- Sep 28, 2025
- 6 min read
[Luke 16:19-31] [Jesus said:] “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
“One Whom God Helps”
I.
Our Gospel today is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man who passes by the poor man at his gate each day – the poor man, “Lazarus”, whose name means “One whom God helps.”
It is not a sin to be either rich or poor. It’s not a virtue either. Instead, the Rich Man’s action, or inaction, shows the condition of his heart. He is callous. He is unmoved by the wounds and the hunger of Lazarus at his gate. The heart of the matter is what the Rich Man believes, or, in fact, does not believe, about himself and the poor man.
The Rich Man is able to say, “What I have is mine and is my right!” because his heart is cold. Jesus tells this parable because when our hands and feet and mouth remain so unmoved in the sight of poverty, those unmoving hands are from an unmoved heart.
What is in the heart comes out through our actions or inaction. How can we know ourselves? What is in, or isn’t in, the heart overflows through our words and deeds. What we do and what we leave undone.
The Rich Man doesn’t believe the poor man is a “Lazarus,” “One whom God helps”, because he doesn’t first know himself as one who needs God’s help. He believes his riches. He doesn’t believe his own natural and spiritual poverty, which the Word of God tells him about —
— That we bring nothing into this world; what we have is from God. And that we bring no merit or worthiness before God but receive His steadfast love and faithfulness as a gift by grace. We are poor, except that He has made us rich.
If I know my own true poverty – sin and death – “a poor, miserable sinner”, in need of mercy – how does this affect how I see the Lazaruses on the sidewalk, or any person who’s in bad shape, maybe because of what he himself did? —
— What have I myself done! Yet God has had mercy on me. “I am one whom God has helped.” That sets my heart right toward the many kinds of Lazaruses in my life who could use my help.
II.
The Rich Man and Lazarus both die. The poor man, Lazarus, is carried by the angels to “Abraham’s side” – perhaps a seat of honor as they rest in heaven’s banquet hall, waiting for the feast which is about to come. (When we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised to see who is sitting at the top. People of such little account in this world that we never knew their names.)
The Rich Man dies, is buried, and his soul is in torment in hades – hell’s jail cell where he waits for trial and verdict. Even in such torment, the Rich Man’s heart is unchanged. He finds it unfair, where he is. “Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue…” He neglected Lazarus on earth, but expects Lazarus to be sent to his aid after death.
The Rich Man does have concern, but only for his own – his five brothers. That gives him no credit. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” [Luke 6:32; Matthew 5:47].
The Rich Man wants Lazarus to be sent to his brothers, if not down to him, to rise from the dead and warn them: “If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent,” he says.
“No,” he is told, for “if they do not hear Moses and the Prophets – if they don’t believe the Scriptures – neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
This final part of the exchange between the Rich Man and Abraham shows that the core issue is faith, believing God’s Word about me and my Savior – and “if they won’t believe the Scriptures, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead”, and someone has.
Scripture says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “All have sinned and fall short…” And are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” [Romans 3:10,23-24]
Believing this about yourself, “no one righteous” – and about what Jesus has done for you – your heart starts changing everyone’s name to Lazarus. People whom Jesus has come to help. There isn’t a person He hasn’t given His life for.
III.
Jesus became the world’s Savior by becoming the ultimate Lazarus on the cross. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” [2 Corinthians 8:9]
What was happening on that cross? Jesus carried in His flesh and soul all the poverty of this world. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” [Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46]. All sin, all death, all the assaults of the evil one. All wounds and all blows. And the guilt of those who gave them. This whole evil existence.
All falls. All failings. All sickness and death. All the accidents on the road. All mistakes made in the hospital. “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” [Matthew 8:17].
All rejection and loneliness. All mockery and being made fun of – they wagged their heads and mocked Him on the cross. All spitting. All prejudice and bias, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”
And all the darkest evils of this world. All shootings, all stabbings, all terror. All wars. And all hatred of God and one another. And, all thirst, all hunger, all poverty. And being passed by.
Jesus became all poverty of our sin and death, hung upon a cross – Yet remained God’s Lazarus, THE “One Whom God Has Helped” by raising Him from the dead. “For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the Afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard, when He cried to Him.” [Psalm 22:24]
You are not overcome by all the poverties of this fallen life because, in Jesus, God is raising you too. God has not passed you by, but has come to you in Jesus, making you also “one whom God has helped.”
Let this determine the heart you have for every other Lazarus whom God is also not passing by. Amen.
- Sep 21, 2025
- 5 min read
[Matthew 9:9-13] As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed Him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”12 But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus, our Great Physician
Some people are not normal. I usually avoid sneezers, coughers, and nose drippers. I avoid those with high fevers and contagious diseases. But there are some very unique people who not only spend much time with them but even invite them in. Physicians and nurses.
Doctors have a unique purpose in life. They take in the sick. They diagnose. They prescribe the healing medicine. Administer the saving treatment. They heal. They restore strength. They ease pain. They teach how to avoid future bad health.
Those working in medicine do not do the normal thing of avoiding the sick. Their unique purpose requires that they fill their waiting room with the sick. How strange it would be if we criticized them for that.
I.
Jesus is the Great Physician. He has a unique purpose. In today’s Gospel, He is criticized for it. It begins with His call of Matthew, a tax collector.
The “tax-collectors” were fellow children of the house of Israel who were collecting taxes from their own fellow Israelites on behalf of the occupying nation, the Roman Empire, which had taken their land without asking. Israelite tax collectors were therefore seen as disloyal to their own people and nation.
Tax collectors were also known for fraudulently collecting more than they should to make themselves wealthier [Luke 19:1-10]. Nothing is said of Matthew’s own business practices, but he is part of a despised group – despised, not without reason.
Jesus calls this despised person to follow Him and be His disciple. Matthew, while doing work that falls short of loyalty, is treated with loyalty from his God and Lord. Matthew experiences the Lord’s loyalty to His promise to come and redeem His people.
He becomes the recipient of the Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness. Matthew stands immediately, leaves everything behind, and follows – because he had received such love, undeservedly.
Matthew – also called Levi – therefore throws a great feast for Jesus. Invited are Matthew’s many friends – “tax collectors and sinners.” Also called “tax collectors and prostitutes” [Matthew 21:31-32] – The standard titles for those who were known to be living unworthy lives.
What is Jesus’ unique purpose in this situation? What is His unique purpose in our world? What is His unique purpose in your life? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus has come to do the difficult work of healing. Healing people who are sick with sin.
II.
When the Pharisees saw a sinner, they saw an enemy. Just like, when I see someone sneezing or coughing without covering their mouth, I see an enemy. “Keep them away from me!”
What the Pharisees failed to recognize is that they themselves were also diseased with sin, inwardly – that they were in the same sick ward as the tax collectors, prostitutes, and Matthew. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” [Mark 7:21-23]
No matter how much I might think I can see a person’s unrighteousness outwardly, God can see me perfectly clearly inwardly. To God, sins of heart and mind are just as outward as our own skin. The mirror of His Law diagnoses us all with sickness.
A physician could take two easy but foolish routes with his sick patients. First, he could just give them all a referral to the mortician. Be done with them. “Keep them away from me!” Sickness would be gone. But a doctor is called to heal.
Second, a foolish doctor could simply affirm sickness as being just as valid as health. He could call having a fever or having cancer just as good as not having them. He could avoid offending me for my results on the weight scale. But a doctor is called to heal.
Consider this: Jesus and the Pharisees both call the tax collectors and sinners, “sinners.” But with a very different heart about it and a very different purpose. Jesus speaks with the heart and the unique purpose of the Great Physician. He diagnoses in order to heal.
III.
Jesus’ unique purpose, in your life, is to heal your spirit by forgiving your sins and to improve your health in righteousness by the renewing power of His Holy Spirit. To forgive you and then to be renewing you. To save your life and then strengthen you in His rehab.
Jesus has become your effective Great Physician by taking a road of great difficulty, at His cost, for your sake. Jesus made Himself the cure for sin by dying for your sins on the cross. He made the sins of the world His.
He made the sin of each individual person – and all the wounds of sin, including sickness and death – His own upon the cross.
All sin was written upon Him on that cross. He suffered the due penalty for your sin for you. He suffered the unjust injuries of sin from others with you. The Physician carried your disease and overcame it. He is risen from the dead.
His death for your sin absolved you, forgave you in full. And in your life today, your Risen Savior who overcame sin has the power to heal sin and its effects within you. He forgave, and He is healing. He does have the power to free you and help you do better.
It’s a life-long regiment of His help. The end is rest in heaven and perfect health of soul and body in the resurrection. He makes soul and body good again.
IV.
This is the unique purpose of Jesus as our Great Physician. And it is His unique purpose for your neighbor. You are therefore called to prioritize this unique purpose of the kingdom of heaven in how you think about – in how you feel about – your neighbor. Your neighbor you know and your neighbor you don’t know. They are all people. Those close and those distant.
The unique purpose of your God and Lord for each of them is that they would receive the spiritual health and healing of soul and body won for them only in Jesus Christ.
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice’ – Jesus desires that you would go and extend to them the mercy and steadfast love that He has extended to you – “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Finally, do not be overwhelmed by the strength of your sins and shortcomings. The medicine of the Great Physician – the feast of His Word – is stronger.
And do not be discouraged by the sin-sickness of the world around you on all sides. The healing medicine and unique purpose of the Great Physician is stronger than all that is in the world. The extending of the mercy and steadfast love of God found in Christ Jesus alone is the one medicine that really does help.
Like Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, you are the nurses, doctor’s aides, and EMT drivers of the Great Physician as you extend to others – by word, action, and prayer, from a sincere heart – the forgiveness and healing He has extended to you. Amen.
- Sep 14, 2025
- 7 min read
Shepherds and Sheepdogs
Sheep are not an animal that can survive on their own in the wild. They are meant to be cared for. They are meant to be led to green pasture and still water. Led, fed, and watered. Sheep need sheering. Sheep need to be called in from the open fields by their shepherd and directed through the fence’s gate for safe keeping at night.
Sheep need their shepherd. Sheep also need their shepherd’s sheepdogs. Sheep will stray. They need the dog’s bark in their ears and its teeth nipping at their ankles to keep them within the boundaries – and to drive back the wolves.
And I would safely assume that the sheep, though they love their shepherd, probably don’t always like the shepherd’s sheepdogs. Their bite hurts and their bark is loud in their ears. Though that dog is there for their wellbeing, the sheep probably sometimes kick back against it – or sometimes are frightened by it.
In an ideal world, the sheepdog would not be necessary. But sheep live in two realities: In the safety and care of their Shepherd’s keeping; but also in the reality of the wilderness where there are wolves and easy places to get lost.
I.
So, what in the world am I talking about? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And I am talking about the Good Shepherd’s two-fold voice – His Word of Law and Gospel. His Word of Gospel and Law together fulfill this needed role of shepherd and sheepdog in your life, and in the life of the strayed and the lost who need to be led home.
Jesus’ Word of Gospel – His Word of care and comfort, of His forgiveness and His promises – is pleasant to the ears. His Word of Law is also needed, but like the sheepdog’s bark, is not always pleasant to us.
The Word of our God and Savior does always come to us in those two voices, His Law and Gospel. The Law is God’s commandments and judgments, true threats of consequences for not keeping them. Those consequences are just. The Law says what we must do and what we must not do. And, we never get it all done.
God’s Law is written on the page and is written on the human heart. On the conscience. Leaving us with no excuse.
Our Shepherd’s Word of the Gospel is His Word of the forgiveness of your sins. It’s the voice of the Shepherd which tells you, not what you must do, but what He has done for you – that the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep [John 10:11].
Jesus’ voice of the Gospel is His assurance that, by His cross and resurrection, your sins are forgiven, you have eternal life, and He will never let you go – “My sheep hear My voice… and no one will snatch them out of My hand [John 10:27-28].
The Gospel is God’s greater power, not the Law. The Gospel has the power of salvation. However, like sheep, you also live in two realities. And in this wilderness-reality of our own sinful nature, the devil, and a fallen world, the sheepdog of the Law is still necessary for us. Our Good Shepherd speaks His Word of Law to us for three purposes: As a curb, as a mirror, and as a guide.
The curb on the road keeps your car within certain boundaries (off the sidewalk!) to minimize the damage you might do and help keep you going the way you need to go.
Our Shepherd’s voice of Law bites at our heals to keep our temptations, sinful tendencies, wrong words and actions – and our inaction – within certain boundaries. We would do much worse without that bad feeling in our conscience from His accusing Law – and sometimes other consequences as well – to curb our behavior.
Second, our Shepherd’s voice of the Law serves as a mirror. We may have a certain opinion of ourselves, but a mirror is always honest. God’s Law is a mirror that shows us the truth of the wrong we’ve done, the wrong we’ve been, and the good we’ve failed to be —
— It shows our sin, “So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” [Romans 3:19-20].
God’s Law has a true and loud bark – and a true and serious bite. Yet, in the mouth of your Shepherd, it serves only one purpose: The purpose of turning you to your Shepherd’s voice of His saving Gospel.
Those who are self-satisfied or blind to their need for a Savior need the bite and bark of God’s Law. Those lost in confusion or pained in conscience need to hear the Law gently, to realize why, what’s at the the root of their trouble. And all baptized believers in Christ still need the Word of Law – because we still live with two realities.
We live in the renewal and new life of salvation. And we live with our sinful nature still clinging so closely. We do need that curb and mirror, while always remembering that the strongest and most enduring voice of your Shepherd is His voice of the Gospel. It’s His voice of Gospel that gets the final say about you and has the power of renewal.
The third and final use, or purpose, of our Shepherd’s voice of Law doesn’t bite or bark at all. It’s His Word of commandments as our guide and encouragement in life. This is His Law’s most prominent role in our life now —
— His commandments as a standard which is no longer a burden [1 John 5:3] – because He carried the burden – but is now a hope we aspire to, and a promise of what we will one day be. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him” [1 John 3:2].
This Word of His Law as my guide is the answer to the question, “How do I thank Him for the Gospel’s free gift of salvation?” “What life of love and appreciation can I live?” I can take up His commandments as my guide because they are pleasing to Him.
The voice of our Good Shepherd is Law and Gospel; Curb and Mirror; Promise and Guide. This fullness of His voice, altogether, going out into the world is how He returns the lost sheep and the lost coins.
II.
So let’s look quickly at today’s readings: In our Old Testament [Ezekiel 34:11-24], and in the verses before it in Ezekiel, the voice of the Law speaks against the negligent shepherds – those who aren’t moved to action when sheep have strayed – and against the fat sheep who are happy to receive what the Lord gives but who do not share it.
Then the voice of the Gospel speaks loudly as well: “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…”
In our Epistle reading [1 Timothy 1:5-17], we hear the proper use of the Law, to speak against our sin-fallen nature: “Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”
And then we see the man, Paul, the author of these words, formerly called Saul, who once thought that he could live by the Law and didn’t need the Gospel. Until his eyes were opened and he saw that he was the chief of sinners – and that Jesus had come to save him: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
Finally, we hear in our Gospel reading [Luke 15:1-10] that Jesus is the Lord in Ezekiel who says, “I, I Myself will be their Shepherd. I will seek them out.”
In Jesus’ day, God’s people were hearing God’s Law in the wrong way. In their ears, God’s Law chiefly accused others, and their hearts followed suit. So they grumbled: “That Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus responds, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”
“I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” than over ninety-nine who believe they need no repentance [Luke 18:9]. From beginning to end, He seeks the lost and turns them – repentance – back to home.
III.
That that woman swept the whole house, and that that shepherd searched the whole wilderness, shows what value Jesus places on the lost. Value each other likewise, He says. Value the lost in your world likewise, and do not grumble.
We live in a world in which we are all too content to only bark at each other, and to leave it at that. That is not God’s true Law or Gospel, and it’s not His purpose. It only leads to men and women devaluing the lives of those they oppose.
Your Shepherd’s voice speaks with an entirely different purpose than anything on any “side” in this world: To seek the lost and to bring darkened souls into the light of His Gospel salvation. Thanks be to God that we are called to speak with the voice of our Good Shepherd for this same purpose. Amen.
