- Psalmody: Psalm 37:30–31a; 1; Psalm 37:30, 31; Liturgical Text; Psalm 21:2, 3b; Psalm 21:5
- Lection: Ezekiel 1:10–14; 2 Timothy 4:1–8; Luke 10:1–7a
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. St. Luke tells mightily of this Lord God, of this visitation, of this redemption, of this horn of salvation, of this eternal house. He tells of this mighty Lord Who, while yet in His humiliation, appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go, for the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. The Lord has done great things for us and has reaper ready, though numbered but a few, not to strike down with sickle akin to grim Halloween depictions in all the yards that play games with decorations of evil. No, the Lord’s reapers are gatherers above all else, sent by Him as laborers into His harvest. They bring peace, not gory death and darkness, nor flirtation with it, but peace that shall remain where it is put by Christ’s own bidding, by His own sending through instituted, humble office.
This is the one, holy, catholic (Christian), and Apostolic faith founded upon none other than the Rock Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. He appointed these seventy men and sent them. These are apostles, literally sent ones, in the simple, yet equally powerful sense of the word, because it is the Word of the Lord that is carried by all who are appointed and sent by Him. He is the Word carried by St. Luke, carried by the other Evangelists, carried by St. Paul and all the inspired writers, that brings peace upon those who receive Him. He is the Word carried by those ordained into the Apostolic Office instituted by Christ and found today in the Office of the Holy Ministry. The offices are one-in-the-same in that pastors are sent ones; sent to be living, breathing, sacrificial, sacramental, faithful preachers of the Word in season and out in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus. This Office is an act of God given for your benefit in faith to the glory of His Name. Give thanks to God that it matters not how dandy or how dainty the man is who labors among you at pulpit and altar as long as Christ’s command is being fulfilled and His sent peace is being delivered rightfully upon ear and tongue.
Behold how Christ sends out. At the Great Flood, He gathered the life of the earth into the Ark two-by-two, preserving it, delivering it by water, that when the flood had receded, out went those same to multiply and fill the earth. He is the God of the Living, the Lord and Giver of Life. Filling the earth by the two-by-two after the flood was with animal life in a yet fallen and perishing world. Oh, how greater is the life that He multiplies by His sent ones today, being fruitful and multiplying by His preached Word, that we may labor among His harvest and bear witness that His Word accomplishes what He pleases, and prospers in the thing for which He sends it. Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory! His word multiplies, not in mere headcount by adding more to the Church’s, or a church’s, growing number, but it multiplies strength of faith within those who receive whom Jesus sends, as He has said, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
This is most certainly true, for we also see the Lord’s intent in those He sends and what He desires to be received: peace, or the withholding of it. We are like John in the Wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. Pastors, sent ones, must decrease. He must increase. The blessing that this Office brings is not limited by the weakness of the Office-bearer, but magnified in the Sending One, for Whom nothing is impossible, though we only gain tiny glimpses of glory in His workings, while beholding mighty miracles by faith.
The seventy were sent two-by-two before His face, meaning that it is to His good pleasure and blessing that you hear from Jesus via humble, earthly voice; that you receive from Him by finite, weak hands, not from angels in the realm of glory, but by humble men delivering unto you the God-Man in Word, Body, and Blood. Yet, to be before the face of God by any means according to His good and gracious will, sent to by Him, to have His face shine upon you in His way, for Him to lift up His countenance upon you as He delights, is to be favored in divine light and bliss that shall have no end or comparison. Majestic grace and deed come to you in the Office of Jesus, bestowed upon you in peace by His sent ones. The seventy were sent before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. When you receive a minister of Christ, know that God intends not mere man to come to you but is preparing the way for His own visitation, to make His Home with you.
Should not such an office, then, that is sent carrying priceless treasure be adorned with great clamor, prestige, pomp, circumstance, and fortune? No. Jesus sent the seventy out saying, “Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.” In other words, pastors, too, must live by faith and not by sight. We must not be given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. We must live by the fruit of the Word as it rests upon the sons of peace in whatever city, place, or season that Word is preached. Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. We are to preach life by faith and to live with you by the same.
This, too, is of great blessing to you who hear and have faithfully received pastors in the past, have given them their living from the gospel, and now receive me likewise. It is a blessing, because the true Office of Christ is not a flashy one, but a humble one; it is not a worldly one, but a heavenly one, just as Christ Himself came in humility as He prepared to go where He sent those ahead of Him. To receive such a priceless treasure by such humble means testifies to the treasure’s authenticity, for your soul, your peace, your salvation, is the ulterior motive if one is to be claimed. The humility of the pastoral office testifies to its power, for there are no warplanes, world economies, or strength in princes needed for its success. It succeeds by your faith being built up, and with it, peace that surpasses all understanding.
Therefore, I come most joyfully, just as one of the seventy, sent in the Name of Jesus Christ, for God said to His beloved Son, “It’s time to have compassion. Then go, bright jewel of My crown, and bring to all salvation. From sin and sorrow set them free; Slay bitter death for them that they May live with You forever.” The Lord Jesus sends peace by those He sends in His Name before His face to places He intends to go. He sends me into this house, into your house, to say, “Peace to this house.” And if a son of peace is there, peace will rest upon it, according to the authority of the Almighty bestowed upon this, His Holy Office. If there is no son of peace, the peace that I speak will return to me, as is seen in the binding and loosing of sins in the Office of the Keys, where I, the called and sent minister of Christ, forgive the sins of repentant sinners but withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. So, for the sake of Christ our Lord, His good intentions in who He sends to you, and for peace in your very soul, as sons of peace, receive the One Who sent me and receive me; receive me in the repentance of your sins; receive me in the joyous forgiveness of those sins that shall indeed have the peace of Christ resting upon you and your house as part of the Lord’s bountiful, eternal harvest.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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