413. Tuesday after Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.
Strengthen our faith, O God,
and establish it firmly in thy word. Amen.
Matthew 16, 1-4. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting, desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
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The Jews and their leaders certainly had seen all the signs necessary. With their own eyes they had seen Jesus heal the lame, the blind, the dumb, and the maimed; as is related in the chapter immediately preceding our text. However, unbelief is true to itself; they would not obey the truth, and therefore they could not believe. The Pharisees “desired that he would shew them a sign from heaven.” Our modern infidelity says: “Those miracles are too old; give us fresh ones, and we will believe.” Why, then, did not the Pharisees believe? They admitted of Jesus that “this man doeth many miracles” (John 11, 47); yet they did not believe. If the infidels of our day were permitted, like those of old, to see miracles before their very eyes, they would be as unbelieving as ever, and demand other signs. There was no want then, there is none now, of that which is necessary to faith. How could they explain the fact that all the scripture prophecies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled to the letter in Jesus! The explanation was easy to them: “We will not have this man to rule over us; hence he is a blasphemer; away with him!” Nevertheless, they knew not that hereby was fulfilled the prophecy of Jonas. — There is no lack of signs at the present time. We have such evidences as the historical authenticity of the Bible, and hence the truth of all its miracles. Then there is the church of Christ itself, whose existence would be impossible, were not Christ risen from the dead. There is the Jewish people; and the apostasy of our times, by which infidelity fulfills the prophecies of the word of God, as did the Jews when they crucified Christ. And how does the world contrive to evade the power of the truth? By the same means as formerly: “That which we wish to be true is true. We are wise; we are many. Away with Jesus; crucify him!”
There was and there is a church of God notwithstanding; and there always shall be a church of God which believes the gospel and sees the signs. By means of these our faith is strengthened; and our heart lives in the scripture, which is fulfilled on us, as it was on the Lord himself. Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in his cross! — Lord, thou dost still shew the world’s wicked generation the sign of the prophet Jonas. Thou dost permit thy church, and thus thyself, to be cast out, and the waters to overwhelm thee; but dost rise again, and dost with thy preaching of repentance force the great and the small to do penance in sackcloth and ashes. Lord, teach us to understand the times, and to escape perdition in the day of thy judgments. Amen.*
Among thy saints let me be found,
Whene’er th’ archangel’s trump shall sound,
To see thy smiling face;
Then loudest of the crowd I’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring
The riches of thy grace.
[suggested tune: Meribah (TLH 412); listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.