Faith forms the major theme of all three of today’s readings. What is faith? Very simply it is belief or trust. Faith in the Lord is belief and trust in all that He has promised us. Much of American Christianity sees faith as being solely a conscious decision of the will to believe. But that’s not how faith, belief, and trust work. Faith will be there, even before one has consciously analyzed their own heart. A baby trusts mom though the little infant hasn’t consciously analyzed it. This is also why we understand that infants can have faith in God. Faith is a gift He promises to give through water and the Word. Who are we puny humans to question God’s gift?

The Old Testament Reading for today opens a picture of true faith as revealed in the heart of the anointed future king of Israel—David. At the time of the reading, Saul reigns as king. Yet, as we heard, the Lord “rejected” Saul as king. Saul—the first king of Israel—may have displayed true faith early in his reign, but his faith began to falter.

King Saul revealed a lack of faith by the way he considered the words and promises of God. He didn’t believe and trust God as the Lord revealed Himself to Saul, but Saul believed and trusted in the words and promises of what he wanted God to tell him.

For example, through the prophet Samuel, God gave Saul clear instructions to go to war against the Amalekites and completely destroy them. The Israelites, under Saul’s military leadership, were not to take spoils of war. But Saul didn’t listen. He took spoils of war, telling Samuel that the animals were to be offered in sacrifice. It sounds like a nice gesture to the Lord, but the Lord wants His Word to be cherished in faith and trust rather than disregarded.

Saul continually undermined the Lord’s Word for the things he thought were better. Thus, he showed no repentance and a lack of faith. So, the Lord took the kingdom from him and gave it to David.

King David, for his part, was no better behaved than Saul. He disobeyed the Lord many times throughout his reign, doing awful things. The difference with David is that despite his sins and many failings, he trusted the Lord. God’s Law brought Him to continual repentance, where he sought the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy in true faith.

The contrast of Saul and David teaches us that faith is to be placed in the Lord and never in ourselves or other people, places, things, or ideas. This is because forgiveness, life, and salvation flow only from the Lord who is the source of life and everything good.

Listen to the zeal with which Jesus speaks to the disciples about accomplishing your salvation, brothers and sisters in Christ. Speaking of Himself in the third person, Jesus says of His work for your salvation, “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” Jesus would endure the mocking, the scorn, the beating, the whipping, and the fatal crucifixion. Though He lived a perfect life, He would suffer for the sin of the whole world. He would suffer to save you from sin, death, the devil, and hell.

Faith is not just some abstract concept. Christ Jesus is the object of our faith, on whom we fix our eyes. Christ Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Christ Jesus is the one who saves us unto eternal life, and for His salvation we are eternally grateful.

The Lord Jesus shows us His desire to save through the grace and mercy He shows the blind beggar. The man couldn’t see a thing, and yet the one thing that he saw is everything he needed to see. With the eyes of faith, he saw Jesus as the “Son of David” come to “have mercy” on him. He asked Jesus to restore his eyesight, firmly trusting that He could and would do so. Jesus answered his prayer, as He will answer all our prayers for healing—if not in this life, then in the life to come.

True faith in the Lord has a goal in mind. True faith in Christ is active. It’s active in love. We heard Paul give a description of love in the Epistle reading. This reading is especially famous for being used at weddings. It’s a beautiful text for the occasion—certainly how husbands and wives ought to consider one another. But the original audience of the text is the Christian congregation itself.

As we interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ at Emmanuel and in all congregations, we are to be patient and kind to one another. We ought not to envy each other or boast over each other. We’re not to be arrogant or rude to one another. We shouldn’t insist on having things our way (especially in God’s church). We shouldn’t behave irritably to each other or resent others. We shouldn’t rejoice when we see or hear of wrongs, but the truth should have us sing for joy. We ought to bear one another’s burdens. We ought to believe God’s Word no matter what. Our hope ought to be in Christ, despite every outward circumstance. And we ought to endure everything—even should that mean death—rather than fall away from the Lord.

The only way this is possible is because Christ Jesus has first completely fulfilled this kind of love toward us. He fulfills the definition of love. “By this we know love,” Scripture says, “because He laid down His life for us.”

Some people see love and Jesus’ sacrifice as—for lack of a better way of saying it—they see these as sissy concepts. They seem weak and feeble. And yet, when you think of everything that the Lord put up with during His ministry—not just Good Friday—but the whole time He lived on earth, He was putting up with and showing mercy to sinners, eventually dying at their hands to save them. That takes an enormous amount of strength, patience, and courage to display the kind of love Jesus showed. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Jesus is no sissy. He really is the manliest man to ever walk this earth. He is the man that men (and women) should willingly, gladly follow. For He is our Savior and Redeemer and Friend.

Because of the strong, patient, courageous love Jesus has revealed to us, we are now strengthened, imparted with patience, and made courageous by His Word and promise to display the same sort of love toward one another. We don’t have to worry about getting our way or our recognition or having others take advantage of our vulnerabilities in sin. We don’t need to be self-conscious about such things, because our belief, trust, and faith is in the Lord, who has redeemed and rescued us into His eternal kingdom, where we shall fully know, even as we have been fully known by Christ Jesus. Amen.