The Thursday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 28, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 23:34-39 (NKJV)
23:34 “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Devotion
This passage presents a great difficulty for Calvinists. Calvinists believe that God created some people in order to send them to heaven and others in order to send them to hell. The reason (they say) why some are saved and others are not is that God predestined it to be so.
We see a very different sort of God in today’s text. God indeed sends wrath against those who reject His Word. Those who persist in unrepentance bear the full responsibility for their sins. But God did not want to damn these people. He sent them prophets, wise men, scribes, and even His own Son. He urged them to repent and believe in the Gospel, saying, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
We should never accept that teaching of the devil which says that God wants some to be saved but not others. The Scriptures are clear: “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… [Jesus] gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:4, 6). So when you hear the Gospel preached from the pulpit, you can be sure that it is preached for you. When you receive Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament, you can be sure that it is distributed for you. The Words of Institution are clear: “…given and shed for you for the remission of sins.”
Collect: O God, Who declarest Thine Almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; 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.
