Monday after the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 30, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 22:31-38 (NKJV)
22:31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”
34 Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”
35 And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?”
So they said, “Nothing.”
36 Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. 37 For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.”
38 So they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.”
And He said to them, “It is enough.”
Devotion
Jesus prepares His disciples for a new reality: He will not be visibly present to protect and provide for them. He won’t abandon them, but will now provide ‘mediately’, instead of ‘immediately’.
Mediators stand between parties that are at odds. God the Son was appointed Mediator between God and mankind, becoming one of us while remaining True God. Similarly, Jesus appointed media—channels through which His grace flows—to offer and give His perfect righteousness to us. The Holy Spirit uses these Means of Grace to give us confidence in Christ’s atoning life and death as the remedy for our sin and its consequences. Through that faith, we are counted as God’s own righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).
‘Immediate’ means ‘without an intermediary’. Jesus called His disciples ‘immediately’, speaking to them directly, and had been visibly present to save them from storms, to argue with those who accused them, and the like (St. Mark 2:18–28, 4:37–39, 7:1–23, etc.). When He departs, His disciples must trust Him in using the means of money, tools, weapons, and civil authorities (Acts 22). Th Holy Spirit now calls pastors ‘mediately’, through the Church, and continues to care for them mediately, as well, through the support of their congregations or through secular vocations that bring them food and shelter. Through such things they must see the Lord still supplying their daily bread and teach all Christians to confess the same.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy household, the Church, in continual godliness; that through Thy protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve Thee in good works, to the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
