St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Luke 6:20-23 Epiphany 6 February 15^th, 2004

Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.”

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

Jesus is on the cover of Newsweek magazine this week. Did you see that? There is a picture of Jesus—wearing a crown of thorns—his face streaked with blood. It is a gruesome and gory picture. The headline reads, “Who killed Jesus?” Who is responsible? Is it Caiaphas—the Chief Priest—jealous of Jesus’ popularity with all the people who have come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover? Jealous of the people who put palm branches and their coats and cloaks on the dusty stony road—singing “Hosanna to the Son of David!”? Is it the Sanhedrin—the Jewish High Council—meeting in the dark—in the wee hours of the morning—perjurers—making up lies in order to condemn Jesus? Is it King Herod—wanting to see some miracle? Wanting to see Jesus change some well water into fine wine—wanting to see some leprous skin turned softer than a little baby’s dimpled arm? Is it Pontius Pilate—paranoid about his puny earthly throne—symbolically washing his hands in front of the rabble—who are screaming for Jesus’ blood? Is it the crowd—who shout back to Pilate—“His blood be on us and our children!”? Is it the Roman soldiers—who literally made the crown of thorns and pressed it onto Jesus’ head—then hammered nails through Jesus’ hands and feet and stood guard until Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” Who killed Jesus? All of them did. And I did—and so did you? We are all responsible! We are to blame—because of our sins—failures and mistakes! We are to blame—because of all the good we left undone. We are to blame—because we are fatally flawed by the sin we inherited from our mother and father—our great, great, great grandparents—who got it from their parents! We are to blame as surely as if we swung the hammer that pounded the nails in Jesus’ hands! We are forgiven—for the sake of that perfect sacrifice Jesus made for us.

Today God’s Word comforts us:

In Painful Circumstances We Are Happy!

I. We are happy now

II. We will be forever happy in Heaven

Today is the 6^th Sunday in the season of Epiphany. Next Sunday is Transfiguration. Ten days from today is Ash Wednesday—the start of Lent! Today’s Gospel reading is about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Remember last Sunday—the miraculous catch of fish? Remember how Jesus said—Follow me and I will make you fishers of men! Of all the people who were his students, followers and imitators—Jesus chose twelve men to be especially close to him. Peter, Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew—Matthew the Tax Collector—Thomas who would doubt, James the son of Alphaeus—another Simon—this one a political Zealot—Judas the son of James—and another Judas—the one from Kerioth—the one who would betray Jesus. These twelve men would be especially close to Jesus. For three years they would see Jesus’ miracles—walking on water—stilling storms—cleansing lepers—making crippled people able to walk—opening eyes and unstopping ears—making people able to talk for the first time—even raising the dead! More important than all the miracles Jesus would do—Jesus taught them about the kingdom of God. Jesus taught them law and Gospel. Jesus showed them the ugly awfulness of their sins and failures. Jesus showed them his unconditional love!

Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…” Sounds like what? The Sermon on the Mount! Similar but not exactly the same. We are going to have 4 blesseds here—not 8. Jesus is saying—blessed are YOU—not blessed are they. And Jesus is going to say 4 “Woe to you”s, too. It is essential here—like the Sermon on the Mount—to remember Jesus is talking to his disciples—his students, followers, imitators—people who love him and believe in him. Jesus is talking to people with faith in their hearts—about living their faith. Jesus is talking about fruits of faith—fruits of faith! You can’t bear fruits of faith—without faith! Jesus is NOT talking about being nice! He’s talking about the power of the Holy Spirit—to reflect Jesus’ forgiving love in how we treat other people!

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…” Blessed means happy. Not a sappy toothy smile while the roof is caving in on you. But a happiness—a powerful contentment—and an inner peace and joy that comes from Jesus’ forgiving love. Blessed are you who are poor. The Greek word here for being poor is the word for being reduced to begging! Do we know that kind of poverty? I don’t think so! We have refrigerators full of food—walk in closets full of clothes—garages and crawl spaces and attics full of stuff. The parking lots of Kohl’s and Wal-Mart are full of cars—carts full of DVDs and video games. This weekend people will buy dozens of roses and boxes full of chocolates—sweet smelling candles and pretty jammies—expensive perfume and fizzy champagne—in celebration of romance. We are not physically—financially poor. But we are poor in spirit—spiritually poor—spiritual paupers and beggars. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God! We have that inner peace, contentment and joy—because Jesus took all our sins away. I read in a magazine this week—about the 25 toughest guys in America. One of the toughest guys according to this list—is a reporter named Michael Weiskopf—a writer for Time magazine. A tough writer? Not afraid of paper cuts? No—Michael was in Iraq—riding in a Hummer with a photographer and 4 soldiers—when somebody tossed a grenade into their vehicle. What would you do? Would you freeze up—paralyzed by fear—your life flashing before your eyes—thinking—this is not good? Would you bail out—jump out to save yourself? Would you cover your face and turn away so that you would not suffer the explosion full in your face and in your heart? Would you cry out? Would you curse? Would you pray? Or would you quickly—instinctively grab the grenade and throw it out—and in the process lose your hand? Would you sacrifice yourself—to save a hand full of others? We are spiritual paupers—spiritual beggars—rescued and saved and forgiven for the sake of the one who threw himself on a grenade to save us for ever! Blessed are we who are spiritually poor—for the kingdom of God is our inheritance!

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Again Jesus is not talking about physical hunger. He is talking about spiritual hunger—spiritual thirst! It is kind of sad—to see how many people are all caught up in their hunger and thirst for the junk food—the rice cake Styrofoam of this world’s knowledge. Again this week it was announced that a fossil found back in the 1920s—a fossil of a bug—found and then put away in a drawer somewhere—is now thought by some to be the oldest fossil of all. Thought to be some 400 million years old—this little Mayfly is in fact a little bug that Jesus made—on the 6^th day of creation! The littlest person in our Trinity Saint Luke’s Lutheran School—in Mrs. Kuehl’s room knows that Jesus made everything. The littlest person in our day school knows that everything that exists was not made by some big bang—but by the power of God’s creative Word and will! The students at our Luther Preparatory School and Lakeside Lutheran High School learn biology and chemistry and physics and mathematics—in the light of God’s Word! Their faith is fed not by man’s foolishness but the wisdom of God. The students in those precious schools learn the intelligent design that Jesus built into everything he made! They see the wisdom and power and goodness of God—as they learn about all that he designed and engineered and built! Our Lutheran Schools are places where we can pray without shame and without fear. We can pray for our Church and pray for our Nation. We can pray for our teachers and our students and our soldiers and sailors and marines and coast guard and our police and our fire fighters and our paramedics. We can pray for our congress and for our economy—for our parents and for our grandparents—to the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel!

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. I continue to be amazed at the different ways people suffer physical death. This past week—someone down at Disneyland—dressed in some playful costume—gets run over by a float and dies! Somebody at a NASCAR race—sees a hunk of debris out on the race track. If they are really quick—they can run out and grab it and drag it back to the infield. They too are struck and killed! We learned this week that a short cut behind a car wash can be dangerous—when the devil and unspeakable evil hides in a man’s heart. There is reason to weep for our country—when it is front-page news that college students in Maryland demand the right to scream obscenities at basketball games. That so called justices in Massachusetts don’t understand what marriage and family are. There is reason to weep when every year one and a half million little unborn babies are put to death. Reason to weep when scientists boast that they are cloning human embryos in order to make spare parts of people. And then the news people who are reporting this information say—oh, that’s years down the road isn’t it? Well, maybe not! And then they make jokes—crude and rude jokes that mock the sanctity of life and the sacredness of immortal souls! There is reason to weep today. But there will be reason for unlimited joy—once we are safe in heaven. Then there will be joy and gladness that will never ever end for Jesus’ sake! We will laugh when our crucified and risen Lord Jesus welcomes us home.

Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. There is a game show called Friend or Foe? It’s played by teams of two—answer multiple choice trivial questions to win money. Pretty average so far. The hook at the end is—you need to pick are you a friend or a foe? If you are both friends—you split the money—you share it. If you both pick foe—nobody gets the money—you both lose. But—if you pick foe—and your friend picks friend—you get all the money—all to yourself. Before you pick friend or foe—you get to give this little speech—look your partner square in the eye—and tell them—trust me—be my friend—let’s share the money! I watched just three minutes the other day—trust me—believe me—trust me—let’s share. The man picked friend—the lady picked foe. She got all the money. She was embarrassed. She was ashamed. She covered her face and looked away—and she laughed. The money is all mine! You fool to believe me and trust me. I get everything! I get it all. And the man—he cursed her. He called her names. He lashed out at her in bitterness and anger. Neither of them acted like a child of God. Neither of them showed by their actions that Jesus filled their heart. Blessed are you—when people insult you—reject you—hurt and harm and take advantage of you. Know that Jesus loves you. Know that Jesus has stored up for you an inheritance in heaven by grace alone!

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. Have you felt like leaping for joy lately? Back in 1919 they built an airplane—called the Tarrant Tabor. It was a huge airplane—actually a triplane—three huge wings—nearly 5,000 square feet of wings. The whole plane weighed almost 45,000 pounds. It had 6 Napier Lions engines—each putting out 450 horsepower. The test pilot used the four lower engines to get the plane off the ground. He must have been feeling great. He applied power to the top two engines and the whole plane went down—nose first. The pilot was killed. The plane was scrapped! Do you know how that feels—all excited one moment! The next you nose dive—crash and burn! How sad is that? The precious good news is God’s Word—God’s promises says—rejoice and leap for joy—even on painfully difficult days—because one day—maybe very soon—we will be forever safe in Heaven. Then we will never ever have another trouble—not ever again. Amen!