One of the advantages and blessings of my travel, as I’ve discovered since this past November, is the time it affords for listening to audio books. This has been a real game changer for me, as I’ve otherwise always listened to music in my car, but now I’m taking in books that have been on my “to read” list for years (in some cases for decades), as well as listening to classics and standards that I’ve only ever read to myself in the past. As an example of the latter, I’m currently listening to Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord).
So, in driving to a pastor’s twentieth anniversary of ordination this past Sunday, for which I had the privilege of preaching on St. Luke 10:1-20, the Holy Gospel appointed for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost in the Three-Year Lectionary, I listened to the Augsburg Confession and the first seven or eight articles of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. These are “dear old friends,” to say the least, but in this case I was especially struck by the several times that these confessions cite St. Luke 10:16, “He who hears you, hears Me,” with reference to the Office of the Ministry.
For almost three decades now (at least since the ordination of my friends and colleagues, Scott Stiegemeyer and Todd Peperkorn in February of 1997), I’ve been using this Word of our Lord from St. Luke 10, along with His related Word and promise in St. Matthew 10:40 (and St. John 13:20), “He who receives you, receives Me,” as the blessing that I speak to a new pastor with the laying on of hands (whether as the officiant or simply as a participant in the rite of ordination).
These Words of our Lord, the great Good Shepherd of the sheep, are of particular comfort and encouragement to those who are sent to preach in His Name and stead, and so also to those who hear and receive those sent ones in the Name of the Lord. What is more, given the significance that Jesus assigns to His being sent by the Father (especially in St. John 17:3, 8, 21, 23, and 25), it is noteworthy that He specifically connects the sending and authority of His ministers with the Father’s sending of the Son: in St. John 13:20, 17:18, and 20:21. In St. John 20, this connection is made with reference to the Office of the Keys, and our Lutheran Confessions similarly stress the confidence and assurance that derives from this special authority in Holy Absolution.
On the basis of our Lord’s clear promise, “He who hears you, hears Me” (St. Luke 10:16), our Confessions stress the objectivity of the Office of the Holy Ministry, including the fact that the Ministry of the Word does not depend on the piety or person of the man who holds the Office, but entirely upon the Word of Christ who calls, ordains, and sends His ministers in His Name and stead. Dr. Luther stresses a related point at some length in his significant 1535 Lectures on Galatians, underscoring the necessity of the Divine Call for the pastors and preachers, and for the people who hear and receive them, that they should thus be certain of the Lord’s blessing.
Along with that comfort, confidence, and encouragement, the same Word and promise of our Lord, “He who hears you, hears Me” (St. Luke 10:16), is also a reminder of the responsibility that He lays upon His called and ordained servants. It is not unlike the responsibility that is laid upon fathers and mothers in the Fourth Commandment (as Dr. Luther discusses, for example, in the Large Catechism). In both cases, human beings are entrusted with a divine authority for the benefit of those placed under their care; and as in the case of Moses and Aaron and the sons of Aaron, the Lord is to be sanctified before His people (Numbers 20:11-13; Leviticus 10:1-3).
As St. Peter also teaches, “Let the one who speaks, speak as the oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11). Which is to say that those who preach and teach in the Name of the Lord must do so on the basis of and in accordance with the Prophetic and Apostolic Holy Scriptures – not their own opinions.
This is a sobering responsibility, one that ought to humble every pastor. And yet, the promises of our Lord – as well as the examples of His servants in the Holy Scriptures – are an encouragement to those who are called and ordained to the Office of the Holy Ministry. By and with His Word and promise, “He who hears you, hears Me” (St. Luke 10:16), not only does our dear Lord Jesus identify Himself with those whom He sends to preach and minister in His Name, but in doing so He also binds Himself to be with them in their preaching and administration of His Gospel. He is with His preachers and ministers as a “dread Champion” (Jeremiah 20:11), so that nothing will prevail against His Word; He will accomplish His purposes in and through and for His servants.
So does our Lord also promise in St. Matthew 28:18-20, when He sends His Apostles to make disciples of all the nations by means of Holy Baptism and the catechesis of His Word. For there He declares, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age!” (St. Matthew 28:20). So, then, He is most certainly with His sent ones – and likewise with those to whom they are sent!