The Holy Gospel for this past Sunday in the three-year lectionary is a particularly significant and weighty text for any number of reasons, encompassing profound theological guidance from our Lord on various aspects of the Church’s life and practice. In response to the disciples’ leading and loaded question about greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus points to the humility of the little children who believe in Him as the example of genuine greatness, and much could be said and taught on that point alone. Humility, in this respect, has nothing to do with a false or fabricated modesty, but a recognition of one’s weakness and need, along with a reliance on the Lord and His providential care for body and soul and all things. By the same token, the Lord Jesus speaks a most serious and sobering caution against anyone who would cause one of these little ones to stumble and fall. This warning certainly pertains in the case of bodily abuse and harm to children of any age, including those yet in the womb or otherwise most vulnerable and dependent. It pertains no less to the spiritual abuse of false teaching by word and example, and to the harmful negligence of children who are not taken to church or taught to know the Lord Jesus at all.
Jesus goes on to speak of the need for church discipline, not only for the sake of those who must be called to repentance for the stumbling blocks they cause, but for the sake of the entire congregation. It is neither the Gospel nor the compassion of Christ Jesus that condones the continuation of sin within the life of the Church, and we are doing no one any favors when we turn a blind eye toward false doctrine or immoral behavior. We despise the little ones of our Lord Jesus and grieve both our Father in heaven and His holy angels when we decline the necessary discipline of love.
It is precisely that discipline of love which seeks the straying and lost sheep and calls it home again by calling it to repentance. That happens through preaching, as we find in the case of St. John the Baptist, our Lord Himself, and His holy Apostles. And that same preaching of repentance – unto faith in the free and full forgiveness of sins – is the necessary Ministry of the Gospel unto all the nations (St. Luke 24:47). In this way we call erring to return to the Lord who loves them, to the safety and peace of His House. In a similar manner, the Lord Jesus teaches Christians to address and deal with sin within the fellowship of the Church on earth. Those who are spiritual are to do so in a spirit of gentleness, which does not ignore sin or treat it lightly but brings to bear the saving Word and work of Christ Jesus, our great Redeemer, in order to rescue those who are caught in some temptation or trespass and release them from sin’s bond. The Church, therefore, is entrusted with the Office of the Keys, whereby those who repent of their sins are forgiven in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus, and those who harden their hearts, refuse to listen, and persist in their opposition to the Word of God are bound in their sins so long as they do not repent.
In connection with these things, the Lord gives the blessed and oft-repeated promise that, where two or three are gathered in His Name, there He is in the midst of them (St. Matthew 18:20). To embrace and ever hold fast this good and gracious Word of our Lord, it is of course necessary to know what it means to be gathered “in His Name.” This same phrase is elsewhere used in connection with Holy Baptism and with respect to prayer, and similar phraseology is used in descriptions and discussions of the Ministry of the Gospel and the administration of the Holy Communion.
So, what does it mean for these things to be done “in Jesus’ Name”? Luther is particularly helpful to us here, as he explains the First Petition of the Our Father by connecting the Name of God with His Word. God’s Name is hallowed among us when His Word is taught in its truth and purity, and when we as the children of God also lead holy lives according to it. Similarly, in considering the Second Commandment, we use God’s Name rightly when we call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks – all of which depends upon and echoes (or confesses) the Word which God the Father speaks to us by His Son.
To be gathered in the Name of Jesus is to be gathered by and for His Word and the preaching of it. To pray in Jesus’ Name is to pray in the faith and confession of His Word. To baptize or absolve in Jesus’ Name is to do so at His divine command and with His Word and promise. To celebrate the Lord’s Supper “in the Name and remembrance of Jesus” is to do so, not only with His Words of Institution, but also with the proclamation of His death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). And to carry out the entire Ministry of the Gospel “in the Name and stead” of our Lord Jesus Christ is to preach and teach His Word in its truth and purity, and to administer His many and various gifts in accordance with His holy Word. For it is by and with the Word of Christ that the Holy Spirit calls for and brings about repentance, and by and with the Word of Christ that the Holy Spirit bestows forgiveness, creates faith, and gives eternal life.