Rejoice that Your Names are Written in Heaven
Luke 10: 1-20
Pentecost 4 (Proper 9)
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Luke 10. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. It proclaimed that the thirteen colonies were now independent from British rule. This weekend many of us will celebrate the independence of our nation, championing the virtues of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, rejoicing over our nation, and being thankful for the blessings that we enjoy here.
As we think about the blessing of our nation, we realize that there are many blessings that we have received. We have been given the blessing of life. We have been given the blessings of our family and friends. We have been given the blessings of work, leisure time, and rest. But as we look at our Gospel reading for today, we hear Jesus speak about the greatest blessing of all. Our Lord said these words, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Jesus said these words to the seventy-two disciples that He sent ahead of Him to proclaim the Gospel in various towns in the area. As Jesus sends these disciples into the mission field, He describes for them the ups and downs that they will experience in their work. The disciples sent will be given authority to preach about the coming of God’s kingdom, to heal people and to cast out demons. They will go from house to house giving the peace of God to many people. But Jesus also describes the difficulty of their work. He tells them that He is sending them out as lambs in the midst of wolves. He tells them that there will be those who reject the Gospel and refuse to believe in the Lord. He tells them that there will be times when they will have to proclaim the judgment of God against those who refuse to believe. In other words He describes the joys and sorrows of their mission. But even though these disciples will experience hills and valleys, happiness and frustration, the Lord gives them the good news that joy will have the last word. Remember the words of Jesus. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
These words of Jesus are also spoken to us. We are not one of the seventy-two, but we are disciples of Jesus, and we have been given our own callings from God. Our vocations include our positions in our families, in the church, in our jobs, and in our community. Like the seventy-two we will also experience many ups and downs in our life as a disciple of Jesus as we live out our vocations. We will experience the joy of confessing Christ, serving in the church, being a good citizen in our country, helping our family, working in our jobs, and being a light in our community. But we will also face hardships as well. We will be confessing Christ to a world that is often hostile to the Word of God. We will be living in a country that has many divisions and problems. We will be living in families that have disfunction and sin. We will be working at jobs with many frustrations and failures. We will face our own human weaknesses and failures and our own sin. All of us will experience ups and downs, hills and valleys, joys and frustrations in our day-to-day life as Christians. Yet through it all our Lord tells us to rejoice. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The greatest joy that we have is that our names are written in heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Indeed we are all saved and given eternal life by the name of Jesus. “And there is salvation in no one else (Jesus), for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). We call upon the name of the Lord because He has already called us by our name. “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). We received God’s name in Baptism. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28: 19). Our names are written in the book of eternal life through Christ Jesus.
What’s in a name? This familiar citation from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is relevant to our consideration of Jesus’ assurance that our “names are written in heaven.” Because of changes in language over the years, the word “name” does not mean as much to modern people as it did to people of generations past. Today a name is primarily a way by which we differentiate one person from another. But that was not always the case. Years ago, a name involved one’s honor, reputation, integrity, personality, ancestry, and descendants. Years ago, a name was something one staked his life on, took oaths on, or fought duels over. The point is that “name” in our text is another word for our self, our person. When Jesus says that our “names” are written in heaven, it is another way of saying that we are destined for heaven.
We have assurance that our names are written in heaven because of Jesus. Our Lord lived a perfect life in our place; He died on the cross to atone for our sins and rose from the dead to defeat death for us. Our Lord has given us the gift of life and salvation. Our Lord has given us everlasting life. That is a life in His presence for all eternity.
Uplifted by the Lord’s assurance that our “names are written in heaven” we can now live our lives as disciples of Jesus. When we face our human weaknesses and failures, we know that we can turn to the Lord for strength. When we sin and fall short of the glory of God we can now turn to the Lord and receive His forgiveness. When we see the sins in our family we are moved by the Spirit to forgive as we have been forgiven by God. When we see the troubles in our country, we pray for our nation knowing that our citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. Through Christ Jesus we need not fear this fallen and dark world around us because the Lord has already defeated all that is wrong in the world through His death and resurrection. We see this great victory of our Lord through the eyes of faith. Soon we will see it with our own eyes when the Lord visibly returns.
The Lord will be with us through every hardship that we face, and He will be there when we experience joy. That is the joy of calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer, praise, and giving thanks. The joy of seeing another person being Baptized and the joy of the Gospel going out into the world. The joy of serving in our church. We remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15: 58. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
As a disciple of Jesus you will go through ups and downs, hills and valleys, joys and frustrations but through it all joy will have the last word. As you live your life trusting in the Lord, please remember the words of Jesus that were spoken to you. “Rejoice that your name is written in heaven.” Amen.