18th Sunday after Trinity

Readings

• Deuteronomy 10:12–21
• 1 Corinthians 1:1–9
• Matthew 22:34–46

Hymns

• 564  Christ Sits at God’s Right Hand
• 694  Thee Will I Love, My Strength, My Tower
• 831  “How Shall They Hear,” Who Have Not Heard
• 549  All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name

In Life and Death, Christ Fulfills the Law of God

The Pharisees ask a Law question. Jesus asks a Gospel question. The Pharisees seek to test Jesus in His own words. Jesus seeks to “test” them in the saving reality of who He is as the Messiah (Matt. 22:34–46). The Law requires you to “fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” and to “love the sojouner” (Deut. 10:12–21). Failure to keep the Law perfectly brings judgment. On the other hand, the Gospel brings the grace of God given by Jesus Christ, that you may be blameless in the day of His return (1 Cor. 1:1–9). Jesus is David’s Son yet David’s Lord, true God and true man. He is Love incarnate who fulfilled all the demands of God’s Law on our behalf, that we might be saved from the Law’s condemnation and sanctified in the Gospel’s forgiveness. Thereby we see that “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9).

Readings

• Proverbs 25:6–14
• Ephesians 4:1–6
• Luke 14:1–11

Hymns

• 784  Take My Life and Let It Be
• 557  Seek Where You May to Find a Way
• 618  I Come, O Savior, to Thy Table
• 813  Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng

Whoever Humbles Himself Will Be Exalted

“Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence” (Prov. 25:6–14). Rather, take the lowest position at the table. Humble yourself before Him. For your place is not for you to take but for Him to give. Conduct yourself with all lowliness and gentleness, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:1–6), that the King may give you glory in the presence of those at the table with you. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:1–11). Is this not the way of Christ? He is the one who took the lowest place, who humbled Himself even to the point of death for us. He is now exalted to the highest place at the right hand of the Father that penitent believers may be exalted together with Him in the resurrection. To the humble at His Supper He says, “Friend, move up higher,” giving you His very body and blood for your forgiveness that you may ascend to take part in the great wedding feast which has no end.