Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Dear saints looking for help,

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

“The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life” (Psalm 121:7). Tell that to St. Bartholomew. It is incomprehensible to an unbelieving world that Christians can pray today’s appointed psalm with any kind of integrity or intelligence. “The LORD will keep you from all evil.” There have been countless Christians throughout the centuries that have died precisely because they are Christians. Their lives were taken by a hostile world that wanted to prove that the Lord could not save them.

 

Today’s example is the apostle Bartholomew, one of the twelve that Jesus commissioned to go out and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28). Once persecution against the Christians struck Jerusalem and God’s people scattered, the apostles knew it was time for them also to go out to all the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified for the sins of the world and raised from the dead to give forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who repent. Bartholomew took this good news to Armenia among other places. But his life was cut short in a most painful and gruesome way as he was skinned alive for his preaching of Christ.

 

“The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.” Is that just poetry, wishful thinking, or a message meant for some of God’s people, but not for all? If it wasn’t meant for Bartholomew, an apostle, how can I be confident that it is meant for me? Will the LORD keep me from all evil? Will the LORD keep my life? There is a way in which the accounts of the saints and martyrs can bring us doubt and despair, and that is exactly what the devil and the hostile world hope to accomplish with their persecutions. Look at Bartholomew. Do you look for help where he looked? And if so, will you end up as he has?

 

That is the question that is meant to play through your mind every time a temptation comes before you. Are you going to do what it takes to remain faithful? Or is not worth the suffering and the pain that it may bring? Are you going to say no to a night of drinking and debauchery with the boys? Is it worth the mocking and ridicule that you will suffer in the days ahead if you say no? Are you going to resist the inappropriate sexual advances of that attractive person? Is it worth the end of any possible future relationship?

 

Are you going live a chaste and decent, honest and generous life in the eyes of your neighbours, or will you keep your Christian faith secret because it will hurt too much to be noticeably different from your neighbours, co-workers, friends and family members? Why bother, if you are just going to end up somewhat like Bartholomew? If that is what happens when you talk about Jesus and live your life according to His Word, well...?

 

We know what we should do and when we stop to think about it, we can sometimes be faithful despite the suffering and persecution that may come our way. But it is not always automatic for us. The world’s threats often bring about a reflexive action rather than reflective thought. As a reflex to avoid pain and suffering we pull back from a life which would boldly confess the faith in word and deed.

 

When Jesus knew that the most frightening moment was coming upon His followers, He spoke to them about this natural instinct for preservation of life and comfort. And He did so pointing to Himself as an example of the alternative. “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:25-27).

 

The apostles were arguing about which of them was the greatest. They were unwilling and perhaps afraid to even put themselves in a position of subordination, to be one who serves the others. How would they possibly risk life and limb to tell the world about the Lord Jesus? Not only did Jesus get down on His knees before each of them to wash their feet that night (John 13), He also would show them how much He was willing to suffer in order that they might know His love and His salvation.

 

Later that night the apostles, Bartholomew included, saw Jesus pray earnestly in agony, sweating great drops of blood (Lk 22:44). They saw Him fearlessly face arrest to be put on trial before the authorities who wanted to do away with Him. And the next morning they saw their Lord beaten, condemned, paraded through the streets, stripped naked, and crucified. This is what He was willing to do as one who serves. This is what He did for them, not compromising the truth of who He is nor the calling the Father had given Him to suffer and die for the salvation of the world—to save the world (the apostles included) from sin, shame, and death.

 

And like us, it didn’t immediately serve to embolden them. Peter denied even knowing Jesus (Luke 22:57). They all went into hiding, meeting secretly for fear of the Jews. Two of them walked away from Jerusalem disconsolately toward the village of Emmaus (Luke 24:17). It is so easy to go underground, perhaps not literally meeting in the catacombs when it becomes necessary to do so, but figuratively when we just don’t want the hassle and the discomfort of letting people know we belong to Christ.

 

Jesus erased all of the fear and timidity of His disciples when He showed Himself to them alive on the third day of His death. He walked along with those two disciples from Emmaus and taught them that “it was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory” (Luke 24:26); that it does not end with suffering and death, but that there is glory everlasting in Christ. And He made Himself known to them when He took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it for them (v. 30). Likewise, Jesus showed Himself alive to all of the disciples who were back in Jerusalem.

 

If this is the result for one who serves, then perhaps the world has it wrong, as Jesus did point out to His apostles. The kings of the Gentiles and those who hold authority over them do not have lasting glory, neither then do they hold any lasting power over the people they try to suppress and intimidate. Consequently, there is nothing to fear from them in living Christ-like, nor in confessing Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection for the life of the world.

 

On that most fearful night, after pointing His apostles to His own example as one who serves, Jesus promised them: “You are those who have stayed with Me in My trials, and I assign to you, as My Father assigned to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28-30). Jesus, the glorified servant, shares His victory and glory. As He rose from the dead to live forever, so those who are with Him will rise from death to live forever. As Jesus has received His kingdom, so He shares that kingdom with those who are His, even having them at His table.

 

Having heard the promise and having seen Jesus risen from the dead, Bartholomew and the other apostles left Jerusalem, not fleeing from persecution, but going out to proclaim the good news of everlasting life in Christ to places where the world’s persecution had not yet begun. They knew that the world would react violently to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but they also knew that the salvation they had received from Him was to be offered to all, and that the victory and glory that He had won would be shared with them as well.

 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead proves that we do indeed look in the right direction for help to live our Christian life in a hostile and threatening world that places us in so many uncomfortable situations. I feel those uncomfortable situations and even at times threatened. There have been literal death threats from those outside the church and also angry accusations at church meetings and such. And there has been a great great load of guilt for not always remaining steadfast and faithful, for not always speaking up clearly and with conviction, for going into hiding at times and hoping that it will all just go away.

 

That is why, not just the example of Jesus’ death and resurrection encourages us to stand up against threats and persecutions, but knowing that His death and resurrection was for the forgiveness of these very sins of ours, heartens us with faith in our final glory and in the source of His help right now, right here, at our right hand.

 

So it was worth me repeating the opening words of the psalm to you, “From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” And I also need to hear the whole congregation sing the rest of the psalm to me, telling me of this helper; reassuring me that He will keep me as He has promised.

 

For the martyrs are consumed in the body. Their flesh is stripped away. But the Lord keeps their life. He keeps it forever. It cannot be taken away from His keeping. He is the maker of heaven and earth. He does not slumber or sleep. He is ready at your right hand to deliver you from all evil.

 

The persecution and martyrdom of Christians does not prove the world’s point at all. It proves Christ’s point, that even under threat of the most gruesome things that the wicked can dream up to do to you, He keeps your going out in faith and even your coming into death. He who died and rose again keeps you forevermore. We know where our help comes from.

 

 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.