At the end of this month we’re going to celebrate the Reformation (and we’ll do so with a special worship service in conjunction with other LCMS churches in the area; this year it will be hosted at Hope Lutheran in Bonita Springs on October 24th at 4:00 PM), and so I think it’s very appropriate that for the second half of this month we’ll be taking our Gospel readings from Matthew 21 and 22.

It’s appropriate because in these passages, we get to see Jesus defying the religious leaders of His own time—the chief priests, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees—just as 1500 years later we would see Martin Luther defy the religious leaders of his time. And in both Jesus’ situation and Luther’s, we see common elements in how they do this:

1. They respect their authorities. While both Jesus and Luther stood against their authorities and at times publicly criticized them for their errors, they also called on people to still respect them as earthly authorities (like Jesus does in Matthew 22:16–22, and like Luther did in his Admonition to Peace in response to a peasants’ revolt in 1525) and to love them, as we are called to love even our enemies.
2. They ground their words in God’s word. Every word that Jesus spoke was the word of God, but Jesus also made it a habit to reference and quote Scripture constantly (just read through Matthew 21–22 and note how often Jesus quotes the Old Testament!) so that people might know that what He said was grounded in what He had already said. Luther likewise was always quoting and referencing Scripture, because he knew that if we tried to go without it we would very quickly wind up far from teaching and believing as we should!
3. Their focus is always on Jesus. This is Jesus’ ultimate criticism of the Pharisees: He criticizes their hypocrisy, He criticizes their reliance on themselves, but ultimately His criticism of them is that they have rejected Him (see His parable at the end of Matthew 21). Likewise, Luther had no shortage of criticism for his religious leaders (it’s hard to read anything by Luther without finding this!), but his ultimate and central criticism was that they were leading people away from Jesus.

These three principles are important to remember because there is not (nor has there ever been, nor will there be until Jesus comes again) a shortage of false teachers—religious authorities who purport to serve the Gospel but actually teach something else. As we interact with these, let us learn from both Jesus and Luther, and (1) treat them with respect, (2) ground our response (and evaluation of them) in Scripture, and (3) let our focus always be on Jesus.

Happy Reformation Day!
-Pastor Duncan

You are invited to read the Bible with us!

Have you ever wanted to read the whole Bible, but you don’t know how to start? Or have you read the whole Bible before, but you want to again? If so, we have an exciting new opportunity at Faith for you!

Starting in November, we are going to start a “Bible in a Year” group. Everyone in this group will be given a daily reading plan, which will include a daily reading from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Psalms/Proverbs—around 3–4 pages in a normal Bible. Every Tuesday evening (starting on November 3rd) we will meet over Zoom from 7:30–8:30 PM; during these sessions we will discuss the readings from the previous week and prepare for the readings for the coming week.

This is an exciting opportunity, but it is also a singular opportunity: it will probably be several years until we do something like this again, so if you’re interested, this is your chance—don’t try to put it off until next year. Sign up now! Please reach out to Pastor Duncan if you have any questions.