Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth; for His word is truth. Amen
The Nineteenth
Sunday after Pentecost (2010)
Increase our Faith, dear Lord
Luke 17:1-10 (ESV)
And he said to his disciples,
"Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they
come! [2] It would be better for him if
a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that
he should cause one of these little ones to sin. [3] Pay attention to yourselves! If your
brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, [4] and if he sins
against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I
repent,' you must forgive him."
[5] The apostles said to the Lord,
"Increase our faith!" [6] And
the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could
say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would
obey you.
[7]
"Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him
when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at table'? [8] Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare
supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and
afterward you will eat and drink'? [9]
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? [10] So you also, when you have done all that
you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was
our duty.' "
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has
called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me
in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and
sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives
all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and
all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.
These words from Martin
Luther’s Small Catechism were given to us to memorize as an explanation of the
third article of the Apostle’ Creed. These are words of great importance. They
are words that not only Lutherans, but every Christian should know. These are
words that every Christian should live by for they speak of the special work of
the Holy Spirit in giving and strengthening our faith; faith which comes only
from hearing the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). These words speak of
sanctification, the very work of the Holy Spirit that keeps us connected to
Jesus Christ and the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins in His holy name.
In the Gospel Reading for
today we listen to the Twelve as they ask our Lord Jesus to, “Increase
our faith!” (v. 5) The Twelve were asking our Lord to fill their hearts
with an abundance of faith enabling them to meet the challenges of their
discipleship. These challenges were many and great and they far outweigh the
challenges we face everyday as we are accosted by Satan’s arsenal of afflictions
and temptations. One of his favorite afflictions is to accost us with the
worldly-view; the subjective and faulty reason of man which denies God and constantly
attacks our faith and our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is a self-centered,
self-righteous view that declares God is dead and humanity reigns supreme. To
save us from such worldly-views and help us to face the challenges Satan throws
at us, we, too, are quick to pray, please Increase
our Faith, dear Lord.
Although the challenges for
the Twelve were many, one of them was to ensure that they were never guilty of
leading a person into sin. Called to lead the Lord’s Church, our Lord Jesus
placed the Apostles into positions of authority regarding the preaching of His
Word and the distribution of the Sacraments. As such, they held great influence
over the people and what they taught, confessed, and believed had to be in
perfect harmony with the teachings of Jesus. To teach false doctrine or to take
advantage of a weak sinner was not only unacceptable, it was scandalous and woe
to anyone who would lead another to sin. So grave was this sin that our Lord
Jesus told the Twelve it would be better if a millstone were hung around their
neck and they were thrown into the sea (v. 2). Imagine, the horrors of hell for
this sin are worse than being weighed down by a great stone and then thrown
into the sea where burdened by the weight of the stone, you would be carried to the bottom to drown in
a most horrible manner; your body never being recovered because it would be
permanently anchored to the bottom of the sea by this heavy stone.
Sobered by this revelation,
our Lord places additional emphasis on their ministry, telling the Twelve they
must faithfully carry out the responsibility of their calling into the office
of the holy ministry by rebuking the sinning brother, pointing out his error yet
not being judgmental, rebuking in such a way that the rebuke will lead to
repentance. Then, when repentance does come, they must grant forgiveness, they
must grant God’s absolution, no matter how often the brother sins or what his
sin consists of. As an under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus, caring for His flock, Jesus
tells the Twelve they must always compassionately minister to a repentant and
remorseful sinner. They are never to judge, that authority our Lord claims for Himself.
These words of instruction
by our Lord Jesus for the Twelve and their successors are a heavy burden to
bear. Pastors must constantly be on the alert against allowing their human reason
or emotions to contradict God’s holy Word. They must shun worldly opinions and
methods when preaching God’s Word or when leading His sheep in worship. The
pastor must hold to the Word of God. As a church we are taught that the true
church exists only where God’s Word is taught in all its purity and where the
Sacraments are distributed according to the commands of Jesus. A pastor must be
diligent to ensure that he meets these requirements when leading God’s people.
Yet many fail to fulfill this requirement. We pray that such failures are the
results of simple errors or oversights rather than a malicious
misrepresentation of God’s Word. Simple error or oversight can be caught and
corrected before it leads our Lord’s sheep astray; malicious misrepresentation
leads people into false doctrine and sin. Such pastoral sin carries a horrible
consequence.
The second part of our
Lord’s instruction to the Twelve can be very difficult to carry out. By nature all
men are sinners and have sin-filled hearts. Our Lord reminds us we all far
short of the glory of God. It is so easy and often so pleasing to our
sin-driven, self-righteousness to look upon known sinners as the lowest form of
reprobates. Did you hear what so-and-so did, that’s despicable; I could never
forgive him/her for that sin! Do you know what so-and-so did to me? I will
never forgive them for what they have done. However, such an attitude is
contrary to the desire of our Lord Jesus.
As a pastor I cannot
emphasize enough the words of our Lord Jesus recorded in the Gospels regarding
forgiveness. The Apostle Matthew wrote that our Lord said, “For if you forgive others their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive
others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”
(Matthew 6:14-15 ESV), the evangelist Mark wrote, “And whenever you stand praying,
forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is
in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25 ESV), and St.
Luke reminds us that our Lord Jesus said, “Be merciful, even as your Father is
merciful. ‘Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not
be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven’ ” (Luke 6:36-37 (ESV).
Forgiveness is a true mark of a Christian and I ask can it be any other way?
No, because regardless of what is done by another, or what is done to us,
nothing is worse than killing the very Son of God by nailing Him to a cross, yet,
while He hung upon that cross, with but a few breaths left, He said, “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 ESV). Our
Lord was willing to forgive those who have not repented, how could we ever be
unwilling to forgive those who have? Yet we know our hearts and the sin that
exists there, so we pray, please Increase
our Faith, dear Lord.
Faced with the requirement
to forgive others while knowing we are nothing more than miserable sinners
ourselves, we shudder at the thought of meeting such a challenge. We know that
there is nothing inherent in us that would ever rise to answer the challenge to
forgive. Therefore, we ask, “What are we to do?” There is but one thing; do
what the Twelve did and ask the Lord Jesus to “Increase our faith!” (v. 5)
God, our heavenly Father,
cleansed us of all sin in the waters of Baptism and made us His very own
children. He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit at that time and the Spirit
has been at work in us ever since keeping us in the Gospel; strengthening our
faith. Moreover, we are not asking for a new faith, but a strengthening of the
faith we have already have. Our Lord anticipated this request and He
established one, holy institution to fulfill our request; our Lord Jesus
established the holy ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the
sacraments so that we could both obtain faith and have that faith strengthened.
Therefore, in order to ensure that our request will
be fulfilled, it is imperative that we remain firm in fulfilling the third
commandment by keeping the Sabbath holy, holding preaching and the Word of God
sacred not despising it by ignoring its preaching or reading, but support and
honor preaching and the Word of God.
Furthermore, faith leads to
good works which are pleasing to our heavenly Father and beneficial to our
fellow man. Yet, we never look to those works for salvation because salvation
comes only by God’s grace through faith which is always God’s gift, not our
work (Eph. 2:8-9). Moreover, our Lord Jesus tells us there is no earthly limit
to the power of faith (v. 6) and we witness this power through the words of the
Apostles and Evangelists.
Martin Luther tells us, “It is easy to determine the difference between this
faith and the righteousness of the law. Faith is that worship which receives
God’s offered blessing; the righteousness of the law is that worship which
offers God our own merits. It is by faith that God wants to be worshiped,
namely, that we receive from him what he promises and offers.” Therefore, faith
is not merely historical knowledge but a true and firm acceptance of the
promises of God; the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting to the repentant follower
of Christ Jesus.
What a marvelous gift faith
is! It is the gift that leads to life eternal in heaven by granting the
believer the trustworthy knowledge that mortal, sinful man is nothing and that
he is incapable of pleasing God through his own efforts. Then faith, when it is
given to mortal man by divine gift, fully and firmly holds to the truth of the
mercy promised through Christ. It leads us to understand that we are sinners in
need of a Savior and salvation. It leads us to understand that although we
fulfill the commands of the third commandment and hold to the gift of God’s
forgiveness, we are still, “unworthy servants; we have only done our
duty” (v. 10).
Just like the Twelve, we
must face the challenges of the world, our flesh and the wiles of Satan, and
just like the Twelve, we know we are incapable of doing this on our own.
Therefore, we pray, “Increase our Faith, dear
Lord, increase it so we can
recline with You and all those who have gone before. Increase our faith, dear Lord so that we can meet and overcome the
temptations and sinful allurements of this world. Increase our Faith, dear Lord, allowing us to cling steadfastly to
Your holy Saving Word of the Gospel, believing with all our hearts that you “hear
in heaven and forgive the sin of your people” 1 Kings 8:34 (ESV) Amen!
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.