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And Jesus said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers, laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Please be seated. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, I assure you we didn’t make a mistake this week. We’re not a week too early with the Red Paramounts, even though next week we will celebrate the Feast of Reformation Day, Reformation Sunday. But today, actually, we are commemorating, as Pastor mentioned, we are commemorating the Feast of St. Luke, which just so happens to fall today, October the 18th.
And usually when we have one of these, there’s usually several questions that kind of come up, you know, questions like, well, who are the saints and what are we supposed to think about them? And why do we have these commemorations of them? I don’t want to talk too terribly long about this. I think maybe in a couple weeks we have All Saints. Pastor Wolf Miller might want to kind of elaborate on this.
But on that day, on All Saints Day, we won’t just celebrate the saints who have names, the named saints and the feasts and all that, but it will be actually a celebration of all who have died in the faith, and most especially those who have died in the past year. And so we believe and we confess that a saint is someone who is set apart because of faith. One who has been made holy, not by their own work, but solely by the work of the Lord in them. And we have proof of this, right? We have in the Holy Scriptures.
We hear the saints being described, and mostly in places like the Psalms. In particular, I’m thinking of Psalm 116, verse 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And we hear about the saints all throughout Paul’s letters, such as the first letter to the Corinthian church where he writes this letter addressing those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this proof of scripture as the basis for calling someone a saint.
Our Lutheran confessions, they teach us that we ought to follow the example of their faith and good works according to our calling. Not that we are to pray to them or to praise them, but to thank God for them as examples of those in whom Christ Jesus has manifested his saving work, but to the glory of his name.
So, just as is the tradition of the early church, we commemorate those who have died in the faith, and at the proper time, like today, we especially recognize those who had a prominent role in the church, in the history of the church. And so among those, of course, is today St. Luke the Evangelist.
So now we need to know, well, what do we know about St. Luke? Well, church history and tradition tell us that he was from Antioch in Syria. He was probably Greek, although some suggest he might have been Jewish, a Hellenized Jew. He was most likely a doctor of some kind. Paul refers to him as the beloved physician in the epistle to the Colossians.
And Luke is responsible for writing well over one quarter of the entire New Testament, writing both the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts, both attributed to him, which makes him actually the greatest New Testament writer in terms of sheer volume, surpassing that even of Paul. And about Paul, he was a close friend and he was even a partner in the gospel with Paul. In the book of Acts, Luke writes about Paul quite a bit.
And then we see later in chapter 16 of Acts, when Luke starts talking the we’s, we did this, we sought to go into Macedonia, for instance, clearly indicating that he has now begun to travel with Paul. And indeed, Paul calls him his fellow worker in Philemon 24. And as we heard earlier in the epistle lesson, he commends him only as the only one who remained with him in Rome before his death. writing, as we heard, Luke alone is with me.
As to his gospel, Luke describes it as himself an orderly account. That is, that it’s written in greater detail than maybe the others. Luke was, I think we could call him maybe the technical writer of his time. He has a very unique sequence of events and account events leading up to and then including the birth of Jesus. He has several of the parables that we don’t find anywhere else. The prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the lost parables of the sheep and the coin.
Our liturgy actually draws very heavily on Luke. Many of our canticles come from there. The nook demittis, the song of Simeon that we will sing after the Lord’s Supper today is one. The benedictus, which you find in Matins, that song of Zechariah that we pray, and the Magnificat Mary song of praise which we pray in Vespers. And Luke’s gospel is at its heart. It’s a very catechetical book. It’s Christological. It’s meant to teach us about Jesus. And Luke admits that although he wasn’t an eyewitness to Jesus’ earthly ministry, his gospel is then based on those accounts of those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. And so today we do hear about some of these. We hear about some of these eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, where we have this account of the sending out of the 72. And this is, I think we could call it maybe the third mission trip, so to speak, that Jesus has commissioned to this point. We know back in chapter 9 that Jesus has commissioned the apostles, the 12 apostles, and we know they were apostles because Jesus refers to him as such, and he sends him out into various locations, likely out through Galilee, because Luke tells us that Herod seemed to notice what was going on and took a keen interest in what’s going on in his backyard. But now here we hear this, that Jesus has begun to set his eyes Jerusalem.
He set his face to go to Jerusalem, so he’s starting to go south, to go up to Jerusalem, and it is only Luke who tells us about this. And so here he appoints these 72 with some type of special mission now your translation might say it was 70 not 72 there’s quite a bit of ink that has been spilt on what it really is but we don’t really care about that to be honest with you we don’t need to worry about it the point is there was a lot to be doing there was a lot to do and there were a lot who were needed to go do it but i don’t think we want to consider these guys necessarily as apostles we don’t know who they were we don’t know their names and it’s not necessarily an apostolic mission in and of itself. They’re not really going to stay and preach any length of time over an extended period of time like Peter and Paul and the other apostles will do.
Rather, it’s kind of, I don’t know, we might call it like a cursory mission to go proclaim that the kingdom of God is near, nearer than the people really know. Because Jesus sees this, right? He knows, as we heard in the hymn, that the fields are white and the harvest is waiting. And he knows it’s ready because he is the one who has actually sown it.
Now to me, this mission kind of sounds like something of the special forces. They’re going to go out in pairs. They’re going to go ahead of Jesus into all these towns in which he is about to go into.
Maybe what we would call kind of an information campaign or an information operation to tell them about the coming of God’s kingdom. And they’re going out there to kind of do some reconnaissance too. They’re going out there to bring information back with them about what it is exactly that they are seeing and hearing. Jesus tells them that it won’t be easy because this is not for the faint of heart.
They are going into enemy territory. They are going out, as he says, like lambs among wolves who are waiting to eat them. And they aren’t to take much with them. They’ll be traveling light, very little, nothing to sustain themselves, essentially the clothes on their back. They’re even to avoid contact with people. I can see them going down the road and averting their eyes from anyone they see. They’re focused. They’re dedicated.
And they are to then go seek out lodging in the places where their message of peace is reciprocated. In the homes that then receive them as actual messengers of the Lord. And it is in those homes that they are then to base their mission. They are to take whatever they are offered as payment, whether it’s food or drink or just shelter in and of itself.
and they are also to go search out all the sick to heal them and tell them that the kingdom of God has come near to you. That these people are being healed not just of their physical afflictions but that Jesus now comes to bring the forgiveness of sins. And this assurance comes to them in the words that these servants are taking to them. That the kingdom of heaven is near. That the reign of God is now coming to them in the person and work of Christ. And we’d have to go a few more verses into the text this morning to hear what the result of this was.
We unfortunately don’t get to hear that, but let me tell you what happened. They returned and they were pretty proud of themselves. They were pretty full of themselves. They told Jesus, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And Jesus kind of gives them a pat on the back. He commends them.
He confirms them, yes, you have this authority from me, but he also cautions them that they shouldn’t rejoice in this. They should not rejoice in the works that they have done. They should rejoice in what has been done for them. So they should never think that the love and the mercy of the Father that has come to them has been because of some works they have done, because of this authority that they have over the demons. Instead, Jesus says, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. So we may look at this and say, well, pastor, what does this even have to do with us? Because let’s be honest, we know not all of us are necessarily called to anything like the work of the ministry. We’re not all equipped for that. Yes, we do confess and we admit that there is a divine and actual scriptural mandate for the establishment of the office of the holy ministry.
But at the same time, we also believe in the priesthood of all believers, that we are all representatives of the church, that we are all to do this as we go out into the world in whatever vocation we actually have, that we are to go out in the world as disciples of Christ. And maybe we’re not dedicated all the time to active evangelism, but we are always reflecting this in the way that we live and the way that we interact with others.
Perhaps you’ve had some experience with this. Perhaps you have been active in sharing your faith. And if you have, you know this is thankless work. And maybe you’ve been rejected more often than not. We ought not take this personally because we want to remember that Christ was rejected brutally in the most heinous way and that many will continue to deny him today. So we don’t want to keep score because we don’t want to concern ourselves with the result lest we fall into the sin of pride or despair on the other hand. So we don’t take pride in anything we’ve accomplished and we don’t lose heart for the things that we haven’t, for the things that as we confess, we have left undone.
I mean, far be it from us to give up on sharing the word of God with others, with testifying to our faith, because we don’t see the results that we think we should. Because we don’t know how and where the spirit works, but that the spirit does indeed work, but only through the word of God. And Jesus has told us this, that the helper, the Holy Spirit, comes to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.
and so it is the spirit not us that bring unbelievers to faith by the word yes the very words that we share with them and wondered that if it has ever really accomplished anything and we may think that we’re not very good at this but the Lord works through weak and timid voices and he works through stumbling and stammering speech and faltering tongues to accomplish his purpose and his will. Our Lord knows, right? He knows what we sang in this hymn, that not all of us can speak like angels, and not all of us can preach like Paul. And if we can’t, we know this, but then we are to use our prayers and bounties, our time and our treasure to do exactly what it is that God commands.
So in the sending of the 72, we see this picture of the mission and the life of the church, how the church is going to grow by the spreading of the word and the harvest that comes when this word goes out. And we do also get this glimpse of this apostolic mission to come when Luke, which Luke actually then chronicles in the Acts of the Apostles, how Peter and Paul and all the rest of the apostles are going to be Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and even to the end of the earth, how they’re going to take the gospel out to Jew and Gentile alike to places like Caesarea and Phoenicia and Cyprus and then even into Syrian Antioch where Luke will hear the gospel for the first time and he will be converted to faith by the work of the Holy Spirit. And as he heard the stories of how the word of the Lord was working to the glory of his kingdom, Luke surely knew that he was being called to the service of the Lord. And he did answer gladly, saying, here am I, send me, send me. And he served faithfully, and in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, today we have his gospel, which he has written, so that we may be certain about the things that we have been taught. So it is for this purpose that we thank God for St. Luke, for his writing, for his teaching, and most especially, as with all the saints, for his example of faith, that we too may believe that the kingdom of heaven is here. That it is indeed with us as Jesus comes to us in his word and in his own body and blood.
And so the examples of the apostles and other messengers who’ve been appointed by Christ show us that the salvation of the world doesn’t depend on us. And we thank God for that. That Christ has taken all of us, all of our weaknesses, all of our inabilities, all of our shortcomings all of our doubts and all that and indeed he has taken all of our sins and put them on himself that he has freed us from being condemned by these works by the condemnation of the law and the accusation of the devil who says you haven’t done enough because Christ says to us my grace is sufficient for you and he is the one who can do and did do what we cannot do that his work this work that he accomplished on the cross is greater than anything we could ever hope or dream to accomplish. So then, may we continue to preach the good news of salvation to all, whether they like it or not, whether they receive it or not, trusting then that the Holy Spirit works as he will. And may we today and all days rejoice with St. Luke and the 72 and with all those redeemed through Jesus Christ because he has written our names in heaven. Amen. Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Please stand.