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Why Does Jesus Focus on the Word?

2/26/2025

Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
February 23, 2024

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to make seven petitions to our heavenly Father. In the first three petitions, we pray for the Word of God. The Small Catechism explains the first petition, “Hallowed be Thy name,” like this, “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this heavenly Father!”
The second petition, “Thy Kingdom come,” the Catechism explains, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” And the third petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” the Catechism explains, “God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.”
In the first petition, we pray that God’s Word would be taught to us in its truth and purity and that we would be protected from false teachers. In the second petition, we pray that God would give us His Holy Spirit, so that we may believe this Holy Word and be saved. In the third petition, we pray that God would defeat the evil plans of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh, which do not want the Word of God to be sown in our hearts and bear abundant fruit. In three of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that the Word of God would be preached to us, and that we would believe it and be saved.
This seems excessive to us. Nearly half of what Jesus tells us to pray for is for the Word of God! But that is rarely the first thing on our mind. We have a long list of requests for God, most of which have nothing to do with His Word. Yet, that should change. Jesus teaches us to pray first and foremost for His Word, because it is our most precious treasure. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Jesus exhorts us immediately after preaching the parable about the sower and the seed, the seed being the Word of God. This entire lesson from Jesus focuses us on the Word of God. Why is the Word of God such a great focus for Jesus? For two reasons.
First, it is through the Word of God, and only through the Word of God that we can be saved. St. Paul writes in Romans 1 that the Gospel, which is the Good News, is the power of salvation to all who believe (vs. 16). Again, in chapter 10, Paul writes, ‘“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? … So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.” (vss. 13-17)
The Word of God is powerful to save. Not only does it reveal to us our Savior Jesus and how He has won salvation for us. But the Holy Spirit, God Himself, works through the Word of God to bring us from spiritual death to spiritual life, to awaken faith, and keep us in the faith. As God spoke through Isaiah, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (55:10-11)
The second reason Jesus focuses on the Word is that the Word of God is under attack by so many enemies. Our Catechism calls these enemies the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. In Jesus’ parable, he calls these enemies birds, the rocks, and the thorns. Because of these enemies, most who hear the Word of God are not saved, because they reject the Word. And so, for the sake of your salvation, you must ask yourself, which of these enemies are active in your life to destroy the Word of God in your heart?
The birds are Satan, who steals the Word of God from our heart, so that we do not believe and are not saved. Martin Luther, in the Large Catechism on the Third Commandment, speaks of the devil’s work against the Word of God like this:
Also those conceited individuals are to be similarly rebuked who when they have heard one or two sermons turn up their noses at any more, imagining that they now know it all and need no more instruction. That is precisely the sin that has hitherto been counted among the deadly sins and was called acedia, that is, apathy or indifference, a malignant, destructive plague with which the devil bewitches and deceives in order to take unawares and steal the Word of God away from us again.
Be sure to get this: even if you knew the Word of God through and through and had mastered everything, yet all your days are spent in the devil’s territory, and he rests neither day nor night from stealthily trying to sneak up and kindle in your heart unfaith and evil thoughts against all the commandments. Therefore you must at all times have the Word of God in your heart, on your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart remains unmoved and the Word does not resound, there the devil breaks in and does his damage before one realizes it. On the other hand, when we sincerely ponder, hear, and apply the Word, it has such power that its fruit never fails. The Word always awakens new understandings, new delights, and a new spirit of devotion, and it constantly cleanses our heart and our thinking. For here are not limp and lifeless words, but words that are alive and move to living action. And even if no other benefit or need drove us into the Word, everyone should be impelled by the fact that our using the Word shows the devil the door and drives him away, besides the fact that it fulfills this commandment and pleases God more than the glitter of any work of hypocrisy. (Large Catechism: Third Commandment)
This is why later in this same chapter of Luke, Jesus says, “Take care how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.” (vs. 18) And the Apostle Peter warns, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9) You must resist Satan, who seeks to rob the Word from your heart. So, you must not only frequently hear and repeat God’s Word but pay careful attention to it.
Those that fell among the stones, Jesus says, are those who fail under persecution. The stones aren’t persecution itself, but the unwillingness to endure persecution. As the sun beats down on a young plant and the stones keep the roots from reaching the moist soil below, so when an immature faith is pressured by persecution, the weak Christian falls away. We endure soft persecution in this land. We do not live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where seventy Christians were recently discovered in a church, beheaded by their persecutors. The persecutions you endure are pressures to compromise your faith, to remain silent when you should speak up, to acquiesce to the anti-Christian culture. We’re pressured to miss church for sports, work, and other obligations. Jesus says, “whoever would come after Me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow Me.” Yet, many Christians cannot handle lifting even the lightest cross for Christ’s sake.
The thorns, Jesus tells us, are the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life. They don’t look like thorns to us. They look like the most important things in our life: the mortgage, your job, school, career, sports, the things you enjoy doing above anything else, the college football games you go to instead of church, or the weekends at the lake cabin. The thorns are the worries you have about your children or parents, whom you need to take care of, but in that need, your worrying chokes out the Word of God from your heart. The thorns are so dangerous, because they don’t look like thorns. Much of it looks very good. And many of them are good gifts from God, like family, jobs, and property. Yet, you abuse these gifts from God when you make them your gods. And when these keep you from hearing and meditating on God’s Word, they become thorns, which choke the Word out of your heart.
So, how many of these enemies of God’s Word do you recognize in your life? Does the devil seek to drive you from the faith? Are you pressured to abandon worship and God’s Word? Have the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life choked the Word from your heart?
Yet, there remain those who hear the Word of God with an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. What does this look like? How can you be good soil, where God’s Word bears a bountiful harvest? To answer this, we must first consider what the Word is, which must be sown into our hearts. That Word is the message of Christ, who though being God, He became man, humbled Himself by suffering and dying for our sins on the cross. Christ speaks of His death when He says in John 12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (vs. 24) Christ is that grain of wheat, which was buried in the ground, but has risen to bear much fruit. Having won salvation for all, He sows His Gospel everywhere, so that whoever receives it in faith may be part of His harvest of saints into eternal life. St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.” (vs. 23)
Yet, the message of the cross is foolishness to this world. The seed of Christ is despised. And so, those who bear much fruit must first become like the seed, which is sown: despised and weak in the eyes of the world. You do not defeat Satan, the world, or your sinful flesh by your own strength or boasting. St. Paul refrained from boasting in himself when confronted with false “super apostles,” who sought to rob the congregations under his care. Instead, he boasted in his weakness, so that Christ’s power could rest upon him.
So, for your soil to be good soil, you must become weak. You must recognize that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness. You must endure affliction from the Lord, so that your soil may be broken up into good soil for the Word to sprout and take root. The Psalmist says, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. (Psalm 119:67) And so, we repent of our sins as the Law exposes them to us, and we rejoice in our tribulations and crosses, knowing that God uses them to ready the soil for His Word. We become weak, so that we may be made strong in Christ and bear abundant fruit, even eternal life. You do not defeat Satan, the world, and your sinful flesh by your strength, but by your weakness. And in your weakness, God’s Word finds good soil to implant the strength of Christ. Amen.

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The Vineyard of Grace

2/18/2025

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Septuagesima Sunday
Matthew 20:1-16
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
February 16, 2025

The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who hires laborers for his vineyard. The vineyard is the Christian Church on earth. The laborers are Christians, who are called into the vineyard to work. If you are a Christian, then you are a laborer in the Lord’s vineyard. So, here’s the question. On what basis will the Lord pay the laborers in his vineyard? The master said to those whom he hired throughout the day, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” But what is right? Will the master base what is right on how much work the laborer accomplished or on how many hours he worked? Are Christians rewarded based on their works? The clear answer from the parable is no. The laborers in the vineyard are rewarded based on the master’s generosity. And so, Christians are rewarded, not based on their works, but based solely on God’s grace. This is the meaning of Jesus’ statement, “The last will be first, and the first last.”
Very quickly Jesus’ parable departs from what you would expect of an earthly vineyard. Hiring laborers early in the morning with an agreed upon wage, we would expect. But going out throughout the day to hire more, to promise them whatever is right, that is unusual. And what is the point of hiring workers for just the last hour? How much work can they get done? And to turn everything completely upside down, the master instructs his foreman to call those who came last to be paid first, and he paid those who worked one hour the same as those who worked twelve. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that the master is not paying any of the workers based on their input, their labor, their efforts, their work, but solely on his own generosity. Whatever is right is not whatever they’ve earned, but rather what is right is based on the master’s grace.
And this is the consistent teaching of Holy Scripture. God saves us by grace. “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift from God, not a result of works, lest anyone may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) The master said, “Whatever is right, I will give you.” The word right is the same word as righteous or just, and is related to the word righteousness. To be justified means to be declared righteous. Most believe that a person is justified based on his works, just as most people believe that the right wage for a worker is based on how much he has worked. But it is not so in the kingdom of God. Rather, it is the one who does not work, but trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly whose faith is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:5). St. Paul writes in Romans 3, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received through faith.” Paul consistently teaches that a person is justified, that is, declared righteous by faith apart from works of the Law. He writes in Galatians 2, “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” (vs. 16) And Paul always pairs faith with grace, because as he says in Romans 4, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.” Faith is the act of receiving a gift. Grace is a gift from God.
The three Gesima Sundays before Lent focus on the three Solas. This Sunday is Grace alone. Next Sunday, with the parable of the sower, is Scripture alone. The Sunday after that, with Jesus’ healing the blind beggar, who believed in Him is Faith alone. But the focus of this sermon is grace. But what is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved love for us. For God to save by grace means that God saves as a free gift. However, not everyone defines grace that way.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that grace is a divine help, which God gives. They teach that God infuses us with grace to enable us to do what we need to do to be justified. They teach that at first, God will reward a work, not based on the value of the work, but on God’s generosity. But then after the person has received more grace, that is, help, the person begins to truly earn a reward based on the value of the work. So, instead of a sinner receiving a reward based purely on God’s generosity, the sinner receives a reward based on his work, which God helped him to do. And there are many variations of this teaching in Christianity and in other world religions. “Sure, God will help you. That’s his grace. But you still need to earn the reward.”
But that is not grace. Grace is not a help that God infuses into you. You don’t find grace in yourself at all. You find grace in God. God’s grace is God’s generosity, God’s attitude, God’s work. This is why the acronym, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense (GRACE) is a helpful tool. Where do you find God’s grace? You find it in the crucifixion of Christ Jesus, whom God sent to make atonement for your sins. You find it in the preaching of the cross, in your Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper, which declare Christ’s work of salvation to you. On what is the reward given to the laborers based? The reward is based on Christ’s Work. It is at Christ’s expense that you are paid in the kingdom of heaven.
God is not unjust. He is righteous. That is why He does not ignore sin. Yet, He declares us sinners just. He pays those who do not earn the wage. How can He do this? Because Christ has earned the wage for us. Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; Jeremiah 23:6). He paid for our sins on the cross. That is why St. Paul writes in Philippians 3 that he considers all of his own righteousness and merits as rubbish, so that he may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:8-9). The master did not pay the laborers counterfeit money when he paid them what they didn’t earn. He gave them real money from his own purse. Likewise, God does not lie when He declares us righteous. He declares to us real righteousness, bought and paid for by the perfect obedience of Christ and His holy labor on the cross for us. And so, you do not find God’s grace in your measly works, but in the labor of Christ Himself.
The proper understanding of grace is so important, for two reasons. First, it gives proper honor to Christ. Christ has completely satisfied the Law in your stead and taken away all your sins. The baptized put on Christ as a holy garment, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. To say that Christ’s righteousness is not enough is to dishonor Jesus. Second, the proper understanding of grace is important, because it gives you certainty of your salvation. If grace were just God’s help so that you could earn what is right, then you would always be in doubt of whether you have employed his grace well enough.
The Bible never tells us to trust in our works. Rather, Jesus says that when you have done all that was commanded of you, you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ (Luke 17:10) It was not only the laborers who worked but one hour who did not earn their denarius. It was also those who had worked twelve hours who had not earned it. As long as we labor in the vineyard, we receive by God’s grace alone. We never consider our works as meriting our salvation.
So, does this mean that we do not work? Should we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? “By no means!” St. Paul says, “How can we who died to sin still live in it!” When the master called the men, who were standing idle in the marketplace into his vineyard, he did not intend for them to stand idle in his vineyard. He intended for them to work in the vineyard. And so, you, who have been called into the Lord’s vineyard, that is, into the Holy Christian Church, you are expected to work! You are called to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This means that you worship Him. You are called to love your neighbor as yourself. This means that you serve your neighbor, beginning with those of your own household, and then of your congregation and community, considering the needs of others before your own. As laborers in a vineyard prune unhealthy branches, so you labor in the Church by repenting of your sins and putting off the old self and putting on the new self. This is hard work. This is a battle between the spirit and the flesh within you. Christ has called you to cultivate fruit in His vineyard. A person who refuses to do this work should not consider himself a Christian. One who continues in hatred, laziness, and impenitent sin cannot honestly claim to be a laborer in Jesus’ vineyard, but is still standing idle in the marketplace.
We are not saved by our works. We are saved by grace. But you are still called to work. However, some get confused by Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9, where he says that we should strive to win the prize, comparing the Christian life to that of an athlete. Does this not teach that we are saved by our works? No. Rather, St. Paul is telling us how to live a faithful life. He gives the Israelites as an example. They were all baptized into Moses when they passed through the Red Sea, and they all ate and drank the spiritual food and drink of Christ, as we do today through the Word and Sacraments. Nevertheless, most of them did not reach the promised land. Why? Because they fell into unbelief. Instead of continuing to trust in the Lord who redeemed them, they fell into grumbling, idolatry, and sexual immorality. To use the analogy of the Vineyard, they put their pruning hooks down and left the vineyard!
The enemy of your saving faith is your old sinful flesh, which does not want to do the work of the Lord. The way you battle your old sinful flesh is through faith in God’s grace shown in Jesus Christ. St. Paul admonishes the Galatians in chapter 3, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” It is foolish to believe that you will be perfected by your works. Rather, Paul’s call for us to work like athletes is a call to have an active faith in God’s grace. Be joyful laborers, who trust that your Good Master will pay you what is Right, because Christ Jesus has made it right.
Jesus is the Good Master who invites you into the vineyard. He says, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light, because He has already accomplished your salvation. Your work is light in His vineyard, because your pay is already secured by His blood. And whatever additional reward God lavishes on you, He gives not based on your merits, but on His own generosity.
So, work diligently in this Vineyard. Train yourself like an athlete to subdue your sinful flesh under you, so that it does not drive you from this work. In the Lord’s vineyard, your labor is never in vain and your pay is always secure. Amen.

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God Reveals the Invisible Truth

2/12/2025

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Transfiguration
Matthew 17:1-9
Pastor James Preus
February 9, 2025

Jesus did not want the news of His transfiguration to be known until after His resurrection. But after His resurrection, He wanted a trustworthy account to be given of it. So, He did not take all twelve of His disciples up the very high mountain where He was transfigured, but He took three: Peter, James, and John. Why did Jesus take three disciples? Because in Deuteronomy 19, God commanded, “Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” (vs. 15) Peter, James, and John provide sufficient witness to establish the truth of what they saw.
When Jesus and His three witnesses reached the top of the mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them, shining white as light with divine glory. And Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah are two witnesses from the Old Testament. Peter, James, and John are three witnesses from the New Testament. So, at Jesus’ transfiguration we learn something about the Bible. The Bible, humanly speaking, is a trustworthy book. Unlike other so-called holy books, the Bible stands up to the scrutiny of the test of truth. Mohammad was the only author of the Koran. No one else heard Allah or the angel speak to him. Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and other Mormon scriptures by himself. No one else saw the alleged golden tablets. But the Bible was written by forty authors over 1,500 years, with countless human witnesses to the events recorded.
The Bible is a human book. And as human books go, it is trustworthy. However, the Bible is not only a human book. The Bible is a divine book. St. Peter reminds us that no prophecy of Scripture was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The words of the Bible are not simply man’s words, but they are the very words of God. The Bible is God’s book.
So, when God the Father interrupted Peter and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” He was declaring that all of Scripture is about Jesus (John 5:39) and that Scripture is Jesus’ Word. Listen to Jesus! How do we do that now? Jesus is in heaven? We listen to His Word from Holy Scripture. The Bible is about Jesus. And the Bible is Jesus’ Word. It is how He speaks to us today.
As the Bible is a human book with dozens of human authors, yet also a divine book with one Author, so Christ Jesus is a human and divine person. And as the Bible does not carry the faults of other human books, which are untrustworthy, filled with mistakes and even lies, but is fully trustworthy and true, profitable for salvation and training in righteousness, so also Christ while being fully human, does not carry with His humanity the faults of mankind. He is completely sinless and blameless. Yet, as the Bible hides under the disguise of humility in ordinary paper and ink, so Christ hides His divinity under the disguise of lowliness. Yet, as the Bible remains God’s holy Word even under such lowly disguise, so Christ remains God even when divine light is not emitting from His face.
Jesus did not become God on the mountain of transfiguration. And He didn’t stop being God when the light was hidden again and He walked down the mountain in His former appearance. Jesus was God as He lay as a baby in the manger. And Jesus was God as He hung on the cross. The miracle on the mountain was not that Jesus shone with brilliant light. The miracle was that Peter, James, and John did not die when they saw it. Rather, it is a miracle when Jesus hides that light under humility.
Peter wanted to keep Jesus there in his heavenly splendor, but God said, no. Had Peter been listening to Jesus, He would have known that. Immediately before climbing that mountain, Christ told Peter and the other disciples that He was about to go to Jerusalem to suffer from the elders and chief priests and scribes, to die, and to rise on the third day. And immediately after His transfiguration, Jesus instructed His disciples to tell no one the vision until after He was raised from the dead. It is not enough for our salvation that God has become man, which Jesus shows indisputably to Peter, James, and John in His transfiguration. Christ must also pay our debt of sin and suffer and die for us on the cross. While Jesus is a perfect human, with no faults of His own, He must bear the faults of sinful man to save us from hell. The children of Israel were afraid to even look at Moses’ face at it reflected the glory of God. Yet, God would not even show Moses His face, lest Moses died, but only His back. How much less could we bare to see our Lord’s uncovered face full of majesty and glory while still in our sin!
So, Christ must go to the cross. He must hide His glory, so that we may see His glory. He must show His glory by showing us God’s greatest love by suffering and dying for our sins, so that we may know the meaning of His divine light. The same Jesus, whose face shone brighter than the sun, is He who was nailed to the cross, whose face was covered in blood. He did this so that we would not only be able to see His shining face without fear when He returns to judge the living and the dead, but so that our faces too may reflect His glorious light for all eternity (Matthew 13:43). Yet, if Christ does not take our sins away, the light of His face brings only judgment and death to us.
And so, since Christ did not refuse to humble Himself for our sake, so that we might be saved from eternal hell on account of our sins, so we should not refuse to receive Christ in humility. As we could not bear to receive Christ in His divine glory unless He first took our sins from us, so we cannot bear to hear God’s voice in its majestic glory unless first our sins are cleansed through faith. Faith is the instrument through which we receive forgiveness of sins. And faith comes from hearing the Word of God. Yet, sinners cannot bear to hear God’s voice without fainting in fear. And so, God reveals His voice to us through the medium of Scripture and the Sacraments.
The Old Testament records both Moses and Elijah going up on Mount Sinai to talk to God. God hid them both in the cleft of a rock, so that they would not be killed by His majestic glory (Exodus 33:20-22; 1 Kings 19:9ff). They met with God, who exists outside of space and time, so that the future and the past are the same to Him. Moses came down the mountain with His face shining like the sun, reflecting God’s glory. Could He have seen Christ’s transfigured face from 1500 years later? Elijah went up the same mountain and heard God’s voice in a low whisper. Does Isaiah not prophesy of Christ that He will not cry aloud or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burned wick He will not quench (Isaiah 42:2-3)?
The point is, the Word of God is eternal. Yet, in a Book written in history, we have the timeless Word of God. Moses and Elijah could not hear it without hiding behind a rock. Yet, we have it written clearly in the pages of the Bible. In the Bible, we encounter the Holy God, who makes His eternal will plainly known to us. The Psalmist confesses, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:34) God didn’t cause His Word to be written to hide its meaning, but to speak to us in a way that we could receive Him, so that we might receive Him in faith.
The Bible looks like any other book. Yet, that does not mean it is like any other book. Just as Jesus looked like any other man coming down that mountain, and later carrying His cross, yet, He remained the same God-man who emitted pure divine glory on the mountain and who will do so again when He returns on the clouds. So also, the Bible looks ordinary, yet it is God’s eternal Word. We don’t see the divine light shine forth from it, but it is still there. Likewise, we see ordinary water, yet it is a divine washing of the Holy Spirit with Jesus’ blood, which clothes the baptized in Christ’s righteousness. And it’s an ordinary voice of an ordinary man, who proclaims the Gospel to you, but as St. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” So, you have the promise from Holy Scripture, that the Word of God preached to you works in you with divine power. The Lord’s Supper looks like ordinary bread and wine, yet it is the crucified and risen body and blood of Christ Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God’s power, the same body, which shines like the sun.
We do not see this light shining from the Sacraments or the pages of the Bible, nor do we hear the earth shake at the voice of the preacher, yet God promises that these are His words and His works. The Scriptures and the Sacraments are divine, because they are God’s Word and sacraments. And so, they have power to create faith in your hearts, to forgive your sins, to strengthen your spirit against the attacks of Satan, yes, to give Christ Jesus your God and Lord to you.
God’s divine light in God’s Word and Sacraments is hidden from our human eyes. Only through faith do we recognize it. Yet, faith is not pretending. Faith is believing what is truly there, yet unseen. Jesus’ transfiguration reveals the truth we cannot see with human eyes yet. But it is the truth. Christ Jesus is God’s own Son. Remember that as you see Him in humility strive with Satan and win and suffer for your sins on the cross. That is God winning salvation for you, putting His divinity against your sin. Remember that when you hear His Word and receive His Sacrament. Were He to remove the humble disguise, you would die in fear. Yet, He gives them to you in humble disguise, so that in faith you might receive God’s power of salvation (Romans 1:16-17). What human eyes see as ordinary before us; God sees as the light of His Son. May our eyes of faith recognize it as well, that we may be prepared to receive Him when He again reveals His glory to us. Amen.

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Who Sends the Storm?

2/5/2025

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Epiphany 4| Matthew 8:23-27| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| February 2, 202523 Some went down to the sea in ships,
    doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
    His wondrous works in the deep.
25 For He commanded and raised the stormy wind,
    which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
    their courage melted away in their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
    and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and He delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
    and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
    and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love,
    for His wondrous works to the children of man!
32 Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people,
    and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. Psalm 107:23-32
That was just a portion of Psalm 107. Psalm 107 recounts God’s works of salvation found in Scripture, using the following outline: Some found themselves in a sorry situation, they cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord helped them, and so the Psalmist invites us to give thanks to the Lord. If you know your Bible well, you can tell which Bible stories the Psalmist is referring to in each of his verses. So, what Bible stories does the Psalmist teach us with the verse I just recited? Well, in fact, there are three stories this verse describes.
The first is the story of Jonah. God called Jonah to preach against Nineveh, the great capital city of the Assyrian Empire. But he fled on a ship into the Mediterranean Sea, trying to fit in with a bunch of sailors and merchants going about their business. But God hurled a great storm upon the sea, so that the mariners feared for their lives. They cast their cargo into the sea, caring nothing for the profit they had hoped to make, and caring only to save their lives. The captain commanded every man to call out to his god. But they found Jonah a sleep inside the ship. After casting lots, Jonah admitted that the storm had come on account of him, because he had fled from the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. He instructed them to cast him into the sea and the storm would stop. The men tried in vain to reach shore without throwing a man overboard, but finally they acquiesced to Jonah’s instruction. They cried out to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness and cast Jonah into the sea. The sea was calmed, and the pagan men worshiped the Lord, the one true God.
Yet, Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, and was trapped in the belly of the sea creature for three days and three nights. Jonah serves as a type of Christ. Jonah’s experience is a sign, which teaches us of the ministry of Christ. And so, this leads us to the second story described in the passage from Psalm 107. Jesus went into a boat with His disciples. Yet, the Lord hurled a great storm upon them. Like Jonah, Jesus was asleep. Yet, when He awoke, He calmed the sea.
Jonah teaches us about Jesus, but Jesus is greater than Jonah (Matthew 12:41). Jonah was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, but he fled, because he was afraid. Jesus was sent not only to preach, but to die for a hostile people, and He did it praying, “Father, Your will be done.” The men in the boat with Jonah had their own sins for which they were guilty. Yet, only Jonah was thrown overboard and the sea was calmed for his sake. Yet, Jonah was not guiltless. God raised the storm on the sea because of his rebellion. Yet, when God’s wrath raged against mankind for our sin, it was Christ who was tossed into the stormy sea, and the sea was calmed for us. Christ was not handed over to the storm of God’s wrath on account of His own sins. Unlike Jonah, He was guiltless. Yet, like Jonah, he was delivered over to death to save others and spent three days in the heart of the earth.
Why is Jesus better than Jonah? Yes, Jesus is sinless while Jonah was a sinner. Yes, Jesus marched bravely on to suffering, shame, and death in order to fulfill God’s will, while Jonah ran away. Yet, the distinction which makes Jesus infinitely better than Jonah has to do with who Jesus is. Like Jonah, Jesus was sleeping in the boat during the deadly storm. What does that prove? Well, He was tired. Why was He tired? Because He’s human! Humans get tired! Yet, when Jesus awoke, He rebuked the wind and the sea, so that there was a great calm. His disciples marveled and asked, “What sort of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Indeed! What sort of man is this? That’s the point! He is not just a man. He is God. This is what makes Jesus so much greater than Jonah! Jonah was thrown into the sea for his own sin, so that the sea was calm for a moment and the mariners in the ship could get safely to shore. Jesus was thrown into the storm of God’s wrath for the sins of the whole world, and so the sea of God’s judgment became calm as God’s wrath was appeased and our sins were atoned for. Jesus could only do this if He were God. And Jesus is God. As He slept in the boat during the storm, He remained the same God who controlled the wind and the waves. And so, He remained true God, Lord of the earth and sea, when He was nailed to the cross on which He died. Even as He was laid lifeless in the belly of the earth for three days, He remained the God by whom the foundations of the earth were laid and continue to hold together. Everything Christ does as a man, He does as God. He is forever both God and man. And because Jesus is both God and man, His work of salvation saves not just a handful of men in a boat, but it wins salvation for the entire human race.
And this introduces our third story described by Psalm 107:23-32. And that is your story. Although, there is not a specific Bible story about you, the Bible very much tells your story. Because the Bible teaches you about human nature and the entire human race of which you are apart. And so, when Scripture says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that you were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:3), Scripture is speaking about you. And when Scripture states that Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) and to make propitiation for all through His blood (Romans 3:24-25; 1 John 2:2), it is writing about what Christ has done for you.
One thing often missed in this story about the stormy sea, is who sent the storm. People often think it is Satan, or the sinful world raging against the Church. And it is true that the boat is a biblical illustration of the Church, and Satan and the wicked world do rage against Christ’s Church like a storm, and that Christians are kept safe from the attacks of Satan and the world by staying with Christ in the boat, that is, by holding to Christ within the safety of the Christian Church. However, Psalm 107 clearly says, “They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.” And Scriptures states in Jonah 1, “But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” And while Matthew writes simply that a great storm happened on the sea, who is it who commands the wind and the sea and they obey Him? It is not Satan. It is God!
And so, who is it who hurls the storms at you in your life? People are uncomfortable answering this question. Yet, the correct answer is actually the most comforting! It is God. God controls the weather. God is your Judge. God is your heavenly Father, who chastises you and disciplines you for your own good! Paul Gerhardt writes in His beautiful hymn, “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me,” “When life’s troubles rise to meet me, Though their weight May be great, They will not defeat me. God, my loving Savior, sends them; He who knows All my woes Knows how best to end them.”
It is God who sends your trouble. And it is God who takes your trouble away. St. Paul writes in Romans 1, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” The great storm you fear, which you should fear, is God’s wrath against your sin! He is just. He will execute His wrath against all ungodliness. Yet, it is Christ Jesus, true God and true man, your righteous Savior, who stands between you and God’s wrath, who casts Himself into the sea of God’s wrath, and makes it a great calm! God’s storm rose against you on account of your sin. And God calmed the storm by taking your sins away through Jesus’ blood.
Scripture states that God chastises the son whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6). God loved the disciples. That is why He cast a storm upon them on the Sea of Galilee, so that they feared for their lives. Now, how can that be loving? Well, what was the result of this trial? Did they die? No. They cried out to Jesus and He saved them. That is the best result of any situation. This is why St. Paul writes that all things work out together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Jesus said, “Why are you afraid; O you of little faith?” So, what was the result of this trial? The disciples had a stronger faith with better knowledge of Christ and increased courage. They needed to see how weak their faith was, so that they would pray for a stronger faith. Though Christ won salvation for everyone, a person can only receive salvation through faith. They needed to see how powerful Jesus is to save for them to realize who He is. They needed to survive a storm, so that they would have courage to face another one.
When Jonah’s ship was being tossed by the storm sent by God, the sailors cast the cargo overboard to lighten the craft. Boy did they learn perspective by that storm! They set out with confidence into the Mediterranean Sea with goods to trade and make themselves rich. That was the sole purpose of their trip. Yet, when God threatened their lives with a storm, they threw all their wares overboard with which they had hoped to gain great wealth, so much had they learned to value their lives instead of earthly riches. And God does the same kindness to you, although in the moment you do not recognize it as kind. He sends trials into your life, so that you give up your love for things on earth that have become your idols, so that you value Him more than anything, and trust in His salvation more than the fleeting pleasures of this world. It is by taking us through the storms of life that God teaches us to say, “Take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won, the Kingdom ours remaineth.” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, stz. 4)
You went down in a ship, so to speak. And God hurled a storm upon you. And what have you done? You cried out to the Lord in your distress, and He delivered you. You recognized that you are a poor, wretched sinner, who deserves the trouble you endure and more. And Christ has forgiven your sins. You recognize that the things of this life are not your true treasure, and Christ has promised you true treasures in heaven. You called out to the Lord in your distress, and He answered you, so that even if your suffering continues in this life for a while, you have comfort that God will bring you through it for Christ’s sake. Only Jesus can calm the storms sent by God. And you have learned that He does.
So, let us thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! Let us extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

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