Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:7–14)

For when, He says, a more honorable man than you comes, he that invited you and him will say, “Give this man a place.” O! what great ignominy is there in having to do so! It is like a theft, so to speak, and the restitution of the stolen goods. He must restore what he has seized; for he had no right to take it. But the modest and praiseworthy man, who might without fear of blame have claimed the dignity of sitting among the foremost, does not seek it, but yields to others what might be called his own, that he may not even seem to be overcome by empty pride; and such a one shall receive honor as his due: for he shall hear, He says, him who invited him say, “Come up here.” …

If then anyone wishes to be set above others, let him win it by the decree of heaven and be crowned by those honors which God bestows. Let him surpass the many by having the testimony of glorious virtues; but the rule of virtue is a lowly mind that does not love boasting. Indeed, it is humility. And this the blessed Paul also counted worthy of all esteem for he writes to such as are eagerly desirous of saintly pursuits, “Love humility.” And the disciple of Christ praises it, thus writing; “Let the poor brother glory in his exaltation: and the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the grass he passes away.” For the sober and temperate mind is exalted with God: for “God,” it says, “will not despise the contrite and abased heart.”

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 102

Knowing Our Place

Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of His feet; for He is holy. (Psalm 99:5 LXX)

We believe that this verse pertains to you, oh people, inasmuch as you can grasp the divine mysteries which lead you to a reverent knowledge of God insofar as your minds can comprehend them. Extol God’s glory, knowing that when you have elevated your mind and have transcended every noble idea with regard to knowledge of Him, what we discover and worship is not the greatness of Him we seek, but the footstool of His feet. For us this signifies the submission and poverty of our minds in comparison to Him who is incomprehensible.

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms 9

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Peter Paul Rubens, “The Fall of the Damned”

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22–30)

We must however next inquire who we are to understand by those who say unto Christ, ‘We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets?’ Such an assertion then would suit the Israelites, to whom also Christ said, “you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.” But how then were they eating and drinking before God? I answer, by performing the service enacted in the law: for when offering unto God sacrifices by the shedding of blood, they ate and made merry. And they heard also in their synagogues the writings of Moses, interpreting God’s messages: for constantly he prefaced his words with, ‘Thus says the Lord.’ These then are they who say, “We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets.” But the worship by the shedding of blood is not sufficient for justification, nor indeed does a man wash away his stains by having become a hearer of the divine laws, if he does nothing of what has been commanded. And in another way, as long as they refused to accept the faith, which justifies the wicked, nor would follow the evangelic commands, by means of which it is possible to practice the excellent and elect life, how could they enter the kingdom of God? The type therefore profits not: for it justifies no man, and it is a thing impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.

With the above named, you may number certain others also as able to say to the Judge of all, “we have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets.” And who again are these? Many have believed in Christ, and celebrate the holy festivals in His honor; and frequenting the churches they also hear the doctrines of the Gospel: but they lay up in their mind of the truths of Scripture absolutely nothing. And it is with difficulty that the practice of virtue is brought with them even to this extent, while of spiritual fruitfulness their heart is quite bare. These too shall weep bitterly, and gnash their teeth; for the Lord shall deny them also. For He has said, that “not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.”

But that the Jews were about to fall utterly from their rank of being in a spiritual sense His household, and that the multitude of the Gentiles should enter in their stead, He shewed by saying, that “there shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, many who received the call, and shall rest with the saints; but they shall be driven away: and whereas they once had the first rank, they shall now take the second, by reason of others being preferred before them.” Which also happened; for the Gentiles have been honored far above the Jews. For the latter were guilty both of disobedience and of the murder of the Lord: but the former honored the faith that is in Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 99

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (Luke 12:49–53)

We affirm therefore that the fire which is sent forth by Christ is for men’s salvation and profit: God grant that all our hearts may be full thereof. For the fire here is, I say, the saving message of the Gospel, and the power of its commandments, by which all of us upon earth, who were so to speak cold and dead because of sin, and in ignorance of Him Who by nature and truly is God, are kindled unto a life of piety, and made “fervent in spirit,” according to the expression of the blessed Paul. And besides this we are also made partakers of the Holy Spirit, Who is as fire within us. For we have been baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit. And we have learned the way thereto, by what Christ says to us: for listen to His words; “Truly I say to you, that except a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” … Would you see the effects of this divine and rational fire? Hear then again His words: “Or do you think that I am come to give peace upon earth? I tell you, no, but division.” And yet Christ is our peace, according to the Scriptures. “He has broken down the middle wall: He has united the two people in one new man, so making peace: and has reconciled both in one body unto the Father.” He has united the things below to them that are above: how therefore did He not come to give peace upon earth? What then do we say to these things?

That peace is an honorable and truly excellent thing when given by God. For the prophets also say; “Lord, grant us peace: for You have given us all things.” But not every peace necessarily is free from blame. There is sometimes, so to speak, an unsafe peace, and which separates from the love of God those who, without discretion or examination, set too high a value upon it. As for instance: the determination to avoid evil men, and refuse to be at peace with them;—by which I mean not submitting to entertain the same sentiments as they do;—is a thing profitable and useful to us. And in like manner the opposite course is injurious to those who have believed in Christ, and attained to the knowledge of His mystery. To such it is unprofitable to be willing to follow the same sentiments as those who wander away from the right path, and have fallen into the net of heathen error, or been caught in the snares of wicked heresies. With these it is honorable to contend, and to set the battle constantly in array against them, and to glory in holding opposite sentiments; so that even though it be a father that believes not, the son is free from blame who contradicts him, and resists his opinions. And in like manner also the father, if he be a believer, and true unto God, but his son disobedient and evilly disposed, and that opposes the glory of Christ, is also free from blame, if he disregard natural affection, and disowns him as his child. And the same reasoning holds with respect to mother and daughter: and daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. For it is right that those who are in error should follow those who are sound in mind: and not, on the contrary, that those should give way whose choice is to entertain correct sentiments, and who have a sound knowledge of the glory of God.

And this Christ has also declared to us in another manner; “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.” When therefore you deny an earthly father for your piety’s sake towards Christ, then shall you gain as Father Him Who is in heaven. And if you give up a brother because he dishonors God, by refusing to serve Him, Christ will accept you as His brother: for with His other bounties He has given us this also, saying; “I will declare Your Name to My brethren.” Leave your mother after the flesh, and take her who is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, “which is our mother:” so will you find a glorious and mighty lineage in the family of the saints. With them you will be heir of God’s gifts, which neither the mind can comprehend, nor language tell. Of which may we too be counted worthy by the grace and loving-kindness of Christ, the Savior of us all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 94

If Indeed...

Our pastor challenged the congregation to read five passages (one passage per day) and answer three questions from the daily passage.

• What does it say God is like?
• What does it say God has done?
• Why would He do that for me?

This was a good exercise: first, it forces us to review who God is and what He has done; and second, it causes us to examine Scripture with fresh eyes with hopes that we might see or understand something previously missed: likely from preconceptions from prior teaching. On one hand, this is good We should be so indoctrinated, catechized, or instructed (whichever term you prefer) that false teaching can quickly be identified and dismissed; on the other hand, if the body of learned doctrine is incorrect, there needs to be a re-evaluation and subsequent shift, however slight.

The final text was Colossians 1:13–23, which gives a grand portrait of Christ being very God and very man in every way, redeeming us, and being our head as we are His body the church. As wonderful as all this certainly is, St. Paul tells us something yet more wonderful/

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Col 1:19–23)

The fullness of what both God and man are dwells in Jesus in order that within Him all mankind might be reconciled to God. Consider the enormity of this! We who were at odds and cut off from our Creator are now in good stead through Jesus’ death. Where there was once conflict and hostility, peace now holds sway: we are holy, blameless, and above reproach. What a wonderful and comforting relationship has been won! As wonderful as all this certainly is, I was particularly struck by the last portion: if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. St. Paul posits for the recipients at Colossae that for some hearers of this letter—and others who would come in the future—there is a real possibility of falling away from or abandoning the faith, therefore, no reconciliation in the end: a disturbing thought and rightfully so.

How are we to move forward vis a vis this warning? One way might be to rely on self-motivation to continual remain vigilant in the Christian walk and determine to press forward whatever the circumstance. Many believers take this path; however, this routinely leads to failure. Why? When faced with a rule or law, we automatically want to do the opposite of what was stipulated. Do you want me to eat a handful of freshly baked cookies? Tell me I can’t have one, then walk away. St. Paul stated this in a different way:

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. (Rom 7:7–11)

Laws inflame our sinful desires, so any attempt to rely on personal will or strength to stay in the kingdom until the last day will always fail. The focus must be reversed leading to the second, and proper, course of action: rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. What do I mean?

Christians can be so shortsighted and forgetful. We tend to believe that once God brings us into His kingdom that His work is done, and now we take up our end of the bargain in everyday life. Some become negligent, losing sight of what we have been called to. Others become surprised by their weakness of resolve, tending to make more rules and disciplines to bolster resolve, but that is a self-defeating activity. Eventually, someone recognizes the absurdity of chasing rules. When that happens, some give up on the faith (the highly publicized examples of Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson are not uncommon). Better is to cling to the sweet promise: being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). God is the One who strengthens and supplies.

Sadly, there are preachers offering the gospel of Jesus Christ as a self-help plan or a stoic regimen. It is neither. Instead, it is news that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again for you. Baptism is for you. The Lord’s Supper is for you. Confession and absolution are for you. All that we have been given in Christ is intended to keep us in Him. Let us hold fast our confession.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:19–25)

Should We More Emphasize Reconciliation?

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The following was written by Pastor Andrew Preus (LCMS pastor serving in northeast Iowa) on Facebook. It is a good reminder that we tend to promote one aspect of atonement over another, when the truth lies in seeing the entire multifaceted truth of what Christ accomplished.

As far as I can tell, Lutherans historically did not use the term “penal substitution” so much, but, rather, “vicarious satisfaction” and “reconciliation.” Of course the concept of penal substitution is not denied. Jesus paid the penalty we owed to God, as Luther says in article 2 of the Creed in the Large Catechism. But paying the penalty doesn’t say it all. In fact, there are those who have taught a theory of penal substitution while also denying that Jesus made satisfaction to God’s eternal will (law), such as Hugo Grotius and the New England Reformed theologians like Jonathan Edwards Jr. Instead, for them, Jesus simply paid the penalty to God’s governmental popular law merely so that God, as the governor of the universe, can now bring about the best possible result by making reconciliation available under the condition that we accept it by faith.

Instead, the term vicarious satisfaction means that Christ fulfilled the very heart of God. He fulfilled the law, not merely as a payment to some legal standard distinct from God’s nature, but as the fulfillment of God’s own righteousness summarized in loving God above all things and his neighbor as himself. Certainly this includes paying our penalty. But this penalty is payed not merely to some government run by God, but this is a penalty against God’s own personal righteousness. Certainly it is a legal, forensic transaction. But it isn’t simply a payment to make reconciliation a possibility for us. It is, instead, a fulfillment of the very heart and will of God, commending himself to God who judges justly, confessing his name, upholding his Word to give rest to sinful men, honoring his parents and all authority, giving his life for his neighbor and healing those who were sick and dead, living a chaste life while cleansing his bride the church, not stealing even what was his but taking the form of a servant, blessing those who cursed him, and being satisfied with all of what God gave him. This will of God, revealed in the Ten Commandments, is fulfilled to its very heart and weighty matters in mercy, faithfulness, and justice. This is the vicarious satisfaction, not merely a payment to make reconciliation possible, but a payment to the eternal, immutable will of God, satisfying every desire of God on behalf of every sinner. Here he has satisfied not merely some example of justice, but the personal wrath of God. The infinite will of God is fully contained in this body, blood, obedience, and satisfaction of the Son. This means that the peace of God toward all sinners is identified fully in this work of atonement, not in some invisible possibility of sovereign grace to which we must cognitively add Christ’s payment and our own faith. No, the fullness of satisfaction, rest, peace, and reconciliation is in Christ’s complete obedience.

Therefore this fullness of reconciliation is in the Word of the gospel, not in some invisible testimony of the Spirit. Just as Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God, so does this same Spirit fully testify this complete atonement through the gospel and sacraments. He takes what is Christ’s and declares it to us in full. He doesn’t merely lay out the conditions for reconciliation with Christ’s payment as only one of the parts of the equation. No, Christ satisfied all righteousness for all (Rom 5:18,19). This means that the gospel is already the fullness of God’s revealed pleasure toward sinners. Faith therefore rests on this, comes from this, and builds on this foundation.

So don’t rely on some theory. Don’t rely on an equation you make by adding your faith to what Christ merely made possible. Rely on the fullness of the gospel, which declares the complete obedience and satisfaction of Christ by which God’s personal anger is turned away and by which he has established peace with you. Amen.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

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Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:22–34)

But perhaps you will reply to this, ‘Who then will give us the necessities of life?’ And to this be our answer as follows; The Lord is worthy to be trusted; and He clearly promises it to you, and by little things gives you full assurance that He will be true also in that which is great. For consider, He says, the ravens that they sow not, nor reap. They have neither closet nor store, and God feeds them. For just as, when He was strengthening us unto spiritual fortitude, He taught us to despise even death itself by saying, “Fear not those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;” and in the same way to make His providence plain to you, used for His proof utterly valueless things saying; “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground without your Father. And the individual hairs of your head are all counted. Fear not, therefore, for you are of more value than many sparrows.” So also here, from the birds and the flowers of the field, he produces in you a firm and unwavering faith. Nor does He permit us at all to doubt, but that most certainly He will grant us His mercy, and stretch out His comforting hand, to bestow upon us in all things a sufficiency. It is moreover a very wicked thing, that while those who are placed under the yoke of bodily slavery depend upon their masters, as sufficient to supply them with food and clothing, we will not consent to put our trust in Almighty God, when He promises us the necessities of life.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 90, 91

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Rembrandt, “The Parable of the Rich Fool”

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13–21)

What therefore does the rich man do, surrounded by a great supply of so many blessings beyond all numbering? In distress and anxiety he utters the words of poverty. He says, “For what shall I do?” The man who is in lack of necessities constantly spews this miserable language: but lo! one here of boundless wealth uses similar expressions. He determined then to build more spacious storehouses: he purposed to enjoy for himself alone those revenues that were sufficient for a populous city. He looks not to the future. He does not raise his eyes to God. He does not count it worth his while to gain for the mind those treasures which are above in heaven: he does not cherish love for the poor, nor desire the estimation to be gained thereby: he sympathizes not with suffering; it gives him no pain, nor awakens his pity. And what is still more irrational, he settles for himself the duration of his life, as if he would reap this too from the ground, for he says, “I will say to myself, ‘Self, you have goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, enjoy yourself.’” “But, O rich, man,” one may say, “you have indeed storehouses for your fruits, but where will you receive your many years? For by the decree of God your life is shortened. For God, it tells us, said unto him, “You fool, this night they shall require of you your soul. But whose shall these things be that you have prepared?”

It is true therefore, that a man’s life is not from his possessions, by reason of his having overabundance, but very blessed, and of glorious hope is he who is rich towards God. And who is he? Evidently one who loves not wealth, but virtue rather, and to whom few things are sufficient: and whose hand is open to the necessities of the indigent, comforting the sorrows of those in poverty, according to his means, and the utmost of his power. It is he who gathers in the storehouses that are above, and lays up treasures in heaven. Such a one shall find the interest of his virtue, and the reward of his upright and blameless life.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 89