Pious Lutheran

Christ Among the Pharisees , Jacob Jordaens, 1670 What do you think about the Christ? He is no mere worldly king, but He is the Son of God He is no mere lawgiver, but He is your God who has fulfilled the law “ What do you think about the Christ? ” In a way this is a huge question that could take many hours to answer, but in another way this is a very simple and straightforward question and that is the genius of this question for us to consider today. Because the way in which you answer this question reveals quite a lot about your faith. So that is the question I want you to chew on today: “ What do you think about the Christ? ” Among the Jews the Christ was a worldly king. Immediately preceding today’s gospel reading Jesus dealt with the Sadducees, a group of powerful Jews who were largely responsible for the temple. The Sadducees were the theological liberals of their day, since they rejected some basic tenets of the faith, most notably the resurrection of the dead. Jesus put them to ...

The Peasant Wedding , Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567 Honor in the Kingdom of Heaven The exalted ones are humbled The humbled ones are exalted “ When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ” Jesus isn’t just talking about party etiquette. Sometimes Jesus uses ridiculous parables to teach a heavenly truth, other times He uses ordinary and relatable and uniformly understood parables to teach a heavenly truth. Today Jesus uses a well understood and practiced social custom about seating at wedding feasts. Everyone knows, regardless of you...

Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald, 1512 Trust in the Lord and Look upon the Savior God delivers us through the blood of Jesus Christ He ordains the angels to lift us up He intentionally directs us to walk in danger for the sake of our faith After Absalom killed Amnon he fled. Joab directed a theatrical scene between David and a pretend widow, in order to convince David to welcome Absalom back to Jerusalem. In this dramatic scene, the actress recites a powerful line: “ We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and He devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast. ” What a rich illustration she uses of water spilled on the ground. Two other times in the book of Samuel water is poured on the ground. Once when Samuel is judge, after the ark has returned to Jerusalem, he pours water upon the ground as a sign of repentance. A second time David pours the water on the ground when his m...

Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta , Bernardo Strozzi, 1630 Your Heavenly Father Knows what you need, so seek first His Kingdom The situation: The anxiety of the daily grind can be all consuming The reality: Our heavenly Father knows all our needs and gives us all things The reorientation: Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will provide the rest “ Do not be anxious about your life .” You would think given the extreme levels of comfort and ease that we enjoy in our country today that we would have very low rates of anxiety. But it’s the direct opposite. This is, as some call it, the anxious generation. This has largely been driven by the digital age, and over the past two decades rates of anxiety are through the roof, especially among young people. However it’s not just the young, not just those addicted to screens, but many feel anxious and worried about any number of things. A lot of our anxiety today is not related to basic necessities being l...

The Good Samaritan, Joseph Highmore, 1744   God’s People are Those Who Have Faith in Him We typically think my people are those who are like me externally History of the two kingdoms The Faithful Remnant of Samaria was more faithful than Judah We are God’s people through faith The lawyer asked Jesus: “ Who is my neighbor? ” That’s another way of asking: “Who are my people?” We ask this question because like prefers like and we want to love those people who are like us more than we love those who are not like us. This is a generally true principle in many facets of life. We do this in mostly playful ways with sports, where we greatly prefer our team which we identify with and we do not like the rival teams. This happens more seriously between countries, sometimes even to the point of war. This happens with some seriousness between political parties, sometimes leading to political assassinations. This happens in families when one family member defends another even through criminal be...

The Pharisee and the Publican , Barent Fabritius, 1661 The Righteousness of Faith External righteousness is an unreliable predictor of true righteousness Pride often masquerades as righteousness True righteousness is received in humble repentance You can’t judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes. The same is similarly true in regards to righteousness. External righteousness is an unreliable predictor of true righteousness. This is evidently true throughout the scriptures. We see Cain and Abel; both hard working men, both offer the fruit of their labors to the Lord, with Abel the Lord is pleased, and with Cain the Lord is not. We see Saul and David. Saul is a man’s man, tall, handsome, muscular, the kind of man you’d expect to be king. David is ruddy and youthful, you might say he’s a pretty boy. Yet David was a man after God’s own heart, and Saul displeased the Lord. We see a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee is a good solid church goer, lives an upright life, very pious...