St. Matthew 5:1-12
Divine Service
All Saints Day (transferred)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day. There are various saints’ days throughout the year in which we remember this or that person whom the Church has identified as a saint; St. Matthew, St. Mark, even some angels, like St. Michael are identified as saints. But all Saints’ Day is a special day in the Church year in which we remember all the faithful believers who have gone before us.

Traditionally, someone has been called a saint who has lived an exemplary life of faith. Most of the people we call saints have been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that saints have lived so well that they have merited a superabundance of grace from God and earned God’s favor so much that they can transfer a little of that grace and favor to you. A process of canonization is followed. In the Early Church period, the process was not very well defined. Now, however, there are specific rules to follow before declaring someone a saint. First, the person has to be dead for at least five years. I am pretty sure that leaves any of you out! Then, once the person has been dead for the requisite period, the bishop can begin an investigation to see just how virtuous the hoped-to-be saint actually was. If the investigation turns out favorably, the documentation is turned over to Rome, where, after investigation by select theologians, the cardinals and bishops specifically assigned to handle saints take a vote on whether to proceed or not. Finally, there must be at least one miracle performed by the dead saint-to-be before the examination is completed, and one miracle performed after! As you can see, it takes quite a bit of effort to become a saint according to Rome. You can’t stop working at it even after you’re dead!

So, why do we as Lutherans continue to set aside special days for the saints? It certainly isn’t because we worship them. That would make no sense at all since they were sinners just like us while they were alive. We don’t pray to them, or ask them to intercede before the Lord on our behalf. We have Jesus and the Holy Spirit to that. As Lutherans we look to the saints as examples of faith and Christian living. Their faithfulness under the most difficult of circumstances serves as our example for own lives as Christians. But we also know and remember that none of them merited anything before God by their good works. We remember and acknowledge that they remained faithful followers of Christ because of God’s grace toward them.

There is only One who has ever merited God’s favor by His works. There is only One who has earned the title “saint,” and that One is Jesus Christ. He is the One who was, and is, precisely what the word “saint” means: “holy.” And it is this Saint from Heaven the “Holy One of God” who preached the Beatitudes to the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount.

There are many who view the Beatitudes primarily as a road map for Christian living; a users guide for sainthood. Some even teach that if you try really hard you will eventually be able to do and “be” everything that Jesus describes in the Beatitudes. When taken that way the Beatitudes become pure Law, and the promised blessings become impossible dreams. If we take a look at but a few of the Beatitudes we quickly find out that we are undeserving of any blessing based upon what we do to fulfill their requirements.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” (v 3). Who is poor in spirit but the soul incorporated in him “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6–8). Christ cried out in absolute poverty of spirit: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

“Blessed are those who mourn” (v 4). Who has mourned but the soul incorporated in him who mourned, not over his own troubles but over the unbelief of his people? Christ came to comfort his people as their Savior, but he was, in the words of Isaiah, “Despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3); the One who grieved over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matthew 23:37)

“Blessed are the meek” (v 5). Who is meek but the soul incorporated in him who as King entered Jerusalem, “Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9)? Christ said of himself, “I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29); he gained that rest by enduring the Passion, silent before his executioners.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (v 6). Who has hungered and thirsted but the soul incorporated in him who did all things that righteousness might be fulfilled? Christ endured the cross “so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21); he became, according to St. Paul, “Our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

“Blessed are the merciful” (v 7). Who has been merciful but the soul incorporated in him so dedicated to mercy that, according to Hebrews, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become ... merciful” (Hebrews 2:17)? Christ mercifully healed and forgave all who called upon him in faith, even crying out from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

“Blessed are the pure in heart” (v 8). Who has been pure in heart but the soul incorporated in him so pure that, again from Hebrews: “In every respect [he] has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15)? For the pure love of others, Christ sacrificed himself, as Paul says: “He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“Blessed are the peacemakers” (v 9). Who has made peace but the soul incorporated in him who made our peace with God? According to the Benedictus, Christ came “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79); he said to the disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27); according to Paul, “He himself is our peace, ... through the cross ... He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:14, 16–17).

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (v 10). Who has endured persecution but the soul incorporated in him who was perfectly righteous yet condemned? Because Christ was righteous, he became the target for the world’s hatred; he was threatened with death from all sorts, from Herod to the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin to Pilate.

To Christ belong all blessings. And so to the soul incorporated in Christ also belong the blessings! To the believer in Christ belongs the kingdom of heaven, the comfort of salvation, the inheritance of the earth, the fullness of righteousness, the mercy of the Father as exhibited in Christ’s resurrection, the right to see God, the right to be called a child of God. Indeed, great is the reward in heaven for the soul incorporated in him who “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and ... upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).

Christ’s saintliness is proven by what he has done. (And yes, he even did several miracles after he had died!) And now this One who has earned the right to be called saint also calls you holy, and all of the blessings he has earned he now gives to you. He, by his grace, makes you a saint.

We have a description of what it really means to be a saint in today’s first reading from Revelation. Note how the people are described. First of all, there are lots of them, not just those who went through canonization or even who led particularly exemplary lives. These, we are told, are saints because they have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus has removed their iniquities in Holy Baptism, and they have been clothed with his own sanctity and righteousness. Now, having been cleansed, they dwell in the presence of Christ, who provides them with eternal blessing and consolation. These are victorious in Christ. All that was arrayed against them – their sins, death, the devil – are destroyed and removed by Jesus. Now they carry the palm branches of his victory.

As those who have put on Christ – the kingdom of heaven belongs to you. The comfort of salvation has been given to you. The inheritance of the earth, the fullness of righteousness, the mercy of the Father as demonstrated in the resurrection of Christ, all these blessings belong to you because you have washed your robe in the blood of the Lamb. The right to see God, and the privilege of being called a child of God are among the blessings you receive through the One Saint who has called you to sainthood by the forgiveness of your sins.

As living saints here on earth we are joined with the host of saints in heaven. That is why in preparation to receive the Lord’s Supper we prayer, “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven…” As those who have been made saints through faith in the One True Saint, we are joined with the saints of heaven at the banquet feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end. Here at the Lord’s Table, heaven and earth come together in the body and blood of Jesus as the saints above and the saints below feast upon the Lamb of God.

The miracle of sainthood has nothing to do with anything that we have done, whether we are dead or alive. Rather, it has everything to do with what God has done for us while we were still dead in our sins and trespasses. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, the saint for the unsaintly. Through His life, death, and resurrection Christ fulfilled all the requirements needed to receive the blessings promised in the Beatitudes, and through faith in His Son, God bestows those blessings upon you, His saints.

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