St. Matthew recalls Isaiah’s prophecy: “The people living in darkness have seen a bright light, and for those living in the land and shadow of death, a light has risen” (Matthew 4:16). Through his words, Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecies by bringing to us His healing and salvation.
In the book of Acts, St. Luke echoes the same theme, about what the Word of God does. He says the Word of God grew and spread (Acts 12:24). And as the Word spread, the Holy Spirit brought more people into the Faith, into the Church of Christ.
Today, on this St. Patrick’s Day, our minds focus on a different area of geography: Not Judea or Samaria, but the outer reaches of the world, Ireland. Yet, Patrick’s mission was the same one that Paul and Barnabas had in the book of Acts. In the 5th century, Patrick brought the life-creating Word of the Gospel to those islands at the far reaches of Europe, the outpost of civilization and order.
Today, we remember God using Patrick to light the fire of Easter triumph on the isle of Ireland, then known as Hibernia. But who was Patrick, the man? He was born in 385, in what today is Scotland. This was a time when Christianity had made its way into what is now the British Isles. Yet, the darkened pall of paganism had still kept Ireland in its icy grip.
When Patrick was 14, Irish marauders went on a foray, capturing people to bring them back to Ireland as slaves. Patrick was among them. Once in Ireland, he was a slave for six years, herding and tending sheep. But as a slave, Patrick also learned the language and practices of the people who had enslaved him.
When Patrick was 20, he escaped. Making his way to the coast of Ireland, he found some sailors who took him back to Britain, where he reunited with his family. Patrick later began his theological studies, eventually becoming a pastor in the Church.
Today, we know that Patrick traveled back to Ireland. But why would Patrick choose to go to the place where he was a slave? It couldn’t have been the love that he had for the people there. While he was there, he didn’t experience smiling Irish eyes. For if life was so good, why did he escape and make his way back to Britain?
Patrick’s life would mirror that of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph told his brothers who had sold him into slavery, “You planned evil against me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20). What was evil in Patrick’s life, God intended for the good, even for those who had enslaved him.
So, why did Patrick go back to Ireland? It was because he was a pastor in Christ’s Church and his bishop sent him there as a missionary. And Patrick’s bishop sent him because of the sending Word that Jesus first spoke to His Apostles: “Disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.”
So Patrick went. No doubt, his years of slavery among the Irish had prepared him to serve the people there. He knew their language and their ways. But, if we’re honest, we must set our romantic thinking about Patrick aside and recognize that he went to Ireland because he was an obedient pastor and listened to his bishop.
But, if we’re honest, we also know that it was more than that. The Holy Spirit also drew Patrick into the sending that began in the heart of God the Father. What sending was that? That was when the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to take on human flesh for our salvation. But the sending did not stop there.
Jesus also sent His disciples turned Apostles. He told them on Easter evening, “As the Father has sent me, so also am I sending you” (John 20:21). And in our Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Eleven: “Disciple the nations.” A short time later, the Father sent His Holy Spirit through His Son. This was so the Spirit would work through God’s spoken Word, bringing the life of Christ into a dying world.
So, Patrick returned to the land of his slavery. He was part of our Lord’s constant sending, whom the Holy Spirit would use to bring others into the Faith, returning them to the Lord. Indeed, the Holy Spirit had brought Patrick into God’s glorious work of bringing back and binding up what sin had left dead and broken.
As Patrick went to the Irish, he went as a part of our Lord’s sending ministry. That’s the apostolic ministry, whose work is to bring us fallen children of men back to God through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
Yet, how does God the Father gather us into the Church? It is through baptism, as our Gospel reading for today clearly tells us. That’s where the Holy Spirit works through the water and Word to save us (1 Peter 3:21). That’s where the Spirit brings us the benefits of what Jesus did to save us. That’s where we are brought into the life of the Triune God, into whose name we are baptized.
But baptism doesn’t die its death when the water is gone. For someone’s baptism continues in the life of the disciple as the Holy Spirit repeatedly brings him to turn from his falleness back to Christ’s life-renewing forgiveness. That’s why, as Christ’s people, we don’t say, “I was baptized” but “I am baptized.”
Having such a strong understanding that a Christian’s life is one of living in, and returning to, the Triune God into whom one is baptized, Patrick penned these words.
I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
I bind this day to me forever, by power of faith, Christ’s incarnation, His baptism in the Jordan river, His cross of death for my salvation, His bursting from the spiced tomb, His riding up the heavenly way, His coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today….
Against the demon snares of sin, the vice that give temptation force, the natural lusts that war within, the hostile foes that mar my course; or few and many, far and nigh, in every place and in all hours, against the fierce hostility, I bind to me those holy powers.
I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three, of whom all nature has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word. Praise to the Lord of my salvation; Salvation is of Christ the Lord! [LSB 604]
So, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t about wearing green clothes. It’s not about remembering your Irish heritage. It’s not about drinking green beer. Ironically, it’s not even about Patrick. It’s about what God carried out through Patrick, who wasn’t even Irish!
And so the Lord is reminding us that our gathering and serving here as His people doesn’t center on us. No, it centers on Jesus for us. Today, St. Patrick’s Day has become a day about everything Irish, instead of everything Jesus.
Today, we live in a culture that has distorted St. Patrick’s Day. We also live in a land that largely sees Jesus as irrelevant. And so in our sinfulness, we too may try to change Christ’s Church in the same way that our culture has changed St. Patrick’s Day. For being faithful to Jesus isn’t popular and doesn’t draw in the crowds. And so our sinful flesh will tell us to look to something other than Jesus. In the same way that the word of Jesus now falls on many deaf ears, something other than Jesus can also dazzle us.
Yet, if we are to remain in Christ’s Church, then we must be faithful to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. As Church, we are faithfully to preach His Word and give out His Sacraments, just as He has given us to do.
Patrick probably had mixed emotions as he looked to the land where the people had enslaved him. He probably had second thoughts about what the Lord had given to him to do. Yet, what propelled him forward, and what also propels us forward, are the beautiful bookends of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel reading.
Jesus says, “All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me… And remember, I am with always, even to the end of the age.” What Jesus has given His Church to do centers on Him, the One who is with us to the end of the age. In and through Jesus, With Him at the center, the Church then faithfully carries out what He has given her to do.
The all-authoritative Christ is always with His Church, doing what He has promised to do. He has promised to be with us always. He will not abandon us. For He will be with us until the end. And He is with us, through His means of grace: the Gospel preached and the Sacraments given out according to His command.
Confirming this truth, Jesus stands before us today, in His Supper, in His flesh and blood. That’s His flesh and blood that died to save us. That’s His flesh and blood that rose from the grave, all so we may have life in His name. That’s His flesh and blood that spoke those powerful, sending words to the Eleven, His Apostles.
In His flesh and blood, Jesus still speaks to us today, even amid our fears and failures, our worries and our doubts. Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me. Fear not, for I am with you always. Go in My peace. For in Me, you will be the light in this darkened world.” Amen.
