I had the profound privilege of ordaining one of our nine new Indiana District pastors this past Sunday, one of the greatest joys of my office. It never gets old, witnessing the poignancy of the occasion as a man who has entrusted himself to the Lord for the service of His Church is placed into the Office of the Holy Ministry. The years of sacrifice and study reach a kind of culmination in the Rite of Ordination, from which point a lifetime of further sacrifice and study advances to the glory of God and for the benefit of His holy people. Then there is the special happiness and godly pride – as well as the relief of answered prayers – on the part of parents, siblings, wife, and children, along with the camaraderie of seminary classmates and the loving support of dear members and friends from home congregations, field work congregations, and vicarage congregations. Truly, every ordination is a celebration of the Church.
In the case of this past Sunday afternoon, not only was I privileged to officiate the Rite of Ordination, but I also had the joy of preaching for the occasion. The Holy Gospel for the Service was St. Luke 24:44-49, a portion of a familiar Resurrection account (appointed for Easter Tuesday every year, and for the Third Sunday of Easter in Series B of the three-year lectionary). This Holy Gospel is especially well-suited for an ordination to the preaching office, as it includes the significant Word of our Lord concerning the divine necessity of preaching. In opening the minds of the Apostles “to understand the Scripture,” indicating what “must be fulfilled” from “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,” Jesus pointed out that, along with the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Christ, it is also written “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations” (St. Luke 24:44-47). And as we know from St. Paul, in order for there to be such preaching, there must also be preachers who are called, ordained, and sent in the Name of the Lord (Romans 10:14-15).
As I was preparing to preach on this “preaching text” for the ordination of a new preacher of the Word of Christ, I spent some time considering the verses prior to the Holy Gospel (St. Luke 24:36-43), which are the other portion of the same Resurrection account on Easter Tuesday (and Easter 3 in Series B). In its entirety, that account parallels the appearances of our Lord in St. John 20:19-31, a reading integral to the Office of the Holy Ministry. There’s much that could be said on the basis of these precious texts, but what struck me in particular was the connection between the risen Lord’s tangible bodily presence and the way He chooses to preach and administer His Gospel through mortal men of frail flesh and blood, “earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). When the disciples at first supposed He was a ghost, He assured them that He was not, and He showed them His wounded hands and feet and side, demonstrating that He is still the incarnate One, risen from the dead in glorified but still human flesh and blood like our own (St. Luke 24:37-40; St. John 20:20, 24-27). Then He also asked them for something to eat, and receiving a piece of broiled fish He ate it in their presence (St. Luke 24:41-43), not only demonstrating His ongoing life in the body, but also exemplifying His persistent table fellowship with His disciples.
As foolish as it seems to the world (and to our own fallen flesh), the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ – the incarnate Son of God – chooses to work and accomplish His purposes through ordinary men: Not as though any of us pastors are worthy or capable of ourselves to bear this Office or carry out this work, but solely by the grace of God and by the efficacious power of His Word and Holy Spirit. He still delights in His good creation, and He continues to work in, with, and through His earthly means – in the world, in the home and family, and in the life of His Church. As the Son of God became true Man and tabernacles with His Church in the Flesh, so does He preach and teach, absolve, baptize, catechize, and commune by the agency of flesh-and-blood ministers of His Word: Men who need to eat and sleep, men with wounds and scars (seen and unseen), men with families to care for in the midst of frailties and weaknesses, men who are capable of compassion, even as they themselves are the recipients of the Lord’s compassion. It is tremendously comforting and encouraging – for pastors and for the people they are called to serve – that the Lord who calls, ordains, and sends them in His Name is also with them in this Office and work.