With this Sunday, the emphasis in the readings for the day begins to shift. From Holy Trinity Sunday through the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, the emphasis has been on the greatness and the power of God’s grace in the gospel. Beginning with this Sunday, there is more of a focus on a person’s response to the word of God—while at the same time never neglecting the core gospel truth, which arouses the proper response.
This Sundays’ readings center our attention on the holy office of the ministry, as the divinely established means for the public proclamation of the gospel. God’s sends His messengers as blessings to His church, and as long as they faithfully proclaim His word, the hearers are to listen to them as if listening to God Himself (Luke 10:16). What great blessings God has in store for those who hear the word and by the power of the gospel receive both messenger and message as sent from God!
Truly, God’s ministry isn’t about the messenger; it’s about the message of the messenger. God expects all His messengers to faithfully proclaim His word. Through that word alone the Holy Spirit—when and where He wills—calls sinners to repentance and faith in the message of God’s grace in Jesus.
May God send us more faithful messengers, especially when so many continue to turn from the truth of God’s word. May God also bless us with faithful people who “hold to the teachings of Scripture” (John 8:31).