These past weeks have been filled with tragedy. Last weekend a deadly cyclone struck the small Asian country of
And then this past week, on Monday an earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale struck
Our text for today, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28 is a very well known text. It is one that most Christians could quote from memory. It even has a name, a tag line to help us remember it. The text is known as the Great Commission. It is Christ’s great command to his church, the marching orders that the newly resurrected Christ victorious over sin and death gave to the disciples while he was still with them and before he was taken up from them. In many ways, this text is the summary and the culmination of the work of Jesus. Jesus has completed his work, he has done all he came to do, he defeated sin death and the devil. As he was preparing for his departure he left behind the gifts that are the benefits of his victory – namely baptism and His Holy Word, (the things he has commanded the 11 to teach).
This text is chosen for today because today is Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is the Sunday that the Christian Church throughout the world remembers Who we pray to. Who is the one true God? What is His name? How do we know Him? He is the only God, who has revealed himself as the Triune God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our text from Matthew 28 is often sited as a Biblical proof text for the doctrine of the Trinity against those who doubt this doctrine. Here we have Jesus’ command to baptize into the name of the three person God – Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Yet there is much more to be said than just that our God is Triune. This doctrine is important because it distinguishes for us who are to pray to. It is a marker to help us differentiate between the true God and false gods. But there is much more in our text than just a reminder of whom we agree with and who we disagree with. There is God’s wonderful promise in our text, God’s Word of Gospel and forgiveness and there is God’s Word of comfort, especially in the face of the horrible tragedies that have afflicted the World these last few days.
We cannot but see these horrors on our television screen and wonder how something so terrible could happen. Loss of life. We see images of parents, spouses, horror stricken as they realize that they have lost loved ones. Families broken. Entire communities destroyed. The aftermath of such a disaster can often be even worse than the initial incident as individual, families, and communities must find a way to rebuild and move on. The obstacles can be insurmountable. We wonder how such horrible things could happen. Where is God in the midst of such tragedy?
He is right in the middle of it!
Before Jesus gives the command to go and make disciples Jesus first says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
That statement is so incredibly powerful. “All Authority,” says Jesus. The right, the ability to command, to say what goes, to say who does what and when they do it. To say what happens and when it happens. To say what does not happen. Jesus has all authority.
Jesus has authority in the Church. He can command. He establishes doctrine. He makes Christians by calling them to faith. He makes pastors by setting aside certain men to be his preachers and proclaimers of his Word of Law and Gospel. He forgives sinners and welcomes them into heaven.
Jesus has authority on earth. He commands armies. He gives victory in battles and in war to nations. He gives wealth and takes it away. He provides food for the hungry and he provides healing for the sick and the injured. Jesus has authority over the affairs of men.
Jesus also has authority over the affairs of Satan. When Jesus ascended into heaven he cast Satan down – out of his presence and away from his attention. He has bound Satan. Satan cannot come and go as he would please. Satan cannot do as he would please. He is bound by the authority and thus the will of Him to whom all authority has been given. Satan is chained and can do only so much as he has been given to do.
If this is true. If it is true that Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, why would he not extend that authority over the regions in our world of
It is very easy for us to forget the transcendent wisdom of God. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. Our thoughts, our wisdom would have a world in which nothing ever went wrong, a world in which there was perfect peace and happiness. This was the world that God created. As we saw in our Old Testament lesson from Genesis 1, after God finished creating the world he said that it was “Good”. This world was ruined by sin. Adam and Eve fell into sin and that sin has destroyed God’s perfect creation. Because of sin you and I do not seek God as we were created to do. Instead we seek our own glory and our own comfort. When God simply leaves us to ourselves, that is exactly where we return – to seeking what is best for ourselves. Often God gives such tragedy to help us remember how weak we are and how desperately we need Him. How hopeless we are without Him.
We so often forget that we are beggars at God’s table begging for His blessing. We so often forget that we stand before God with nothing to give and with nothing to offer. Yet so often we demand that God treat us as princes and kings. So often we expect God to recognize our dignity and self worth. It is only because of God’s goodness that every one of us has not suffered such terrible tragedy.
Even then, God has dealt with us, not just according to His Goodness. God has also dealt with us even in His mercy and love. God has given to us so much more than earthly goods and relationships. God in His infinite love sent to us Jesus. And Jesus sacrificed himself for us to wash away every one of our sins, to remove from us that guilt that would demand and require our suffering, that would send us to hell. God for the sake of Jesus does not count our sins against us. Instead for the sake of Jesus he does count us as His own sons and daughters, as princes and princesses in His heavenly Kingdom.
You see, God loves each and every one of us. Every person who died from the cyclone, every person trapped and crushed beneath the weight of those crumbled building, every grieving father and mother, every orphaned child, every homeless family. God loves them all. And God sent Jesus who knows each one of them by name and who died for each one of them personally and individually. Jesus has called them. Tragically, as we remember today that the one true God is the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, many of those who died these past weeks, died outside of the Christian faith. They died in the hardness of their hearts and will suffer God’s just judgment for their sin. While we mourn the loss of any life, we especially mourn the death of unbelievers.
Likewise we do not pretend to understand the mind of God so that we can explain what has happened and why it has happened. We leave these things up to Jesus, who has all authority in Heaven and on Earth, who alone is worthy to judge all things and who is wise beyond our knowing. These things are not for us to understand. We leave them in the hands and in the wisdom of the one who does not turn a blind eye to human suffering but who loves each man, woman and child.
And when these tragedies occur, when we see them in the world around us and when we see the suffering we respond to them even as Christ has responded to us. We respond with a memory of this text. “Go into the all the World, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all things that I have commanded.” And so we go. We send missionaries who will go to these distant parts of the world and who will carry with them the gospel. Who will share with them the one true hope that God has given to all men – that Jesus the Son of God was crucified for them, has risen from the dead, has ascended into heaven, that he loves them and calls them to believe in him.
We send missionaries who will go to these foreign lands and will make disciples the way that Jesus commanded this to be done – we send pastors who will baptize, who will teach these people of the God who loved them so much that he sent his only Son to die for them and to forgive them for their sins and to give to them the gift of life forever in Heaven.
And we respond to these situations of need the same way that Jesus responded – we respond with love and compassion. And just as Jesus responded when he saw multitudes of hungry people by feeding them with bread and with fish, we respond by feeding those who are hungry. Just as Jesus responded to those who were sick by touching them and healing them, we send doctors and medical supplies to help heal. Just as Jesus responded to those who were mourning the loss of their loved ones by resurrecting them from death, we respond to the death of sin by offering the true life that God gives in and through Baptism, that God connects to the teaching and preaching of His Word. Christ has given us to be his hands and his feet and his mouth. Christ has called us to see his face in the poor and impoverished and suffering people of the world. Christ has called us into the world to care for those that he loved so much that he came to shed his blood and die for them.
Certainly we do not know or understand the things that God does but we know the God is a god of love and a god of mercy that God is a god who has given to us more than we could ever ask for and more than we deserve. It is to him that we give all glory and honor and praise.
Amen. Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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