The Locus of Reality
Notes
Transcript
Loci Theologici [Melanchthon’s Text]
Although all nations see the horrible confusion, vices, and grievous calamities of the human race and feel the burden of sin, yet only the church of God teaches both where sin comes from and what it is and hears the Word of God concerning divine wrath and present and eternal punishments. And though human wisdom teaches us how to guide morals [and] disapproves and punishes actions against common reason, yet it does not recognize what is inherent in the consideration of sin, namely guilt before God or the wrath of God.
Loci Theologici [Melanchthon’s Text]
Therefore when the Holy Spirit by the voice of the Gospel ministry reproves the world and shows whence sin comes, what it is, and how great an evil it is, we must hear the Holy Spirit as He teaches, for the benefits of Christ cannot be understood if we do not know what sin is.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Sin hurts. It hurts us personally, whether we are victims of others’ sins or the ones who inflict that pain, on ourselves and others.
Sin hurts because it separates us from the author of life, and from those whom we have sinned against. We cannot justify it, although we sometimes try to justify our succumbing to its temptations. Sin’s pain is pervasive; there is no escaping its tentacles, no community or country where its poison does not afflict. In the end, we can only look unto Jesus Christ, as He is preached by His Church, purely and without confusion, in Law and Gospel.
Our Gospel text today takes us from the revelation by God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to Peter, and through Peter to the Church, to the reality of why God sent His Son.
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
“He must go...” the verb “δεῖ” has two meanings: 1] to be under necessity of happening, it is necessary, one must, one has to, denoting compulsion of any kind. [2] to be something that should happen because of being fitting.[1]
[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 213–214.
In this case, it wasn’t “fitting” that the Christ should die as the sacrifice for the sin of the world, it was “necessary.” It was necessary because, no matter who else is affected by our sins, our ultimate offences is against God Himself:
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
It was necessary because Jesus, through His sufferings, became the only source of eternal salvation:
His holiness made Christ a fitting sacrifice, but only the Son of God could be fitting, because He is also the Son of Man.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
This is the terrible truth that Jesus now shares with His disciples. It was a hard truth to embrace then, and it is still hard now. So hard was it that Peter responded, out of love and concern.
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
A more literal translation of Peter’s words would be, “[May God be] merciful to you, Lord! This will surely not be to you!”
Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 11:2–20:34, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2010), 829.
Peter loved his Lord. He knew that there was no one who was more holy than Jesus, no one who had shown more love to others, both those who supported Him and those who opposed Him, than had Jesus. He could not understand how Jesus’ love could be repayed in the way that Jesus has just described it - surely the righteous God would not allow such injustice to take place!
He could not understand it, because, as David wrote,
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
In the same way, we cannot understand how intertwined sin is with injustice by our human wisdom or knowledge. We seek a revolution; we need a revelation!
That’s why Jesus’ response treated Peter’s words as nothing less than Satanic; they were fundamentally opposed to God’s purpose, even though they were couched in words that showed respect or even reverence to the God whose will Peter was resisting out of his fleshly reasoning.
Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s fellow-worker in the Reformation and author of the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, or Defense, wrote:
Loci Theologici [Melanchthon’s Text]
But the church points out the wrath of God and teaches that sin is a far greater evil than human reason thinks. Nor does the church reprove only external actions which are in conflict with the law of God or reason, as philosophy does; but it reproves the root and the fruit, the inner darkness of the mind, the doubts concerning the will of God, the turning away of the human will from God and the stubbornness of the heart against the law of God. It also reproves ignoring and despising the Son of God. These are grievous and atrocious evils, the enormity of which cannot be told.
This sermon opened with the beginning of Locus VII: Sin, from Martin Chemnitz’ Loci Theologici. in it, Chemnitz quotes from Locus 5 of Philip Melanchthon’s Loci Communes (1543) A Locus is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as follows:
lo•cus \ˈlō-kəs\ noun
plural lo•ci \ˈlō-ˌsī, -ˌkī, -ˌkē\ [Latin—more at STALL] 1715
1 a: the place where something is situated or occurs: SITE, LOCATION 〈was the culture of medicine in the beginning dispersed from a single focus or did it arise in several loci?—S. C. Harvey〉
b: a center of activity, attention, or concentration 〈in democracy the locus of power is in the people—H. G. Wells〉
There is no other entity, no institution, no concept, no external person or group of people, to whom God has given the Word of Reconciliation:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
In its effort to show that it can achieve God’s purpose without Him, the world seeks to replace the Gospel with other ideas, or concepts , and replace the Church with other institutions or movements. Islam offers its Ummah, defined as “... a group of people from diverse backgrounds, ancestry, locations and nationalities. ... Though separated by distance and often constrained by borders they are… united under the guidance of the One God.”
Secular humanism, through its rejection of God, tells us that we aren’t created, therefore we have no responsibility to a Creator. We are the masters of our domains, the captains of our destinies. Greed is good because greed pushes you to obtain more of the resources that enable you to control your domain.
Critical Theory demands that we focus on the accumulation and transfer of power, resources and products, all of which perish with the user, from one group to another. While the atheists proclaim the irrelevance of God, the Critical Theorists replace His Law with their own, which they use to target others who have also broken His Law with their wrath and demands for a justice that is little more than the exchange of a previous injustice for a new one.
Only the Church of Jesus Christ presents the Cross as the solution to sin, the eternal, cosmic, once for all delivered to the saints solution. Only the message of the cross bridges the chasm between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. It is the only message that the Church has at enables the Church to be what God has called her to be, the Bride and the Body of Christ.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Christ has called us to join Him in His mission, a mission rooted in death - the death caused by sin and the Death and Resurrection that defeats sin. Through the Gospel God destroyed the one who had the power of death - the devil. Through the Gospel we are messengers of freedom to those who are bound in sin and the fear of death.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
The divine gifts of Confession and Absolution and the precious sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion wash away our sin, purify our hearts, and give us the good conscience by which we can say:
6 I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord, 7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus Our Lord, Amen