Artwork by Full of Eyes.

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Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh weak.

᛭ INI ᛭

The Lord isn’t slack, isn’t slow, isn’t slothful in keeping His promises. (2-Pet) In the fulness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem us who are under the Law. (Gal 4) At the proper time, Christ died for us, while we were still sinners. (Rom 4) Christ was diligent in His mission to save you, and you are saved by His works, not any of your own.

And yet, “you are God’s workmanship,” His creation, His handiwork, His work, “created in Christ IHS for good works, which God prepared ahead of time, in order that we may walk in them.” “Faith, without works is dead,” (James 2) after all. Not that you works do you any good before God, for, as Christ says, “when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ” (Lk 17) Doing your duty doesn’t earn you anything extra. Doing your duty later on can’t make up for a previous time of not doing your duty. To put this another way: God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.

The problem is that as much as we want to do what is good, “evil lies close at hand.” (Rom 7:21) As St. Paul says, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Rom 7) What is true of him, is certainly also true of you and me… Or as IHS puts it tonight in the Garden of Gethsemane, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

YOUR FLESH IS WEAK, BUT CHRIST’S SPIRIT IS WILLING AND ABLE.

(I. Sloth is the American dream.)

Tonight we’re confronted with the slothful disciples. For all their boasting last week, they couldn’t even watch and pray with Christ for one hour! Imagine if Christ’s worship lasted an hour fifteen! Christ was diligent in prayer. Willing as they may have been to be diligent, their flesh dragged them down into sloth.

Sloth is laziness, negligence. Sloth is not being busy but being busybodies! Sloth is procrastination. Sloth’s traditional term is acedia. It’s kicking back, putting up your feet, and doing nothing at all! It’s finally striking it rich so you can stop doing work. Problem is Adam was created and put in Eden “to work it,” and now we are “created in Christ IHS for good works,” but that’s to get ahead of myself… Sloth is almost the American dream! To succeed so much that you can sit around, rest on your laurels, and do, well, nothing!

Sloth is selfishness. It’s setting aside being helpful for your spouse, your kids, your congregation, you neighbor or community, all so that you can finally just do nothing! And this sloth certainly affects love for you neighbor, but that’s not all. It also affects faith toward God. Luther summarizes sloth towards God well in the Large Catechism: “those fussy spirits are to be rebuked who, after they have heard a sermon or two, find hearing more sermons to be tedious and dull. They think that they know all that well enough and need no more instruction. For that is exactly the sin that was previously counted among mortal sins and is called akadia (i.e., apathy or satisfaction). This is a malignant, dangerous plague with which the devil bewitches and deceives the hearts of many so that he may surprise us and secretly take God’s Word from us [Matthew 13:19].” (LC I.99)

Sloth says, “I’m saved by grace alone so I don’t have to do anything at all! I don’t ‘have’ to read my Bible. I don’t ‘have’ to teach my kids the faith, that’s Sunday School, or Good Shepherd, or Pastor’s job! I don’t ‘have’ to love my neighbor. Someone else will take care of it. Sure, I know I should love my neighbor, I know I’m supposed to be engaged in God’s Word and Sacraments, I’ll just do it later, tomorrow, next week, some other time…” See how weak your flesh is!

YOUR FLESH IS WEAK, BUT CHRIST’S SPIRIT IS WILLING AND ABLE.

(II. Diligence is the American distraction…)

Diligence is the corresponding virtue to the vice vice of sloth. Diligence isn’t “doing more.” Doing more could also be sloth! Doing other things, many other things, besides what you should be doing! Sloth masquerades as busy work, doing many other things besides your primary vocations. This is the American distraction! “Being busy,” “productive” which is just sloth, or just an excuse for more sloth!

American diligence is putting in your required hours and punching out. American diligence is working overtime. American diligence is putting in more and more hours at work, on the farm, or doing an unhealthy amount of effort for school or for sports, and then coming home drinking the long hours away, watching sports, and there’s nothing left in the tank for eating meals as a family, praying or reading your Bibles as a family, is taking no time for Christ’s Word and Sacrament on Sunday because you’re too tired or it takes too much time. As Christ said to Peter: “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

True diligence is doing your duty! Doing what God has called you to do. Are you a Christian? Do you have faith in Christ? Do you trust His Word, believe His Sacraments are for the benefit of your soul and the soul of your spouse and children? “Are you father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker?” Well, then do all those things!

Deuteronomy 6 tonight was all about diligence and duty as regards the Word of God. To bring it into your homes and teach it to your children. It’s the duty of all Christian fathers to do so: “Fathers, raise your children in the fear and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph 5) Sloth is passing that buck to someone else… Christian mothers do the same in support and coordination with their Christian husbands, or fill in the gap in their absence, as Pastor Timothy’s mom and grandma did!

Be diligent at work, too! But remember the farm and work are just a means to an end. “He who does not work shall not eat,” as we heard from 2 Thessalonians tonight. We are to be diligent in serving the people God has called us to serve: “Are you father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker?” Being workaholics, or sportsaholics, or whatever other activities we fill our schedules with, won’t make up for dereliction of duty when it comes to being faithful and true parents, spouses, or siblings. Yet we distract and delude ourselves into thinking and behaving that way! See how weak your flesh is!

YOUR FLESH IS WEAK, BUT CHRIST’S SPIRIT IS WILLING AND ABLE.

(III. Christ is truly diligent for and through you.)

This is why your good works, your diligence, doesn’t save you. Let’s say you get all your priorities right. That’s just the bare minimum! If you neglect the bare minimum, how can the bare minimum make up for that? It’s a debt you can’t repay! You can’t get the years of neglect back… It’s a debt Christ must repay!

Christ is diligent on our behalf! He was diligent in prayer in Gethsemane! He was always diligent in the Word of God. He was diligent to go to the cross to pay the debt we can never repay! He repaid a debt He didn’t have to! His blood spilled pays for all the too-many hours you worked that was to the detriment of true diligence for those closest to you.

And Christ gives you His Holy Spirit. He is the one who works true diligence and love within you. He’s the one who works in the Word of God and who enlivens you to seek the Word of God for yourself and your family. He worked diligence in Job to sacrifice for his children. He works the true diligence described in Deuteronomy 6! He works diligence in not putting work or farm in front of faith and family or congregation or community.

You are created by faith in Christ IHS for good works. And when you work its “by the strength that God supplies.” (1-Pet) Even Paul said that when He worked as an apostle, “it wasn’t me but the grace of God that was in me.” (1-Cor 15) So also you!

“Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation!” You want the Spirit? He’s given in the Word and the Sacraments. There God abundantly fulfills Christ’s Word, when He says, “I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you,” for “your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Lk 11)

(Conclusion.)

YOUR FLESH IS WEAK, BUT CHRIST’S SPIRIT IS WILLING AND ABLE.

Your flesh is lazy, and would use false diligence as a mask or even as an excuse for even more laziness. But Christ’s Spirit in Holy Baptism crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal 5) He is living and active in the Word to do this all the more for you and through you—true diligence in your relationship with God and with those around you. Not doing more, but doing your duty that those in your life would be blessed through the diligence Christ’s Spirit works in you. After all, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1) “He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it,” (1-Thess 5) because YOUR FLESH IS WEAK, BUT CHRIST’S SPIRIT IS WILLING AND ABLE.