Service for November 2 All Saints Day

Sermon for  November 2, 2025                                                     All Saints Day

Who Is a Saint?

Each year at Immanuel on All Saints’ Day we remember those among us who have died the past year by lighting a candle honoring their transition from this earthly life to their eternal life. The question before us this morning, though, is who is a saint? Are Saints only those who have died after living a life devoted to Jesus? Are Saints the Apostles? Are they those who have done great things for Christ and his Kingdom? Are Saints only those canonized by the Church whether Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, or Independent?

Many people are familiar with the Roman Catholic Saints. In 1903, Alban Butler wrote, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. The work is 12 volumes  and is often cited as the historical authority on the Saints. I have been in Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles where the walls of the church are lined with amazing tapestries upon which are all of the canonized Saints of the Church.

The process of canonization is long and difficult, which normally cannot start before five years following the individual’s death. Then the person must be declared a Servant of God. Next they must be named Venerable such as the Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen. The third step is to be declared Blessed. At this step the person must have performed a miracle investigated through canonical and scientific investigation. Such is the title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The final step requires a second miracle, then the Rite of Canonization by the Pope. Thus, the person is a Saint.

The issue I have with all of this is that the word Saint is used very differently in the Bible. The word used to speak of someone as a saint is hàgiōs. It means holy  such as Holy Spirit or holy one, Saint. Saints are anyone who has been called by Jesus Christ, washed with his blood, and sanctified with the Holy Spirit.

So, the answer to our question is simply, any human being dead or alive who has been made a New Creation, as Paul said, and that New Creation is a Saint.

The Word of the Lord has come to us in the Old Testament from Isaiah, and the Gospels from Luke. Isaiah 1 is the background for what happens to those called by Christ to salvation. Verses 10-17 are quite negative, but they teach us what people think is necessary to be saved, but is not pleasing to God. They include things that are religious acts which God required of the Israelites. So, reading God’s list here, sounds like they are doing the things God wants.

However, God never wanted or needed just the physical activities. Instead, the externals were all supposed to work internally in the heart. They were all object lessons to teach how the heart must change. Salvation always starts on the inside and as the Holy Spirit changes our hearts, our bodies live out that change in loving one another and others. Verse 18 is the answer: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 1:18.)

Jesus does NOT say that we are to make our scarlet sins white as snow. That is an impossibility. But Luke shows us how Jesus Christ does this for us. In Luke 19, Jesus is continuing his journey back to Jerusalem when he comes to Jericho, probably not the same Jericho where Israel entered the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Jesus, while on this journey, is focused on Jerusalem and rarely went into cities on his way. He did not want to be delayed.

So why Jericho? “A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.” (Luke 19:2, NRSV) The name Zacchaeus is a Greek form of the name Zakkai in Hebrew. Zakkay means “clean, innocent” and is often used in parallelism with ṣaddiq, “righteous, upright.” Zacchaeus was NOT clean, innocent, or righteous!

Lutheran Commentator R. C. H. Lenski wrote, “He was ‘head publican,’ was employed, as is usually assumed, by a Roman principal who had bought up the taxes in that territory from the state and was collecting them. The ‘head publican’ had a force of ordinary publicans under him and managed their business… If not his work then his wealth made him a man of importance in Jericho.”[1]  Zacchaeus  heard that Jesus was going to pass through town. Having heard of this wonder worker, he wanted to see this man. But he was too short to see over the crowd. 

To say he was short in stature was obvious. However, saying he was a little man could refer to his reputation. Being as rich as he was by the common man’s taxes probably was the source of a great ego.

“So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.” (Luke 19:4, NRSV) Here the story turns; not only did Zacchaeus see Jesus, but Jesus saw Zaccheaus! As if this was Jesus’ plan all along (and I think it was,) he says, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

Though we don’t know exactly what went on between the two, we know the result of the encounter. Zacchaeus announces, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Yes, this is an external act, but one that showed a change in the heart. Jesus confirms there is a radical change in Zachaeus’ heart: “Today salvation has come to this house…”

So, what’s the point? What does this have to do with Isaiah? What does this have to do with me, and you? What does this have to do with being made a Saint? One sentence: “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10, NRSV)

Israel could not save themselves by doing things. It doesn’t matter whether they are good things or not. Neither can we. But Jesus comes to us, seeking us out and saving us.

This is Lutheran theology. This is Biblical theology. Jesus seeks each one of us when we were perfectly happy in the human rat race, working to find fulfillment, working to get ahead, working to get richer. We work to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, surround ourselves with a fancy ride.

Many of you probably know already what I am going to say next, but I’ve got to say it anyway: None of those things are the source of life. None of them are a source of sainthood. Each of those saints we honored this morning left this world with nothing but only the name and title of child of God, saved by Jesus Christ who came to make us saints.

None of us can talk anyone into the kingdom of heaven. None of us could choose salvation or do anything to receive the grace of God. It is free but we can’t reach out and grab it. It can only be bestowed upon us – even before we could choose it… the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.

[1] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 937.