Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

That is our text today. Could you repeat that with me? “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

A number of years ago – and I’m talking 15 or 20 years ago – there was a popular contemporary Christian song based upon a poem called “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” I won’t play you the whole song. I won’t read you the whole poem. I’ll summarize them for you. The scene is an auction. One item after another is held up by the auctioneer. Some fetch respectable prices. Finally the auctioneer holds up a violin. It’s old. It’s dusty. It’s dirty. It’s got some chips in the finish. It’s strings are most likely out of tune. The auctioneer begins: “Who’ll give me one dollar for this old violin? Two dollars? Three dollars?” Bidding was very slow. Finally a man rises from the back of the auction hall. He approaches the stage, taking the violin from the hands of the auctioneer, cradling the violin under his chin. Suddenly the most beautiful melody fills the auction hall. The man hands back to the auctioneer and the bidding starts again: “Who’ll give me one thousand for this old violin? Two thousand? Three thousand?” All it took was the touch of a master’s hand.

Every time I hear that song or think about the poem behind it, tears come to my eyes because I realize that it’s not a song about an old, dusty violin. It’s a song about me. It’s a song about you. We are each old and dusty and dirty. We all have a few chips in our finish. Our strings are out of tune. Most people put little value in us. Then our Lord and Savior, Jesus, takes us into His hands. Through us, He makes beautiful music. Suddenly, people pay attention to us. Suddenly, we have value.

Jesus told a parable called the “Parable of the Weeds” [Matthew 13:24-30]. Again, when you stop to think about it, it’s a story about you. It’s a story about me. A man had some land. He sowed seed. Picking up on last week’s parable, it was a good farmer. It was good soil. It was good seed. Imagine the surprise of the farm workers, who knew their boss, who knew the soil and who knew the quality of the seed, when weeds sprouted. Compulsive as they were, they wanted to immediate pull the weeds, but the farmer stopped them. He told them there would come a time when that action would be appropriate, but not yet.

As Jesus went on to explain, He is the farmer. His field is the world. The seed is those of us who have come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. The weeds are unbelievers and all the evil actions they are commissioned by the devil to bring into our lives and into our world.

Have you ever wondered about the pains and problems in your life? Have you ever wondered how God can allow cares and concerns in your life? Well, look no further than this parable. It’s not God’s plan that we have pains and problems, cares and concerns. No, all those things are sown into our lives by the devil and his agents who wish us no good. Pain and problems, cares and concerns have been sown into world and into our lives so that we might go complaining to God, so that He would get tired of our complaints and so that He might destroy us. In fact, as St. Paul reminds us [Romans 8:18-27], there are even times when, because of the weeds in our lives, we don’t even go complaining to God because we don’t even know what to complain about.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s not because that was God’s plan. That’s because of the weeds sown into our world.

When, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we go to God, we’re truly those old, dusty violins. We once good plants have no value because of the weeds sown among us. That is, until the Master touches us.

That’s what our God did for us and for our world in Jesus Christ. He touched us. He touched our world. He revived us. He restored our value.

Despite His anger and disgust with the sin sown into our world by the devil, despite His anger and disgust with our own sin and sinfulness, God didn’t just haul off and destroy us or His world that had been messed with by the devil. Despite His anger and disgust, God wisely exercised restraint until the right time came [Galatians 4:4]. Then, at just the right time, God sent His Son into His world Who carried with Him the eternal antidote for pains and problems, for cares and concerns, for the weeds of our world. That antidote was His own death. As Jesus suffered and died, all God’s anger and disgust was turned upon Him. All God’s anger and all His disgust toward the devil was turned upon Jesus. All God’s anger and all His disgust toward you and toward me for allowing cross-pollenation between us and the weeds of our world to happen in our lives, cross-pollenation that produced a hybrid, good seed genetically corrupted by the weeds, was turned upon Jesus. You can call the death of Jesus Christ the eternal weed killer and the eternal fertilizer because at the same time that Jesus was dealing with all the weeds in our world, He was also dealing with each of us. He was touching us. He was playing us. He was reviving us and restoring our value. He was again making us into His beautiful music in His world, His good crop.

Maybe you’re not yet there today. Maybe the weeds are still pretty strong and destructive in your life. Don’t worry. The antidote is still here and it’s still working. Let the Master touch you again today. Let the Master revive you again by His Holy Spirit, through His living and active Word and through His Body and His Blood. Let the Master again today prove to you your value in His eyes.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena