“But many who are first will be last and the last first.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this evening, as we commemorate the conversion of Saint Paul, is the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the nineteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, Saul was dead. Dead in his trespasses and sins, dead in unbelief, dead in the delusion that by attacking Christians he was serving the true God. He was a zombie, the walking dead, perversely unaware that while his lungs took in breath and his heart beat with vigor, he was completely and utterly dead. Death was his share, death was what he deserved; his life of death must surely lead to an eternity of death. But our God delights in raising the dead. “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” The zombie is struck down by a light from heaven; the walking dead is summoned to life by the very voice of Christ, who triumphed over death. And with the hands and voice of Ananias, the water and the Word administered by Jesus’ faithful servant, Saul is Paul, the dead one is alive.
To be alive to God is to be dead to the world; the zombie must be killed, the walking dead must be put into a watery grave, Jesus must put Saul to death and raise up Paul in his place. Ananias is afraid of Saul, Saul the zombie, Saul the killer, but Jesus assures him that in the waters of baptism that man will be drowned. “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my Name.” Jesus is going to take everything from Saul; his comfort, his status, his safety; even his life will be demanded for the sake of Christ’s Name. Nothing will remain to Saul; all will belong to Christ, even his sin, his guilt, his condemnation, his death. Jesus takes them all, for He has already borne them all to the cross. He who would write, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” personally knew what these words meant. While Saul was yet a sinner, the walking dead, a zombie, the enemy of Jesus, this same Jesus died for him.
Jesus died for Saul to put him to death; the death that takes everything in this world from him, the death that makes him nothing so that Christ can give him everything. Jesus declared, “Many who are first will be last and the last first,” and He will begin with Saul. Saul was the Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew of Jews, the prize student of a respected rabbi; if anyone was first among his people, it was Saul. He was the bulldog of the Sanhedrin, the number one persecutor of the Church, who supervised the first Christian martyrdom. But in the watery grave of the font, he loses everything, and when he steps out of the font and begins to preach, the prize pupil has become public enemy number one, and only one verse after our text, the Jews are already plotting His death.
They would not stop plotting; the man made alive in Christ would find his life threatened at every turn, and eventually, his time would run out, and the words of Christ would be fulfilled: “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” When you die to the world and are made alive in Christ, the world foolishly rages against your body, thinking that your life in this world is something worth taking, that it can destroy you by putting you in the grave. The world doesn’t know, it cannot understand, that you have already died and have been raised again to life, that those who are dead to the world are immune from its attacks, that it cannot win, no matter how much it tries. And it certainly does try. The world will take everything from you, your influence, your power, your prestige, your health, your wealth, your friends, your family. In the end, Paul had no power, no prestige, no wealth; nothing was left to him but cold steel on his bare neck. But the world cannot kill those whom Christ has made alive; the world cannot take away what Christ has given. Paul himself declared as his contemplated his coming death: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Peter’s cry is one of exasperation, of desperation; he is searching for a word of hope. “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” His cry is tinged with more than a little self-justification, an attempt to see if following Jesus has truly been ‘worth it,’ but Jesus does not chastise him. Following Christ has meant the loss of all things; Jesus has demanded everything from them, and they have only begun to see how much they must suffer for the sake of His Name. They will have nothing left, and neither will you. You have died to the world in the watery grave of the font; even if you retain house and home, spouse and children, family and friends, in following Christ you place Him above them all. In fact, you deny your own self, you crucify your flesh and put it into submission. Following Christ has made you last, and you, with the disciples, with Saint Paul, have learned (or you will learn) the truth of these words: “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
But Jesus only humbles in order to exalt; He only brings down in order to raise up; He is the God who delights in raising the dead. Those dead to God and alive to the world must be made dead to the world and alive to God; death and resurrection is needed. He kills you with the Law so that He can resurrect you with the Gospel; He makes you nothing in order to give you everything. In the face of the loss of all things, as we suffer in this world for the sake of Christ, we cry out, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” And Jesus, in comfort, in compassion, understanding our plea better than we do, promises us everything. “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my Name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
To be alive to God is to be dead to the world; the zombie must be killed, the walking dead must be put into a watery grave, Jesus must put Saul to death and raise up Paul in his place. Ananias is afraid of Saul, Saul the zombie, Saul the killer, but Jesus assures him that in the waters of baptism that man will be drowned. “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my Name.” Jesus is going to take everything from Saul; his comfort, his status, his safety; even his life will be demanded for the sake of Christ’s Name. Nothing will remain to Saul; all will belong to Christ, even his sin, his guilt, his condemnation, his death. Jesus takes them all, for He has already borne them all to the cross. He who would write, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” personally knew what these words meant. While Saul was yet a sinner, the walking dead, a zombie, the enemy of Jesus, this same Jesus died for him.
Jesus died for Saul to put him to death; the death that takes everything in this world from him, the death that makes him nothing so that Christ can give him everything. Jesus declared, “Many who are first will be last and the last first,” and He will begin with Saul. Saul was the Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew of Jews, the prize student of a respected rabbi; if anyone was first among his people, it was Saul. He was the bulldog of the Sanhedrin, the number one persecutor of the Church, who supervised the first Christian martyrdom. But in the watery grave of the font, he loses everything, and when he steps out of the font and begins to preach, the prize pupil has become public enemy number one, and only one verse after our text, the Jews are already plotting His death.
They would not stop plotting; the man made alive in Christ would find his life threatened at every turn, and eventually, his time would run out, and the words of Christ would be fulfilled: “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” When you die to the world and are made alive in Christ, the world foolishly rages against your body, thinking that your life in this world is something worth taking, that it can destroy you by putting you in the grave. The world doesn’t know, it cannot understand, that you have already died and have been raised again to life, that those who are dead to the world are immune from its attacks, that it cannot win, no matter how much it tries. And it certainly does try. The world will take everything from you, your influence, your power, your prestige, your health, your wealth, your friends, your family. In the end, Paul had no power, no prestige, no wealth; nothing was left to him but cold steel on his bare neck. But the world cannot kill those whom Christ has made alive; the world cannot take away what Christ has given. Paul himself declared as his contemplated his coming death: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Peter’s cry is one of exasperation, of desperation; he is searching for a word of hope. “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” His cry is tinged with more than a little self-justification, an attempt to see if following Jesus has truly been ‘worth it,’ but Jesus does not chastise him. Following Christ has meant the loss of all things; Jesus has demanded everything from them, and they have only begun to see how much they must suffer for the sake of His Name. They will have nothing left, and neither will you. You have died to the world in the watery grave of the font; even if you retain house and home, spouse and children, family and friends, in following Christ you place Him above them all. In fact, you deny your own self, you crucify your flesh and put it into submission. Following Christ has made you last, and you, with the disciples, with Saint Paul, have learned (or you will learn) the truth of these words: “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
But Jesus only humbles in order to exalt; He only brings down in order to raise up; He is the God who delights in raising the dead. Those dead to God and alive to the world must be made dead to the world and alive to God; death and resurrection is needed. He kills you with the Law so that He can resurrect you with the Gospel; He makes you nothing in order to give you everything. In the face of the loss of all things, as we suffer in this world for the sake of Christ, we cry out, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” And Jesus, in comfort, in compassion, understanding our plea better than we do, promises us everything. “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my Name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
Dear friends in Christ, you were dead. Dead in you trespasses and sins, dead in unbelief, dead in the delusion that you were the only god that mattered. You were a zombie, the walking dead, perversely unaware that while your lungs took in breath and your heart beat with vigor, you were completely and utterly dead. Death was your share, death was what you deserved; your life of death must surely lead to an eternity of death. But our God delights in raising the dead, and He says, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The zombie is struck down by a light from heaven; the walking dead is summoned to life by the very voice of Christ, the victor over death. And with the hands and voice of a pastor, water and Word administered by Jesus’ faithful servant, you belong to Christ, the dead one is alive.
Now you have a life that the world cannot take away; now you have a treasure, an inheritance, that will never fade. Though you lose all things in this world, though they even take from you your life and all that you hold dear, Jesus promises you everything. “Many who are first will be last and the last first.” It is the disciples, all martyred but one, who will judge the nations upon twelve heavenly thrones; it is you and I, who have suffered the loss of all things, who have crucified our flesh with its desires, who will dwell in glory forevermore. For your Lord is the crucified and risen Jesus; with man salvation is impossible, with God all things are possible, and He sent His Son to win salvation for all people, to bear the sin of the world to the cross. You have lost everything for the sake of Christ; your sin, your death, your hell. It’s all gone, taken from you by the crucified One, and so you too can proclaim these words of another who passed from death to life, Saul who was made Paul: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Now you have a life that the world cannot take away; now you have a treasure, an inheritance, that will never fade. Though you lose all things in this world, though they even take from you your life and all that you hold dear, Jesus promises you everything. “Many who are first will be last and the last first.” It is the disciples, all martyred but one, who will judge the nations upon twelve heavenly thrones; it is you and I, who have suffered the loss of all things, who have crucified our flesh with its desires, who will dwell in glory forevermore. For your Lord is the crucified and risen Jesus; with man salvation is impossible, with God all things are possible, and He sent His Son to win salvation for all people, to bear the sin of the world to the cross. You have lost everything for the sake of Christ; your sin, your death, your hell. It’s all gone, taken from you by the crucified One, and so you too can proclaim these words of another who passed from death to life, Saul who was made Paul: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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