English District-LCMS Reformation 500 Celebration Devotions on the Solas Based on the Gospels for Pre-Lent Rev. Brian P. Westgate Redeemer, Oakmont, PA We ve heard them all many times, especially this last year. We ll hear them a lot during this final build-up to Reformation Day. Sola gratia. Sola Fide. Sola Scriptura. Some have added a fourth: Solus Christus/Solo Christo. Grace alone. Faith alone. Scripture alone. Christ alone. At a big Reformation festival, it s easy to think Luther was the first to preach the true Gospel since the Apostles died. But God did not leave Himself without witness. Luther and the Reformers didn t invent the solas. The Liturgy taught them long before Luther was ever born. Many churches in our district and synod use a 3-year lectionary related to that first used in the Roman Church after the Second Vatican Council. But a growing number are returning to the use of the historic (1-year) lectionary. Much of this series of readings comes down to us from the early days of Christianity. It teaches us every year all the doctrines of the Christian Faith. There s even a time when it teaches us the solas. It s called Pre-Lent. Pre-Lent consists of the 3 Sundays before Ash Wednesday. (We celebrate Transfiguration Sunday the Sunday before them.) These Sundays have Latin number names: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima (and some people call the first Sunday in Lent Quadragesima). These numbers are counting down to how close we are to Easter: about 70 (really 64), about 60 (really 57), exactly 50, about 40 days away. The Church knows it s good for us to slowly go from the joys of Christmas and Epiphany to the sorrows of Lent. We slowly climb down the mount to reach the plain. So during these Sundays, we prepare for that season which asks us to prepare to celebrate the Lord s Resurrection with great sorrow over our sins. We learn during these weeks that our sorrow will not save us, nor any works of apology, but only Christ saves us through His Death and Resurrection. Quinquagesima especially prepares us for Lent by telling us we re going up to Jerusalem to hear about Jesus holy Passion and Resurrection. In the following short devotions, we want to digest the Gospels of these Sundays. Septuagesima Sola Gratia St. Matthew 20:1-16 Our English District headquarters are in Michigan. If you know anything about Michigan (and some of you, like myself, are native Michiganders), you know Michigan is all about the auto industry, and that means unions are a part of life there. And if you know anything about unions, you know they would never approve what the vineyard owner did. They would be so angry he paid everybody the exact same thing. He paid the people who barely worked, if at all, over an hour the exact same thing he paid those people who worked hard all day.
What would you do? The people who worked an hour might get $20 at most, right? The people that worked all day surely would get more. They d deserve $200! Maybe a bonus too! You would have asked the people hired after you, if you were hired first, what they were going to get. If you found out they didn t know, you might investigate. You d want to make sure you were gonna get what you deserved, and more importantly, you d make sure they d only get what they deserved... which would be way less. The vineyard owner did the exact opposite. He gave everybody the exact same thing. Those paid last got the same as those paid first. They hadn t had a contract, but were just given it. As those hired first caught wind of it, they started to think, Well, if he s paying them what he agreed to pay us, surely he ll pay us more! What a big pay day we ll get. Let s be honest; they were getting greedy. The vineyard owner is a lot like God. How does He treat us? Not as we deserve. The original contract between God and man is: if you keep all His rules, you get to live forever. But we ve broken the contract. Like the contracted people in the parable, we are greedy. We are often not content with whatever gifts God has given us. We want more, more, more! We want not just what we need for the day, but the thing we think will get us ahead in life, the thing we think will get the girl (or guy) to like us, the thing we think will make everything better. What does this mean? It means we have a god that isn t the true God, the Holy Trinity. Whatever is more important to us than God is a god to us, and that is most certainly sin. And the wages of sin is death, not just physical death, but eternal death in hell. So what does God give us? The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. All the workers got the exact same thing, and they didn t deserve it. The contract with those first hired proves it. We deserve eternal death for our sins. God takes our sins away from us and gives us eternal life. Why? Because His Son Jesus bore our sins in His Body on The Cross. He utterly suffered for all our sins. He paid the penalties we owed for them down to the very last penny. The eternal God suffered hell for us. He declares us innocent and righteous and justified. This is all by grace alone. We did nothing to earn it. He just gives it to us because He loves us so much and is kind above all measure. If we played a part, we d just ruin the whole thing, just like Adam ruined Eden. God graciously, lovingly, does it all; therefore we are saved. Sexagesima Sola Scriptura St. Luke 8:4-15 OK. You were expecting Sola Fide next, but The Church s Liturgy doesn t always follow our expectations! Anyways... Do you live near a farm? Are you a farmer? Do you know farmers? My mother grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. I m pretty sure my uncle to this day, and my grampa before him and my great grampa before him NEVER did anything like this sower. Yes, they plant(ed) wheat too, and other crops, but they sure don t do it this way. They don t cast it nonchalantly. My aunt and uncle made me and my brother when we were younger help them pick up rocks in the fields. They plow them. Then they plant. It s probably an exact science. Everything that s planted is to be harvested a good crop!
This sower did the exact opposite. He didn t pick up any rocks. He didn t stick to his own field. He just wandered down a path, throwing out seed as he went. He didn t care where it went. He didn t aim it or pick it back up or sweep it somewhere else if it landed somewhere it shouldn t. He just kept on going. He probably saw the birds eat it. He saw it land on rocks and among thorn plants. He perhaps even stepped on some of it! He saw it land on good field too. No matter what, he just kept on sowing. Is he still sowing today? He sure is! The Holy Spirit is still sowing seed, isn t He? What s He sowing? Holy Scripture! He inspired every last word of it, inspired it and wrote it in Blood, Jesus Blood. Moses wrote, and he wrote what God wanted him to write. St. John wrote, and he wrote what God wanted him to write. Every writer in between in those 1500+ years that Scripture was being written, every last one of them wrote what God wanted them to write. What s the point? God teaches us in Scripture, and nowhere else, everything we need to know to be saved. The Old Testament stories and prophecies and practices all point us ahead to Jesus. The New Testament all points us to Him. Every last word is important. For in this book we learn Jesus died to save us. Why is this important? God wants you to firmly believe, and not doubt, that Jesus died for you, you are forgiven, and eternal life is yours. If there were any errors in The Bible, God s Book, would you be able to believe that? You d have to start wondering what in the book is true and what isn t. You might begin to doubt your salvation. God doesn t want that. So He made sure the book is without error. Holy men of God spoke, St. Peter writes, as they were carried along by The Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes to Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable in every way to teach us how God wants us to live in this life in thanks for His salvation and how much Jesus did for us to earn us salvation. All Scripture does this. Salvation is by Scripture alone. That s where we learn what Jesus did for us. Your pastor is ordered by God to preach only what Scripture says. Anything else might lead you to doubt your salvation. God wants you to be sure you are saved. Therefore He has no choice but to make Scripture errorfree. Trust it. He wrote it. He wrote it for your good. Believe Him, and you are saved. Quinquagesima Sola Fide St. Luke 18:31-43 It all happened a long time ago about 2000 years ago. It s a story that sounds like a lot of criminals from that day: mocked, spit on, flogged, crucified. Some might have even been betrayed by their friends. Not one of them rose from the dead. Only one man in history has done it: Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and God and Savior. But what does this have to do with you? Sure it happened way back then. Are there any benefits for here and now? If so, how do I get them? Holy Scripture tells us about those benefits. It tells us why He died. He wasn t a victim of Rome. He wasn t killed to show us how to behave. He laid down His life and took it up again to win eternal salvation for us. He died to forgive our sins. He rose to bring us to eternal life.
How is it ours? By faith alone. What is faith? Much of Christianity tells us there must be something for us to do. They may make a decision for Christ a part of saving faith. But that s not something the word allows. The English word faith comes from the Latin word fiducia, which simply means trust. That s all. Jesus says, Trust Me! Believe My Word! Believe I died for your eternal good. That s what he told Bartimaeus. Thy faith hath saved thee. Yes, he was healed by a miracle. But he never would have called out Lord, have mercy upon me if he didn t trust Jesus could and would have mercy on him. Would Jesus have healed him if he didn t trust in Him? Would His healing powers have worked if Bartimaeus didn t trust Him? That may be asking too much. But Jesus says his faith saved him. He believed in him and received what he desired. Believe in Jesus and receive what you desire, the very thing He promises: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Nothing else will do. You can t do anything to please God. You can t walk a step to Him before He comes to you. He walks all the way to you. Actually, He descends from heaven to you so He can bring you up to heaven. That s what Jesus did. He came down from heaven and died for you to give you eternal life. You can be 100% sure this is so important to Him He ll make sure it happens since we sinners could only ruin it. So He sends His Holy Spirit to us. He causes us to trust in Jesus. He gave us faith. He keeps us in the true faith. May He keep you in the one true faith unto life everlasting! Invocavit/Quadragesima Solus Christus / Solo Christo St. Matthew 4:1-11 Adam and Eve battled a snake alone in a perfect garden. He told them God was holding out on them. He wasn t. But they believed the snake anyway. They knew good. They experienced good. But the snake told them it would be far better if they knew and experienced evil too. They bought it hook, line, and sinker. He sank his fangs in and they willingly accepted the poison. They became corrupt sinners. They earned eternal death. They have passed sin and death down to us through our parents, just like they ve passed down to us so much else. Jesus battled a snake alone in a wilderness. He may not have been in the form of a snake that time, but he tried the exact same thing. He wanted Jesus to think His Father was holding out on Him. There s a much easier way, Jesus, to get everything in the world, to be a god among men. No need to die! Just turn on dear ol dad and finally, finally, join me in my rebellion. Let me be your ruler and guide. It will be wonderful! The devil tried his best. He failed. Christ three times rejected his temptations. Throughout His life He rejected the devil s temptations. Satan threw all hell at Him. He was going after Him in the garden, during His trials, on The Cross. Who else was telling Him to come down from The Cross since/if He s God s Son? But Christ never listened. He stayed on The Cross until His dead Body was taken down. But that holy Body, which into death was given, was given life to win for us in heaven. He is not dead, but is living forever. Death no longer can have Him. Satan can no longer tempt Him. He has
crushed the snake s head. Therefore He has destroyed all his power. Now He and He alone gives us forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life, and salvation from sin, death, and Satan and from the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. Christ alone saves. We can never save ourselves. We can never play even the littlest part. Christ saved us by His Death. Christ brings you this salvation through the preaching of His Gospel, through Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion. He brings it to you. His Spirit leads you to trust Him. Believe in Him, and you are saved. This is most certainly true.