THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXV - SUNDAY

LESSON: MATTHEW 24:15‒28

“When you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle.” Matthew 24:15‒18

In this chapter we have a description of the conclusion and end of two kingdoms—the kingdom of the Jews as well as the end of the whole world. These two the evangelists Matthew and Mark toss together without observing any due order as the Gospel of Luke does. All that these evangelists want to do is to give and to relate the words of Christ; they do not trouble themselves with what He spoke first or subsequently. But Luke takes special care to write more clearly and with more order, and reports this whole discussion twice. First, briefly in chapter nineteen he speaks of the destruction of the Jews at Jerusalem, and then in chapter twenty-one he reports these two matters in succession.

You must know, then, that Matthew here wraps together and takes up at the same time the end of both the Jewish people and the end of the world, and cooks this up into one broth. If you want to understand it, you have to separate and draw out each part to its end, that which is spoken of the Jews and that which is spoken of the whole world.

SL.XI.1870,1‒2
AE. 79:324-336

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, guide and direct us by Your Holy Spirit so that we may always accept Your Word given us through men and in human form as the Word of truth and salvation, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXV - MONDAY

LESSON: LUKE 19:41‒44

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16‒17

When Christ ascended into heaven, He did not lock up His kingdom in the land of the Jews; He spread it out into the whole world through the Gospel which was preached and heard everywhere. But, like the Jews, we deny and persecute God’s Word and put to death the Christians who confess and preach it. The Romans were the first to do this, but their example has been continued by the pope, the bishops, princes, monks, and priests right up to our day. For five hundred years or more, no one was permitted to preach God’s Word without, at least for appearance sake, reciting the text of the Gospel from the pulpit. But these preachers mostly extracted the doctrine of men from these texts or dragged it into these texts. Whenever anyone raised objections to this, he was silenced with fire and sword.

Daniel’s word about the “desolating sacrilege” is certainly important also for us. This “desolating sacrilege” is the false doctrine current in the Church, that men must save themselves by performing all the works imposed on them by the Church and its hierarchy, and by falling in line with all the machinery that has been set up in the Church to force men into obedience to this “desolating sacrilege.”

The pure doctrine of the Word is the doctrine which we proclaim—that we are saved from sin, death, the devil, and all misfortune through Christ and established in God’s kingdom through the Word and faith.

Where this is preached and believed, Christ dwells and reigns in the hearts spiritually without means. There the Holy Spirit also dwells with all the blessings and fullness of God’s riches.

SL.XI.1875,17‒19
AE. 79:324-336

PRAYER: O Lord our God, You have warned us in no uncertain manner that false doctrine can be sacrilege. May we never fall into the sacrilege which sets aside the clear truth of Your Word and substitutes for it the doctrine of men, ending in spiritual sin. In Jesus’ name. Amen.