The Thursday after the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 24, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 9:51-56 (NKJV)
9:51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
Devotion
When a pastor must sadly declare an impenitent sinner is no longer able to commune, we may read Matthew 18:15-18 and wonder what it means to “let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” Certainly it doesn’t mean that his refusing to hear Jesus (Luke 10:16) when the pastor brings God’s Word to him should bring down fire from heaven! Rather, the Lord’s work continues with the hope that the sinner sees how the Lord has given all to save him and repents.
Conveying this to people while firmly maintaining what God’s Word says about their sin is more difficult than ever. Mindful of our own unworthiness under the Law, and with a spirit of gentleness (Gal. 6:1) as if carrying an infant to the font, we give as we have received. Serving with kindness, without shrinking from God’s Law, we declare with Jesus that we truly wish not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. Understanding what He has done for us, our lives are to be ordered after the compassionate imitation of Christ’s own self-sacrifice for all sinners. This is something beyond our flesh’s ability, so it ever fixes us on our own need for His mercy, delivered in His Absolution and Supper.
Collect: O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward Thee, that we, loving Thee above all things, may obtain Thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; 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.
