Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 22:15 mark.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The theologian Michael Horton once said that it used to be that pastors had an office and worked in a study; now they have a job and work in an office. That’s just one way of saying that people’s perspectives on pastors have changed. People have different expectations or understandings of what pastors are for. An early Lutheran name for pastors was “Seelsorger,” or someone who “cares for souls.” (It sounds better in German.) But that seems kind of outdated when you listen to what people think pastors should be doing.

I have heard things like this: a pastor is just another Christian. We’re all in this together. So the pastor shouldn’t preach “authoritative” “sermons” from the “pulpit.” Instead, maybe he (or she) could just share his opinion. In fact, we could just have a dialogue, where the pastor shares one perspective, but then we could all just talk about what we think the Scriptures mean to us. Now, without a doubt, you have the Holy Spirit, and you should read and learn and hear the Scriptures, and that may mean holding the pastor accountable to those Scriptures by the same Scriptures. Pastors are not infallible. It may sound nice, to simply “share” opinions, but what it actually does is put stock in the pastor’s opinion. I am not here to share my opinion, and you may or may not care about my opinion. But that’s not what a pastor is for. A pastor’s opinions certainly do not matter any more than anyone else’s. But the Word of God counts for more than all of our opinions combined. The pastor preaches authoritative sermons, not because he necessarily knows more about the Scriptures, but because God sent him to deliver God’s words, not his own. The apostles had no authority on their own. They had authority to give only what Jesus had given them. This is the office that Jesus established after His resurrection, so that the apostles might forgive sins by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that Jesus gave gifts to the Church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and that these gifts are not for their own sake, but for the sake of the Church. He did this for the equipping of the holy ones of God for their vocations, and for the work of the ministry, and for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all reach maturity in Christ (Ephesians 4:8-12). We don’t need the opinions of men; we need the word of Jesus.

Sometimes you also hear about pastors as leaders—but it rarely means leaders as shepherds, who lead the sheep to the still waters and the good pasture of Jesus’ word and sacraments. Instead, pastors are supposed to come up with the “vision” and convince the congregation that they ought to follow the “leader” in accomplishing that vision. But I should tell you, pastors have no more idea what God is going to do with a congregation in the future than anyone else. Jesus has already given us a “vision”: make disciples by baptizing them into the Name and teaching them everything that I have said to you. That’s it. That’s all there is.

None of that stuff about pastors’ opinions or pastors’ visions is here in 2 Corinthians 4. It’s very simple: we do not proclaim ourselves. We do not proclaim our opinions, or our visions, or our leadership, or our abilities. We have one thing to proclaim: Jesus Christ as Lord, and we are your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For the sake of getting Jesus to you, that’s why God gives pastors. If we build a congregation on what a pastor thinks, or what a pastor can do, or how a pastor can lead, then we’re building on sand and weakness and sin and failure. The only thing worth focusing on is God, who said, “Let light shine out of the darkness,” who has shone in our hearts the revealing light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That is our treasure! And that treasure is in jars of clay, vessels of earth. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that at the time of Jesus, if you broke a clay jar, you might be a little disappointed, but I bet you could make or buy another one pretty easily. The Potter who forms and shapes the clay for His purposes can easily use another vessel to accomplish what He wants done. Because it is not the jar or the vessel that is important, but the treasure inside it. And God does this to show that the abundant and surpassing power belongs to Him, and not to us.

Consider Gideon, whom God chose to lead an army against idolatry and Midianites. Gideon is sort of a coward. He destroyed the idol at night, so that no one would know who it was. But they found out anyway. And Gideon has to have two tests before he’ll believe that God is going to use him. But God uses him for a judge anyway to free the people from the Midianites. And Gideon raises an army of 32,000 men. But God says, that’s too many. Because if that army defeats the Midianites, then Israel might say, “It is my hand that has saved me, that has delivered me.” They might think that it was their power or strength or ability that got them there. And Gideon might have thought it was his leadership that accomplished the victory. So any of them who were afraid, God says they’re free to go. Now Gideon only has 10,000. But God says, that’s still too many. Have them go down to the water and drink, and whoever drinks by dipping his hand in the water, I’ll use them. So now there are 300, against the many, mighty Midianites. And what do they have when they go to war? Trumpets, and empty water jars, and torches inside them. Gideon still seems to want some credit: he says, yell “For Yahweh and for Gideon!” And the Midianites just start killing each other. The surpassing power belongs to God and not to Gideon or to his 300 men, with their torches and jars and trumpets.

Paul knows about this. Later in 2 Corinthians 12, he tells how he asked God to take away the thorn that was continually in his side, and God said no three times. Then He said, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” And there’s nothing weaker than death. Nothing weaker than Jesus dying, suspended to a cross. But Christ crucified is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. God’s weakness is stronger than the strength of people, and God’s foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of people. So when Paul says that he carries around in his body the death of Jesus, that is not bad or weak or foolish, but it is the very power of God in these weak, sinful, failing, cracked vessels. This is not like our deaths, the natural end of sinners. If you carry around in your body the death of Jesus, then you must also have His resurrection. There can’t be one without the other. Especially for you, who have already been joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection, buried with Him by baptism into death, so that just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so you also may walk around in newness of life. The death of Jesus at work in you means the resurrection life of Jesus at work in you. Paul says of himself and the apostles, “So death is at work in us but life in you.” All of the apostolic work of the Word of God is for your sake, so that this grace, this treasure, may go out to more and more people, and thanksgiving may abound, all to the glory of God. But this is also true of any child of God in their vocations: we are dying, being poured out, being expended for the sake of others. And that, too, is so that grace may continue to go out, and for the glory of God.

And if this is true, then no matter what we experience, what comes to us, what happens, we know that the only outcome is life and resurrection. We are, Paul says, afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, uncertain, doubting, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. My grace is sufficient for you; My power is made perfect in weakness. We are being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, because He was given over to death for our sake. And that’s what matters. Your life is now with Jesus, because His life is with you. And no one can steal, kill, or destroy that life, because no one can harm or kill Jesus. Death has no lordship over Him anymore.

Because of this, no matter what happens to us—affliction, perplexity, persecution, being thrown down—Paul goes on to say, we do not lose heart. We know we are given over to death for Jesus’ sake. Our outer self is wasting away until these vessels are no more. But the inner self is being renewed day by day, according to the life of Jesus at work and being revealed in you. We are waiting not for these bodies as they are, but for vessels and dwelling places not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, awaiting the final day when Jesus is revealed to us, and our bodies are raised eternal and immortal.

This is our only treasure. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, and not ourselves. Do not follow pastors, except insofar as you hear the voice of your Shepherd, Jesus. Pastors are only vessels for Jesus to deliver His eternal life to you, in water, words, bread and wine. In Jesus is life, not in pastors. This is why I wear these vestments. I might as well be another piece of furniture, with green cloth hung over it. As far as the Church goes, that’s what pastors are, part of the furniture of the Church, doing only what the Lord has given to be done. No personal opinions, no personal visions, just Jesus.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 6/1/24