The Eyes Have It :: Luke 10:23-24
What do you see? What do you hear? These are the questions of the day on this Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. What do you see? And what do you hear?
Before we get ahead of ourselves by jumping to conclusions and declaring you can see and hear just fine ... you need to know ... not everybody sees what you see or hears what you hear. Every week your pastor gives three sermons: the one I write, the one I preach, and the one you hear. And each of you might be hearing a different sermon than the person next to you. More than that, some of you may be seeing one thing and others may be seeing something completely different. And some of us will just fall asleep not seeing or hearing anything at all.
As Jesus tells the disciples ... For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to witness what y’all see and they didn’t witness it, and to hear what y’all hear and they didn’t hear it (v. 23-24). That is to say they longed to see Jesus, living, dying, rising, ascending. They longed to hear The God With Us proclaim the Gospel to us.
So ... I ask you to ponder today ... What do you see, and what do you hear on this Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity? Because ...
BLESSED ARE THE EYES THAT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD DRAWING NEAR AND WORKING IN THE WORD AND SACRAMENT MINISTRY OF CHRIST
Our lectionary readings sometimes begin or end in some unusual places. When they do, they can make seeing and hearing even more difficult. If you are a regular in my Bible study class, you have heard me say many times: Context matters. Today’s Gospel reading from Luke chapter 10 needs more context to help us see and hear what’s going on, not only with the first two verses I am focused on ... verses 23 and 24 ... but the parable of the Good Samaritan that follows. Context always matters ... especially when we desire to see and hear how Christ has lived for us, died for us, risen from the dead for us, and ascended into the heavens to prepare a place for us.
1. Blessed are the eyes that see and hear this Good News today.
To begin, in our reading, context reveals that Jesus is not talking merely to his twelve disciples. Nor is he giving only a private pep talk. Jesus is talking to the seventy two disciples, whom he had empowered to go into all the towns and places where he himself was about to go ... to heal the sick and to proclaim that the kingdom of God has drawn near to you (10:1, 9). When those seventy two disciples returned to Jesus, they were overjoyed with all that they saw and heard happen, overjoyed with the results of their mission. They were excited about what they thought they were doing for the Lord, about how they thought they were serving the Lord. They were astonished to see that even the demons of the world obeyed them (v.17) ... and they were astonished to begin hearing that people were being changed by the good news they were proclaiming ... that the kingdom of God had drawn near to us by Christ’s word and sacraments.
Jesus didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm for the Gospel, but he said to them: Behold, I have given to you the authority of treading on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will certainly hurt you. But in this, do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in the heavens (vv.19-20). Then turning to Our Father who art in heaven, Jesus thanked the Lord of Heaven and Earth that he had begun enabling us to see and to hear ... that is, to have faith in Christ, that he is in fact the second person of the Triune God drawing near.
That’s where our reading picks up. And Luke writes ... then [Jesus] having turned himself to the disciples, said, blessed are the eyes that see [this truth] that Jesus is God with us, that he is reconciling himself to us.
2. So I ask, what do you see? What do you hear?
You might be surprised at how many of us struggle to see and to hear how this is actually happening in this little corner of Appleton City. Too often we convince ourselves that today we have come to serve God, that this hour is about what we do. And we get excited about that ... as we should. But too often we convince ourselves that our life as Christians hinges on proving to each other how much we are loving the Lord our God [with] our whole heart, and in our whole soul, and in our whole strength, and in our whole mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. As long as we do this, we tell ourselves, we think we will inherit the kingdom of God. We say look at what I’m doing for God and country.
When we start thinking this, oh, how mistaken we have become.
Just give your heart to Jesus, we say. Just be like Jesus. Just keep loving Jesus. Just do what Jesus would do. Just sing to Jesus. Just praise Jesus. If you just do all this ... with your whole heart, and in all of your soul, strength, and mind ... well you, too, can be saved and inherit the kingdom. That’s what we tell ourselves. That’s what you hear the world saying.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent! And hear the word of Christ from the verses just before our Gospel reading: Don’t rejoice in what you are able to do. Don’t rejoice in what you think you are doing for God and the church ... Instead, rejoice at what the father has done for you, writing your names in heaven, granting you a heavenly inheritance, empowering you to proclaim the work of there kingdom that has drawn near in word and sacrament (10:20).
Do you hear what’s happening?
I don’t know how many more times I have to say this, but the Divine Service is not about what we are doing here. It is not about how you live your life. It is not about giving a measly hour of your week to God. The Divine Service is the response of God to the trauma and plague we face daily.
3. Blessed are the eyes that see the Good News in God’s word and sacraments that make this all possible.
To illustrate this, Jesus told us a parable: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and laid upon him a plague and departed, having left him half dead. Then it just so happened one priest was going down that road, and having seen him, he passed by on the other side. Then a Levite did likewise. But a Samaritan, who was on a road trip, came by, saw him, and had pity on him. He bound up his trauma, pouring oil and wine on his wounds. Then he caused the man to be mounted on his animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Look after him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.
This is the point Jesus is leading us to: The Parable of the Good Samaritan is entirely about Jesus. It isn’t a story to inspire you to live like the Samaritan. It isn’t telling you that you should not be like the priest or Levite, who frankly may have been doing God’s work (we don’t know what they were actually doing). Jesus is showing us what he is doing for you.
He is the one who sees you dying, and hurting, traumatized and plagued, left half dead alongside the road. He is the one who nurtures you, and cares for you, who makes you whole, who picks you up and carries your burdens. He is the one who comes to you in the flesh, drawing near to you because God so loved the world. He is the one who bears you up, raising you from the dead, giving you eternal life and salvation in paradise.
Blessed are the eyes that recognize Jesus doing what we priests and Levites could not do. Blessed are the ears that hear that ... though we despised him as if he were a Samaritan, Jesus came to us to do what we couldn’t, living a holy and righteous life. He found us traumatized and plagued by sin. He took pity on us and called to us.
Do you see and hear the significance of this? God came to us. He united himself with us. Just as the seventy two disciples proclaimed, Jesus draws near to us in his Word and sacraments to heal our wounds and to deliver the ultimate healing, giving us life and salvation through his means of grace. Let us rejoice and receive his gifts as often as we can!
He comes to us in Baptism, where we see the water and hear the Word of Gospel that his baptism does indeed now save us (1 Pt 3:21). Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we hear God’s own pledge and promise that he has forgiven our sins and given us eternal life in paradise. He has united himself with us in baptism. And there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).
He also comes to us in his Word, which we can see daily in our own personal devotions, and hear proclaimed in his Divine Service for us. Through his Word, he declares that your sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who was beaten for you, robbed of his dignity, traumatized for you ... pierced for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquities. Our Lord died, bearing the plague of our sin.
Finally, He comes to us like the Good Samaritan, in the Lord’s Supper. In this sacrament he anoints us with the oil of gladness, nourishing us with the bread and wine that are his body and his blood, that nourish the faith he gave us into eternal life.
Now I ask again, brothers and sisters in Christ, what do you see and hear? The Kingdom of God has drawn near us today in his Word and Sacraments. Open your eyes in faith. Let us rejoice that our names are written in heaven. It is for your good and his glory.