Trinity 10
Beloved. Today’s Gospel opens up to us the holy heart of God and shows us the truth of what the Apostle writes [1 Ti. 2. 3-4]: God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth and what the prophet records [Ez. 33.11]: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. In the boldness of faith we hold to these gracious words.
The events of today’s Gospel take place on Palm Sunday. There we have the worshipping and adoring crowds welcoming Jesus. They are full of joy, expectation and faith. They recognize Jesus as the Messiah—as the long promised/ awaited Savior—and welcome Him with the words [Lk. 19.38]: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! And of course Jesus receives this praise and worship as right and proper, telling the Pharisees who were calling to Him to tell the people to stop their praise [Lk. 19.40]: I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Note the contrast between the crowds—the exuberant, unrestrained joy—and Jesus, as we read in today’s Gospel: As he came near, he saw the city and wept over it. Jesus knows all things—He is, after all, true God. He knows that, yes, this is an excited, faithful and welcoming crowd; but He also knows the events of later on that week, that the Good Friday crowd will be screaming for His blood; and He knows that although many will come to faith in Him as their Savior from sin, death and hell, ultimately most in Jerusalem will reject Him—and this after about 40 years of His grace in having His Church there preaching Him, His saving person and work. And their rejection of Him will bring about Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans in AD 70, as Jesus describes in exact detail in today’s Gospel: In fact, the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. Within your walls, they will dash you and your children to the ground. And within your walls, they will not leave one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time when God came to help you.” That’s why Jesus is sobbing in our text. He loves the people. He saved them all by His holy life and His innocent suffering and death—but most would reject Him. Then when His grace and mercy are rejected, He must come in His holy judgment and wrath.
Now as our Lord comes to us in grace and mercy, He can be/ and is so often, sadly, rejected. He came in the days of His earthly ministry true God, but covered/ concealed that divinity with His humanity, and most rejected Him. He comes now to us in His holy word and sacrament, but, again, sadly most reject Him and His gifts and graces. A few days after today’s Gospel, in the midst of Holy Week, Jesus again laments over Jerusalem saying [Mt. 23.37]: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Such sad, haunting words: but you were not willing! God was willing, they weren’t!
Then we come to today’s Epistle, our text: Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. What’s the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian/ one who does not trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life? The Holy Spirit! No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. So then the question comes up: if God wants all people to be saved, why doesn’t He give all people the Holy Spirit? We see the simple answer in today’s Gospel. To put it indelicately: God doesn’t shove Jesus down people’s throats. During His earthly ministry Jesus—the true almighty God Himself—could be and was rejected: but you were not willing. So also now the Holy Spirit: when He comes working in the word and sacrament, He can be rejected. So, then, why doesn’t God “force” the Holy Spirit on people, “make” them to be Christians? When something is forced, it’s not true. If God forced us to love and trust in Him, that wouldn’t be true love and trust. God wants people truly loving and trusting in Him with their hearts, not robots who have no say in the matter.
God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is His greatest gift to us—the Holy Spirit who comes to us in the simple water holy baptism, the Holy Spirit who comes to us in the word. In Jesus’ day, the fatal flaw of most people was that did not recognize Jesus/ did not want to recognize Him as the true God and the long promised Savior—you did not recognize the time when God came to help you. Let that not be said of us with the Holy Spirit’s coming to us in word and sacrament. Let us listen to and hear and receive Him for He is God’s greatest gift to us. Dear Christian, He has come to you and worked faith in Jesus in your heart; He has taught you to know Jesus, to know the true God aright; He has worked true love of God in your heart! That’s why from your heart you can say “Jesus is Lord”. What a privilege it is to confess the creeds of the Church. Dear Christian, because we, by God’s grace, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can truly and joyfully confess: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord…and in the Holy Spirit. We don’t come about the true and right faith by fluke or accident, by our own reason or strength. Instead, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, by His enlightening us, by His work we know God rightly. No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. We first know Jesus by the Holy Spirit’s work on us and then we glorify and honor, love and serve Him. So it is beyond any shadow of a doubt that the gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s greatest gift to us. When He comes to us in word and sacrament, may we recognize, welcome and treasure His work!
Where would we be without the Holy Spirit and His work? St. Paul writes in our text: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols. As St. Paul points out to these Christians from Corinth—before they came to faith in Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s greatest gift to us, they were far from the true God. They were not worshipping Him; they did not know Him rightly. Instead, they were estranged from Him and left to themselves and their own devices they would only have continued that way. They lived in some sort of devilish deception, you were deceived, thinking that some idol/ false god, which was really a demon, could do anything. We, dear Christian, would not be any different. We, too, were conceived and born in sin and as an enemy of God and would have stayed that way, would have continued living in that deception except for God’s grace and His gift to us of the Holy Spirit.
And notice as well that without God giving us the gift of His Holy Spirit we would be slaves as were the Corinthians: You were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols. “Led away” that’s a slave. A slave is led by his/her master from one thing to another. And as spiritual slaves to sin and devil, we would be led from one sin to another, unable/ unwilling to do anything about it, until finally we would be led into hell. Like the Corinthians, we’d be a slave to the deception that the mute idols would be able to do something. To be sure, our idols today may not be carved images but they are things like power, wealth, prestige, pleasure, etc. People think that if they have these they have whatever they need, they have true happiness. But that is a false, misleading delusion. For be it the idols of the Corinthians or the idols of today, they are still mute idols, that is, people may seek guidance and happiness but there is no message, no hope, no help.
But, dear Christian, we have God’s great gift of the Holy Spirit. We know the Holy Triune God as the true God in whom is our hope, help, salvation. We know in faith that He is guiding and leading us, hearing our prayers and answering them as He works all things for our spiritual good. Here there is no slavery, being led from thing to another, but we love Him who loved us first and saved us. And from a heart full of Spirit worked faith and love, we strive to His holy will and look forward to heaven when we will finally be rid of all our sin.
But the Holy Spirit doesn’t just give us the gift of faith so that we know God aright but He also gives to us, His dear Christians, different and special gifts. Our text: There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and yet the same Lord. There are various kinds of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone. And then at the end of the epistle: One and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he desires. With each of us Christians the Holy Spirit works individually giving us just the right and best gift that He wants us to have. Notice there are various kinds of gifts and various kinds of service and various kinds of activity but the Holy Spirit distribut[es] them to each one individually as he desires. Isn’t this amazing? The Holy Spirit wants to and does give to each Christian, individually, certain gifts as he, that is, the Holy Spirit, desires. The Holy Spirit works on each of us individually. That’s the way He does things. He came to each of us Christians at baptism and created faith. He continues to come to each of us in the word, working with us where we are in our faith to strengthen, improve and purify that faith. The Holy Spirit is not “one size fits all” or even “one size fits most.” Instead He cares for and works with each of us individually, giving us the gift that is right for us, that He wants to work through using us as His instrument. He is now giving us those gifts. Our text: Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. God has given us His Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit fills the Christians with these gifts that He wants to work through. St. Paul in our text does not give a complete list of all these gifts the Holy Spirit can give. Even of some that he does mention that were in use in 1st century Corinth, are no longer or very rarely seen today. To one person a message of wisdom is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit provides it; by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else; and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts. Another is given powers to do miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits; someone else, different kinds of languages; and another, the interpretation of languages. But the point is clear: the Holy Spirit gives gifts to each Christian that He can and will work through for the blessing and benefit of the Church. Is there some particular joy or aptitude you have? Do you speak easily with people? Are you able to understand and speak joyfully about the truths of Scripture? Do you have a strong faith that has seen you through trials? Do people trust you for sound advice? These and many other things are special gifts of the Holy Spirit. Use what has been given to you. They are brought about because He is in you, dear Christian. In each Christian, the Spirit shows himself through the gifts that He gives. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire; where there are faith and gifts, there is the Holy Spirit. The wonderful, gracious thing is that we Christians are united with God; He works through us. These works that we do, our using the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us are His works that the new self/ the Christian in us cooperates with. All that we do is done to the glory of God, to advance the Gospel and help our neighbor.
In and through us poor sinners God is working mightily. His mighty power is shown in us. And what is so glorious is that as we use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us, God through us sinful flesh and blood, is trampling the devil’s kingdom underfoot. The Holy Spirit is God’s great gift to us and the source of His other gifts to us. May we recognize, rejoice and give the Holy Spirit thanks for His gracious working in and through us. INJ