Our God invites unworthy sinners to participate in His blessing. The Lord calls us to the heavenly banquet.

The Lord came to His city and His temple to teach His people, but the leaders of Israel rose up against Him. When they questioned His authority, Jesus responded with three parables meant to drive the leaders to self-evaluation and self-condemnation. The stories speak of family ties, contractual obligation, and the favor of a royal invitation. Each should have led to a proper response, yet each parable showed that Israel’s leaders were refusing to give God the fruits of faith He patiently sought. Our God patiently seeks fruits.

The Verse of the Day reminds us that one day, everyone will bow before Jesus of Nazareth and confess Him as Lord. Some will do so in grief and others in joy. God wants real repentance from every sinner so they might bend the knee to Christ in true obedience and confess with gladness that Jesus is Lord. The Church prays that God would rule our hearts through Word and Sacrament, that our repentance might be real and our obedience truly pleasing. Our God wants real repentance that leads to true obedience.

What is our God like? Over the next four Sundays, the Church hears Jesus tell four parables which reveal characteristics of our God. Today’s lessons cause the worshiper to ask: Is God fair? No, He’s not. He doesn’t give us what we deserve, and that’s called mercy. In fact, He gives us what we don’t deserve, and that’s called grace. Our God is incomprehensibly gracious.

Anytime we try to imitate God, we quickly realize our inadequacy. Yet today God tells us to model our forgiveness on His: a boundless, free, and loving forgiveness based on the sacrifice of Christ. How could our sinful hearts ever forgive like that? The Prayer of the Day asks that the mercy and grace of God precede us and follow after us, that we might love God with undivided hearts–hearts always ready to forgive as God does: sins are forgiven, forgotten, forever. The Church forgives as God forgives.

Today Christ tells us that for Him and for us, going God’s way means death must come before life. He calls on us to deny ourselves and follow Him on the way of the cross. Those words offend our sinful flesh and make our Old Adam cry with Peter, “Never!” So today the Church prays for the never-failing mercy of Christ that we might avoid such wicked and harmful thoughts and instead be guided on the cross-laden path to salvation. Then, and only then, do these words of Christ cease offending our flesh and become a joy and delight for our heart (Verse of the Day). The Church is militant: first the cross, then the crown.

Nothing can keep our Redeemer from upholding His promised salvation. Neither false expectations nor the gates of hell, neither an Egyptian army nor a flowing river, not even the great tribulation of the end times will keep our God from preserving His Church. The Church will stand forever.

This week we begin five weeks of focus on the Church. The Church is meant for all people. The Prayer of the Day reminds us that it is only by God’s gift of grace that we come into His presence to offer true and faithful service. Today’s lessons teach that the gift of grace given to Israel, God also intended to give through Israel to the world. The Church is meant for all people: a display of God’s mercy and a result of the living and active Word of God.

The Christian answers doubt with faith. Doubt is the unfortunate companion of faith. Wherever faith clings to the promises of God, doubt is always right there lingering in the back of our mind, constantly asking the serpent’s Garden question, “Did God really say?” Today’s lessons show us believers who had faith in God and His abilities to save them, but yet doubted when His plans or purpose failed to match theirs. In each case, it is adversity that fights against faith and allows its unfortunate companion to rear its ugly head. And in each case, the true answer to doubt is not found in the great miracle that removes adversity but in the still, small voice of our Savior God whispering in His Word.