St Matthew 12:38-50 (TDP)
LSB 544 O Love, How Deep
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” If you’ve been following along in the Congregation at Prayer or the Treasury of Daily Prayer, reading through the Gospel according to St Matthew, than you know that Jesus has performed numerous signs. Various miracles.
He cleansed a leper. Healed a centurion’s servant at a distance with His Word. He cast out spirits with a word and healed all who were sick (Mt 8:16). He rebuked the wind and sea. Exercised a legion of demons into a herd of pigs. Healed a paralytic. That one was actually in front of some of the scribes and Pharisees. Last week was the woman with the flow of blood and the little girl raised from the dead. These are all after His Sermon on the Mount and we’re only up to Matthew 10! How many signs do you need?
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. So it was in the days of the prophet Jeremiah when Israel and Judah chased after other gods. Committing idolatry of the worst sort. Killing the prophets and those sent to her from God. So it is with these Pharisees and scribes. So it is now. Like the demon oppressed blind and mute man Jesus just healed, they could not see what was right in front of them. Their lips were silent to the truth, but they slandered Him and His works. Committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit they accused Him of being in league with Satan.
They are worse than the Ninevites to whom Jonah was sent! For in hearing the preaching and the warning of the prophet they repented. From the greatest to the least they repented. They put on sack cloth and ashes, feared the Lord God and pleaded His mercy. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish (Jonah 3:9).
What about us, dear Christians? Have we been an evil and adulterous generation? Do we not seek signs of God’s goodness through worldly success? Wealth? Health? Politics? Behold, in His mercy, He has given us a sign. The pandemic. The pandemic is a sign. Historically the Church rightly understood such circumstances for what they were - calls to repentance. Any number of ancient collects and prayers can be read here. Consider this one:
“Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, we, Thine erring children, humbly confess unto Thee that we have justly deserved the chastening which for our sins Thou hast sent upon us; but we entreat Thee, of Thy boundless goodness to grant us true repentance, graciously to forgive our sins, to remove from us, or to lighten, our merited punishment, and so to strengthen us by Thy grace that as obedient children we may be subject to Thy will and bear our afflictions in patience; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.”
All the signs we mentioned previously brought faithful Christians to our Lord Jesus in repentance and faith. All afflictions, all struggles, both inwardly and outwardly are meant to do likewise for us, dear Christians. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons (Heb 12:5-7).
And it is Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, who has given the sign of signs. The sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah was that our Lord would not allow His Holy One to see decay (Acts 2:27). Death could not hold Him. He would be swallowed up by death, but three days following, He would be coughed up on the beachhead of the world’s sin, there to stake His claim on humanity, planting His banner of life where there had only been death.
Jonah is the only prophet to whom our Lord Jesus directly compared Himself. Jonah is a type, but not in every respect. Jesus was unlike Jonah in that He did not need to be driven and forced to bring repentance and forgiveness of sins to the fallen and depraved. He not only sought out people such as this, but He commissioned His closed friends to proclaim His power over sin and death to those very people who sought His death and who hoped that it would sallow Him as the fish had Jonah.
Something greater than Jonah is here. For He didn’t sulk and complain about their conversion as Jonah had. Rather He rejoiced, along with all the angels, that through repentance and faith those who were once His enemies were made His friends and family. Given to share in the fellowship of His life.
What does He say to those who tell Him that His mother and brothers are outside? Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
“O love, how deep, how broad, how high, beyond all thought and fantasy, that God, the Son of God, should take our mortal form for mortals’ sake! For us He prayed; for us He taught; for us His daily works He wrought, by words and signs and actions thus still seeking not Himself but us” (LSB 544:1, 4).
Beloved, by repentance and faith in His Son, the Father has made you His children. Gathered here tonight you are not a crowd of ten or less, physically distanced according to the ever-extending Governor’s Executive Orders. You are a true family. Brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, children of the same heavenly Father!
Has He not, by His Spirit and His Word, driven the unclean spirit from you by the watery Word of Holy Baptism? Plunged into the saving flood the demons flee from you at His command. Sending them away He, together with His Father, by the Holy Spirit - the Holy Blessed Trinity - come and make their home with you.
Beware, dear Christians, for in finding no rest, the wicked foe and his demons will continue to stalk, “seeking someone to devour.”
Cling to His Word, therefore. In times of affliction and sorrow. In pain and turmoil. In suffering and discipline. For He has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. And we pray that He may grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, by patience and comfort of His holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life (Collect for the Day).
Indeed we sing and rejoice in this promise given in the psalm. The 124th psalm is a psalm thanking God for protecting His poor little band, His dear family, from the ruthless tyrants. He rescues you from the snares of the poisonous slanderer. Praise belongs to Him because He has so mightily preserved His Church against her enemies, both visible and invisible, that the very gates of hell cannot prevail against her. May He defend you from all evil and preserve you and your children in the true knowledge of Him and His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Finally, beloved, here is His sign of love and care for you. His Body and Blood, swallowed down by death, back from the grave, risen, ascended, glorified. Hidden now, by His Word, under Bread and Wine, given to you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of your sins, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared for us this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (2 Cor 5:4-5). To Him who dwells with the Father and + the Holy Spirit be glory now in the Church and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
LSB 544 O Love, How Deep
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” If you’ve been following along in the Congregation at Prayer or the Treasury of Daily Prayer, reading through the Gospel according to St Matthew, than you know that Jesus has performed numerous signs. Various miracles.
He cleansed a leper. Healed a centurion’s servant at a distance with His Word. He cast out spirits with a word and healed all who were sick (Mt 8:16). He rebuked the wind and sea. Exercised a legion of demons into a herd of pigs. Healed a paralytic. That one was actually in front of some of the scribes and Pharisees. Last week was the woman with the flow of blood and the little girl raised from the dead. These are all after His Sermon on the Mount and we’re only up to Matthew 10! How many signs do you need?
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. So it was in the days of the prophet Jeremiah when Israel and Judah chased after other gods. Committing idolatry of the worst sort. Killing the prophets and those sent to her from God. So it is with these Pharisees and scribes. So it is now. Like the demon oppressed blind and mute man Jesus just healed, they could not see what was right in front of them. Their lips were silent to the truth, but they slandered Him and His works. Committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit they accused Him of being in league with Satan.
They are worse than the Ninevites to whom Jonah was sent! For in hearing the preaching and the warning of the prophet they repented. From the greatest to the least they repented. They put on sack cloth and ashes, feared the Lord God and pleaded His mercy. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish (Jonah 3:9).
What about us, dear Christians? Have we been an evil and adulterous generation? Do we not seek signs of God’s goodness through worldly success? Wealth? Health? Politics? Behold, in His mercy, He has given us a sign. The pandemic. The pandemic is a sign. Historically the Church rightly understood such circumstances for what they were - calls to repentance. Any number of ancient collects and prayers can be read here. Consider this one:
“Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, we, Thine erring children, humbly confess unto Thee that we have justly deserved the chastening which for our sins Thou hast sent upon us; but we entreat Thee, of Thy boundless goodness to grant us true repentance, graciously to forgive our sins, to remove from us, or to lighten, our merited punishment, and so to strengthen us by Thy grace that as obedient children we may be subject to Thy will and bear our afflictions in patience; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.”
All the signs we mentioned previously brought faithful Christians to our Lord Jesus in repentance and faith. All afflictions, all struggles, both inwardly and outwardly are meant to do likewise for us, dear Christians. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons (Heb 12:5-7).
And it is Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, who has given the sign of signs. The sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah was that our Lord would not allow His Holy One to see decay (Acts 2:27). Death could not hold Him. He would be swallowed up by death, but three days following, He would be coughed up on the beachhead of the world’s sin, there to stake His claim on humanity, planting His banner of life where there had only been death.
Jonah is the only prophet to whom our Lord Jesus directly compared Himself. Jonah is a type, but not in every respect. Jesus was unlike Jonah in that He did not need to be driven and forced to bring repentance and forgiveness of sins to the fallen and depraved. He not only sought out people such as this, but He commissioned His closed friends to proclaim His power over sin and death to those very people who sought His death and who hoped that it would sallow Him as the fish had Jonah.
Something greater than Jonah is here. For He didn’t sulk and complain about their conversion as Jonah had. Rather He rejoiced, along with all the angels, that through repentance and faith those who were once His enemies were made His friends and family. Given to share in the fellowship of His life.
What does He say to those who tell Him that His mother and brothers are outside? Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
“O love, how deep, how broad, how high, beyond all thought and fantasy, that God, the Son of God, should take our mortal form for mortals’ sake! For us He prayed; for us He taught; for us His daily works He wrought, by words and signs and actions thus still seeking not Himself but us” (LSB 544:1, 4).
Beloved, by repentance and faith in His Son, the Father has made you His children. Gathered here tonight you are not a crowd of ten or less, physically distanced according to the ever-extending Governor’s Executive Orders. You are a true family. Brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, children of the same heavenly Father!
Has He not, by His Spirit and His Word, driven the unclean spirit from you by the watery Word of Holy Baptism? Plunged into the saving flood the demons flee from you at His command. Sending them away He, together with His Father, by the Holy Spirit - the Holy Blessed Trinity - come and make their home with you.
Beware, dear Christians, for in finding no rest, the wicked foe and his demons will continue to stalk, “seeking someone to devour.”
Cling to His Word, therefore. In times of affliction and sorrow. In pain and turmoil. In suffering and discipline. For He has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. And we pray that He may grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, by patience and comfort of His holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life (Collect for the Day).
Indeed we sing and rejoice in this promise given in the psalm. The 124th psalm is a psalm thanking God for protecting His poor little band, His dear family, from the ruthless tyrants. He rescues you from the snares of the poisonous slanderer. Praise belongs to Him because He has so mightily preserved His Church against her enemies, both visible and invisible, that the very gates of hell cannot prevail against her. May He defend you from all evil and preserve you and your children in the true knowledge of Him and His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Finally, beloved, here is His sign of love and care for you. His Body and Blood, swallowed down by death, back from the grave, risen, ascended, glorified. Hidden now, by His Word, under Bread and Wine, given to you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of your sins, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared for us this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (2 Cor 5:4-5). To Him who dwells with the Father and + the Holy Spirit be glory now in the Church and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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