Jesu Juva
Genesis 11:1-9
June 8, 2025
The Day of Pentecost
Dear saints of our Savior~
Anyone who has ever studied a foreign language knows how difficult it can be. Sometimes it involves years of classes, mountains of flash cards, and day after day of Duolingo. And just when you think you’re starting to get it—just when you get brave enough to strike up a conversation with someone who is fluent in your foreign language—you usually end up embarrassing yourself—and you quickly realize how much you still have to learn.
Today we hear how every language got its start at a place called Babel. Back in those ancient days the whole world had only one language. A common vocabulary was shared by every human being on the face of the earth. Everybody understood everybody. People could talk-out their differences. Everybody was on the same page. People could freely collaborate and cooperate with no confusion. Nothing got muddled or mixed up. Nothing was lost in translation because there was no translation.
Soon after settling in the plains of Shinar, the people of the world quickly realized that the sky’s the limit. They began to discuss an audacious plan: Let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. They had the technology to do it, too: bricks and bitumen. Heaven, of course, was God’s domain; their tower would be trespassing there. But that didn’t seem to concern them. What mattered was that they were going to make a name for themselves. Enjoying the clarity of a common language, there was nothing they couldn’t do.
That was also the Lord’s assessment of the situation. For He looked down to see the city and the tower that man intended to build. Like a divine building inspector, the Lord quickly concluded that this wasn’t good. “This is only the beginning of what they will do,” He said, “And nothing that they propose will now be impossible for them.”
Like the people of Babel, we too are living at a time when almost nothing is impossible for us. We left behind bricks and bitumen long ago. Now artificial intelligence can do almost anything. We can communicate to the four corners of the earth in a split second. Google Translate can coordinate conversations between two people who don’t speak the same language. Others of you have been stung with bad news from the doctor, only to learn that there’s a new drug—a new treatment—a new technology—a new surgical technique that can help you and heal you. Will wonders never cease?
Humanity is united by technology as never before. It sounds great; but there’s a problem with that. And the problem isn’t with the technology; the problem is with the people! Humanity is corrupted to the core by sin. We are a collection of sinners, each of us programmed with the desire to make ourselves like God. It’s true that we may be capable of almost anything if we just put our heads together. But as sinners, our skills set always trends toward that which is evil. And the more sinners you have joined together, speaking the same language, on the same page, the more the evil tends to snowball.
Whenever sinners get together around a common goal, it’s not necessarily going to be a good thing. The same pharmacy that dispenses newly developed, life-saving medications also dispenses drugs designed to kill unborn babies while still in the womb, before they can take their first breath. The same social media that connects us with one another can also be used as a conduit for adultery and porn and the destruction of marriage. Whenever humans put their heads together, the result is usually a strange mix of both good and evil.
God knows all of this. It’s no surprise to Him. It’s why He came down from heaven to cause confusion and scramble languages and disperse people into different nations. At Babel God gave the “gift” of confusion—to curb our sinful ambitions—to hinder our hubris—to put up protective barriers to prevent us from sinking to even lower levels of evil and destruction.
What does this have to do with Pentecost? At Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, God provided a key to cut through the confusion. The confusion of languages remains, but now, by the Holy Spirit, the good news about Jesus is preached and heard in all the languages of the world. In the midst of the world’s sinful confusion, God gives clarity concerning Christ the crucified. By the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, God calls together His church from every nation, tribe, race and language in the world. And He unites us all together in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one salvation through the death and resurrection of one man for all men.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Jesus said, “I am going away, and I will come to you.” In His going away to the Father’s right hand, He now comes to us by His Holy Spirit. In His going away He can no longer be seen, but now He can be heard—and heard in any language of any nation on earth. The Spirit pounds the promises of Jesus into our ears—and teaches us all things and brings to remembrance all the words of Jesus. In short, the Spirit drums the good news of the life and forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus right into your ears in your own language. And above all else, the Holy Spirit makes clear: it’s all for you. The Holy Spirit doesn’t replace Jesus like some relief pitcher brought in for the last few innings to replace the starter. No, the Spirit brings the words of Jesus to our ears in such a way that we hear Jesus, we trust Jesus, we see and confess that what He endured on the cross, He endured for us and for our salvation—so that we cling to Jesus by faith—come hell or high water.
But none of this can happen without the Holy Spirit. I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. Without the Spirit we stay in confusion; but with the Spirit there is clarity in the Christ and His love for sinners. This world of confusion is passing away. It has an expiration date. But Pentecost reminds us that the new has already come in Jesus. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
The Day of Pentecost began with tongues of fire and rushing wind and a miracle of speaking and hearing. But if you read all the way to the end of Acts chapter two, you see that the Day of Pentecost ended very simply—in the water of Baptism and in the weekly gathering of believers around the Apostles’ doctrine, the breaking of bread in the Lord’s Supper, and in the prayers of the liturgy. In a sense, we have Pentecost every Sunday. In the waters of your baptism, you have clarity and certainty: Your sins are washed away; you are a child of Paradise; baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation. Good news doesn’t come any clearer than that!
The day will come when all confusion will pass away. The day will come when all the saints will again be united in one language with the same words—just as we already have one Lord, one faith and one baptism. That day will not come about by our own doing and ingenuity. That Day will come when the Holy Spirit—the Lord and Giver of Life—raises us from the dead and gathers us together—body and soul—into the presence of God and of the Lamb.
We long for that day, we pray for that day, we hope for that day. And we do so with the confidence and clarity given by the Holy Spirit.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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