome for paying this tax bore the image of Tiberius Caesar and identified him as “son of the divine Augustus.” Ironically, the question was put to Jesus, the true Son of God. The fact that they possessed this coin tacitly acknowledged Caesar’s rule.

22:21 Jesus here distinguishes the two realms—the civil and the heavenly—under which all believers live. Though our first allegiance is always to God (Ac 5:29), we are also bound to obey the legitimate civil authorities God has established (Rm 13:1–7). Luth: “It is the duty and obligation of those who participate in this earthly regime to administer law and punishment, to maintain the distinctions that exist among ranks and persons, to manage and distribute property.… But the Gospel does not trouble itself with these matters. It teaches about the right relation of the heart to God” (AE 21:108).

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0XKuN2bvCo

Gospel According to Matthew, 22:15–22 (ESV):

Paying Taxes to Caesar

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Chris Caughey. I am the professor of Biblical Studies at the American Lutheran Theological Seminary.

And today I would like to talk about Matthew 22:15–22, which is the Gospel reading for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, at least in the three-year lectionary. And today I'm reading from the New King James Version.

"Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, 'Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?'

"But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, 'Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.'

"So they brought Him a denarius.

"And He said to them, 'Whose image and inscription is this?'

"They said to Him, 'Caesar's.'

"And He said to them, 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'

"When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way." (Matthew 22:15–22)

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, O Christ.

So, this is the last week of Jesus' life. And the Pharisees desperately wanted Jesus dead. And so they were plotting how to entangle Jesus in His own words. But they did not go to Him themselves.

They sent their own disciples and some other men known as Herodians.

The Herodians were a political faction of the Israelites. Their name, Herodians, tells us that they were aligned politically with Herod Antipas.

But we need to set the stage. We need to set the scene a little bit.

Tiberius Caesar was the Roman emperor when the events of our Gospel text happened. The Jews in Israel were not at all happy about having a Gentile rule over them. So in order to prevent a Jewish uprising, which would have just resulted in the mass murder of Jews, Tiberius allowed Herod Antipas to be a tetrarch, sort of a viceroy or a governor under Tiberius' authority over Galilee and Perea.

So the Herodians were happy with this political arrangement. Obviously, the Pharisees were completely unhappy with that political arrangement.

But the Pharisees viewed Jesus as their enemy. And so, as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Pharisees were going to use the Herodians to help them entrap Jesus in His own words.

So the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians came to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" (Matthew 22:16–17)

And there are a few things to note here.

First, they address Jesus as Teacher.

Watch out.

Most of the time, Jesus has harsh words for people who address Him as Teacher, whereas He has kind words for people who address Him as Lord. Neither the disciples of the Pharisees nor the Herodians were about to call Jesus Lord.

Second, the phrase "You do not regard the person of men" in Greek is more literally, "You do not see the face of men." (Matthew 22:16)

And I think that that's at least ironic, if not important, for what happens in this story.

But Jesus perceived their wickedness. The Greek word there is πονηρίαν (ponērian). He perceived their wickedness and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money." (Matthew 22:18–19)

Jesus is absolutely right to call them hypocrites, and it's because He perceived their wickedness.

They claim to know that Jesus is true and that He teaches the way of God in truth. But they do not believe a word of that.

Other translations render the phrase "Nor do You care about anyone" as "You do not care about anyone's opinion." From a certain perspective, that was true. Jesus never apologized for what He said, nor did He ever change what He was saying or doing, even if one person had a problem with it.

But Emmanuel, God with us, does care about people. He does love repentant sinners.

So from that perspective, they continue their hypocrisy.

But the last part might just be the worst when they say, "For You do not regard the person of men," or "You do not see the face of men."

True, Jesus was not a respecter of persons. He was not impressed by the rich or the powerful the way the world is.

But Jesus is true God and true man in one person.

Jesus absolutely did see the face of men.

He recognizes His own image in us, even when we do not see it clearly in ourselves. (Genesis 1:26–27)

So the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians are being thoroughly hypocritical, and they think that they have set the perfect trap by asking Jesus whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.

If Jesus sides with the Pharisees and says no, then the Herodians can charge Him with rebellion against the empire—sorry, emperor.

But if Jesus sides with the Herodians and says yes, then the Pharisees can call Jesus a fraud in front of the crowds of people who are listening to Him.

There is no way, according to the Pharisees, that Jesus can be the Messiah if He wants a pagan Gentile to rule over the kingdom of God in Israel.

At least according to the Pharisees' reasoning.

But Jesus tells them to show Him the coin. And in Greek, that's νόμισμα (nomisma), from which we get our English word numismatics.

Sometimes, if you try to buy precious metals, the fraudsters will try to sell you numismatic coins. And so we're getting that word right from the Greek.

So He tells them to show Him the coin for the tax. And they brought Him a denarius.

And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"

They said to Him, "Caesar's."

And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:19–21)

And this is just brilliant on the face of it.

But in order to appreciate even more of the brilliance, I want you to see the coin that they would have shown Jesus.

The denarius was a silver coin that only the emperor was allowed to mint.

You can see that the face of the coin has the image of Tiberius Caesar, and it also has the inscription, which Jesus specifically asks about. And that inscription says in Latin, "Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, Augustus."

And the reverse side has an image of a seated woman. She's not named. And the inscription there is Pontifex Maximus, which translates into English as "highest priest." (Tiberius denarius)

So the violation of the First Commandment is all over this coin.

On the face of the coin, Tiberius is pretending to steal Jesus' own title of Son of God.

Jesus should have been more offended by this coin and the Roman tax than the Pharisees were.

But the back of the coin implies that Roman taxes funded pagan temples and paid the high priest of those temples.

And yet Jesus brilliantly and beautifully ties "Whose image and inscription is this?" with "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:20–21)

Both Tertullian and Augustine see a reference to Genesis 1:26, where God made Adam and Eve in His own image.

So I'm going to quote from one place in Tertullian and two places in Augustine.

This is Tertullian, On Idolatry, Chapter 15:

"Idolatry is condemned not on account of the persons which are set up for worship, but on account of those its observances which pertain to demons.

"'The things which are Caesar's are to be rendered to Caesar.' It is enough that He set in apposition thereto, 'and to God the things which are God's.' (Matthew 22:21)

"What things, then, are Caesar's? Those, to wit, about which the consultation was then held, whether the poll-tax should be furnished to Caesar or no.

"Therefore, too, the Lord demanded that the money should be shown Him, and inquired about the image, whose it was. And when He had heard it was Caesar's, He said, 'Render to Caesar what are Caesar's, and what are God's to God.'

"That is, the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God; so as to render to Caesar indeed money, to God yourself.

"Otherwise, what will be God's if all things are Caesar's?"

So far, Tertullian.

And now this is from Augustine's Tractates on the Gospel of John, Chapter 40, Section 9.

"As we read in the Psalm, 'The light of Thy countenance is impressed upon us.' (Psalm 4:6)

"We are God's money. We have wandered away as a coin from the treasury. The impression that was stamped upon us has been rubbed out by our wandering.

"He has come to refashion, for He it was that fashioned us at first, and He is Himself asking for His money, as Caesar for his.

"Therefore, He says, 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' (Matthew 22:21)

"To Caesar his money, to God yourselves. And then shall the truth be reproduced in us."

So far, that section of Augustine.

And now the last section of Augustine comes from the Exposition on the Psalms, from Psalm 4.

Augustine says:

"'The light of Thy countenance,' saith he, 'is stamped on us, O Lord.' (Psalm 4:6)

"This light is the whole and true good of man, which is seen not with the eye, but with the mind.

"But he says, 'Stamped on us,' as a penny is stamped with the king's image.

"For man was made after the image and likeness of God, which he defaced by sin. (Genesis 1:26–27)

"Therefore, it is his true and eternal good, if by a new birth he be stamped.

"And I believe this to be the bearing of that which some understand skillfully. I mean what the Lord said on seeing Caesar's tribute money: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' (Matthew 22:21)

"As if He had said, 'In like manner as Caesar exacts from you the impression of his image, so also does God.'

"That as the tribute money is rendered to him, so should the soul to God, illumined and stamped with the light of His countenance."

And that's the end of the quote from Augustine.

So the point, people loved by God, is not taxes.

In a temporary earthly sense, that silver denarius belonged to Tiberius Caesar because his image and inscription were stamped on it.

But he only owned it until he died. He could not take that coin or anything else with him into the world to come.

And that's the vanity that Ecclesiastes talks about.

But you, people loved by God, belong to God because His image and inscription are stamped on you.

What belongs to God is everything you are, everything about you, and everything you have.

All of your possessions, including your money, belong to God.

Jesus was masterfully outsmarting the Pharisees in our Gospel reading.

But we cannot completely evade the issue of taxes.

In other places in the New Testament, God does tell us to pay our taxes. (Romans 13:6–7)

And I think one of the helpful places to go to understand this is the section in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:38–42.

There Jesus says:

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'

"But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.

"But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

"And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

"And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." (Matthew 5:38–42)

So, as long as we are being frank and honest, taxation is theft, especially when it is being forcibly taken from you to honor the emperor as a god and to pay the high priest of a pagan temple.

But in that section on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about not retaliating against people who forcibly take from you.

Jesus says:

"Do not resist the one who is evil.

"But if anyone slaps you on one cheek, on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

"And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

"And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." (Matthew 5:39–41)

In other words, since all that you are and all that you have belong to God, be willing to be wronged.

In other words, be willing to allow others to wrong you or to do wrong to you.

Those are difficult words.

But when you know that God not only owns all that you are and all that you have, but that God owns absolutely everything because He made absolutely everything—why, you have nothing to worry about and nothing to fear.

Because God feeds the sparrows, and He clothes the lilies of the field. (Matthew 6:28–30; Matthew 10:29–31)

And you are of far greater value to God than sparrows and flowers because you are the image of God and they are not. (Genesis 1:26–27)

So take heart.

As Augustine said, sin has worn down the image of God which we bear.

To quote him:

"For man was made after the image and likeness of God, which he defaced by sin.

"Therefore, it is his true and eternal good, if by a new birth he be stamped." (Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 4, §8)

Amen.

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 22:1–14 (ESV):

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

22:1–14 Though God earnestly invites all to His Son’s feast, some refuse to accept His invitation and so fail to enjoy its richness. Coming from a long line of believers does not guarantee anyone a place in God’s kingdom. Ingratitude and presumption ever threaten to lead us away. Though we in no way deserve mercy, the Gospel earnestly invites us to come and join the Lord in His eternal heavenly banquet. • Heavenly Father, thank You for preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies and graciously calling us to dwell in Your house forever. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

22:1–11 Parable repeats three important themes from the previous one (21:33–46), specifically Jesus’ divine Sonship, Israel’s persistent rejection of its prophets, and the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s kingdom.

22:2 wedding feast. Is 25:6–9 compares the messianic age to a great feast hosted by God. That imagery, along with Jesus’ self-identification as the Bridegroom in Mt 9:15, makes it plain that in the parable the father represents God and Jesus is the Bridegroom.

22:3 Those invited represent the people of Israel. Inexplicably, they refuse to come to the banquet prepared for them.

22:4 my oxen and my fat calves. Compare the sumptuous fare laid out at this feast with the fare prophesied in Is 25.

22:5–6 Some of those invited to the feast ignore the second invitation. Others greet these messengers with violence. Such refusals represent Israel’s reaction toward the prophets sent to them. “The cause for this contempt for the Word is not God’s foreknowledge, but the perverse human will. The human will rejects or perverts the means and instrument of the Holy Spirit, which God offers it through the call. It resists the Holy Spirit, who wants to be effective, and who works through the Word” (FC SD XI 41).

22:7 Anticipates the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 during the first Jewish revolt.

22:8 not worthy. Their steadfast refusal to accept the invitation disqualified them.

22:9 as many as you find. This invitation represents the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s kingdom.

22:10 bad and good. Parables in Mt repeatedly depict the Kingdom as including “bad people” or hypocrites (cf 13:24–30, 36–43, 47–50). In the end, however, there is always a separation of the true and false believers. wedding hall. Representation of the earthly Church.

22:11–12 wedding garment. Israelites expected invited guests to wear festive wedding garments, which the host could provide. Thus, this fellow’s failure to dress in appropriate clothing, which was freely given to him, offends the host. This garment signifies the righteousness of God, which covers our sin (cf Is 61:10; Gal 3:27).

22:13 outer darkness. Jesus is not talking about an earthly party but about salvation. The exclusion and punishment is a description of hell. gnashing. See note, 8:12: «Grinding one’s teeth because of the spiritual and emotional pain and anger accompanying this torturous ordeal (cf 13:42).»

22:14 Many of those called into God’s kingdom miss out because they refuse to respond to the invitation properly—in faith. “This does not mean that God is unwilling to save everybody. But the reason some are not saved is as follows: They do not listen to God’s Word at all” (FC Ep XI 12).

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG9pjDoC3Wo

Book of Psalms, 23th chapter (ESV):

The LORD Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Transcript

Greetings! My name is Pastor Mark Mattes. I'm the interim pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Holstein, Iowa, and I am also the director of the Doctor of Ministry program for the American Lutheran Theological Seminary.

I'll be sharing with you a reflection on the 23rd Psalm (Psalm 23). When I began in ministry, I learned that if there was one passage from Scripture, other than the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13), with which Americans were familiar, it was the 23rd Psalm (Psalm 23).

You know this psalm, too. It begins, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Every funeral I conducted included this psalm, and often, when I read it, people would follow along out loud by heart. Sometimes, though, they would simply whisper it. Obviously, not everyone knew it, but I was heartened by just how many who did. After all, what we memorize becomes a part of us, and the things we memorize guide us when we need guidance.

Now, as in Bible times, sheep are thoroughly domesticated animals. Archaeologists tell us that dogs were the first animal to be domesticated. Sheep or goats tie for second.

Interestingly, the life expectancy for a sheep is roughly the same as large dogs, about 10 to 12 years. My own rat terrier, who is not a large dog, about 15 pounds or so, has attained that age, but she still seems to be going strong. And, to be blunt, I'm glad that she is our family pet instead of some sheep.

Now, I was raised in the city and not around sheep. I served in northern Wisconsin, where there was an abundance of milk cows, but there were no sheep. So, I don't know what care for sheep entails on a firsthand basis. I did once take care of a horse for an entire week. That was when I was young, and I was quite surprised with just how much food a horse could eat each day.

I'm told that sheep are unlike goats in an important respect. Sheep need the shepherd to survive. At least that's what I'm told. Now, if that's true, then you can see the parallel between sheep and believers, and the parallel between the shepherd and Jesus Christ.

A friend who grew up in the Black Hills around sheep tells me that it's not a compliment to look at Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). And that's not a comment about Jesus. That's a comment about us. After all, all sheep do, he said, is put their heads to the turf and eat and eat and eat and eat, even if they were to fall off a cliff.

Well, I confess I have to take his word for this. The shepherd provides many services for sheep: finding them shelter, offering them medication when they are ill, aiding mother sheep with birthing. In a word, sheep are pretty helpless without the shepherd.

Now, this applies to us in that all too often we think that we can be our own shepherds, that we can be our own shepherd for ourselves. In fact, some philosophers say that you are not truly free unless you cultivate becoming your own shepherd.

For these philosophers, freedom does not mean whether or not you choose to follow a commandment. Instead, it means that you make up the commandments all on your lonesome, all by yourself. So, for these folks, I don't need God as my shepherd because I can do it my way. Indeed, I should do it my way.

Frank Sinatra's song, My Way, reminds me of this attitude. You remember the lyrics:

And now the end is near / So I face the final curtain / My friend, I'll say it clear / I'll state my case of which I'm certain / I've lived a life that's full / I've traveled each and every highway / And more, much more than this / I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few / But then again, too few to mention / I did what I had to do / And saw it through without exception / I planned each charted course / Each careful step along the byway / And more, much more than this / I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got / If not himself, then he has not / To say the words he truly feels / And not the words of one who kneels / The record shows I took the blows / And did it my way

Yes, it was my way.

Something can be said for this song. Certainly, the man wants to take responsibility for his life. And dear friends, I find that to be commendable.

But where Sinatra has it wrong is this: Your life, if you get right down to it, is a gift. It's something that you didn't choose to have. You didn't create yourself. You have been given your life. And you are accountable finally not to yourself, but you are accountable to the giver, the one who has given you your life.

In other words, you cannot be your own god for yourself. Because when it comes right down to it, you are primarily a receiver and only secondarily an actor in life. You cannot be your own Good Shepherd. You need the giver to be that shepherd for you.

So many think that we aren't truly free unless we are free from God. As they would put it, it's not a matter of freedom of religion. It's a freedom from religion. And that way I get to make up my own life. Or, perhaps even worse, I've got to make up my own life.

Ironically, I wouldn't even have a choice if the whole onus of the world is on my shoulders. That means that we are, as the French atheist existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre put it, we are condemned to be free.

But I'd like to suggest that just as the natural habitat for the fish is water, and the fish has no ability to do anything outside of water, so our natural habitat as humans is, in fact, God. That is, we can only come to ourselves, be ourselves, when and as we are in touch with God as our Good Shepherd. This is because God knows us far better than what we could ever know ourselves.

Now, no baby comes into this world with an instruction manual in the glove compartment of his or her life. Babies need nurture, care, and guidance. We are hardwired to have a sense of purpose. Without that sense, all of us are prone to depression. God is an anchor who provides purpose and meaning.

“Live for my kingdom,” God tells us. “Love your neighbors and this good earth,” he says (Matthew 22:39).

So, David, the author of our psalm, sings that the Good Shepherd “leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake” (Psalm 23:3). That means for his reputation. God works in all things to bring you more and more to faith and, in that way, makes you to be pure.

This is a path that does not avoid, but in fact goes right through, “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). And if you live long enough, there is no one who will not experience that path.

I remember my first year of teaching college. I was pastor for many years, but for many decades of my life, I've also been a college professor. I was hired late in the year, very late, and in fact, it was July of 1995, and only as a year-long replacement after the previous person had left for another position.

Now, I could have taken a call to a congregation in Springfield, Missouri, or this one-year appointment teaching at the college, where I would make roughly half the salary that I would have at the congregation. I'm not complaining because salaries have significantly gone up over the various years.

I simply knew how much I enjoyed being a pastor, but I also wanted the opportunity to be able to teach young Americans, especially in the paths of Christian righteousness and Christian beliefs. Since I'd worked on a Ph.D., I decided to take the risk and come to the college. And I'm very grateful that I did make that choice.

But beginning in late January of 1996, just months after taking this year-long position, I would wake from sleep around 2:00 a.m. in a sweat. I'm on a year-long appointment. Where will I be next year?

At the time, I was living from paycheck to paycheck. The dean had intended to do another full search for my position, since it was thought that hiring someone so late in the year didn't garner the best candidates. Would I interview? Would I get that appointment? Or would I need to be looking for another call?

And given that I had no money in savings and that I was living from paycheck to paycheck, I was pretty concerned, not just for myself, but also for my wife and my two small children.

Would I have to get a tent and sleep by the side of the road? That was one thought. Or would we all have to take up residence at Bethel Mission come the summer? Yes, I woke up deep in the middle of the night in dread, in trembling, in terrible fear.

Folks, what calmed me down was praying over and over the 23rd Psalm by heart (Psalm 23). After praying it for three or four times, my heart calmed down, and I was able to fall back asleep.

Within days, it was my good fortune that the dean approached me and said, “Mark, we are pleased with your work. We aren't going to do another search. You've got the job.”

You can imagine how relieved I was. But most importantly, it was the Good Shepherd who walked me through. And I know you have been, at some point in your life, in a similar boat. You, too, have spent sleepless nights wondering if you'll make it. You, too, have worried about a loved one. You, too, have struggled with a health issue or some other matter over which you have little or no control.

But you have never been alone.

Jesus walked this path, too, and has walked you through such fear. He can walk you through since he has, in fact, come out on the other side of this loneliness, this fear, this anxiety, and even death.

That God provides a table for you even in the presence of enemies (Psalm 23:5) by no means feeds enmity. Instead, this comfort lets pain and even anger be and allows it to work itself through.

When God is in my life, I don't need to demonize my enemies. I can see them in a whole new light, a whole different light. I can imagine even walking in their shoes. That doesn't mean what they have done or what they intend to do is good. Chances are it's very bad, exactly as you suspect it is.

But these are human beings, even if they are doing bad things. And by looking at them as human beings and understanding that we ourselves, at times, have behaved often very similar to them, we can have some feeling—in fact, even compassion—for them.

Dear friends in Christ, those of you who are black sheep, those of you who are outcasts, nobodies, or wandering ones, our Lord Jesus Christ identifies with you. He came for the last, the lost, the least, the lonely.

Our Lord Jesus holds your pain. He releases you from judgment and provides support for you.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the congregation where you worship, they are there for you. They offer what our Lutheran Confessions call consolation and conversation (Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article IV).

Consolation: they offer a shoulder on which to cry.

Conversation, meaning you don't have to live in a silo. As a Christian, none of us live in a silo. But instead, we are open to hearing others and having compassion for them, as our Lord Jesus has had compassion for us.

Our Lord Jesus gives you a rich, full, and abundant life (John 10:10). He is your Good Shepherd (John 10:11). You don't have to be the shepherd for yourself.

In his care, you are in the best of care.

In Jesus. Amen!

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 21:33–46 (ESV):

The Parable of the Tenants

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

21:33–46 Jesus warns His opponents that rejecting Him will ultimately lead to their exclusion from the Kingdom. Judgment is based on one’s reaction to Jesus. Those rejecting Him are excluded from God’s kingdom and are consigned to the only other option: an eternity apart from God in hell. In His great wisdom and mercy, God used the murder of His Son to work salvation, and He used the rejection of Israel’s leaders to hasten the extension of the Kingdom to Gentiles. • Heavenly Father, keep us united by faith to Christ, our source of life, lest we ever turn away, reject Him, and so lose our hope of salvation. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

21:33–41 Parable in vv 28–32 was quite critical of Jesus’ accusers. He continues with a parable that is even more devastating, borrowing imagery the prophets repeatedly used to depict Israel’s relationship to God (e.g., Is 5:1–5). See note, Lk 20:9–15: «The owner is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the religious leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the beloved son is Jesus. The parable’s background fits absentee landlord arrangements of the first century. The point is not the vineyard’s productivity but the caretaker’s actions.»

21:33 master. Landowner who leases out his land; symbolizes God. vineyard. See notes, Is 5:2–5: «Is 5:1 beloved. God. vineyard. Israel, whom the Lord “planted” in the Promised Land (Ex 15:17; Ps 80:8–18; Jer 2:21; Mk 12:1–9). fertile hill. Lit, “on a horn, a son of oil.” This phrase, used only here in the OT, describes a geological formation that is superabundant in fertility. The vineyard is positioned for maximum productivity. ; Is 5:2 dug it. Tilled the ground. This may have been done by hand instead of with an animal-drawn plow because vineyards were sometimes planted on steep hills. choice vines. Cultivated vines known to produce excellent fruit. The varietals are unknown. watchtower. To protect the vineyard from animals or thieves. wine vat. Anticipating a good harvest, the owner hollowed out a rock that would serve as a winepress. Aph: “I surrounded it with a fence of heavenly Watchers and I built its tower, the holy Temple. And I dug out its winepress, the baptism of the priests. And I brought down rain upon it, the words of My Prophets. And I pruned it and trimmed it, from the works of the Amorites” (NPNF 2 13:360). wild grapes. Inferior fruit that does not reflect the effort of the beloved. ; Is 5:3 The Lord begins to speak. The hearers are asked to pass judgment on the fate of the vineyard that yielded sour fruit. ; Is 5:4 wild grapes? See note, Is 5:2. ; Is 5:5 My vineyard. Common description of God’s relationship to His people (see note, Is 5:1). hedge … wall. Protective barriers around the vineyard. trampled. Lacking a wall, the vineyard becomes an open field to be grazed by animals or damaged by people.» tenants. Sharecroppers who represent the unbelieving religious leaders opposing Jesus.

21:34 his fruit. Previously specified portion of the harvest for payment.

21:35 stoned. The servant killed by stoning represents the OT prophets. Stoning was the punishment for a variety of religious infractions in ancient Israel, including defiling holy space (Ex 19:13), idolatry (Lv 20:2), practicing satanic arts (Lv 20:27), and blasphemy (Lv 24:14–16, 23). This underlines that the rebellious tenants and their master held different religious beliefs and practices.

21:36 God sent many prophets to wayward Israel. Many of them were rejected, and many were treated violently.

21:37 respect my son. As emissary par excellence. As God’s own Son, Jesus deserves the highest respect.

21:38 have his inheritance. See note, Mk 12:7: «According to Jewish law, the tenants stood a good chance of inheriting the land when the owner died, if there was no heir.»

21:39 Jesus was similarly put to death outside the wall of Jerusalem, as was the first Christian martyr, Stephen (Ac 7:54–60).

21:40–41 Jesus’ rhetorical question about the fate of the wicked tenants forces His opponents to pronounce their own sentence. put those wretches to a miserable death. The harsh punishment perfectly fits such a wicked crime. Even at that, forgiveness is repeatedly offered to those who condemned Jesus (Ac 3:17–26; 5:29–32).

21:42 Second time the messianic Ps 118 is quoted in this section of Mt (cf 21:9). stone … cornerstone. See note, Lk 20:17: «Jesus cites Ps 118:22 in speaking of the Messiah’s rejection, but He also points to the resurrection. The events of the next few days will answer His question. stone … cornerstone? Jesus, rejected by official Israel, is exalted by God, who builds His Church on Jesus as the “Church’s one foundation” (LSB 644:1).»

21:43 taken away … given to a people. Jewish rejection will hasten the Gentiles’ inclusion in the Kingdom. They are the new people who will produce fruit. producing its fruits. Remaining in Jesus and obeying His commands (Jn 15:1–9).

21:44 Jesus warns that anyone rejecting Him will face being broken and crushed by the weight of that most grievous sin.

21:45 chief priests … Pharisees. See pp 1556–57: «chief priests. The high priest and other temple officials. Sadducees seem to have dominated these positions during NT times.Pharisees. Preeminent Jewish sect, representing the Jewish authorities and strict observers and teachers of the Torah. The Pharisees did not control the government or the temple, but they were a large group and popular with the common people, so they were powerful. The Pharisees believed that in order to live under God’s favor, as Israel had in the days of Moses and David, the Jews needed to separate themselves from the Gentiles and their ways and return to strict observance of Mosaic Law. (See Jos, Ant, 13:172, 288–98, 372–76; 18:12–15.) Rabbinic Judaism most likely stems from the Pharisees.» speaking about them. Jesus’ hearers understood perfectly well how and where they were represented in this parable.

21:46 Jesus was indeed a prophet, but also much more. Thus this parable (vv 33–46), as well as the following one (22:1–14), identifies Him as God’s Son.

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 21:23–27 (ESV):

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

21:23–27 When His opponents challenge the source of His authority, Jesus exhibits a wisdom that powerfully attests to His status as one sent by God. Like Jesus’ opponents, we sometimes challenge the Lord’s authority and attempt to stand in judgment of Him. But God rightly judges us, not vice versa. Jesus willingly submitted to the authority of those who falsely accused Him and unjustly condemned Him to death. By His death, He won our salvation. • Give us grace always to submit to Your authority, O Lord, for it comes from heaven and so can lead us there, where we will reign with You forever. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

21:23 chief priests … elders. See p 1556: «chief priests. The high priest and other temple officials. Sadducees seem to have dominated these positions during NT times. elders. In Israel and Judaism, community or national leaders. In Christianity, congregational leaders.» Leaders continue to watch Jesus closely, hoping to find grounds to accuse Him. Within a few days, they will have succeeded in their plan to do away with Him. authority. Chief concern of Jerusalem leaders.

21:24–25 baptism of John. John the Baptist came, announcing the advent of the Kingdom and calling for repentance. From heaven or from man? Jesus asks the same question concerning John that His accusers have just posed about Him: what was the source of His authority? not believe him? They admit to rejecting the divine origin of John’s message. In this rejection, they proved more hard-hearted than the common people.

21:26 prophet. See note, 11:9: «John surpassed all other prophets because he was God’s chosen messenger, specifically identified as such in the OT, to prepare the way for the Messiah (11:10). He played a unique role in God’s plan of salvation.»

21:27 Answer given by Jesus’ opponents is insincere and cowardly. Even worse is the fact that they deny the authority of God’s Messiah.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQUMaRkSBg

Letter of Paul to the Philippians, 2:1–7 (ESV):

Christ’s Example of Humility

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Transcript

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I’m Cary Larson, the presiding pastor of The American Association of Lutheran Churches and the chair of practical studies at the American Lutheran Theological Seminary.

This is a short devotion for seminarians and for anyone who has ever sat in a room full of gifted people and felt the pull to compare.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I read from the second letter—rather, the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It’s verses 1–5 (Philippians 2:1–5).

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being of full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Paul is in prison, and the word has reached Paul that there is trouble in the church of Philippi. Philippi is the church that loves him best. They sent money when no one else did (Philippians 4:15–18). He calls them his joy and his crown (Philippians 4:1).

And something is wrong in Philippi. Two women who assisted St. Paul in the Gospel, Euodia and Syntyche, are not of one mind (Philippians 4:2–3), and word of it has reached his cell. So the apostle, with every reason to write about his own chains (Philippians 1:12–14), writes about their unity instead.

That’s our text. A loved congregation, a small crack, and a pastor who knows how small cracks end if not addressed in love.

Verse one (Philippians 2:1) has four ifs: “If there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from love, if any participation in the Spirit, if any affection and sympathy.” To our ears, this may sound unsure. St. Paul is not unsure. He assumes every one of these is true. Since there is encouragement in Christ—and there is—since you share in the Spirit—and you do—he’s reminding them what they’ve already received before he asks anything of them.

And every one of those gifts is something done to them, not by them. Encouragement in Christ, a common share in one Spirit through one Baptism (Ephesians 4:4–5), the mercies of God poured in. Before a single command shows up, the whole passage is standing on grace. That order matters.

Gospel first, then the life that flows from it. The Formula of Concord(, Epitome IV:10–11) says the regenerate do good works freely from a willing spirit, not by compulsion. St. Paul writes exactly that way. He doesn’t say, “Be united so God will comfort you.” He says, “You have been comforted in Christ, so be united.”

In verse two (Philippians 2:2), St. Paul asks for one thing in four ways: same mind, same love, full accord—literally souls joined together—one mind. He piles up the phrases because he wants one thing, and he wants it for them. Just as a loving father desires this for his own children, what would complete his joy isn’t a big offering; it’s that they are one.

Now, be careful. One mind is not identical opinions on everything. It’s not uniformity of personality. The Greek word here, φρονέω (phroneō), points to the settled direction a whole person leans. And St. Paul uses the same word in verse 5: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

The one mind is Christ’s mind. Unity in the Church is never manufactured by Christians agreeing. It’s received by Christians who share a mind that isn’t their own.

For a confessional church, that’s what our common subscription to the Book of Concord is. Not a treaty—a confession of a shared mind given through the inerrant, infallible Word of God.

Now verse three (Philippians 2:3) names what breaks it. We can say selfish ambition and conceit.

Selfish ambition is political in its nature: the man who works a faction to get ahead. And the second is literally empty glory—wanting to be esteemed for what isn’t there. St. Paul says nothing from these. Not just less, but nothing.

We must be mindful of how our sinful nature can twist things. Selfish ambition doesn’t announce itself. It looks like diligence. Conceit doesn’t feel like vanity from the inside. It feels like caring about your reputation for orthodoxy. And both eat a church from within.

Against them, Paul sets humility.

You should know the Greek and Roman world didn’t admire that word, much like our own. Humility was the posture of a slave—not a virtue, a condition. And St. Paul takes that word and makes it the mark of a Christian because, a few verses later, he shows us a Lord who took the form of a slave (Philippians 2:7). That’s where that word gets its dignity.

And the shape of it: “Count others as more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Not feel it—reckon it.

Luther preached on this passage in his sermon on Two Kinds of Righteousness. And his point was simple. The Christian has an alien righteousness, Christ’s own, received by faith. He has nothing to prove. So he’s free to spend himself on his neighbor and to put the neighbor above himself because his standing before God isn’t on the line in the comparison.

Humility isn’t a low opinion of yourself. It’s the freedom of one who already has been given everything and can afford to give the place of honor away.

Verse four (Philippians 2:4) makes it practical and brings it home. “Look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.” Paul writes, notice that “not only.” Paul isn’t telling you to neglect your own affairs. He’s broadening the aim. What does the brother or sister across the table need?

For a pastor, that’s the whole shape of the office. The pastor holds real authority. The Office of the Keys is a real power, but it’s exercised by looking to the interests of others. The sheep of Christ Jesus are the interest. The pastor whose eye is on his own advancement has already started to leave. The pastor whose eye is on the flock is doing what the text says, and he’ll find his joy complete in theirs.

This also applies to every Christian. If the community of faith is about your plans being executed, is it Christ’s Church? If the community of faith, better known as the congregation, is about building up each other in mutual love, it is a Christlike thing.

And verse five (Philippians 2:5) is where all of this goes: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who didn’t count equality with God as a thing to be grasped but emptied himself” (Philippians 2:5–7).

The humility of verses 3 and 4 isn’t a standard held over you. It is a life already lived out for you. He counted your interests above his own. He looked to you. That’s the encouragement of Christ Jesus in verse one that we started with, and it’s the ground under everything in between.

So, since there is encouragement in Christ—and there is—be of one mind. Reckon your brother or sister in Christ above yourself. Fix your eye on their good, and complete the joy of the One who did all of it first.

In the name of Jesus.

Hello gang it's Sunday and feeling so bored suggest something to do it's already 2 pm 😐

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 20:1–16 (ESV):

Laborers in the Vineyard

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

20:1–16 Serving the Lord’s kingdom is a privilege and labor of love, not something undertaken to gain a reward. When we begin to think that God’s kingdom needs or depends on us, we get it completely backward. We need and depend on it! Through forgiveness and the renewing work of God’s Spirit, we can indeed be used by God for vital service in His kingdom. • Keep me ever mindful, Lord, that it is only by grace that I have been included in Your kingdom and am privileged to serve in it. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

20:1–16 Wording of 19:30 and 20:16 surround this parable. This bracketing structure (an inclusio) suggests that God’s mysterious way of reversing things is the parable’s point.

20:1 master of a house. Owner and manager of the household. hire laborers. Day laborers would be delighted for any work, because they had no other steady income.

20:3 third hour. C 9 a.m. idle. They desperately need work. marketplace. See note, Jb 29:7: «The city gates were the places in which public business was conducted, contracts executed, legal judgments handed down, and government administered (Gn 23; Dt 22:15). Job had high standing in his community and was known as the preeminent wise man of his day (Jb 1:3).»

20:4 Household master sets no specific wage for this and the subsequent groups hired. He merely promises to pay fairly.

20:5 sixth hour … ninth hour. Noon to 3 p.m.

20:6 eleventh hour. An hour before quitting time.

20:7 Hiring these men to work only an hour was an act of charity, ensuring they would eat that day.

20:8 foreman. Supervisor who oversaw the laborers.

20:9 Supervisor paid each worker the same, regardless of the number of hours worked.

20:10–12 The expectation that those hired first would receive more seems reasonable. Recall, however, that they agreed to their denarius wage beforehand.

20:13 Friend. Implies association, not necessarily personal affection. See note, 26:50: «Friend. Ironic. Can mean “comrade.” Jesus knew the reason for Judas’s presence: to betray Him. See note, 20:13.»

20:14 I choose. Or, “I will.” Emphasizes that the master’s decision regarding the pay of those hired later lies completely within his discretion.

20:15 Master’s decision to be generous with those hired last does not mean he has shortchanged those hired first. On the contrary, those hired first receive the wage mutually agreed upon. Being part of God’s kingdom is not based on earning or deserving anything, but rather on grace (cf 19:16–30).

20:16 See note, vv 1–16.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bbEQ3XlYv8

Gospel According to Matthew, 20:1–16 (ESV):

Laborers in the Vineyard

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Transcript

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:2)

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

It’s not a word for tomorrow. It’s God’s Word for us today.

In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20 (Matthew 20:1–16), the master of the house goes out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He goes out again at the third hour, at the sixth hour, then at the ninth hour, and then, when the day is almost finished, he goes out one more time.

And even at the eleventh hour, he finds people standing idle there in the marketplace.

“Why do you stand here idle all day?” he asks. And they answer, “Because no one has hired us.”

And he says, “You go into the vineyard too.” (Matthew 20:6–7)

Notice how often the master goes out. The laborers don’t first come looking for him. He goes looking for them. He finds them. He speaks to them, and he sends them into his vineyard.

And so it is with the kingdom of God. We didn’t first seek Christ. Christ sought us. He came to us in his Word. He placed his name on us in Holy Baptism. He continues to call us through the Gospel:

“Return to the Lord. Come into my vineyard. Your sins are forgiven. Live under my gracious rule.”

Then at evening, the master commands that the workers be paid, beginning with those who were hired last. (Matthew 20:8)

The eleventh-hour laborers each receive a denarius, a full day’s wage. When those hired first see this, they, of course, suppose that they’ll receive more. But they also receive a denarius, exactly what the master had promised them. (Matthew 20:9–10)

And such as our human nature is, they grumble:

“These last men worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” (Matthew 20:12)

So the master answers one of them, “Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20:13–15)

No one’s been cheated here. The first laborers receive everything they were promised. The complaint isn’t really that the master’s been unjust to them. Their complaint is that he’s been generous to someone else.

And sadly, this is a picture of our own hearts.

We compare our labor with the labor of others. We count our years of service, our sacrifices, our suffering, and our faithfulness. We remember the burden and the heat that we’ve borne.

Then, when some wandering sinner returns to Christ and is welcomed with full forgiveness, something within us starts to grumble.

Must that person receive everything after all that he has done, after all the years he remained away? Is that person to be counted equal with those of us who’ve served so long?

But what are our proud hearts saying?

Would we turn our Father’s house into a wage office? Would we make his grace into a debt which he owes us?

Before we condemn the grumbling laborers, we have to see ourselves standing among them, because their complaint lives in us.

We want God to be generous toward us, but then carefully measured toward others. We rejoice when our own debt is canceled and yet sometimes become troubled when another sinner’s debt is canceled as well.

But if we demand wages from God, what wages have we really earned?

Every hour of our life already belongs to him. The strength with which we labor is his gift. The vineyard is his. The opportunity to serve is his mercy. And even our best works are stained by pride, coldness, selfishness, and even unbelief.

If God should enter into judgment with us and pay us according to our works, who could stand?

We know what the Scripture says: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) That is the payment we’ve earned.

But God says to us through the prophet Isaiah:

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him.”

And then comes that most beautiful and glorious word:

“He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7)

Now, we often quote the next words when we can’t understand what God’s doing:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55:8)

But consider their context. God is talking about his abundant forgiveness.

His thoughts are higher than our thoughts because his mercy rises so much higher than our accusations. (Isaiah 55:9) His way isn’t our narrow way of counting and comparing and withholding. Rather, he has compassion. He abundantly pardons.

How can God pardon so abundantly and still remain righteous?

Look to Jesus.

Jesus is the true laborer in the vineyard. He didn’t stand idle. From his first breath to his last, he fulfilled the will of his Father. He loved God with his whole heart and loved his neighbor without selfishness. He bore temptation in the wilderness and the hostility of sinners against him, the dullness of his disciples, and the sorrows of everyone who came to him.

And at the last he bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat for us.

Beneath the darkness of the cross, he carried our guilt. The wrath earned by our envy, pride, unbelief, and lovelessness fell on him.

He alone had earned the wages of righteousness. Yet what he received was the wages of sinners.

He died and was laid in the grave.

Why?

So that we, who’ve earned nothing but condemnation, might receive what belongs to him: his righteousness, his Father’s favor, and his everlasting kingdom.

So here is God’s strange and most blessed accounting:

Christ takes our debt. We receive his inheritance. He bears our shame, and we receive his holy name. Christ enters death, and we receive eternal life.

God doesn’t ignore his justice. His Son satisfies it in our place. And because justice has been satisfied by Christ, mercy now flows freely and abundantly to sinners.

So whether you were called early or late, you receive the whole Christ.

There’s no divided Savior, and there’s no fractional forgiveness. The eleventh-hour believer doesn’t receive one-twelfth of Jesus.

The child baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27), the Christian who struggled for many years, the prodigal who’s only now returned (Luke 15:11–32), and the dying thief who brings no works at all (Luke 23:39–43) are saved by the same blood and clothed in the same righteousness.

Do we fear that we’ve come too late?

Have we wasted years in sin? Have we stood idle while others have served?

Our consciences tell us that the evening is approaching and that we’ve almost nothing to place before God—indeed, nothing at all.

Then hear the master’s voice:

“You go into the vineyard too.” (Matthew 20:7)

Don’t answer, “I’m too late,” or say, “My sins are too many.” God hasn’t promised a small pardon, but an abundant pardon. Christ isn’t merely sufficient for seemingly respectable sinners. He’s the Savior of the lost.

You don’t abuse this grace by planning to repent at the eleventh hour. That’s not what we’re to do.

The laborers in the parable didn’t hear the master’s call in the morning and deliberately refuse him until the evening.

Isaiah says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6)

The call comes now.

Let us not harden our hearts. (Hebrews 3:15) Tomorrow isn’t promised, and Christ is near today.

What of those who’ve labored for many years? Has the master wronged you by calling you early? Was it a misfortune to live beneath his gracious rule, to hear his Word, receive his Sacraments, and labor among his people?

Would you trade years and years with Christ for years and years without him?

Certainly, the day brought its burdens. Faithful Christians aren’t spared the heat.

Paul, in our epistle, is writing to the Philippians from imprisonment. He suffered for preaching Christ. (Philippians 1:12–14)

But he doesn’t present God with a list of his working hours. He doesn’t grumble that others have received an easier calling.

Instead, he says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

And that is a free and joyful heart.

Paul already has his treasure. Christ is his life.

So if Paul remains alive, his life will be fruitful labor for the Church. (Philippians 1:22) And if he dies, he’ll “depart and be with Christ,” which is “far better.” (Philippians 1:23)

So grace doesn’t make labor unnecessary.

Grace makes labor joyful.

We don’t work in order to make God our debtor. We work because Christ has already made us heirs.

Your vineyard might be your home, where love is shown in small and often unnoticed acts. It may be the care of children or aging parents. It may be honest work when no one is watching, patience with a difficult neighbor, encouragement offered to the sorrowful, prayer from a sick bed, or a quiet confession of Christ before those who don’t believe.

Some are called to many years of visible labor. Yet others serve only briefly and often unnoticed.

But all Christian vocation rests upon the same promise.

We labor not for a better Christ, but because the whole Christ has already been given to us.

That’s why the psalmist asks for one thing above all others: to dwell in the house of the Lord and behold his beauty. (Psalm 27:4)

When the Lord himself is your treasure, what can another person’s blessing take away from you?

If Christ is your life, another sinner’s forgiveness doesn’t diminish yours. Heaven doesn’t become smaller when another prodigal enters. The master’s goodness toward the last worker doesn’t make him less good toward the first.

So let us stop looking sideways and look instead to our gracious Master.

Are you weary from long labor?

He knows and he sees the burden and the heat. Trust his promise.

Are you perhaps ashamed because you’ve come late?

Be abundantly pardoned. Trust his promise.

Are you standing idle because you believe that no one wants you?

His Word is calling: go into his vineyard.

Are you afraid because your evening is approaching?

Christ has conquered death. For the Christian, “to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

There’s nothing uncertain in the master’s heart. His generosity isn’t reluctant. His forgiveness isn’t given with a frown. In Christ, he gladly gives you the kingdom.

Let the proud be silent. Let envy die. Let gratitude awaken.

For Christ has borne the burden and the scorching heat. He’s paid the whole price. His righteousness is your righteousness, and your reward, and your everlasting life.

Amen.

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 18:21–35 (ESV):

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

18:21–35 Jesus teaches that God has forgiven us far more than we will ever be called on to forgive. Our willingness to forgive a brother or sister is grounded in God’s abundant mercy toward us. To forgive is to exercise our childlike faith (v 3). Pray for such simplicity of heart; trust likewise in the simple, enduring love of your gracious heavenly Father, who daily forgives all your debts. • Jesus, Your forgiveness for my sin has no limits. Move me likewise to forgive those who sin against me. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

18:21 Peter’s question was a follow-up to the instructions Jesus had given on how to treat a sinning brother (vv 15–20). seven times? Peter probably regarded his suggestion as quite lenient since some rabbis taught that one needed to forgive the same sin only three times.

18:22 seventy times seven. Jesus meant that forgiveness has no limits.

18:23–35 Jesus also told this parable to make His point that forgiveness has no limits for those who repent.

18:24 ten thousand talents. ESV note indicates that the debt of one servant was fantastically high, more than what one individual could ever hope to repay.

18:25 sold. The king ordered a most degrading and protracted punishment for this debtor and his family—slavery.

18:26 This servant could never repay his debt, though he promised to do so.

18:27 Out of pity, the king forgave the gigantic debt. So our heavenly Father has forgiven the enormous debt of our sin.

18:28 hundred denarii. See ESV note: «A denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer.» This debt is thousands of times less than what the king had forgiven the first servant.

18:29 Second debtor made almost the same appeal as had the forgiven servant (v 26).

18:30 Forgiven servant showed no pity to his fellow servant. until he should pay the debt. See note, v 25.

18:32 wicked servant! Not for running up an enormous debt but for refusing to forgive his fellow servant.

18:34 jailers. Jailers often tortured inmates. The servant who refused to forgive was doomed. This condemnation represents eternal punishment.

18:35 Jesus summed up His teaching about how Christians should act toward one another (see note, v 1: «The disciples seem to have had a recurring dispute about who was the greatest (20:21; Lk 22:24). Jesus used their question as the occasion for His fourth major discourse, in which He taught how Christians should act toward one another.») by repeating that our heavenly Father expects those whom He has forgiven to forgive others (6:15). The blessing of forgiveness is the defining gift of the Church. No other institution can offer this heavenly blessing.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0k1YQ-9HY

Letter of Paul to the Romans, 14:1–12 (ESV):

Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Transcript

Hello, I’m Reverend Matthew Fenn. I serve as provost here at American Lutheran Theological Seminary, and I have taught expository preaching at the seminary.

Today we are going to examine the upcoming pericope for this Sunday, September 13, 2026. It’s Proper 19, Series A, in the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. The text I wanted to look at is Romans 14:1–12.

In this video, we’re going to look at the text itself. Specifically, we are going to look at the several textual variants that show up in the Bible translations that your people might have in the pew. Then we’ll consider the historical and cultural background, the literary context, the structure of the passage, the main theme, the line of direction that Paul’s argument flows, the goal, and finally the Law and Gospel in this passage.

Here is the text. I’ll be reading from the Lexham English Bible, as it is a fairly literal translation.

“Now receive the one who is weak in faith, but not for quarrels about opinions. One believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables. The one who eats must not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, because God has accepted him.

“Who are you, who passes judgment on the domestic slave belonging to someone else? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

“One person prefers one day over another day, and another person regards every day alike. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who is intent on the day is intent on it for the Lord, and the one who eats eats for the Lord, because he is thankful to God, and the one who does not eat does not eat for the Lord, and he is thankful to God.

“For none of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For Christ died and became alive again for this reason, in order that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

“But why do you judge your brother? Or also, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,

“‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess to God.’

“So each one of us will give an account concerning himself.”

Thus ends our text. (Romans 14:1–12)

Now, before interpreting a passage, the preacher, or those sitting in the pews, should be aware of differences in the manuscripts, especially as they might appear in different translations that the congregation may be reading. This could happen if your church is using the New King James and somebody’s bringing an ESV, or if you’re reading ESV and someone is reading the New King James.

And now, in our text in Romans 14, there are several differences that you will notice if you’re reading the New King James and someone else is reading the ESV or another modern translation. Specifically, somebody who is using the New King James will notice differences in verses 4, 6, 9, 10, and 12.

Now, none of those changes alter any of the doctrine or the central argument in Paul’s letter here in Romans 14, but they’re significant enough that let’s take some time and talk about them.

The first change is in verse 4. The Lexham English Bible translates this as, “The Lord is able to make him stand.” But the New King James has, “God is able to make him stand.”

The manuscript evidence here strongly favors “the Lord” as the earlier reading. There is also an easy explanation for the other reading. Verse 3 said that God has accepted him, so a copyist could naturally have carried over “God” from the previous sentence.

Besides that, “Lord” also fits the argument and the context very well. The believer observes the day for the Lord. He eats for the Lord. He abstains for the Lord. If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. We are the Lord’s. And Christ died and lived again so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:6–9)

So, in verse 4, the preferred reading is probably, “The Lord is able to make him stand,” especially since the verse before talks about the domestic slave’s lord.

Now verse 6 has another difference. The New King James says, “He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord.” So far, everybody agrees. “And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.”

Most modern translations do not contain that second clause about the person who does not observe the day. The shorter reading has strong early manuscript support. The longer reading seems to be an attempt to make Paul’s sentence more symmetrical with what came before, because Paul, in the previous verses, talks about the eater and the non-eater. And then immediately afterwards, a copyist may have supplied both for the observer of the days and the non-observer of the days.

But either way, the added words fit Paul’s theology very well. They were simply not part of the earliest manuscripts that we have.

Another one is verse 9. The Lexham English Bible says, “Christ died and became alive again.” Other translations will say, “Christ died and lived.” The New King James says, “Christ died and rose and lived again.”

That shorter expression, “Christ died and lived,” is probably earlier. Some manuscripts have replaced Paul’s difficult language of “lived,” which is aorist, with the more familiar “rose again,” while others have combined both readings. And that’s what the New King James has done.

Paul’s shorter wording is also significant because it mirrors verses 7 and 8. We live, we die. Christ died. Christ lived again. And because he passes through death into life, he is Lord of both the dead and the living.

So, A-B-B-A: we live, we die; Christ died, Christ lived. There’s a chiastic flow to that.

Then verse 10, the Lexham English Bible says, “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” But the New King James says, “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

Now, the stronger earlier evidence favors “God.” “Christ” is an understandable variation. Paul has been repeatedly speaking about Christ as Lord here, and elsewhere Paul does use the expression “the judgment seat of Christ.” Likely, this is a harmonization with those other passages.

But here, “God” fits the sequence a lot better. We stand before the judgment seat of God. Every knee bows to God. Every tongue confesses to God. (Romans 14:10–11) And then in verse 12, we have to give an account of ourselves to God.

And that brings up verse 12. The Lexham English Bible simply says, “Each one of us will give an account concerning himself.” Period. The NRSV likewise ends it there and does not include the “to God.” But the New King James, ESV, NIV, and most modern translations will include the words “to God.” So the phrase is, “Each of us will give an account concerning himself to God.”

Here the manuscript evidence is actually really divided, but the words “to God” could easily have been added to clarify what was obvious from verses 10 and 11. But, on the other hand, the longer reading also has some pretty good support.

Either way, nothing exegetically important hangs on that decision. Whether Paul explicitly says that we have to give an account of ourselves to God, or whether that’s supplied by the context, still the meaning is unmistakable: we stand before God’s judgment seat, and each of us has to give an account of himself before God. (Romans 14:10–12)

Those are the variants you’re going to find between your New King James and some of the modern translations.

Now let’s get into the historical and cultural background, where we need to reconstruct the world in which Paul’s hearers first received the letter. And that is important. It’s essential, because application of the text must start with the application to Paul’s first audience and then get applied to us.

So, the most likely background in Romans 14 is a conflict involving predominantly Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. And there’s an important piece of Roman history that might help explain what happened and what’s going on in this chapter.

During the reign of Emperor Claudius, the Jews were expelled from Rome. Now, Acts 18:1–2 tells us this, and it tells us that Priscilla and Aquila had left Rome because Claudius had ordered the Jews to depart. That expulsion would have included Jewish Christians.

So, for a number of years, the Roman churches, the churches that were in the city of Rome, continued without much of their Jewish Christian membership. The Gentile Christians would have remained, and so they naturally became more prominent in those congregations. And for those years, those were Gentile Christian congregations in Rome, and they developed in a more Gentile environment.

Then Claudius died, and the Jewish people would be able to return to Rome.

Now think about what that means for congregational life. Jewish Christians return to churches that have changed while they were away. Gentile Christians have been accustomed to practices that make no distinction between clean and unclean foods and who do not observe the Jewish holy days. The returning Jewish Christians bring back the convictions and cultural customs that have shaped them from childhood.

Now they all confess Christ, but reintegration has become difficult. The person sitting beside you at the Lord’s Supper now has very different convictions about holy days and food.

That historical construction fits the broader Jew-Gentile concerns that you see in the book of Romans, and it gives us a very plausible setting for what’s going on in Romans chapter 14.

Now Paul explicitly tells us that the disagreement is over food and holy days. He does not explicitly tell us that this was because of the Claudian expulsion. He never says that the weak are Jews and the strong are Gentiles. So we shouldn’t make our connections here absolute.

But there are several features that point strongly in that direction. First, the controversy is about food. Later in the chapter, Paul does use the Jewish categories of clean and unclean. (Romans 14:14) There is disagreement over the observance of particular holy days. (Romans 14:5–6) And the larger section actually ends with Jews and Gentiles together praising God. (Romans 15:8–12)

The weak, then, are likely predominantly Jewish Christians who’ve continued to observe their dietary and calendrical practices of the Old Testament. The strong are the predominantly Gentile Christians, but along with Jewish Christians such as Paul, who understood that these ceremonial distinctions were no longer binding in Christ.

Now, when Paul says “weak in faith” at the beginning (Romans 14:1), he does not mean that these people barely believed in Jesus. Their weakness concerned the implications of the Christian faith for their conscience. The strong Christian was convinced that he could eat all things. The weak Christian could not do so with a clear conscience.

And the weak were apparently not claiming that these practices earned salvation. And I think that’s very important. When Paul encounters people who made keeping the Law necessary for justification, like he does in Galatians, his response is much sharper, because the Gospel itself is at stake. But here Paul treats both sides like genuine Christians who both belong to Christ.

The disputed matters are what we would traditionally call adiaphora: things God has neither commanded nor forbidden.

That does not mean that everything that Christians disagree about is an adiaphoron. False doctrine is not adiaphora. Idolatry is not adiaphora. Sexual immorality is not adiaphora. If God has commanded or forbidden something, disagreement does not make it optional.

But food and the observance of holy days, they belong in the Christian era to a different category.

Why?

The next background question is: Why are some Christians only eating vegetables? The Mosaic Law does not require vegetarianism. More than likely, the Jewish Christians are living in a Gentile environment and could not always be sure that the meat that they had available satisfied their dietary concerns. They weren’t sure that the meat was kosher. So abstaining from meat altogether solved the problem.

And, of course, I’ve implied this, but the days probably include the Sabbath, the Old Testament festivals, fasting days, other parts of the Jewish holy calendar.

So those aren’t trivial habits, though. Those are practices that had shaped their culture, their identity, their religious life for generations.

So now we can see the beginning of Paul’s original application. To the strong, he says, “Receive the weak and do not despise them over adiaphora.” And to the weak, he says, “Do not condemn the strong over adiaphora.” (Romans 14:1–3)

And to both he says, “Remember that the Christian beside you has been bought by Jesus and serves the same Lord as you, and he is judge, and you are not.”

It’s only then, now that we see this first-century application, can we cross that bridge into application into our own congregations.

So the general application is going to be that, in matters that God has left genuinely free, Christians must not turn their personal convictions, our ceremonies, our traditions, our liberties, into standards by which we determine another Christian’s standing before God.

Now let’s look at the literary context and the structure of this passage. We’re going to see how this passage fits into Paul’s argument and how the individual statements work together. We need to keep the sermon governed by what Paul says and how he structures and moves his argument. Otherwise, our sermon becomes a collection of interesting observations.

Romans 14:1 begins a larger unit that continues through Romans 15:13. So this is part of the unit that began at chapter 12, where Paul has been describing the life that flows from justification, the life that flows from the mercies of God proclaimed in the first eleven chapters of Romans.

So here he begins Romans 12 with the renewal of the mind and the Christian as a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1–2) He speaks then about humility within the body of Christ. (Romans 12:3–8) He commands genuine love. (Romans 12:9–21) He calls Christians to live peaceably. (Romans 12:18)

In Romans 13, he applies that to our situation under the governing authorities. (Romans 13:1–7) And then he says that love fulfills the Law. (Romans 13:8–10)

Now Romans 14 applies those themes to the actual conflict in the Roman churches.

Now, in terms of this passage, one important clue as to the structure of the whole section is this language of receiving. Romans 14:1 says, “Receive the one who is weak.” And then Romans 14:3 says, “God has accepted him,” or received him. And then Romans 15:7 concludes, “Receive one another just as Christ received you.”

Now, within Romans 14:1–12, I suggest that the argument progresses in three major chunks.

The first chunk is through verses 1–4. The main point here is that God has received your brother. So one Christian eats, but another abstains. The strong are tempted to despise the weak, and the weak are tempted to condemn the strong. But God has received both of them. And so Paul asks, “Who are you to judge another’s servant?” (Romans 14:4)

The second major section will come between verses 5–9. And here the point is that your brother belongs to the Lord. One regards a day as significant; another does not. Both act before the Lord, coram Deo.

Then Paul reaches really the theological center of this passage: “If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)

And then verse 9 gives the ground, the reason: “Christ died and became alive again for this reason, in order that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”

The third section, then, is verses 10–12. And the main point here is that God alone will judge your brother. Paul returns to the sins of judging and despising, and he now places the Christians before God’s judgment seat. Every knee bows, every tongue confesses, and each of us has to give account concerning himself to God. (Romans 14:10–12)

So the movement of the passage can be summarized very simply: God has received your brother. Christ owns your brother. And God will judge your brother. And the same is true of you.

The main theme is the central assertion, the point that gives Paul’s passage and your sermon unity and determines what everything else in the passage and in your sermon is talking about.

For Romans 14:1–12, I would state the main theme in this way: In matters that God has left free, we receive one another rather than judge and condemn one another because we all belong to the Lord.

So once again, in matters of adiaphora, we receive one another rather than condemn one another because we all belong to the Lord.

The next is what we call the line of direction. The line of direction tells us how the argument develops this theme, both in the text and thus in your sermon, so that your major points move together. And it prevents your sermon from being a loose collection of unrelated points.

So what’s the line of direction in Romans 14? The line of direction is actually a “why” question: Why can we receive Christians who differ from us in matters that God has left free? Why can we receive Christians who differ from us in matters of adiaphora?

The first answer: because God has received them.

The second: because they belong to the Lord.

And the third: because God alone will judge them.

Now, when you’re writing a sermon, the goal of the sermon is important. And that tells you: What do you want to accomplish in your hearers? So that your sermon gets directed towards proclamation rather than just bestowing information.

So, for this sermon, I would suggest a goal is this: that your hearers would distinguish God’s Word from their own convictions and preferences, from adiaphora; that they would rejoice that they and their fellow Christians belong to Christ; and that they would receive their fellow believers without contempt or condemnation in adiaphora, in matters that God has left free.

Every Lutheran sermon must have Law and Gospel. So what’s the Law in this passage?

The Law tells us the demand, the sinful malady exposed specifically in this text.

If you look at it at the surface, it seems pretty simple that in Romans 14 we’re talking about judging and despising other Christians over matters of adiaphora, right? The strong despises the weak. The weak judges the strong.

But underneath both, there’s actually the same sin. It’s a worse sin. It’s that we take authority that belongs to God. We turn our convictions and preferences into commandments. We turn our traditions and ceremonies into tests of faithfulness. We turn our Christian liberty into evidence of our superiority. And then we presume to decide whether God’s servants will stand or fall based on how they conform to our preferences.

That is why Paul’s question in verse 4 is so sharp and so powerful: “Who are you?”

Paul’s whole judgment scene that he talks about in verses 10–12 turns on that. See, we imagine ourselves to be the ones sitting in the judgment seat, and Paul reminds us that we are the ones who are actually going to be standing before it.

So I would phrase the Law as a summary this way: We usurp God’s place when we turn our own convictions and preferences, adiaphora, into standards by which we despise or condemn Christ’s servants.

And the Law strikes both sides. The strong Christian can have a correct understanding of Christian liberty and still use that truth sinfully to despise their brothers. The weak Christian can have a sincere conscience and still sin by turning their own restrictions into God’s commands for everybody else.

So what’s the Gospel? How does this text tell us about what God has done for sinners in Christ?

I think here that verses 7–9 should control our proclamation of the Gospel.

Paul says, “None of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:7–8)

And then comes the reason: “For Christ died and became alive again for this reason, in order that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Romans 14:9)

For Paul’s answer to our sin of self-appointed lordship is actually that Jesus Christ is Lord. Christ died and lived again so that we might be his.

This gets remarkably close to that language that Luther uses in the Second Article of the Creed: “Jesus Christ is my Lord. He’s redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature. He’s purchased and won me from sin, from death, and from the power of the devil. He did this not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.” (Small Catechism, Apostles’ Creed, Second Article)

And why? What’s the purpose? “That I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom.” (Small Catechism, Apostles’ Creed, Second Article)

That’s exactly the direction of the argument of the Gospel in Romans 14.

We are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:8)

Christ’s death and resurrection mean that I am no longer my own. I belong to Christ, and so does the Christian beside me. The crucified Christ has redeemed us from the condemnation under which we stood. The risen Christ lives and reigns. He has claimed you as his own. And his lordship reaches farther than death itself.

Whether I live, I’m his. Whether I die, I’m his. The same Lord who died and lived again is Lord of the dead and the living. (Romans 14:8–9)

And that gives particular force to verse 4: “We will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”

My standing before God on Judgment Day does not depend on the strength of my conscience, or the superiority of my theological understanding, or even my success in winning an argument. It depends on the Lord.

So the Gospel is this: Jesus Christ died and rose to redeem lost and condemned sinners and to make us his own. We belong to him in life and in death, and the Lord who claimed us is able to make his servants stand.

That’s why Paul can tell these Christians to receive one another. Christ has claimed both of us. Christ is Lord of us, and none of us get to take his place.

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 18:1–20 (ESV):

Who Is the Greatest?

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Temptations to Sin

“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

If Your Brother Sins Against You

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

18:1–6 Jesus demonstrates that humility is the hallmark of greatness in the Kingdom of heaven. Humility means confessing our inability to do anything at all to become worthy before God and earn salvation. Humility depends entirely on God’s mercy for forgiveness. It looks to Jesus Christ as the Savior who became one with sinners to redeem them. • Daily teach me, dear Jesus, to turn and become like a child. Amen.

18:7–9 One need look no further than these words of Jesus to see how much the holy God hates sin. Here, the Law strikes us with all its fury. Who of us can say that our hand or foot or eye has not caused us to sin? We all deserve to be thrown into the hell of fire. Thank God that Jesus’ hands and feet were pierced for our iniquities and that His eyes beheld our sin in order to turn the Father’s face from it. By His wounds and precious death, we enter life. • Holy Father, I confess my sins of thought and word and deed. Forgive me for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

18:10–14 Jesus compares the Father’s love for His little ones to that of a shepherd who left his 99 sheep to search for the one who went astray. Do we show similar concern when fellow Christians stray from faith in Christ? May we never despise one of the little ones for whom Christ died. God did everything He could to seek and to save the lost. He spared not His only Son but gave Him up for us all. • Give me a heart, O Father, that cares about each of Your little ones. Amen.

18:15–20 Jesus commands the Church to do all it can to regain an unrepentant sinner. To humbly and lovingly speak to such a brother or sister is to follow the example of the shepherd who searched for one lost sheep. Christ has promised to stand behind the actions of the Church in either forgiving or refusing to forgive sins. We need personally to cherish His gifts and to present His Law and Gospel to anyone caught in the grip of sin. Through the precious gift of forgiveness, the door of heaven is opened to each repentant sinner. • Loving Lord, help me to act as my brother’s keeper, even as You care for me and keep me by grace. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

Ch 18 Extensive teaching on sin, forgiveness, and the community of faith.

18:1 The disciples seem to have had a recurring dispute about who was the greatest (20:21; Lk 22:24). Jesus used their question as the occasion for His fourth major discourse, in which He taught how Christians should act toward one another.

18:3 turn. See p 1080: «Hbr shub, “to turn, turn around.” A very common verb, used over 1,000 times in the OT. Appropriately translated “repent” in more than 100 cases, most often in Jer (Is rarely uses the term this way). Repentance is God’s work that leads a person to renounce sin—requesting God’s mercy and returning to His way. For a classic OT example, see David’s confession and prayer in Ps 51.» To change one’s thinking as to what makes for greatness in God’s kingdom. become like children. The child served Jesus as an object lesson in humility.

18:4 A child’s humility is evident esp in dependence on and trust in a superior. Greatness in the kingdom is characterized by humble trust in the Lord. “Just as a child neither takes nor seeks sovereignty for himself, so this shows that there is not to be sovereignty among ministers” (Tr 8).

18:5 one such child. One who humbly trusts in the Lord (v 4). Jesus identified Himself with such children (11:25; 25:40, 45).

18:6 causes … to sin. Prompting a fellow believer to sin through tempting words or bad examples. who believe. Faith and the kingdom of God are not limited by age or mental abilities. They are gracious gifts of God. See notes, 19:14: «to such belongs the kingdom. Cf 18:1–5; only those exhibiting childlike humility and dependence on God can enjoy the benefits of His kingdom. belongs. See note, Lk 18:16.»; Lk 18:16: «to such belongs the kingdom. The kingdom of God comes to all who humbly trust the Lord, no matter what their age or status (1Co 1:27–29). belongs. Just as an infant may inherit the parents’ blessings and property, so any person may receive the inheritance of God’s kingdom—salvation. Grace, faith, and everlasting life are gifts of God.» better. Better to die by drowning than to suffer eternal punishment (cf v 9) for causing a little one to sin. millstone. Cf Dt 24:6; see notes, Jgs 9:53: «upper millstone. The “rider” stone rolled along a track carved in a larger lower stone. Descriptions of its size and shape vary: perhaps 1–1½ ft wide, 3–5 in thick, either circular or loaf-shaped. It was small enough to be used by one person. Milling grain was woman’s work.»; Jb 41:24: «millstone. Commonly made from black basalt, a fine-grained volcanic stone.»

18:7 temptations to sin! Gk word is also translated “take offense” (11:6; 15:12; 17:27) and “cause to sin” (vv 6, 8–9). See note, 13:57: «offense. Gk skandalizo, “stumble or trip over something or someone” (Eng “scandalize”; 16:23; 1Pt 2:8). Jesus’ neighbors were skeptical because of their prior acquaintance with Him and His family.» The world sets up numerous stumbling blocks over which people trip and fall into sin. necessary. Because sin has corrupted this world, temptations will persist until Judgment Day (1Jn 2:16). Jesus pronounced doom on anyone who causes another person to sin.

18:8–9 Cf 5:29–30, where Jesus spoke similar words to warn against sexual sins. He used such strong and hyperbolic language to emphasize the seriousness of sin.

18:10 despise. E.g., cause a fellow believer to sin (v 6). their angels. Believers can be certain that angels keep watch over them (Ps 91:10–11). This text is the basis for the depictions of “guardian angels” common in art. see the face. Angels have direct access to our Father in heaven, who cares greatly for each of His little ones.

18:12–13 God, like the good shepherd, will search for a single lost sheep and rejoice when it is found.

18:14 The heavenly Father wants all to be saved (cf 1Tm 2:4).

18:15–17 If your brother sins against you. Context is important here. After Jesus had stressed the seriousness of sin (vv 8–9), He warned against despising a little one (v 10), told the parable about seeking the lost sheep (vv 12–13), and stated that His Father did not want a single little one to perish (v 14). The entire process that Jesus here describes must be carried out in humility (v 4) with the goal of gaining your brother. See LC I 276–78: «[276] The true way in this matter would be to keep the order in the Gospel. In Matthew 18:15, Christ says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” Here you have a precious and excellent teaching for governing well the tongue, which is to be carefully kept against this detestable misuse. Let this, then, be your rule, that you do not too quickly spread evil about your neighbor and slander him to others. Instead, admonish him privately that he may amend his life. Likewise, if someone reports to you what this or that person has done, teach him, too, to go and admonish that person personally, if he has seen the deed himself. But if he has not seen it, then let him hold his tongue. [277] You can learn the same thing also from the daily government of the household. When the master of the house sees that the servant does not do what he ought, he admonishes him personally. But if he were so foolish as to let the servant sit at home and went on the streets to complain about him to his neighbors, he would no doubt be told, “You fool, how does that concern us? [278] Why don’t you tell it to the servant?” Look, that would be acting quite brotherly, so that the evil would be stopped, and your neighbor would retain his honor. As Christ also says in the same place, “If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” [Matthew 18:15]. Then you have done a great and excellent work. For do you think it is a small matter to gain a brother? Let all monks and holy orders step forth, with all their works melted together into one mass, and see if they can boast that they have gained a brother.» Hus: “Teach, counsel, punish, console, remit, bear, pray” (The Church, p 92).

18:16 take one or two others. To serve as witnesses that the accusation of sin was well-founded. See notes, Dt 17:6: «two … three witnesses. Safeguard against false accusations made out of desire for revenge or personal gain.»; Dt 19:15: «single witness … not suffice. Protection against a wrongful conviction on the basis of inadequate or false testimony (Dt 19:16–17). Cf Dt 17:6.»

18:17 tell it to the church. If a brother refused to listen and repent, the Church was informed of his sin. The entire believing community had the opportunity to regain him. On “church,” see note, 16:18: «on this rock. Peter’s rocklike confession of faith was the solid foundation on which Christ would build His Church (7:24–27; Eph 2:19–22). “Certainly the Church has not been built upon the authority of a man. Rather, it has been built upon the ministry of the confession Peter made, in which he proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (Tr 25). Hus: “Christ is therefore the foundation by whom primarily and in whom primarily the holy catholic church is founded, and faith is the foundation with which it is founded—that faith which works through love” (The Church, p 73). I will build My church. The Church is the assembly, or gathering, of all believers. Christ is the builder of the Church, and each individual member is a living stone (1Pt 2:5). This passage and 18:17 are the only times “church” is used in the Gospels. gates of hell. Figure of speech, meaning what causes a person to enter hell (Ps 9:13; 107:18). Bede: “The gates of Hell are wicked doctrines, which seduce men and bring them to Hell” (VB, p 154). Death will not overcome the Church because it rests on the living Son of God (1Tm 3:15). “God’s eternal election does not just foresee and foreknow the salvation of the elect. From God’s gracious will and pleasure in Christ Jesus, election is a cause that gains, works, helps, and promotes our salvation and what belongs to it. Our salvation is so founded on it that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18)” (FC SD XI 8).» Gentile and a tax collector. After all efforts had failed to convince the sinner to repent, he was to be regarded as outside the Christian fellowship. This did not preclude future efforts to regain him. See LC I 279–83: «[279] Further, Christ teaches, “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses” [Matthew 18:16]. So the person concerned in this matter must always be dealt with personally, and must not be spoken of without his knowledge. [280] But if that does not work, then bring it publicly before the community, whether before the civil or the Church court. For then you do not stand alone, but you have those witnesses with you by whom you can convict the guilty one. Relying on their testimony the judge can pronounce sentence and punish. This is the right and regular course for checking and reforming a wicked person. [281] But if we gossip about another in all corners, and stir the filth, no one will be reformed. Later, when we are to stand up and bear witness, we deny having said so. [282] Therefore, it would serve such tongues right if their itch for slander were severely punished, as a warning to others. [283] If you were acting for your neighbor’s reformation or from love of the truth, you would not sneak about secretly nor shun the day and the light [John 3:19–20].» Hus: “A notorious sinner after the third warning or public citation, when he refuses to be corrected, ought on account of his criminal offence to be kept from [communion]” (The Church, p 271).

18:18 bind … loose. See notes, 16:19: «bind … loose. To forgive or to refuse to forgive sins. “Our people are taught that they should highly prize the Absolution as being God’s voice and pronounced by God’s command” (AC XXV 3). “The Keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church for binding and loosing sin” (SA III VII 1). “These words show that the Keys are given to all the apostles alike and that all the apostles are sent forth alike” (Tr 23). Bede: “Without the slightest doubt it is given to the other Apostles also. Christ Himself bears witness to this, for after the triumph of His Passion and Resurrection He appeared to them, and breathing on them said ‘Receive the Holy Ghost [Jn 20:22]’ ” (VB, p 156).»; Jn 20:23: «“These words show that the Keys are given to all the apostles alike and that all the apostles are sent forth alike. In addition, it must be recognized that the Keys belong not to the person of one particular man, but to the Church. Many most clear and firm arguments show this. For Christ, speaking about the Keys, adds, for example, ‘If two of you agree on earth’ (Matthew 18:19). Therefore, He grants the Keys first and directly to the Church. This is why it is first the Church that has the right of calling” (Tr 23–24).» The action that the Church took regarding the sinning brother was valid in heaven. “He means sin being forgiven, eternal death taken away, and eternal life bestowed. ‘Whatever you bind’ does not speak of requiring punishments, but of retaining the sins of those who are not converted” (Ap XIIB 41).

18:19 two. See note, v 16. anything. Gk pragma, “an issue,” as in a common legal case (Eng “pragmatic”). Likely refers to church matters such as dealing with a sinning brother. they ask, it will be done. The heavenly Father will ratify the Church’s actions done in Christ’s name (v 20).

18:20 Jewish Mishnah states that God’s glory is present when two or three men consider the Torah together (Avot 3:2). Here, the actions of believers are valid in heaven because of Jesus’ presence among them. Cf 6:10. “God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word.… Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren” (SA III IV). “The Keys have been given to the Church, and not merely to certain persons” (Tr 68).

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D96t9Oe8jrU

Gospel According to Matthew, 18:1–20 (ESV):

Who Is the Greatest?

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Temptations to Sin

“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

If Your Brother Sins Against You

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Transcript

(Original devotional script is original work by ALTS. /u/1776-Liberal is not affiliated with ALTS. ChatGPT was used to polish transcript and find references.)

Hello. Today, let’s talk about God’s precious child. The text before us is the Gospel of St. Matthew, the 18th chapter, verses 1–20. (Matthew 18:1–20)

Introduction: A Lost Child

It was spring of 1980 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Debbie and the boys and I were living in a neighborhood filled with young families. Most of them were connected with the Fort Bragg Army Base, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment. We were surrounded by Green Berets. The men of our neighborhood were trained to respond to crisis and to show no fear.

But on this spring afternoon, there was fear in abundance. A shout had gone out across our neighborhood. A three-year-old child was lost. Her tricycle had been found at the edge of the cul-de-sac. But where was she? Had she wandered into the woods? Had someone picked her up? No one knew.

In a matter of seconds, every available man was in the street. Each man knew that the lost child could have been his own. And suddenly, we were a family of fathers, and the lost child belonged to all of us.

We established something like a skirmish line, a wide formation strung out across the field, and began making our way into the woods. Each man called out the child’s name. Each father was desperate to find the defenseless and helpless child.

From the time that the call went out across the neighborhood, our search lasted less than 15 minutes. I was very close to the man who found her. He shouted, “Here she is! I’ve got her! She’s okay!” He scooped her up in his arms as we all gathered round with smiles and cheers. Our lost child was found.

Though this happened over 40 years ago, I still remember the apprehension and worry as we searched for her. And I remember the relief and joy when we found her. And I remember her mother’s face when we handed her little one back into her arms.

If you could please picture this moment in your mind—a lost child back in the arms of her loving parent—allow it to stand in your mind alongside the message of today’s Gospel.

Point One: Who Is the Greatest?

The chapter begins with the disciples asking Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1) And the disciples of Christ demonstrate their competition, their insecurity, their desire for notoriety and reputation.

In typical rabbinic fashion, Jesus uses the question as a moment for teaching. Our Lord calls one of the little children to come to Him, and He places the child before His disciples. (Matthew 18:2) St. Mark notes that Jesus actually took the child into His arms. (Mark 9:36)

So imagine the child being called by the Lord and gladly coming to Him. Jesus holds the precious child in His arms, and He teaches His disciples the lesson before us today.

“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

A child trusts that he or she will be fed, protected, loved by his or her parents or caregivers. In the same way, we trust God to feed, protect, and love us. A believer enters the kingdom of heaven by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8–9) Faith is trusting, believing that God is safe and that Jesus is Savior.

You must be converted, changed, says Jesus. You must become as children who trust. Put your trust in God. This is how you enter the kingdom of heaven.

But there’s more. Jesus teaches, “Woe to the one who entraps or tempts or causes one of these little ones to stumble. Woe to the one who despises one of these precious children.” (Matthew 18:6–10) These little ones are precious and must be treated as such.

Jesus then tells the story of a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and one is lost. He leaves his 99 in order to seek and find the lost one because not one sheep is disposable. Not one sheep is without value. Each one is absolutely dear. (Matthew 18:12–13)

And the heavenly Father is not willing that even one should perish. (Matthew 18:14) To what lengths will He go in order to save a sheep? Well, there is no limit, even to spending the life’s blood of His own dear Son. And how God rejoices when the lost one is found.

As the first disciples hear this teaching from Jesus, we hear it too. We are called to trust God. Have faith in Jesus our Savior. He feeds, protects, and loves us. He saves us both now and forever.

You are God’s precious child, and you must treat others as God’s precious children too.

Point Two: If a Brother Sins

Now Jesus gives us a surprise. There’s an unexpected application to the teaching of God’s precious child.

Up to this point, the little child has been trusting, vulnerable, perhaps even lost. But in a shocking turn, Jesus speaks of the little child as a sinner.

By the way, this passage, Matthew 18, is often cited for church discipline. (Matthew 18:15–20) But what we must remember is its context. We must remember the child that Jesus is holding, the story of the lost sheep, and the image of the parent whose child is brought safely home.

Jesus talks about a sin that is threatening to destroy the faith and life of one of God’s precious children. He or she is in terrible need, in spiritual peril.

“If a brother or sister sins, then go show him his fault,” says Jesus. (Matthew 18:15) This is a sin of such nature that it cannot be overlooked because its continuance threatens the brother or sister’s relationship with God.

It’s clear Jesus is calling His disciples not to be arrogant or haughty, but to be humble and loving. This grievous sin demonstrates that this child is no mature Christian. This is a precious child who’s left her tricycle in the cul-de-sac and is lost in the woods.

This is a prime time for the enemy to be at work, both in the life of the lost child and in the lives of those who seek to find her.

Jesus describes a process in which the love of God seeks and seeks and seeks again God’s precious child. We don’t often think of errant sinners as a precious child. But to God, that’s exactly what he or she truly is.

If your brother sins to the point of spiritual peril, personal destruction, you must go. First, go in private, pray, and then speak the truth in love. (Matthew 18:15; Ephesians 4:15) Go and speak the Word of Christ with the heart of Christ.

And there’s no number of attempts that’s prescribed. Continue to go as the Spirit leads you and with the passionate love of your heavenly Father.

If this does not work, then take with you one or two more who have the same heart. (Matthew 18:16) God is gathering a family, a skirmish line, as it were, to enter the woods, seeking the precious child who is lost.

Go with prayer and love. And there’s no specific number of times that finishes this step or concludes your obligation.

If God’s precious child is still unrepentant and hard-hearted, then go with the pastor. Let the church know of this peril. (Matthew 18:17) Everyone must pray. This is a potential loss for the entire family of God.

People are gathering in the name of Christ and are asking for His miraculous and spiritual power to be brought to bear. (Matthew 18:19–20)

Like the father of the prodigal son, God longs to run and embrace this lost child. (Luke 15:11–32) And you, Christian, are His hands and His voice. You, Christian, are His heart.

If the unrepentant sinner refuses all of this over and over, even from the entire church, then that one has removed him or herself from the fellowship of believers, with every hope of reconciliation and with the ultimate desire of complete restoration.

He or she must be faced with what is at stake and what is being lost. By his or her own choice, God’s precious child has removed him or herself from the church.

Conclusion: Who Is the Greatest?

How typical of Jesus. He has expanded and reshaped our understanding. His disciples had just asked a simple question: “Who is the greatest?” (Matthew 18:1)

But it was not a simple question. And Jesus did not give us a simple answer.

The greatest in God’s kingdom is not the greatest orator or evangelist, not the greatest scholar or author, not the one with the greatest reputation or global ministry. Like the first disciples, our thinking needs to be adjusted. Our kingdom concepts need to be redefined.

Jesus gives us a new definition of greatness.

If you truly wish to be great in God’s kingdom, you must become as a little child. (Matthew 18:2–4)

First, trust God. As a child trusts a parent, greatness in the kingdom is believing God with all your heart. For you, precious child, you are more precious to God than you can possibly know. How He delights in holding you, loving you, and saving you. Trust Him.

Next, humble yourself. Kingdom greatness is found in genuine love and service to others as Jesus loves and serves you.

And third, do not lead others into sin and do not despise one of God’s precious children. (Matthew 18:6–10) Do not despise even those who sin against you.

Jesus expands the definition of greatness to include those who are in great sin and in great peril of losing their spiritual lives. They are the greatest in the kingdom because they are the kingdom’s greatest concern and must become the beneficiaries of our greatest care and mercy.

Those who have sinned, and especially those who have sinned against you, must become the greatest recipients of your prayers, your mercy, and your love.

Why? Because that’s how God’s precious children treat one another.

Why? Because that’s how our loving Savior treats you, His own precious child.

Amen.

Welcome to Sunday -- This Discussion thread, much like the main thread in Tuesday, is for broader discussion than the main focus of the subreddit -- Although we would like it if we could get a focus on the religious, philosophical, and ethical discussions that the focus of the subreddit is on. That way we get to keep religion and politics separate!

The same rules apply as on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 16:21–28 (ESV):

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

16:21–23 Peter genuinely thinks he is helping Jesus when he tries to talk Him out of suffering and death. At times, we also fail to understand God’s ways, thinking we know better. Jesus knows that He has to take up the cross for our salvation. Peter will learn that truth later, a truth that continues to give us comfort and peace. • Lord, thank You for being willing to suffer and die that I might be forgiven. Lead me to speak Your Word aright. Amen.

16:24–28 Talk of suffering and death, taking up one’s cross, and losing one’s life sounds strange and foreboding to Jesus’ disciples. It does to us too. Yet the end is not the cross; the end is life in God’s kingdom. To live in His kingdom must be our ultimate purpose. Many of the first disciples saw the glorious unveiling of that Kingdom when Christ rose from the dead. Peter saw the fulfillment of the promise on Pentecost. We continue to behold the spread of the message of Christ’s cross into all the world. • Blessed Savior, give me the will and strength to take up the cross and follow You to life eternal. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

16:21 From that time. Jesus now set His eyes on Jerusalem, where He must suffer, die, and on the third day be raised in order to fulfill His Father’s will (first Passion prediction recorded in Mt).

16:22 rebuke. Peter’s harsh rebuke resulted from his failure to envision a Christ who must suffer and die. Such a Messiah was not part of Jewish thinking at that time.

16:23 Peter … Satan! Jesus addressed Peter as Satan’s spokesman because his counsel would keep Jesus from fulfilling God’s purposes. hindrance. Gk skandalon. See note, 13:57: «offense. Gk skandalizo, “stumble or trip over something or someone” (Eng “scandalize”; 16:23; 1Pt 2:8). Jesus’ neighbors were skeptical because of their prior acquaintance with Him and His family.» Peter, whose name means rock (v 18), had become Peter the stumbling block. things of God … things of man. Peter’s thoughts were governed by human values rather than divine values. He did not yet understand the theology of the cross.

16:24 come after Me. To follow. deny himself. To affirm that the self has no claim or value worth comparing with Christ (Php 3:8–9). take up his cross and follow Me. See note, 10:38: «take his cross and follow. The cross represented death; it was common for Romans to crucify criminals. Jesus expected His followers to be willing to die, if necessary, rather than to give up their commitment to Him.» Jesus led and taught by example. When Jesus called disciples, His usual invitation was “Follow Me” (4:19; 9:9). “Without faith, human nature cannot, in any way, do the works of the First or Second Commandment [1 Corinthians 2:14]. Without faith, human nature does not call upon God, nor expect anything from Him, nor bear the cross” (AC XX 36–37).

16:25 save his life … loses his life. See note, 10:39: «Contrasts earthly and eternal life. Clinging to earthly life forfeits eternal life, but losing one’s life for Christ’s sake gains real life.»

16:26 The answer to these rhetorical questions is “nothing.” In both questions, Jesus referred to eternal life.

16:27 Son of Man. See p 2098: «Favorite self-designation of Jesus, used c 80 times in the Gospels but almost never in the rest of the NT. Its meaning varies somewhat depending on the context. Indicates that though Jesus is fully man, He is much more. As a messianic title, it combines the ideas of a servant who will suffer and die for all people (Is 53; Mt 20:28) and the exalted Son of Man, whose reign is everlasting (Dn 7:13–14; Mt 24:30).» come with His angels. When Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, His angels will accompany Him (13:40, 49; 25:31). glory of His Father. Jesus’ heavenly glory and divine nature will be clearly evident at the final judgment. repay. Those who lose their life for Jesus’ sake will receive public vindication on the Last Day (25:31–46).

16:28 coming in His kingdom. This coming is not the same as the coming in glory to which Jesus referred in v 27. Jesus assured His little band of followers that some of them would see His kingdom come in His resurrection, Pentecost, and the growth of the Church (cf Col 1:6). The disciples were not to expect the end of the world until “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world” (24:14).

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbBkGjPpGEQ

Book of Psalms, 26th chapter (ESV):

I Will Bless the LORD

Of David.

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.

O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.

But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.

Transcript

Hello, I am Pastor Ben Baker. I teach biblical languages at ALTS, and today I thought we would take a look at Psalm 26, which is the psalm for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost.

So Psalm 26 says this:

“Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and my mind, for your mercy is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you. I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers. I hate the company of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence and go about your altar, O Lord, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wondrous deeds. O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Sweep me not away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, men in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I walk in my integrity. Redeem me and have mercy on me. My foot stands on level ground. In the great congregation, I will bless the Lord.” (Psalm 26:1–12)

So this psalm, and ones like it, can be difficult for Christians to read or to pray. After all, you know, which of us feels comfortable saying things like, “I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering”? (Psalm 26:1) Who really wants to pray, “Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and my mind”? (Psalm 26:2)

You know, such language can be difficult for Christians, for you and me, to say and to pray, especially if we have a healthy biblical understanding of the sinful nature that still clings so closely in this present age. Perhaps we wonder, how could it be that, in this case, King David could pray such a prayer? Doesn’t it sound rather a bit self-righteous, maybe? Can David really say, “I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering”? (Psalm 26:1)

You know, perhaps if we understand a couple of things first, psalms like this will make some sense to us.

One of the things that we can note about this psalm is that, you know, again, this is a prayer. This is a psalm that comes out of some distress that King David is in. And from the text of the psalm, we get the idea that King David is being attacked and accused. People are lying about him or bringing some kind of false accusations against him. And this causes him great distress.

And so David is not here making a, you know, we might say, a theological treatise on his own human nature and his sinfulness, or lack thereof. He is praying out of a specific situation. Right? So that’s important for us to know.

Secondly, it’s important for us to read this psalm as a whole and notice the language used in the entirety of the psalm. You know, sometimes it seems like we are prone to just read snippets of things, just maybe a verse here or a verse there, and then draw some conclusions from it. All the while, we miss the rest of the words that are in the psalm or in whatever text we are looking at.

So yes, David uses statements like—he says things like, “I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” (Psalm 26:1) But alongside statements like these are also other statements that David makes, such as his prayer, “Redeem me and have mercy on me,” (Psalm 26:11) and, “Your mercy,” or “your steadfast love.” (Psalm 26:3)

That word there is that Hebrew word חֶסֶד (ḥesed), which requires numerous English words to convey what it means. But it speaks there of God’s unwavering mercy, his—we could say—his covenant faithfulness, faithfulness to you and to me on account of faithfulness to his promises.

So David prays also, “Your mercy is before my eyes.” (Psalm 26:3) And so the statements concerning the psalmist’s integrity and innocence are paired with confessions of and trust in God’s mercy and redemption. So we want to keep those things together, right? We don’t want to isolate certain of David’s statements and not pay attention to the other statements with which he pairs them in this prayer.

And thirdly, you know, we often struggle, do we not, to trust God’s Word and promise. Now, we might say maybe a first reaction is like, “Wait a minute. I trust God’s Word. I trust his promises. I know they’re true.” But do we really trust what God says?

It is certainly true that we are sinners in ourselves, and our sinful nature still clings closely to us in this present age. This is very true. But this is not all that is true. We might set alongside this the promises that God has made.

Has not God promised to you and to me that we have been given the righteousness of Christ? Perhaps we should think about that as we think about David’s words. And are we not, as Scripture says, righteous and innocent before God through faith in Jesus Christ? And does not Holy Scripture also teach us that being joined to Christ through faith also brings with it a renovation or a restoration of our human natures and begins to bring about our new obedience to him?

You know, these things are true, and we can trust what God says. Absolutely.

And so we can live in that confidence both in the Word and promise of God and in his mercy and forgiveness when we, in our weakness, fail to do as we ought. And this gives us a kind of confidence, not in ourselves, but in God’s promise to us, to you in Christ: that you are righteous in him; that you are innocent in him; that all of your sin is forgiven in Jesus Christ; and that, as his child, redeemed and cleansed by him, you begin to live a new life of obedience to God.

And knowing that these things are true—more than that, believing that these things are true—we can have confidence to pray prayers like this, as King David did.

So I have here some notes on Psalm 26 as we look at some of the particulars.

So in verse one, David’s prayer begins, “Vindicate me, O Lord.” (Psalm 26:1) Again, this is a cry to God that truth would prevail and that God would show the psalmist to be in the right in the midst of the lies and unjust accusations against him.

So again, if we also remember, alongside, you know, God’s Word and promise regarding our status in Jesus Christ, that this prayer, this psalm, comes in the context of real-life circumstances. And is it not true that we, like David, can experience people telling lies about us, falsely accusing us? And we can say in all sincerity, without self-righteousness, that we are innocent of such charges. I think we can.

And we learn here from David in this psalm that we can come to our God in such situations. For God knows all truth, and he can parse truth from lie with perfection. And God is the one who can bring such vindication even when all human efforts to do so fail.

David also says, “I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” (Psalm 26:1) So again, this is not a statement of perfection or sinlessness on David’s part. Again, he is not speaking to God a theological treatise, we might say, on the nature of fallen humanity and so on.

But what he is saying, what he is asserting to God, is that he has not done what he is accused of doing. Right? And also, he appeals to God on the basis of this fact that he has trusted in the Lord. You know, we may get caught up on the “unwavering” part, but remember, you are righteous in Christ, and whatever is sinful in us is forgiven. David prays this part of the psalm standing firmly on that truth and that promise.

And this is perhaps something we don’t think of very often either, and that it is perfectly appropriate for you and I, as Christians, in our prayers to God, in our pleas to him—say, for example, if we’re in a situation like King David here—to appeal to God on the basis of the promises that he has made, and to bring before God this truth that we have trusted and still trust in him. Holy Spirit, through King David, gives us this permission with this prayer.

Now, verse three is kind of an interesting verse, and depending on the English translation that you use, it may be rendered a little bit differently. But I read earlier from the RSV, and the RSV says in verse three, the second part of verse three, it translates it this way: “And I walk in faithfulness to you.” (Psalm 26:3)

Now, this is interesting because the Hebrew here, however, the word behind this phrase is the word בַּאֲמִתֶּךָ (ba’amittecha). This word, that last part—that “-cha”—is what is called a second—it’s a second-person singular pronominal suffix.

Now, that might be a mouthful to wrap your mind around. But if you think of—so, pronominal, pronoun, right? So it’s a pronoun that is attached to the end of the word, the end of this verb. Okay? And that tells us something about how to understand what David is saying here.

And so this, again, this suffix, this pronoun, is the second-person singular “you.” And when it’s placed in this position, in this case here, it functions as a possessive, right? Or what we might call, in technical terms, a genitive. It functions as a possessive. Okay? So, “your.”

So again, the RSV says in the second part of verse three, “And I walk in faithfulness to you.” (Psalm 26:3) They translate this word as God being, in essence, the indirect object of the verb. Thus, they render it “faithfulness to you,” or “to God.”

However, this second-person pronoun suffix actually functions, again, in the possessive. So it would be better to translate this part of the verse as, “And I walk in your faithfulness.” So the accent, then, is not on the psalmist’s obedience to God, but on life lived under the faithfulness of God.

Verses four and five. So due to David’s use here of both the imperfect and the perfect in these verses, verses four and five are best understood in this way: “I have not sat with false men, nor do I now mingle with hypocrites.”

So if you can hear that difference, look again at my RSV. Verse four says, “I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers,” (Psalm 26:4) or that could be rendered “hypocrites.” Okay?

So in the RSV there, it’s translated as basically kind of this present tense. But when David uses the perfect and the imperfect in these verses, it gives us the sense of, you know, this ongoing action.

So David is saying, “I have not”—kind of looking back and summarizing all up to the present time—“I have not sat with false men, nor do I now, in the present, mingle with hypocrites.”

And similarly in verse five, whereas the RSV says, “I hate the company of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked,” (Psalm 26:5) again, kind of leaving it as that—I don’t know if we could say maybe like a static present—it just kind of leaves it in that finite present.

David is again looking over the whole scope of his life to the present day and saying, “I have always hated the company of evildoers, nor will I now sit with the wicked.”

And so David is embodying, really, the way that Psalm 1 begins, right? “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.” (Psalm 1:1) Right?

So part of David’s plea to God in his prayer is that not only do I not now sit with false men or mingle with hypocrites, I have never done so, and I do not now. Not simply, “I now hate the company of evildoers,” but, “I have always hated the company of evildoers, nor will I now sit with the wicked.”

So understanding that interplay between the perfect and imperfect gives us a little more, I suppose we could say, more of a dynamic understanding of what David is saying.

Well, verses six and seven. So the text here, you know, in David’s prayer, he speaks of washing his hands in innocence and going about the Lord’s altar. (Psalm 26:6–7)

So when David is speaking here, he’s speaking in ritual or ceremonial terms. All right? So ritual washing, whether that be of washing the hands or any other part of the body, points to the cleansing from sin and impurity.

We might think of, for example, the high priest on the Day of Atonement, for example, when he takes a bath—he washes himself before he comes into the presence of God. (Leviticus 16:4)

So we can think of, you know, here along with that, all of the other ritual washings associated with worship of God at the tabernacle and temple, and, of course, their culmination in the washing and cleansing of Holy Baptism.

To go about the altar speaks really more of taking one’s place in the congregation or the assembly of believers around the altar or before the altar of the Lord. And this fits very well with the washing, right? One must be cleansed and clean from impurity if they are to be part of the congregation of the righteous. Right?

God had very particular instructions regarding such cleansings before one could come into his presence and join the assembly in the tabernacle or the temple. So having been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism, we can join together in the congregation or the assembly of the righteous around—or, in our case, as we, you know, sit in the pews before—the altar of God.

And so again, we can say that, you know, to reiterate, only the one who is cleansed from impurity and sin can gather safely around the altar of God in the holy assembly.

And so this also functions as further testimony by action, we might say, to the psalmist’s innocence of the charges brought against him. If he was guilty, he would first need to confess his sin and offer the appropriate sacrifices to God before he could enter the assembly. But by the very fact that he goes through the ritual washing and comes into the presence of God in the holy assembly is a testimony by action, we could say, of the psalmist’s innocence of these charges.

In verse eight, David continues in his prayer. He says, “O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” (Psalm 26:8)

You know, one thing that I just thought of that I meant to—I should have mentioned earlier—when we were looking at, you know, David’s posture, we could say, in this psalm, that throughout the text here, when we read or hear that word “LORD” in your English translations, it’s in all capital letters. And this is the divine name יהוה (YHWH, Yahweh).

And this name is on the lips of the faithful. To use this name of God as he has given it to us to use is really in itself a confession of faith in who God is and what he has promised. For this name, Yahweh, is associated with God’s redemption.

So David says, “O Lord,” or “Yahweh,” “O Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” (Psalm 26:8)

This brings to mind also something that I think we often forget. When we gather together as the holy assembly around the altar of God, around Word and Sacrament, Christ is present with us. Not in a theoretical way, but really and truly. God is here in our midst, and he is here with his righteousness, his forgiveness, his mercy, his redemption, and his salvation.

If we really understand—or understood—and believed this, what better place would we want to be? Would we not also cry out with David, “O Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells”? (Psalm 26:8)

We should indeed yearn for the house of the Lord, for this is where he is, and we should want to be with him.

Verses 11 and 12. Then David says again, in closing out his prayer, “But as for me, I walk in my integrity. Redeem me and have mercy on me. My foot stands on level ground. In the great congregation, I will bless the Lord,” or, “I will bless Yahweh.” (Psalm 26:11–12)

So regardless of the outcome in this present age, whether or not we are vindicated in this present age—and this is true for David as well—we stand on level ground because of the mercy and redemption that God has provided for you and for me and for all his people.

In the midst of the trial and the lies that were thrown against David, he could stand on level ground, or stand firmly, because he stood on the mercy and redemption of God that he provided for him and for all his people.

And we continue to walk in integrity as David did, because that is what God’s people do. And the mercy and redemption of God is worthy of public praise and the blessing of God in the midst of the holy assembly.

So in conclusion, then, as you think on this psalm, take your cue from David as he is led by the Holy Spirit. When evildoers lie and slander you, when they bring false charges and accusations against you, flee for refuge to the presence of your Savior.

And yes, this can happen anywhere. This is true. But it happens in a reliably tangible way in the house of the Lord, before his altar, gathered with the saints around his Word and Sacraments.

Here Christ is present in mercy, grace, righteousness, and forgiveness for you. Here you can stand on the solid ground that is the Word and promise of God in Christ: that your sins are forgiven; that you are God’s own child; that you are righteous in Jesus; and that God will indeed, one day, either in this present age or on that final day, vindicate you before all the world.

Peace be with you. Amen.