Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Epistle of the Day: Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark, and bring him with you. [2 Timothy 4.9-11a] 

From the Holy Gospel: Go your way; “Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” [Luke 10.3]

      Today, we observe the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist – remember, “Evangelist” with regard to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John refers to the fact that God used each of them to write one of the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ. The account is the “Evangel,” the Good News, and the writer of the “Evangel” is the Evangelist. So, St. Luke is known as the writer of what we now label as the third of the four Gospels that begin your New Testaments.

But, St. Luke also is known for something else, namely, the fact that he is a doctor, a physician, an M.D. He is a companion to St. Paul, and he was with Paul during his final days of his final imprisonment in Rome. And so it happens that St. Paul calls St. Luke, “the beloved physician.”

Luke ministers to Paul and others, in their pains. He also ministers to you by the “pains” that he takes to get the story straight about your Savior Jesus in third book of the New Testament. And, too, Luke conveys to the world how God extends His work and His Word in the New Testament era, following the ascension of our Lord into heaven. These things he records in the book called as “The Acts of the Apostles,” the fifth book of the New Testament.

And while you might inquire about any or many of the aspects of St. Luke’s God-sent missions, it is his mission of mercy toward St. Paul and others that is considered today in light of a phrase in the traditional Lutheran liturgical prayers where humble Christians may find, in the midst of pains that God the Father does not remove, that the sufferer might see their pains and sufferings as “The Manifestation of Thy Fatherly Will.”

I.

As a physician of both body and soul, St. Luke brought comfort in those cases where he could make one well. Who wouldn’t be comforted by that? But, as you hear in the plaintive, yet still by the Spirit words, penned by St. Paul: “Only Luke is with me.” St. Paul goes on to explain that some have abandoned him, and most likely the faith, as well. Others, like Titus, did have not abandoned him, but instead they have been sent on missions of the Gospel, which left him unsupported even though he sends them to support to others. But, there is Luke, aiding Paul as he struggles with the pain of knowing that execution awaits, virtually around the corner, and in short order.

St. Paul writes to St. Timothy, a young pastor whom he had ordained into what we call today the office of the holy ministry, and Paul urges Timothy to come while there is time. And he makes another amazing request. St. Paul urges Pastor Timothy to bring with him a young man named Mark. Mark set out with St. Paul on his initial missionary journey, only to turn back and leave him for greener pastures elsewhere. Here, St. Paul urges Timothy to bring this absent-without-leave fellow worker, Mark. And of Mark, Paul says: “He is very useful for me in my ministry.” In these words, you hear the voice of forgiveness, the voice of encouragement to Mark, and others through him.

Whether Timothy and Mark make it in time to see Paul before his own crucifixion, we do no know. But we know this: Timothy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wants you to know of the concern that St. Paul has for the church and for sinners in the church. In personal pain, he yet puts his mind upon the needs of his fellow Christians, and says: “But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist – you know that now is a truth-teller about what Jesus does – fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering – an Old Testament sacrifice – and the time of my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day – and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

II.

Now, these are noble words, lofty words, and who would not want such words on his or her lips always, as a Christian? But, remember these words come from the one who aches with the pain of those who abandoned him and the Gospel, one who chafes under the reality that his death will be ordered –  probably within days – one who body already aches from the treatment already given him. And yet, his words are lofty, and more than lofty, they are true. He has fought the good faith. He does await the crown of righteousness – to be sure, a crown of Christ’s righteousness, not Paul, a gift that God gives to all who, as he puts it, “loves His appearing,” that is, loves how Christ took on human flesh to be his Savior, to be your Savior.

St. Paul knows that it is through weakness, and tears, and sins that perpetual forgiveness, and pains that stab both body and soul – it is through these that you come to the fullness of your salvation

In that traditional Lutheran liturgy of prayer there is this appeal to God concerning the struggles we face and the comfort we need. The prayer speaks of those occasions where, despite our earnest pleas, God choose not to lift burdens of the body and burdens of the mind – pains that are felt by the prayers, both in their bodies and in their minds as the pray for their loved ones. When those pains remain, the prayer ends with the petition that we may come to recognizes the pains and sorrows as “manifestations of Thy Fatherly Will.” Some people find it almost offensive to pray that way, to credit pain and sorrow with manifestations of God’s Father Will.

But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is true! It is true! If it were not so, then the pervasive presence of sin and its damage would either have to be eliminated – and all sinners with it! Or, it would have to be true that God is powerless to save to the uttermost those who trust in Him, both for needs of the body and for needs of the soul, both for the present and for eternity.

St. Paul teaches you today, that he understands how God works, for God’s will and God’s way and God’s results. The healings come, both to body and to soul, when God finishes up His patient waiting for the things of this world to be either consummated or destroyed, and then He ushers in the world with no pain, no suffering, no sin, no loss, no death, and no devil!

For that we wait, and in the meantime, the days come, one after another, when God says over His beloved – now it is enough, for you, my son, my daughter, now is the crown of righteousness to you, and to all who have loved the appearing of Christ!

III.

In the meantime, there is the harvesting time, pictured by St. Luke’s report of Jesus sending out the Seventy-Two laymen, to simply speak of God and His grace – which of course also, and first of all, speaking to mankind about their own needs and their own offenses against a loving Father, offenses of thought, offenses of words, offenses of deed – offenses that trap us all, as spiritual sickness that leads to spiritual death. To these, Jesus sends those who simply speak of these needs in the context of a Savior and of the forgiveness of sins! And that’s how Christians live, and how God carries them to end of time, with all the elect!