The Saturday after the Third Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 12, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. John 8:42-47 (NKJV)
8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
Devotion
In this piercing exchange Jesus confronts the religious leaders who claim to be children of God while rejecting Him. He reveals a deep spiritual truth: to deny the Son is to deny the Father. Though they boast in Abraham and Moses, their hearts are closed to the One who fulfills the Law and the Prophets. Jesus speaks plainly; they cannot hear because they do not belong to God.
By nature, we are blind to God’s Word and hostile to Christ. No one can love God or hear His truth unless they are born from above (John 3:3). It is not reason or effort, but God’s mercy that opens ears and hearts. This is exactly what we confess in the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, as taught in Luther’s Small Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in, or come to Jesus Christ my Lord; but that the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel…” (Henkel Translation). This ties beautifully to the prayer: “O God… without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy…” We are not strong enough to believe or love Christ apart from divine grace. God’s mercy in Christ rescues us from the devil’s lies and makes us children of God. As we walk through temporal trials, we cling to Jesus—our strength, our holiness, our eternal life.
Collect: O God, the Protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that Thou being our Ruler and Guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; 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.
