Homily for Trinity 8

[Jeremiah 23:16-29; Acts 20:27-38; Matthew 7:15-23]

Scary Gospel, isn’t it? “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven.” What does our Lord mean?

He explicates further: “On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out many demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Lawlessness? But listen again to what they said that they’d been up to: Prophesying in the name of Christ? Driving out demons? Doing great works in His name? This is lawlessness and Christ doesn’t know them? What on earth could it mean?

Goes back to “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” What is that will? We don’t have to guess. Jesus told us explicitly in John, chapter six: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

On the Last Day they came crying: “Lord, Lord” and it’s what follows the Lord, Lord that shows the problem. They cry out: “Did we not…” Little piggy prayers. “We, we, we” all the way home. They’re full of the good things they’ve done for the Lord and think the Lord owes them now. They’ve labored and have come in for their pay day.

But the Lord Jesus is the Savior of sinners. These He knows; these He recognizes; these He welcomes and receives. The person who will not be a sinner in his own eyes is one whom Jesus won’t recognize or know. He’s the Savior; He only knows sinners. Not those coming and crying to Him: Lord, Lord, did WE WE WE WE not; but those falling before Him, crying out, Lord, Lord, have mercy, mercy, mercy on us!

If you want to be welcomed by Christ on that day, best to get over the list of what you’ve done for Him, your accomplishments, your successes. Tear it up and throw it in the trash. It’s worse than worthless; it’s deadly. Jesus welcomes and embraces sinners only. If you think yourself better than a sinner, you’re in for a rude surprise on that day.

Saint Paul was one who learned to toss overboard all the righteous stuff he thought he’d done for the Lord. He says in Philippians 3, “I count it as rubbish.". Our highest, best and noblest, we learn to chuck overboard as valueless and stinky before Him. And instead, with St. Paul, we learn to plead nothing but the blood.

“To care for the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” Today’s second reading. That’s the Word of grace that saves. The blood that God the Son spilled on Golgotha. Always those who want to lead you astray from the Lord will tell you that there’s more needed than that blood - there’s something YOU need to add - so that when you stand before the Lord on the Last Day you can boast about what YOU did for Him. In contrast, St. Paul commends the Ephesian elders to God and to the Word of His grace, His grace-filled Word which, the Apostle testifies, has the power to build you up and to deliver to you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Don’t let anyone draw you from the grace-filled, blood soaked words of our Lord - His finished work which is and always must be your only plea before Him. If you have hope in Him, it is that His blood covers your sin; His righteousness yours as gift - and all undeserved, unlooked for, free, mercy, GRACE.

But Satan is such a sly one. If he can’t get at you one way, he works on another. If he can’t trip you up in pride (Lord, Lord, lookee at all I’ve done for you!); he tries to trip you up with presumption. So Jeremiah in our first reading warns against those who told people who cheerfully kept on in their sin: “No big deal! The Lord forgives. Do whatever you want and God will bless you nevertheless.” St. Paul met that crowd too: “Why not sin that grace may abound?” Or, as I like to put it: “Hey, the Lord loves to forgive; we love to sin; such a deal!”

Such a deal is anthema, cursed, condemned, damnable. The Lord didn’t spill His blood for you to remain the servant of sin. The Lord spilled His blood to set you free from both sin’s condemnation and its power. Both. Not one or the other.

Odd thing is that He doesn’t free you from sin by making you strong, but by making you weak. Weak in yourself, so that His strength can be perfected in you. Sin loses its grip when you come to know that there is in you a fountain of corruption that no amount of striving and fighting against will wipe out. It’s going to dog you all your days in this world. And so you’ll never be in the position to say: “Lord, Lord, lookee what I did for you!” Sin loses its power over you when you know that everything you do for Him is stained, tainted, marred, polluted. And so instead of boasting before Him, you can only fall down and plead: “Lord, Lord, have mercy!” And it’s in the asking for the mercy, driving you to the point where you have zero confidence before Him in yourself but 100% confidence in the blood of the Lamb, that you’re set finally free from sin’s condemnation and power. You’ll come to hate it with a godly hatred and to fight against it with every weapon of the Spirit. And you will come to hate the teaching of those who would suggest to you or others that living in bondage to sin is what freedom is all about. You’ll know that teaching for what it is: a lie - a lie from the pit of hell!

Instead, when there is no confidence but in His blood and in His Word of grace, you will hunger and thirst for the cup of that blood and the Word of that grace to set you free from sin’s chains, from the bondage of the old way of life. And through them He will. His word is the fire the burns through the ropes; the hammer that smashes the iron chains that hold you captive, and you’ll be set free to stand before the Redeemer on the Last Day as one He knows: a sinner who does not delight in his sin, but pleads for mercy alone. Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world. Have mercy. Grant us peace. And He has. And He does. And He will. Amen.