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The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of Concord is for the Gospel, John 18:1 – 19:42 for the Good Friday, series C, March 29, 2013. It is from Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, page 298. It has always been impossible for the world, and difficult for some Christians, to understand that the power of the Church is not of this world, but in the revealed Word of God. Click here for the reading formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin. Pastor Doug May
Christ gave the apostles only spiritual power (i.e., the command to teach the Gospel, to announce the forgiveness of sins, to administer the Sacraments, to excommunicate the godless without bodily force ‹by the Word›). He did not give them the power of the sword (the right to establish, occupy, or bestow kingdoms of the world; [Romans 13:4]). For Christ says, "Go … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Also, "As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21). It is clear that Christ was not sent to bear the sword or possess a worldly kingdom, as He Himself says, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). And Paul says, "Not that we lord it over your faith" (2 Corinthians 1:24); and "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh" (2 Corinthians 10:4), and so forth. [A Contrast between Christ and the Pope] Christ in His passion is crowned with thorns and led forth to be ridiculed in royal purple [John 19:2]. This symbolizes that in the future, after His spiritual kingdom was despised (i.e., the Gospel was suppressed), another kingdom of a worldly kind would be set up with the appearance of churchly power. (So the Constitution of Boniface VIII and similar opinions are false and godless, for they argue that the pope is by divine right the ruler of the kingdoms of the world.) (paragraphs 31-33)
These are excerpts from the Book of Concord.
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