The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost | 20.07.2025 | Gen 18:1-10 | Samuel David Zumwalt |

Genesis 18:1-10 Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved

Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 8 So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. 9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)

 THE TRIUNE GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“And the LORD appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day” (18:1). 

Where is Mamre? Mamre is located north of the Palestinian city of Hebron and west of the Dead Sea. The main trunk of the approximately 5,000-year-old tree has been dead since 1996 (and it is held up by several metal supports) but in 1998 a sprout began to grow from it. There is a Russian Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Trinity adjacent to the oak tree doubtless because of the famous 15^th century Rublev icon of the Holy Trinity, which was written as a reflection on the three-person appearance of the LORD to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18. Mamre has been a worship site for many religions from ancient times. [see: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Oak_of_Mamre ]

Now the Hebrew text of Genesis 18:1 makes clear that the LORD (YHWH) appeared to Abraham (and Sarah) in the heat of the day (in Hebrew “kehom hayyowm,” that is, midday) . This, of course, presents a theological problem, because the LORD (whose name is too holy to speak) is visible to Abraham. The Lord Jesus teaches in John 6: “…not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father” (6:46). The early church fathers, Origen of Alexandria and Caesarius of Arles, contend that Abraham was given a vision of God, because, as the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (5:8). Of course, we are well aware of Abraham’s previously demonstrated not-so-pure heart. On the other hand, St. Augustine argued these are angels of the LORD, His messengers. Augustine reminded his hearers of the admonition in Hebrews 13: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (13:2).

In Christian iconography, most famously in the aforementioned 15^th century Rublev icon, there is an Old Testament Trinity based upon Genesis 18. The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit are depicted as the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah; Abraham speaks to the three in the singular My Lord (in Hebrew, “Adonay”). [To learn more about this icon, please see: http://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/%E2%84%963-2013-40/andrei-rublev-image-holy-trinity.]

In 18:2-8, Abraham greets the visitors humbly, and Sarah and he show hospitality to the three by providing water for their feet, then a morsel of bread, and later a calf and its dairy products. When Abraham tells Sarah to bring three seahs of fine flour, the conservative measurement of a seah is 5.75 gallons while orthodox Jews would double that amount. So at more than 31 gallons of flour, this morsel of bread is turning into a Texas-sized morsel! We Christians will remember the Lord Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” (25:34-35).

Now the next verses get to the heart of the matter, namely the occasion for this visit to Abraham and Sarah. It has been 24 years since the LORD called 75-year-old Abram and 65-year-old infertile Sarah to leave behind their tribe, their home, and their idolatrous past in Ur of the Chaldees (in present-day northern Iraq). In Genesis 12:1-3, the axis upon which the entire book of Genesis turns, the LORD God promised to make of them a great nation and bless them to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. They have been through so much already, and now that he is 99 and she 89, the three visitors reiterate the promise. After 24 years, 99-year-old Abraham and 89-year-old Sarah are going to have a baby. There is not one woman past 65 that would not laugh at the idea!

⁹ They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 

It would have been an abuse of hospitality for a stranger to ask about a man’s wife. So when the speaker calls Sarah by name, this is an indication to Abraham that much more is going on here than their showing hospitality to strangers. Even in the question, “Where is Sarah your wife,” there is an echo of God calling in the garden, “Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). God is about to keep His promise to Abraham and Sarah. Indeed, the entire direction of this text takes a radical shift away from an object lesson on hospitality to God’s plan of salvation. After all, God does the work of saving!

This text is not, then, even about Isaac (whose name means “laughter”). It’s about God’s Son Jesus whose legal human ancestry is traced from his adoptive father Joseph back to Abraham (See Matthew 1). Without Isaac, there is no beginning of God’s making a great nation from Abraham and Sarah to bless all the nations of the earth. Without Isaac, there can be no King David, to whom God promised an everlasting dynasty (2 Samuel 7).  The LORD God has great promises to keep, and He will accomplish the salvation of the world through the true Child of the Promise, Jesus, Son of Mary, the Son of God! As The Lord Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). God does His saving work through His Son who is born of a Jewish mother.

So, Sarah, the servant of God, laughed as she listened at the door of the tent. She laughed at the utterly ridiculous promise of God to an 89-year-old woman and a 99-year-old man. But God came looking for Sarah, and the LORD God is still looking for all of us sinners even today. He still has the most audacious, incredible promise for us sinners in the gift of His Son Jesus. No matter where we have been this week, no matter what we have done this day, no matter how we have been hurt throughout our life, no matter whom we have hurt in the very worst way, there is still forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in only one name in the name of God’s Beloved Son Jesus! In His human body, God’s Son took our sins to His lonely cross and suffered and died for us sinners.

Now think about that. Abraham and Sarah sacrificed a calf for their guests, but God’s Son Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave His own life as a sacrifice for our sin. Although we do not deserve it, He takes away the sin of the world. He freely gives His own Body to be crucified. His grace is unmerited and unearned by us. Nothing in our hands we bring. Simply to His cross we cling!

Christ’s Church had its birth in Jerusalem on the first Christian Pentecost. When the twelve apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to preach the Good News of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, three thousand Jews from around the Roman Empire repent of their sins and were baptized into the Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection (Acts 2). Peter preached to his fellow Jews, Jerusalem’s religious leaders, in Acts 4: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12). The point is very clear. Ethnicity cannot save anyone!

You need Jesus. I need Jesus. Without being born from above by water and the Holy Spirit in Baptism (John 3:5), we cannot be joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4; Titus 3:4-8). In other words, Jesus has to do the saving, or we cannot be saved. It is not what we do that saves. Our trust in God’s Word is not even our work. God has to crucify us in our Baptism and raise us to new life in Christ. Trust in God’s promises is God’s work! Yes, God had to show Sarah the utterly incredible power of His promise! God made Sarah His servant, so that through her He could save you and me!

 ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, ⁵ while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on….

It seems hardly a day goes by without seeing some new sign that this old world is passing away: Terrorist attacks, wars, and rumors of wars; African Christians continue to suffer persecution at the hands of radical Muslims; and here antisemitism and nihilism abound especially among many “educationally-indoctrinated” younger folks. These are but illustrations of the Hebrews 13: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (13:14).

Like God’s servant Sarah, we are yet waiting for God to fulfill all His promises: to bring in a new heaven and a new earth! As we wait, we, as His Body in this place, serve palpably on a daily basis the neighbors at and beyond our parish. Like God’s servants Sarah and Martha, there is always more work to do while it is day before the night comes when no one can work!

But, here in this place and in this time of worship, God serves us with His promise of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Here in this place and in this time of worship, God serves us the water of Baptism which washes us sinners clean again and again. Here in this place and in this time of worship, God serves us with a little morsel of bread and a taste of wine and through such insignificant things He gives us His own true Body and His own most precious Blood. What ridiculously incredible promises the Lord God gives to sinners like you and me! Like God’s servant Mary of Bethany, may we never fail to take hold of Jesus Christ, the Child of the Promise, the Friend of sinners!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

©Samuel David Zumwalt
szumwalt54@gmail.com
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (AALC)
Wilmington, North Carolina USA