1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. A
very happy All Saints’ Day to all of you!
The message from God’s Word today is taken from Matt. 5:1-12 and is
entitled, “Good News from King Jesus,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
All Saints’ Day can be, in a way, a
confusing experience in the church. Some people wonder who the “saints” are. As
Lutherans, we know that, in the most important sense, all people who are
baptized and confess that Jesus is Lord are holy in God’s sight; all of us
Christians are “saints.” Sometimes,
there’s confusion about what it means to be “blessed.” Aren’t capable,
successful people the ones who are really blessed? When we think, as we often
do today, about beloved fellow Christians who have died, are they somehow more
“blessed” than we are? If they are, why do we mourn, and why does the Bible
teach us that death is a final enemy that Christ will only fully overcome on
the Last Day when he returns in glory and reverses death (“I believe in the
resurrection of the body”)?
3.
Our King, Jesus, offers us an
amazing teaching today. To be sure, the Beatitudes, Mt 5:1–12, do not answer
all of the questions that we might have about the saints and our eternity. But
Jesus does have some very, very good news for us on All Saints’ Day, and
for every day that we live as God’s saints, God’s holy people. It’s good news
that many people will reject. But it is the Good News we need to hear from King
Jesus. Certainly on this All Saints’ Day, We Need to Hear This Good News from King
Jesus.
4.
Never forget that you and I need
to hear the Good News! Jesus has not
come to be our helper or our life coach or our cheerleader. Jesus has come to be our King, to
reign over the world and us, because we cannot and must not try to reign over
ourselves or our world. When we try to
be little kings, we become tyrants. When
we try to be little kings, we really are acting as “puppets” in the hand of
Satan, the prince of this fallen world. We
need a king because we are unable. We need a king because we are not capable of
governing our lives in ways that do anything but defy the living God and earn
for us his judgment. We call Jesus many
things, as the Bible rightly teaches us. But today, we will especially call him
“King.”
5.
How does King Jesus want us to think
of ourselves, in the most important ways, to prepare ourselves for his
blessing? Poor in spirit—having no
resources sufficient of ourselves.
Mourning—because even now, our lives and the world are still so
broken. Meek—that is, “powerless,” lowly. Longing for things to be right and
unable to fulfill that longing—only God can do it!
6.
This Good News is not something that
we naturally want. We want to be capable, to be powerful, to be in control.
Jesus will have none of that. He says, “Repent! You need a king who can bring
Good News that you need to hear.” And here is that Good News.
7.
Jesus’ Good News answers the needs
of all his saints! You have nothing? Jesus
knows it—and he will give you everything. He healed the sick. He cast out
demons. He forgave sin. He took on the
world’s evil, taking it into his own body to save you and me, dying on the
cross. He rose from the dead to defeat
the devil and take the ultimate sting of death away already even now. He will come again—and put all things right.
8.
Now he gives you every blessing. Then
he will make everything right. Forgiveness. A new identity. The Holy Spirit to
sustain you and keep you in the faith. A new king, King Jesus.
9.
You have no purpose? I will give one
to you! His mercy comes and fills you,
and, even though it’s hard and we have to practice, you can turn and show mercy
to others. Your heart is cleansed—and
will be clean on the Last Day. Here, in
the place where we listen to the Good News that we all need to hear, we can
find peace and share it with one another.
This is the original meaning of the “Passing of the Peace.” Jesus by his reconciling death on the cross
has made peace between you and God. Now,
you and I become willing for there to be peace between us. Even when opposition comes and Jesus and his
ways are hated and rejected, still we are blessed because God’s gifts still
belong to us. “Yours is the reign of
heaven.” Yes, “the Kingdom ours remaineth!”
10.
You mourn the loss of dear fellow
Christians? On All Saints’ Day, remember
that it is certainly right and holy and Christian to mourn in the face of death. Our mourning, however, is filled with
hope—because of the promise of Christ’s return and the resurrection of the
body. The hymn, “For All the Saints,” expresses this so well. St 4:
“Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory
shine; yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.” All saints! One Church! “Alleluia!”
11.
Here I want to encourage us all not
to settle for anything but the fullness of God’s promises. We do, on All
Saints’ Day, take comfort that the souls of our dear fellow Christians are
resting with Christ—yes, indeed. But God’s final plan of salvation does not
stop there. Christ will return and raise the dead! To forget this would be like
hiking in the mountains and looking up—and you think that you can see the
summit, the top of the mountain. Once you get there, however, you find that
although you are in a beautiful place, it is not the majesty and glory of being
at the TOP! So it is with our Christian, certain hope on All Saints’ Day. It’s
not just that we look forward to resting with Christ, should we die before the
Lord returns. As Paul says in Philippians, we press on toward the goal, toward
the resurrection of the dead. St 7 of “For All the Saints” says it so very
well. St 7: “But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day: The saints, triumphant, rise in bright array; The King of glory”—the King, Jesus—“passes on his way.
Alleluia!”
12.
On All Saints’ Day, every day, for
you and for all the saints, this is the Good News we need to hear from
King Jesus. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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