Apathy vs. Confession

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, apostles and martyrs. This is the day the Church has marked as the date of the death of these two pillars of the Church, so that we may rejoice to receive the gifts God has given to His people through these saints. For it is indeed good, right, and salutary that we should reflect upon those who have gone before us, give thanks for their faithful confession of the Faith, and meditate upon their examples of holy living.

Ancient tradition holds that Peter and Paul were both martyred on this day, although the exact year, or whether they both died the same day, or on separate years, has been debated throughout the centuries. It is believed that St. Paul was beheaded just outside the city of Rome proper, at a place now called Tre Fontane. He was then buried at a place now covered by the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Wall.

St. Peter, on the other hand, is reported to have suffered a much more gruesome martyrdom. Origen asserts that “Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downwards, as he himself had desired to suffer.” This is taken as fulfillment of what Jesus said to Peter in John 21: “when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” It is understood that Peter met his death in the Gardens of Nero on the Vatican hill. His remains now lie in a vault beneath the high altar of the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City, the altar from which the Pope celebrates the Mass.

However, we do not celebrate this day as a sort of hero-worship, or to glorify the Saints themselves. We celebrate this day in remembrance of their confession of the Faith.

Our Lord asked Peter, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” It was an important question. Who is this character drawing such huge crowds, doing such great miracles, and saying such weird and revolutionary things? Back then, this was a big deal, a burning question that demanded an answer.

You have heard your fair share of sermons about this question. I, and other pastors before me, have spoken at length about the various erroneous confessions that people from different backgrounds make regarding the Son of Man and His identity. I could go on at length about how the world gets it wrong in many and various ways. But there would be one big looming question about all that talk – who cares?

A millennium ago, a century ago, even a generation ago, it mattered to people what one said about Jesus. Kingdoms were built and wars were fought over maintaining the correct confession of the person and work of Jesus. You were compelled to make a confession of the Faith. Your confession might be wrong, but it was a starting place.

Now, apathy has taken the day. The citizens of this world no longer care whether they make a confession regarding Jesus. Hence the joke: Who is Jesus? Isn't he a soccer player from Mexico? The Name of Jesus is little more than an expletive on the list of words you do not want your children saying.

Who cares who Jesus is? When He does not impact your daily life, it is easy to shrug your shoulders and move on when someone asks about Him. “I don't know and I don't care” becomes the dominant attitude toward Jesus in our society. And who should care? This is a perfectly acceptable stance, avoiding either the hostile atheists or the radical Islamists.

Of course, it is easy to sit in here and decry the horrid apathy of those outside these walls. It is comfortable to point the finger at “those people” and look down your nose at the people who are not here. But what about your own confession of the Faith? Who do you say that the Son of Man is? On any given day, outside the hour of the Divine Service, do you give more than a shrug and a nod in confession of the Son of Man?

Your prayers have faltered. Your devotion to God blows hot, then cold. You have thought, spoken, and acted as though God did not matter, and as though you mattered most of all. When you might have given a robust, full-throated confession of the Faith once delivered to the saints, the faith confessed by St. Peter and St. Paul to their deaths, you have given a shrug and a nod and kept on moving. What has the Son of Man to do with farming? Or housekeeping? Or running a business?

Repent. Repent of your weak confession, of your failure to confess when called upon. Repent of your lukewarm attitude toward the Son of God, your savior. Repent of your inability and unwillingness to confess Him before men. Repent, and make a good confession.

Confess with St. Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” On this day, as we remember the martyrdom of Peter, let us give thanks for his confession of Christ. Thank God that the Holy Spirit rested upon Peter, enabling him to make such a bold statement.

And thank God that it is also your confession. Regardless of what your old, sinful nature drags into your heart and mind, you know by faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. You rejoice to confess it, because it is the Truth, the very Word of the Gospel which St. Paul received and delivered to the saints. The same Christ is God and Lord both of Peter and Paul, and of you and me, and the whole Church throughout time and space. Rejoice that this blessed confession is preserved, that you might proclaim it gladly.

However, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” St. Peter did not learn this idea all by himself. He did not fabricate this answer out of thin air, or out of the pious fidgetings of his heart. The Father in heaven revealed it to Peter, and the Holy Spirit enabled him to speak such a radical statement. Peter was blessed to be the first to utter such words, but he was by no means the last. The Holy Spirit has not stopped working faith in the hearts of men, nor will He.

Likewise, St. Paul did not generate faith in his own heart, or come to Christ through his works. He was violently opposed to the Gospel, plotting to kill the followers of The Way under the authority of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin. His call to apostleship was not a fabrication of his own mind, but was a result of being knocked off his horse by our Lord Christ Himself and being called to faith by the Word of the Lord. In this way, the ravening enemy of the faithful became himself a martyr, a witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His power to save.

Following this same pattern, you did not create your own faith in your own heart. You confess that you cannot by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. Dead people do not choose, and you were spiritually dead in your sins and trespasses until the Holy Spirit brought you through the watery grave into the resurrection and the Life, breathing into you the Breath of Life and creating in you such faith as holds firm to the promise of new life in Christ. All this you have as a gift; you did not earn it, nor did you obtain it by your own power.

Nature does not reveal Jesus as the Christ. Nature does not reveal Jesus at all, to be totally honest. Yes, the Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork” (19:1). However, the God that is revealed in nature is of unknown disposition. Or, to be frank, He is of hostile disposition. After all, the God seen in nature has a hand in tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, famines, death and destruction of all sorts. This God is not the God who saves. This is not Jesus who died for you.

Flesh and blood does not reveal the identity of the Son of Man, but the flesh-and-blood Son of Man does reveal the Living God. For, as Jesus tells Peter, it is the Father who reveals the identity of His Son. The Father makes known by His Spirit that this is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Spirit works faith where and when He wills, calling you to faith in Christ, to cling to the faithfulness of Jesus Himself. And when the Spirit calls you to faith in Christ, what do you see? You see the face of the eternal, unknowable God revealed in the flesh of the Son of Man, born of woman, born under the Law to redeem those held in bondage to the Law.

The Father reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. Why? Who cares? You do! You care, because the Father reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, not just to show off but to show His mercy and His all-sacrificing love for you. The Father reveals His person and existence in the face of Jesus Christ, but He reveals His will and His love for you in the death of Jesus for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

This is no far-off, unknowable, indescribable clockmaker. This is no wise guru or prophet. And this is certainly no raving lunatic. This is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, come into the flesh. He is come to assume the flesh of humanity, to take mankind into the Godhead, that what He has taken upon Himself might be redeemed, cleansed, and purified by His death and resurrection for us men and for our salvation.

Believe in Jesus. Believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Believe that He has taken your sins away, nailed them to the cross, and washed them into oblivion with water and blood. Believe that He has risen from the dead to bring an end to your death, and that He reigns in the kingdom He is preparing for you to inherit. Believe all this, just as the Holy Spirit has caused you to believe, just as He sustains such faith in you by the preaching of the apostolic Scriptures and the Holy Sacraments.

Believe the confession of St. Peter. Make it your own, because his words have been put into your mouth by the same Spirit who gave them to Peter. Confess Jesus to be God and Lord, and also confess Him to be your savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Confess boldly that you believe the forgiveness of sins which is proclaimed to you in Jesus' Name. Confess that you rejoice to call Him Lord whom God has sent into the flesh to be your Brother, your great High Priest, and your sacrificial lamb all rolled into one.

Apathy is a burden which must be maintained studiously. It is a great task not to care, to be indifferent to the holy things. Let that burden drown and die, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, who gives voice to your great confession: Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is the Son of the Living God, your only savior. He has forgiven the sins of St. Peter and St. Paul, and He has forgiven your sins, and He will keep on forgiving you of all your sins until He at last delivers you from this valley of sorrow. Believe, and confess, and rejoice.

Tell out, my soul, the glories of His Word!
Firm is His promise, and His mercy sure.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord
To children's children and forevermore! (LSB 935.4)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.