Intro
When
Jesus started His New-Covenant Church, fulfilling what came before, He didn’t
hand out copies of the Bible and tell people to read it. Neither did He
command His Apostles to do the
same. He commanded them to do other
things. And how God is at work through
those things can be mysterious to our fallen minds.
Main Body
Throughout
history, we find huge gaps when God’s people didn’t even have access to all of
His
written Word. We have the time between
Adam and Moses, before Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. We have
the time between Jesus’ resurrection
and when those New-Testament books were put on parchment. And how long was it
before the Church met in
council to affirm what books belonged in the Bible? And how long was it before
most people could
read and be rich enough to own a Bible?
God’s
people didn’t always have His written Word, but they did always have His
preached
word. Since the beginning, God has used others
to speak His Word. That’s what the Bible
teaches. The Apostle Paul wrote to
Pastor Timothy, “Preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2). Why?
It’s because “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes
through the preached Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
That’s
one reason Jesus founded His Church, so people could still hear Him speak
through others. That’s the usual way God
works. And that in itself is a mystery.
As
our Epistle text says: “Think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God.” But
who’s the “us”? It is you? Is it me?
Is it the guy down the street? For
if we don’t know who these stewards of God’s mysteries are, how will those
mysteries be made known to us? Fortunately,
we know to whom the “us” refers.
1st
Corinthians begins: “Paul, called as an apostle of the Christ Jesus by the will
of God, and Sosthenes, our brother.”
Paul was an Apostle; Sothenes, Silas, was not. But both were pastors. And so
we learn from Scripture that pastors,
those servants of Christ, are the stewards of the mysteries of God.
A
servant doesn’t serve on his authority but under the authority of another.
That’s what it means to be a servant. So, a servant of Christ then serves by
Christ’s
authority--and no other. That’s why the
Lutheran Church will have no man serve as a pastor without a call from Christ’s
Church and ordained into the Office of Pastor.
And
those servants of Christ, those pastors, are also stewards of God’s mysteries.
A steward manages what belongs to
another. That’s what a steward is. That means the mysteries that Christ’s
servants
manage and oversee are mysteries of God that come from God, not from the
steward. Those mysteries are from God and
belong to God--but God has chosen to use stewards in His Church to oversee those
mysteries.
And
those mysteries of God center on Jesus.
Included in those mysteries is Jesus’ birth. It is as we hear in 1 Timothy
3:16: “The
mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh.” Another mystery is
the resurrection of our
bodies, made real by the resurrection of Christ. As Paul wrote to the
Corinthians:
I
tell you a mystery: We will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an
eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For that trumpet will sound, and then
the dead
will be raised, never to decay, and we will be changed. [1 Corinthians 15:51-52]
It’s
a mystery that God can become a man and, yet, still be God. It’s a mystery
that God, that Jesus, can die
on the cross. It’s a mystery that Jesus
in His sacrificial death saves us.
John
the Baptizer pointed to Jesus as that sacrifice, whom he called “the Lamb of
God.” And that sacrificial Lamb of God
takes our sin away, bringing us into communion with God, so we may live in Him
and He in us. That, too, is a mystery
beyond our grasp.
For
it isn’t through your doing that you become part of God’s family. You don’t
get that birthright through good
deeds or virtuous living. Neither do you
become God’s own by avoiding evil. It
doesn’t happen through the choice of your will or your intellectual prowess.
You only become God’s child by Jesus taking
away your sin.
In
His Son, Jesus, God reveals His mercy to us fallen and condemned creatures. He
finds and rescues us, ever anew, from our
sins. That’s why we delight when Jesus
is faithfully and properly preached into our ears, for they are life-giving
words from God.
That’s
why God calls preachers to preach. That’s
what it means to be a steward of God’s mysteries. It means to preach the Word
of Christ, which
means preaching Jesus into the ears of others.
The preached Word of Christ reveals the heart of our gracious God,
because it gives us Jesus, the only One who saves us.
And
yet, those preachers through whom God speaks are still sinners, just like the
prophets, just like the Apostles. They
are imperfect and weak. How could God
use such sin-tainted men? Even more, when
God chooses to speak through them, how can He speak His own almighty Word?
That is a mystery!
It’s
a mystery that in the preached Word that brings you Jesus, Jesus, through the
Holy Spirit He has sent is at work.
Jesus, who “is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword,
piercing as deep as soul and spirit” enters and lives within you (Hebrews
4:12). That is a mystery, even if it
doesn’t cause you to gape in wonder.
But
has God told pastors to manage, to be stewards of, other mysteries in His
Church? Yes! It’s more than preaching--although Jesus did
tell His Apostles that they were to preach (Luke 24:47). Think of Jesus’ words
to Nicodemus. Jesus told him, “Unless one is born of water
and Spirit, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
Now,
that’s a mystery. How can water and the
Holy Spirit somehow come together, so someone is born from that, all so he can
receive God’s kingdom as an inheritance?
God doesn’t explain how all that works, but He commands His pastors to
baptize so others can be born from above (Matthew 28:19, John 3:3).
But
there’s more. Jesus also told His first
pastors, His Apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of
any, they are
forgiven; if you retain them, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). How can a
man bring God’s forgiveness to
another? God doesn’t reveal to us how that
can be true, only that it is true.
And
since Jesus told His pastors to forgive sins, it only makes sense for the
pastor to speak Jesus’ Word of forgiveness to Christ’s flock. That’s what we
do at the beginning of every
Divine Service. And when the pastor does
that, it’s not his forgiveness (as if that would do you any good), but Jesus’
forgiveness. It’s a mystery, believed by
faith.
But
that’s not all. Although it’s true that
Jesus sacrificed His body and shed His blood for you on the cross, it’s not at
the cross where you get His sin-forgiving body and blood. You get that in
another mystery. Jesus said:
“I
assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you. The one who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last
Day.” [John 6:53-54]
So
that’s why when Jesus first gave His Supper, He said, “Take eat… take drink.”
What’s
so astounding about these mysteries is that they baffle the human mind! How
can God bring life, salvation, and forgiveness
through such mysterious ways? How can
bread and wine be Jesus’ body and blood?
How can God become a human baby?
How can a man bring God’s forgiveness to another? How can God become incarnate
to give that
forgiveness for His pastors to speak? They
all are mysteries!
How
can God the Holy Spirit connect to water to give new life? How can God the
Holy Spirit come to the
Virgin Mary to give the new life of Jesus in her womb? They are mysteries.
And how can God use a sinful man to be an
overseer, a steward, of those mysteries?
That, too, is a mystery.
And
so we don’t lose ourselves in HOW those mysteries can be true, for God has
chosen NOT to reveal that to us. But God
has seen fit to tell us what He does through those mysteries. Do you believe
that God was born as a baby to
save you? Of course! Then what’s so hard about believing that God
delivers that salvation to us through Word and Sacrament, using a man, whom He
has
called and placed to be a steward of such mysteries?
And
so you are here on this Sunday?
Why? The real reason--even if
it’s not the reason you came to Church--is to meet Jesus. You need Jesus
because He is the One who
forgives you. There’s only one Jesus,
who forgives and saves. Any pastor of
Christ will do--as long as he is a faithful steward. But only the one, real
Jesus forgives and saves
you.
But
you do need a pastor. Why? It’s because JESUS
chooses to come to you, to forgive your sins, and give you salvation through
such
stewards of the mysteries of God. You
hear the pastor speak, but it’s Jesus who forgives you. The pastor gives you
bread and wine, but Jesus
gives you His body and blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins.
Jesus, who took your sin and washed it
away by His blood, comes to you here, in this place, through such a steward of
the mysteries of God.
Conclusion
God
speaks. He attaches Himself to His
promises. Although spoken through
sinful, mortal, and fallen men, Jesus uses pastors to give you His forgiveness,
salvation, and eternal life. And so we
treasure the work of Christ among us, no matter who your pastor might be. It’s
all about Jesus. The pastor is just the delivery boy. Amen.
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