Sermon 11-26-23

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the First Lesson and Gospel Lesson for the Last Sunday in the Church Year,

Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24 and Matthew 25:31-46

Righteousness and Persecution

You may not know this, but the lectionary that we use for our Sunday readings follows a three year cycle. The first year is based on Gospel readings from Matthew. The second is based on Mark. And the third is based on Luke. Then the cycle repeats. There is no fourth year for John. However, because Mark is the shortest gospel, there’s a lot of John in the Mark year. Also there’s a lot of John each year in the sequence of Lent through Easter to Pentecost. Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year and we finish the Matthew year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and we’ll begin the Mark year.

Each Church Year the final eight or so Sundays are devoted to Gospel lessons that occur after Palm Sunday, in the final week of Jesus’ life in mortal flesh. In that week, known as Holy Week, Jesus taught and prophesied extensively about the future and ultimate destiny of planet Earth. Most importantly, He taught about the Day of the Lord — the Day of God’s Final Judgment — and the fate of humanity on that Day.

This Church Year, the sequence of teachings from Holy Week, as recorded in Matthew, began on Sunday, October 1st. We saw as a result of all the miracles Jesus was performing in the Jerusalem temple that the Jewish leadership demanded to know by what authority He was doing such things — even though that was plainly obvious. For, who can miraculously open the eyes of the blind but God alone?

This began a series of controversies between Jesus and the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees in the Jewish leadership. As a result, Jesus started telling parables against them. So, on October 8th, we saw Jesus’ parable of the Vineyard in which He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem; judgment upon the Jewish leadership; the rejection of His ministry by Israel and the acceptance of His ministry by the Gentiles. On October 15th, we saw a similar parable, the parable of the Wedding Feast of a king’s son. It’s the one where the invited guests refuse to come. The king destroys their city, then fills the hall for the wedding reception with uninvited guests that have been compelled to come in. And at the end of the parable there’s a guest not wearing the mandatory clothing for a wedding reception — clothing that according to the custom of the time, the host was required to offer a guest upon entry to the banquet hall. We noted in the spiritual meaning of the parable that the wedding clothing is the Lord’s righteousness, won for us on the cross and freely given to all those who believe.

On Sunday, October 22nd, we saw the leadership fail to trap Jesus with the question about the lawfulness of paying taxes to Caesar. October 29th was Reformation Sunday. So, for that special day, we skipped Matthew 22:34-46 where a lawyer put Jesus to the test by asking Him which commandment is the greatest. Jesus then put the Pharisees to the test by asking them about Psalm 110:1. That verse is a crucial verse because it’s the only verse in Moses and the Prophets that prophesies that Messiah will visit earth twice — the second time being the Day of Judgment. Peter used that verse on the Day of Pentecost in the first sermon ever preached about the suffering and victorious Messiah.

Sunday, November 5th was All Saints Sunday, so again because of that special day, we skipped Matthew 23:1-12 where Jesus challenged the practices of the Pharisees. He accused them of laying heavy burdens on people by imposing on Israel the human traditions of the elders supposedly handed down orally from Moses, but not found in Torah. He also criticized the leadership for their love of religious pomp and position.

On November 12th, we saw Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins. In that parable the oil represents the righteousness given by Messiah which is the only means by which we can enter the Kingdom of heaven. Last Sunday, we did a special celebration of the American Thanksgiving holiday. Therefore, we read the Gospel lesson, but I didn’t preach on it. It was the Parable of the Talents, where a “talent” is a technical term from that time used to denote a certain amount of money. Today, we’ll look at that parable along with today’s Gospel lesson.

But before that, I want to turn our attention to today’s first lesson from Ezekiel. The 34th chapter of Ezekiel is one of those places in Moses and the Prophets where Yahweh’s Trinitarian nature is expressed. We read in Ezekiel 34:15-16, “15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” Here Yahweh proclaims Himself Shepherd of His people, Israel.

But wait. If we read just a few verses beyond in today’s lesson, we find this in Ezekiel 34:23-24, “23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.” 

At the time Ezekiel was given this prophecy, King David was long dead. Even the realm of Israel that David organized had just died, having been captured, plundered and put under subjugation by the ancient Babylonian Empire. So, this was not a prophecy about the original King David. It was and is a prophecy about a future prince out of David’s lineage. But wait. How is it that this human David figure is going to be the Shepherd of Israel when Yahweh just said that He Himself is the Shepherd of Israel? The only proper explanation is that the two must be related somehow. 

The relationship is part of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Moses and the Prophets are clear that there is no God other than the one God, Yahweh. Yet, Moses and the Prophets are also clear that there is Yahweh, the Angel of Yahweh and Yahweh’s Spirit. Yet, we read in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Yahweh is one being. Yet, in His one being, there are three persons of equal might, power and authority. In Matthew 28  Jesus called the three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

How Yahweh can exist as a Trinitarian being is a mystery to us. For, Yahweh created us Unitarian beings — namely one person in one being. If we have more than one person in our being, we’ve got problems. We’re either possessed by a demon or we’ve got a psychological disorder called multiple personalities. So, a Unitarian existence is all we know and can know. Therefore, how Yahweh exists as a Trinitarian being is beyond our comprehension. But, that’s one of the things that makes Yahweh — well, God.

It gets worse, however. One of the persons of this Trinitarian God — Yahweh, the Son — assumed flesh and became a real live human being for our sake. He is true Creator God. Yet, at the same time He is a true human creature of God. He is divine and human. And Scripture proclaims this dual nature indivisible, acting as one. Yet, the two natures remain distinct, with each nature communicating the characteristics of that nature to the other.

Even worse, God the Son was incarnated in mortal human flesh. Human beings are mortal because of sin. But Jesus was born into this world sinless and lived a sinless life. Nevertheless, although He was sinless, Jesus was crucified and put to death as a criminal by rebellious, wicked people.

However, it turns out from Moses and the Prophets, that Messiah’s innocent death was part of Yahweh’s plan from the day Adam and Eve fell into sin. Because of Jesus’ mortal human nature, He could die and suffer for sin. However, because of Jesus’ divine nature, He suffered and died as an atoning sacrifice for all the sin of all time. As a result, all who put their trust in Him are no longer under Yahweh’s wrath, but have been declared righteous in Yahweh’s sight by the blood of the Lamb.

This is how the human “David” prophesied in Ezekiel — who is Jesus — can be the Shepherd of Israel in union with Yahweh. In His divine nature, Jesus is One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In His human nature, Jesus is a man after God’s own heart, as Scripture says of David.

Oh. And did I mention the bodily resurrection from the dead? Born into this world in a mortal body, Jesus departed this earth for the right hand of God in a resurrected, immortal human body — a body that is the first of its kind. He received His immortal righteous body as the reward for His obedience to Yahweh, even unto an ultra humiliating death on a cross as a condemned criminal. And the immortal, perfectly righteous, resurrected human body Jesus earned by His obedience is His to bestow on the Day of the Lord to all those who have put their trust in Him. What a blessing it will be to live forever in a human body that cannot sin, and living in a universe that’s been completely cleansed of sin, death and the devil.

Now, to understand this week’s parable as well as last week’s, let’s begin with Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” Because the first LORD is all in capital letters, this is the euphemism for Yahweh used in English bibles. So, Yahweh says to “my Lord.” Since the original King David was the writer of this psalm, the “my” in “my Lord” belongs to him. In other words, King David proclaims that he has a Lord over him who isn’t Yahweh — and yet is. And we learn that this under-Lord has been bidden by Yahweh Himself to sit at Yahweh’s right hand. To sit at the right hand of a king — in this case, King Yahweh — is to be recognized as the second in command in a kingdom. Joseph, son of the patriarch, Jacob, had such a position in ancient Egypt as second only to Pharaoh.

So, in Psalm 110 King David says that he has a Lord over him who is second to Yahweh in authority. Then, this Lord over David is bidden to take His seat at Yahweh’s right hand until — and “until” is the critical word — until Yahweh puts all His enemies under His feet. Apparently, once his enemies are gone, David’s Lord will leave that seat to act as second in command throughout the universe.

All of Jesus’ enemies recognized David’s Lord, prophesied in Psalm 110:1, as the Messiah. The Scribes, Pharisees and Teacher’s of the Law all admitted this in the controversy over that verse. From this verse, it’s clear, then, that Messiah Jesus is seated in power at the right hand of Yahweh until the Day of the Lord. On that Day — the Day of Resurrection — Jesus will reveal Himself on this earth as Lord over all who have ever lived on the earth. This will be Messiah’s second coming.

It’s here at the end of every Church Year that we look forward to Jesus’ second coming. Next week in the season of Advent, we’ll look forward to both Jesus’ second coming and His first coming.

Now, in this morning’s first lesson, Yahweh prophesied through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 34:20, “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.’” And as it says again in Ezekiel 34:22, “‘I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.’”

In this parable given to Ezekiel, all the the people of Israel are the sheep. However, it’s clear that there are sheep and there are sheep. As Paul says in Romans 9:6, “. . . not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” For, throughout Israel’s history, not all Israel was loyal to Yahweh. In other words, the Lord is going to make a division and judge between people. He is going to receive one kind of people and reject the other. Therefore, Ezekiel’s parable is a prophetic picture of Yahweh’s Final Judgment, not only of Israel, but of all the earth. And the two parables we’re considering today are also parables of the Final Judgment.

In last week’s parable of the Talents, Jesus said in Matthew 25:14, “‘Again, it [the Kingdom of Heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.’” The man going on the long journey is Messiah. If you haven’t noticed, in ten more years, it will be 2,000 years since Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. That’s a long journey.

So, what property has He entrusted to us, His servants? Again, like the oil in the parable of the virgins, the “property” is the righteousness before God that Jesus has won for us. This is “property” that is not ours. It belongs entirely to Him. But since He has given it to us, we’re responsible for its use in this world.

Don’t be deceived by the amounts given to the three servants: 5 talents, 2 talents and 1 talent. All three received “property” to manage according to his ability. This means all three received sufficient righteousness to stand before God. It’s what they did with the righteousness they received that mattered.

Two openly used the righteousness they received. In the parable they played the markets and increased the wealth of the man whose property they were managing. Thus, in the Kingdom of God, these two managers represent believers in Jesus who are openly living the Christian life according to the righteousness they have been given. By openly standing for Jesus and His righteousness, others will enter the Kingdom on account of the Christian life they’ve lived. Thus, the Lord’s righteousness will be multiplied. The five will make ten. The two will make four.

The key to the parable is the guy who buries the righteousness he’s been given. Such a person is going to live life like the rest of this fallen world. Through baptism he may have been given life in Christ Jesus, but he sure doesn’t want anyone to suspect him of having such life. As a result, he’ll gladly live all the careless lying, cheating, stealing, manipulating, fornicating ways of the world and be thoroughly embarrassed about Jesus. It’s clear no one will enter the Kingdom on account of such a life lived.

We read in Matthew 25:19, “‘After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.’” Jesus is coming back. That’s what this parable is about. And when He comes back he’s going to judge between His sheep. Those who have openly lived as Christians will be commended and rewarded. Those who buried what they were given in Christ, hoping that no one would notice Jesus in their life, will be left out of the Kingdom. This is why in the parable the master calls this servant “wicked and lazy.” 

Jesus concluded the parable having the master say in Matthew 25:28-30, “28 ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” This means that everyone who openly uses Christ’s righteousness in this life will fully have it in the Kingdom of God. But those who hide Christ’s righteousness in this life, will lose even the righteousness they think they have and will be left without any righteousness in the outer darkness after the Day of Judgment. It’s because of these verses that I consider the most frightening thing about hell to be having all righteousness — even our native human understanding of right and wrong — stripped from us, so that in hell we become one hundred percent unrighteous, just like Satan and the other disobedient spiritual creatures.

On the other hand, sinners saved by the grace of God and given a righteousness not their own who live in basic thankfulness and joy for such undeserved love will be told something different. We read in Matthew 25:23, “23 ‘His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”’” Notice. Both the five talent guy and the two talent guy are commended in exactly the same way for being faithful with a “few things” in this life. So it will be with all believers faithful with a “few things.” Therefore, take heart!

Now, today’s parable of the sheep and the goats is also about the Final Judgment. Only the subject of this parable is persecution because of living the Christian life. Listen again to this part from Matthew 25:37-40, “37 ‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” 40 The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”’”

The key to understanding the parable is the word “prison.” Jesus is not talking about those who are justly in prison for doing evil. He’s talking about those who are unjustly in prison because they have been persecuted for bearing His Name. Because of persecution, believers might be destitute in various other ways: hungry, sick, forced to flee, being a stranger, etc. Those bearing Jesus’ name who risk persecution in order to take care of those who have suffered persecution for Jesus’ Name are the “sheep” spoken of in this parable. Those who dare to recognize and stand up for fellow believers by doing so are those welcomed into the Kingdom. On the other hand, those who are terrified and pretend they don’t know those being persecuted for fear of persecution are the “goats” who will be left out of the Kingdom.

For most of our lives, we’ve been privileged to live in this country with very little persecution. However, things have been changing. Wherever wokism comes into authority, the chances of Christian persecution go up. Currently we need to support the organizations fighting for the rights of those who have been persecuted because they followed their Christian conscience in regard to such things as so-called gay marriage. But, if Marxism overcomes the land, then this parable will really kick in for us. As for those who live in far away places under fearful persecution, we can fulfill this parable by giving to organizations on the front lines of persecution such as the Voice of the Martyrs.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t care for those outside of Christ’s Church who are in need. However, in the parable of the sheep and goats, Jesus specifically used the term “brothers of mine.” This is His concern for the persecuted church. Therefore, persecuted brothers and sisters are to be our concern. 

The one thing the parables Jesus told in Holy Week have in common is that He is coming back. And through these parables He described what we can expect on the Day of Judgment. 

One last thing. All who are saved for eternal life will be saved solely by faith in Messiah’s atoning work on the cross. However, those who actually have such faith will show certain characteristics in this world. Concern for righteousness and concern for those persecuted for righteousness’ sake are two of those characteristics. This is the point of these two parables. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV.