"Jesus Served Us; Let Us Serve Each Other" (Sermon on Mark 10:32-45) | October 20, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 10:32–45
Date: October 20, 2024
Event: Proper 24, Year B

Mark 10:32–45 (EHV)

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them. The disciples were amazed, and the others who followed were afraid. He took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. 33“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. 34They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask.”

36He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

37They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”

38But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?”

39“We can,” they replied.

Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with. 40But to sit at my right or at my left is not for me to give; rather, these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

41When the ten heard this, they were angry with James and John.

42Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus Served Us; Let Us Serve Each Other

There are a lot of ways to measure greatness in the world that we live in. It could be greatness in the sense of earthly power. It could be greatness in the sense of wealth. It could be greatness in the sense of our family's size or success. And even the word success might have a variety of definitions for people. What does it mean to be successful in this life? Well, you could probably ask ten people and get ten pretty different answers.

But there is a commonality among people: We want to succeed rather than fail. We want to accomplish our goals rather than ignore them or throw them away. Perhaps, in a more selfish mindset, we want to gain favor. We want to be better, or at least better than someone else. In our gospel for this morning, we see the disciples wrestling with that temptation while, at the same time, Jesus is trying to show them how he will be great for them by serving.

Perhaps we struggle with the same things the disciples struggled with. And I know for certain that we all need the same encouragement and reminder of what Jesus has done to save us. So this morning, let's gather around Jesus and learn from him what service and greatness look like. And then let us seek to follow in our Savior’s service path, motivated by his service for us, serving the people that God has placed in our lives.

In our gospel this morning, we meet up with Jesus and his disciples almost at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We are just a few verses away from Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in the beginning of Mark chapter 11. This is the end of Jesus' time with his disciples to teach them and help them understand what is coming.

And so that's where he begins. Now, Mark's writing style is very abrupt. He jumps from subject to subject very quickly, moving from main point to main point. But it doesn’t seem to be a stylistic choice that puts the disciples’ bickering at odds with what Jesus is teaching. Jesus tells them how he is going to be killed and give his life as a ransom for many. And then James and John approach him with that perhaps selfish request, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”

Now, on the one hand, they did get it; they did understand that Jesus was going to be in glory. They knew that he would not be defeated by whatever was coming that he had just explained. But you want to say to James and John, “Guys, read the room a little bit here. This is not the time to be talking about things like this.” And Jesus really does that. He says, “Things are going to go really badly for me. And guess what? They're also going to go really badly for you. You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with.”

The other ten were indignant with James and John. And it's unclear whether they're resentful because they realize the inappropriateness of this request or because James and John were requesting what the rest of them wanted for themselves. Regardless, this was a source of conflict among the Twelve. And if I were Jesus, and I were on the brink of this catastrophe of being betrayed and murdered by my government, I think I would be pretty short with them. Thankfully, Jesus is not me; Jesus is perfect; Jesus does not sin. He uses this as a teaching moment.

“You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all.” We've heard Jesus over the last several Sundays emphasize similar points. Just four week ago in our Gospel, all of the disciples were arguing among themlseves about who of them was the greatest. Jesus continues to patienly correct and them. What is the goal of the believer’s life? It's not glory. It's not being the best. It's not finding recognition in the world or even among other believers. The goal of the Christian life is service.

We heard it two weeks ago when Paul addressed Christians, especially Christian families, and encouraged them to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21). Put each other ahead of yourself. Consider others' needs more important than your own. Submit. Sacrifice. Serve. Jesus underscores this point in the last verse of our gospel: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

If there was ever anyone who walked the face of this earth who deserved to be honored and acknowledged as the greatest of all, to have glory ascribed to him, it was Jesus. Not only was he perfect and sent by God, but he is God. And so it would have been justified (and perhaps to our way of thinking, maybe more appropriate) for him to come to this earth and demand honor and tribute and glory and praise from anyone and everyone that saw him. You might think of the wise men when he was a little child coming and bringing their gifts only on a much grander scale. If we're talking about who deserved earthly glory, well, no one deserved it more than Jesus.

But that's not why he came. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. His time on this earth was not about himself. It was not about his glory, praise, or ego, if you want to put it that way. Everything about what he did while he was on this earth was about laying aside what was rightfully his to serve you and to serve me.

The apostle Paul, in Philippians chapter 2, says that Jesus did not consider equality with God as something that had to be retained, gripped with all his might. Instead, he willingly put that aside. He put aside the full use of his glory as God to become a servant, serve you, and serve me. And this was always the plan; this is not a departure from what God promised. We heard those familiar words in Isaiah 53 in our first reading as a reminder that the Messiah’s task was always to serve you: Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and to allow him to suffer. Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong his days, and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand. It was the Lord's will to crush him and allow him to suffer. Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong his days. And the Lord's will be the Lord's will to serve you. And the Lord's will to serve you. And the Lord's will to serve you. And the Lord's will to serve you.

From the beginning, the Messiah was coming to be crushed. To offer his life as a guilt offering. To empty himself to serve us. And we should be really clear about why he did this. He's not just giving us a model to follow. He's not just saying, “Here’s how you should treat each other or prioritize others ahead of yourself,” though surely we can learn that from him. But Jesus did not come to be primarily a model for us; he came to save us.

Jesus’ service is not just about him being humble; it’s about him being and doing what we needed. Our sin had trapped us in an impossible place; we were headed for eternal punishment in hell with absolutely no way to change course. So Jesus took our place. He humbled himself and served us by enduring the hell we deserved on the cross. He served us in our greatest need so that we would be spared from hell and instead be with him forever in heaven.

He did this because he loves you, and he loves me. There is no guilt trip here. And you can see that in how he patiently explains to the Twelve what will happen. He doesn’t lash out at their selfish goals and conversations. No, he tells them what he will do to save them from even this sin.

James and John would drink the cup of Jesus’ suffering in some ways. James would be the first of the twelve to be martyred, and while John might be the only of the twelve to die a natural death, he would endure persecution and exile and face challenges to the sound teaching of comfort and sins forgiven in Jesus during his long life. The Twelve would learn to serve for Jesus and about Jesus.

We, too, can serve in this way. We can serve by sharing the good news of what we’ve come to know and believe with those who don’t know it. We can serve by encouraging our fellow Christians with the message that brings true, lasting, eternal comfort—Jesus was crucified for our sins and raised from the dead. We can serve by not seeking personal glory but by striving to support those around us. We can serve by bringing people to Jesus’ feet so they, too, can hear and, by God’s grace, believe what Jesus has done for them.

Dear Christian, rejoice, for Jesus has served you. Let us serve others by sharing what he has done for all people so that many may join us in eternal celebration, away from this world of sin and with our Savior forever in heaven! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"You Are Safe Now; Rejoice in Eternity!" (Sermon on Luke 10:17-20) | September 29, 2024

Sermon Text: Luke 10:17-20
Date: September 29, 2024
Event: Festival of St. Michael and All Angels

Luke 10:17–20 (EHV)

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!”

18He told them, “I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19Look, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing will ever harm you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven.”

You Are Safe Now; Rejoice in Eternity!

The young child walks with his parents in a shopping center on a hectic day. The crowds are thick, and the adults are almost shoulder-to-shoulder, to say nothing of the young man whose head barely comes up to the adults’ hips. Suddenly, there’s panic. He looks up in the sea of people, and he’s no longer walking with Mom and Dad. Where did they go? How does he find them? And then he hears his name in a familiar voice and finds himself scooped up by one of his parents. Safe.

There are many minor festivals in the church year. We don’t celebrate all of them yearly; in a given year, we may only celebrate one or two in our congregation. These festivals center on most of the twelve disciples; the apostle Paul; John the Baptist; Mary, Jesus’ mother; Joseph, Jesus’ earthly caretaker; Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ close followers; and even celebrating the first reading of the Augsburg Confession, one of the standard Lutheran confessions of faith.

These minor festivals tend to focus on people and other earthly events, yet they are not praise of the person or event itself; they praise God for his work done through these people or at these events. This is also true today on the minor festival of St. Michael and All Angels, where our focus is mainly on the spiritual forces that God uses as messengers and for our protection. We are not here to worship angels this morning—we are here to worship God for his love for us and, in a special way, to remember his protection given to us by this heavenly host.

Our Gospel for this morning helps to give us that focus because Jesus is directing the disciples away from the awe of the spiritual realm (and the power he had granted over it). He wants us primarily focused on what is eternally meaningful: rejoice that your names have been written in heaven. As we focus on God’s temporal promises and his work for us through the angels, we want to keep that in mind. Our primary awe should not be in what the angels do, but our awe should be centered in God’s love for us, the forgiveness he won for us by Jesus, and the fact that our eternal safety in heaven is secure.

Our brief Gospel for this morning comes at the end of Jesus sending out seventy-two of his followers to spread his good news in the towns he would travel to next in his earthly ministry. While Jesus is God, he limited himself during his time on earth so he was not always present everywhere. So, as is true for us, more people working meant more people hearing the message Jesus sent them to proclaim simultaneously and in different places.

The seventy-two come back, awestruck and excited to share what had happened: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!” Jesus had often driven demons out of possessed people, and these men discovered, as they went and met people suffering from that very affliction, that in Jesus’ name, they, too, were able to drive them out. Jesus gave them authority to trample … over all the power of the enemy, at least for a time.

Where would these demons have come from? Originally, what we now call angels and demons were one unified group. While God never pinpoints for us exactly when, he created the angels at some point during those six, twenty-hour days of creation. And then, at a moment that is not narratively described in the Bible, a whole group of those angels staged a rebellion against God, and the lead architect of that rebellion was Satan. It seems that the chief issue Satan had was that of pride and conceit—he wanted to be recognized as greater than he was; he wanted to be recognized as God’s equal. So Satan stages a coup of sorts, which fails; so it goes when anyone wages war against the almighty God, the angels included.

Satan is jealous of God’s power and status. It seems possible that Satan is also envious of the standing that mankind has in God’s creation, so one of his first goals after he fell was to get the precious crown of this new world to fall as well. He brings to Eve and Adam the temptation that caused him to fall: The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). In other words, “God is holding out on you! You, too, can be like God, even have equal status with God. Just take the fruit and eat!”

After the fall, we can see the clear difference between angels and human beings in God’s heart and perhaps understand Satan’s envy a bit better. Peter describes the fall of the angels and God’s judgment on them this way: “God did not spare angels when they sinned but handed them over to chains of darkness by casting them into hell, to be kept under guard for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). In fact, hell did not exist until the angels fell; it was not part of God’s perfect creation. Jesus describes hell as the eternal fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Do you see the difference between us and the angels? The angels sin? Boom. Hell. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned, though? God promised a Savior; God promised that he himself would rescue his people from their fallen state. That is an immeasurable difference.

Back to our Gospel, when Jesus says, “I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” the tense of that verb is very important. This is not a description of Satan’s rebellion and being cast out of God’s presence near the beginning of creation; Jesus is describing a current event, something he was just doing. As the seventy-two were going out, Jesus was then watching Satan fall. So, what caused this fall, this weakening of Satan’s power?

To answer that, we need to understand Satan’s true purpose. He wants us in hell. But as we noted above, he doesn’t want us in hell to rule over us; he wants us in hell to suffer like he will suffer. He wants us in hell because he knows it hurts God to have the precious crown of his creation separated from him forever. And so what undermines Satan’s power? What causes him to stumble and fall dramatically like lightning toppling out of the sky? God’s Word—specifically, the gospel message proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in Jesus.

As the seventy-two proclaimed that God’s forgiveness, which had long been promised, was now present among them, they were undermining Satan’s power. They were causing his plans to stumble and fall because, in sharing that message, the Holy Spirit was working faith in the hearts of those who heard. People who God brought from unbelief to faith were snatched out of that slavery to sin and death; people whose faith was strengthened were put even farther away from Satan’s eternally destructive goals. The weapon most effective against the old evil foe is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

So, we are safe from Satan’s attack because the Holy Spirit placed faith in us to trust Jesus’ forgiveness. When Satan or one of his cohorts would try to convince us that God doesn’t love us, that we are not forgiven, the words of Jesus’ promise and certainty of our status in his family is enough to send Satan toppling down the hill. Even if Satan were to appear in front of you in a gruesome, Hollywood version of demonic power, you could overcome him simply by stating who you are, “I am the baptized child of God.” Or, if even that seems too long, the name of your brother and Savior, “Jesus,” would be enough to send him scurrying away with his tail between his legs.

Not all of the angels rebelled against God; not all of this heavenly host followed Satan down his path of destruction. In fact, many angels are yet devoted to God and his will. We saw some of them with Elisha and his servant in our First Reading this morning. However, the primary role of the angels is more straightforward than even that narrative account might communicate.

When the term “angel” is used in the Bible, be it in Hebrew in the Old Testament (מַלְאָךְ, malak) or Greek in the New Testament (ἄγγελος, angelos), the primary meaning is the same: the angels are first and foremost messengers for God. We have many notable examples of this throughout Scripture. Angels were sent to bar the way to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve fell to communicate that they were not allowed back into where the Tree of Life grew (Genesis 3:22-24). When God called Isaiah to be his prophet, Isaiah saw a vision of heaven when an angel announced that God had taken away the his sins (Isaiah 6:1-7). One of the few named angels in Scripture, Gabriel, is the messenger to Zechariah that he would be the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20) and to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).

But God attaches a special promise to these messengers. Not only will they communicate the messages that God sends them to deliver, but he also sends them on missions of protection, as we saw against the forces of Aram. As we sang earlier, God makes specific promises to his people in Psalm 91, “Yes, you, Lord, are my refuge! If you make the Most High your shelter, evil will not overtake you. Disaster will not come near your tent. Yes, he will give a command to his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (vv. 9-12).

Does that mean that the angels protect us from every possible harm? Well, if you’ve banged your head or skinned your knee recently, you know that, no, God doesn’t protect us from anything that could cause us pain. But in many ways that we cannot measure or even understand, God sends his angels to tend to, guard, and protect us. Were the angels involved in making it so the skinned knee wasn’t a broken leg? Were the angels engaged in ensuring that the incident on the road was just a fender-bender where no one was hurt rather than something tragic? We can’t say for sure, but we do have God’s promise that this is precisely the kind of work that he will send them out to do.

In our Second Reading, we heard about one of the visions from John’s Revelation. John looked up and saw a battle taking place in the sky. Michael (who seems to be a created angel in a leadership role among the angels) directs God’s forces against the ancient dragon, Satan, and his minions. This is not an account of the fall of Satan. Instead, this vividly depicts the battle waged at the cross, the battle won by God. It was the final battle in the war that Satan initiated both with his personal rebellion and especially at the tree in the Garden of Eden. God promised at that time that this serpent’s head would be crushed (Genesis 3:15), and here in this vision, we see that take place: The great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one who leads the whole inhabited earth astray—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Revelation 12:9). As is the theme of all of the book of Revelation, so it is in this account: Jesus wins, therefore we win as well.

The declaration that follows the vision makes that understanding clear: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser [a literal translation of the name “Satan”] of our brothers has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:10-11).

But if this is a depiction of the battle of the cross, if this war is between God and Satan, what role do the angels have in that? Undoubtedly, the angels didn’t suffer for our sins; the angels did not win forgiveness for us in their victory. Those blessings come entirely from Jesus; as was declared, mankind
conquered [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb.

We have glimpses, little tastes in the Gospels, of the angels’ activity during this time. As Jesus was so distressed in the Garden of Gethsemane, pleading with his Father for another way to save us from our sins that his sweat was like drops of blood, we’re told that an angel came and tended to him before this confrontation began in earnest (Luke 22:43). As he rebuked Peter for using his sword to try to prevent his arrest, Jesus was clear that more than twelve legions of angels, more than 72,000 of them, stood ready to defend him if he wanted, but that was not the plan (Matthew 26:53).

But I believe the most prominent role that the angels played in this battle was like the seventy-two’s role in weakening Satan’s power in their preaching. What special role did some of the angels get assigned? On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. The women were terrified and bowed down with their faces to the ground. The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” Then they remembered his words (Luke 24:1-8). The angels’ power is seen most clearly here, not in a battle or protection or anything like that, but in their messenger role that day—Jesus is alive! He won!

So we can “ooh” and “ahh” over the power of the angels, the descriptions of their might, and their sometimes wild physical descriptions in the Bible. We can get shivers when we think of Satan and the other fallen angels, the demons, slinking around the world like prowling lions, looking to deceive, distort, and tempt us away from God. But all of that must be in service to the real story, the most important work God has done for you: your sins are forgiven. You are safe, not just now for a moment, but for eternity.

Let Jesus’ words to the seventy-two find a permanent home in your mind and heart, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven.” At the end of Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul gives what is essentially a commentary on Jesus’ words: We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 37-39).

My brothers and sisters, God commends his angels concerning you to guard you now and will send them to bring you safely to his side on the last day because Jesus has paid for your every sin. Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven. You are safe now! Rejoice for eternity! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Be Great; Serve All" (Sermon on Mark 9:30-37) | September 22, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 9:30–37
Date: September 22, 2024
Event: Proper 20, Year B

Mark 9:30–37 (EHV)

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know this, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.”

32But they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.

33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35Jesus sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

Be Great; Serve All

We don’t live in a society that values service much. Sure, there was that window of time early in the pandemic where, as a society, we tried to be grateful for the people who served us, whether they were the first responders and medical professionals, folks making pizza and hamburgers, or those delivering orders from stores when we weren’t allowed to go in person. But it seems as if that has largely gone away in society, so we seem to be back to this unspoken (or spoken right out loud) hierarchy between those serving and those being served. There can be the impression that the person staying at the hotel outranks the one working the front desk or the one ordering the food is of greater importance than the one bringing it to the table.

Of course, that’s not what everyone thinks, and I hope that you’re not among the people who look down on those serving you. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me. We all have a sinful nature that latches on to every opportunity to exalt self over everyone else. So, it would make sense if, at times, you might see yourself as “outranking” your fellow people. I know that line of thinking hides in me and can appear even if I hate it; maybe it’s familiar to you, too. As we saw in our Gospel this morning, it was occasionally present in the twelve disciples.

The theme of our worship this morning centers around this idea of service and its relationship to stature and importance, or even simply the view of self. If you serve should you consider yourself lowly? If you are served, should you consider yourself lofty? How should we view ourselves and our relationship to other people? What does it mean to be great? What does it mean to serve?

In our Gospel, we’re quickly approaching the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry; he’s making haste toward the cross. We’re only a chapter and a half away from Palm Sunday in Mark’s breezy narrative account. Jesus is clear and direct about what is coming, especially as his end draws ever closer: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise. Despite being very upfront, this statement communicated ideas that the disciples didn’t understand and perhaps didn’t want to think about. Fear led them to keep silent rather than to ask for more clarification or detail. Perhaps no one wanted to admit out loud that they didn’t “get it,” so no one got it.

You might imagine the awkward silence around Jesus’ words as the group made their way through the region of Galilee to the town of Capernaum. But eventually, the uncomfortable silence is broken by some quiet squabbling. Jesus knew full well what was going on, but he wanted to create an environment to make this a teaching moment, so once they arrived at their destination, he asked them: “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. They knew that their argument had not been the most pious and sanctified topic of discussion—in fact, just about as far from it as you can get!—so, in shame and guilt, they were quiet.

Jesus takes the lead, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” The one striving for the head spot, the most significant place, the most recognition, will find himself with none of it. If a person’s goal is to be “someone” in society, to be respected or adored, that will probably backfire tremendously. Consider a modern-day example—how many people long to be movie stars or famous singers and performers. And yet, how often don’t you hear of people who have had their lives ruined by that type of fame, that they despise it and hate it, that it might even lead to physical or mental illness, or even worse? If you have a moment this week, I recommend reading through the brief book of Esther in the Old Testament. The antagonist in that account, Haman, embodies Jesus’ warnings clearly; it is the downfall of someone who would stop at nothing to get recognition from others.

Now, if the president of the United States or the governor of California wanted to have dinner with you, you’d probably do some things to prepare. You’ll be hosting someone very important! Whether you agree with their political ideas or not, you will have an opportunity to have direct contact with them. Perhaps your ideas would stick in their mind! Maybe you could reinforce their resolve on some issue where you agreed, or get them to see your thought process in places where you don’t agree and enact some meaningful change!

But notice that hypothetical serving is at least a little bit self-serving. You’re serving, hoping to influence the political realm or at least to have a story to share with others. You’re serving, but you can get something out of it. But, Jesus says, that’s not service. What about serving someone who can’t pay you back, who offers little tangible things in return? Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

Perhaps a parent taking care of a child now will mean the child can take care of the parent later, but what parent thinks that way? What parent would see their child’s needs and address them only because they hope to get something in return? Instead, the parent provides for the child because the parent loves the child. Does the parent “outrank” the child in the family? Sure. But even to think along those lines, the greater serves the lesser. And to welcome and serve the little child is as if we are welcoming and serving God himself.

Biblically speaking, “service” does not mean a lower status or position; “helper” does not signify someone lower than someone else. It’s not about position; it’s about attitude. How do I view others? How do I view myself? When God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, God described Eve as a “helper who is a suitable partner” (Genesis 2:18). But again, this helper and partner status is not about rank or importance. In fact, the Hebrew word God uses to describe Eve in Genesis, eyzer, is most often used in the Bible to describe God himself and his work for us; God is our helper.

Jesus’ sacrifice demonstrated this point perfectly. Jesus was the only one to have a claim of superiority. After all, he is God and man, perfect, without sin. Yet what does he do? He doesn’t go to a castle and have worldly and heavenly pomp bestowed on him. No, he goes to the cross to suffer the eternal punishment of hell because otherwise, you and I would have faced that for our sins.

Elsewhere, Jesus spells out this relationship between his people serving others and his serving the world, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It will not be that way among you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28). His love for you prioritizes you even above his own life so that God himself bleeds and dies, not because he was powerless to stop it but because he wanted to do it because he wanted to save you and me.

Jesus served me. Do I outrank Jesus? Hardly! He is my Creator and Redeemer! He is my God! But his work is not linked to his status, his work is linked to his attitude to you and me, and that attitude is one driven by unilateral and selfless love for us.

So, that should be our approach to other people. We should seek out service rather than being served; we should reflect Jesus’ attitude in our lives, not the attitude of our selfish, sinful nature. But humility in our lives cannot and should not lead to self-loathing and self-hatred. To respect this direction from God, to not worry about myself as being the greatest, doesn’t mean that I have to think of myself as scum. God loves you and me and values you and me above everything that he created. Should we, in a misguided sense of humility, tell God that he is wrong for loving us or caring about us or even dying for us? May that never be!

Instead, let us seek the attitude that the apostle Paul spoke of, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility consider one another better than yourselves. Let each of you look carefully not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). In our Second Reading, James urged us to be driven by heavenly wisdom—knowing that our sins are forgiven by a God who loves us—so that we can see selfish ambition as being what it really is: worldly, unspiritual, and demonic (James 3:15).

You, my brothers and sisters, are those who have been rescued by the selfless sacrifice of your Savior. You have forgiveness for every sin—even those sins of pride and selfish ambition—because Jesus lived perfectly for you and suffered hell in your place. You are free from the punishment of sin because Jesus took it on himself. You will be with him forever in heaven!

How can you reflect the love of God in how you love others? How can you find peace and satisfaction even if the world may not view you as the “most important” person in the room? How can you love yourself and others as the blood-bought souls that you are? Where has this been difficult for you? Where, my God’s grace, have you excelled in this?

These are all very personal, self-reflective questions. I cannot stand here and make a blanket proclamation to you all because we are all in different circumstances, positions, and situations. But you, this week, can take Jesus’ words and ponder them in your heart. You can look for ways to love and serve those around you in thanksgiving for the love and service God has given you. You can identify those haughty places of your heart that hate serving, bring them back to Jesus’ cross, and let him deal with them.

In Jesus’ death and resurrection, you see your actual status: you were worth the suffering and death of Jesus, the very blood of the Son of God. Take that status and let it empower and influence your decisions, attitudes, and actions this week until our Lord calls us home. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Be Strong In the Lord" (Sermon on Ephesians 6:10-18) | September 15, 2024

Sermon Text: Ephesians 6:10-18
Date: September 15, 2024
Event: Proper 19, Year B

Ephesians 6:10-18 (EHV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, 15and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. 16At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. 17Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18At every opportunity, pray in the Spirit with every kind of prayer and petition. Stay alert for the same reason, always persevering in your intercession for all the saints.

Be Strong in the Lord

Strength is a subjective concept. Maybe it’s objective on the bench press where the strongest person can lift the most. But what if that person who is physically strong cracks very quickly under pressure so that when they need that strength to help someone else, they can’t act? Are they still truly strong if that strength is never used? What if that person uses his strength at every opportunity rather than showing restraint? Are they truly strong if they can’t control their impulses?

How much of strength is optics? Can a leader who struggles in appearance and speech be strong even if they don’t appear that way in person or on camera? Can someone meek be considered strong when they are working tirelessly for the good of others? Is someone who replaces substance with emotion and passion to rile up people actually a strong leader, or just a manipulator?

Even the sentiment we might share with someone going through a tough time, “Be strong!” can be confusing. What do you mean by that? Don’t let things get you down? Maintain a positive attitude despite the circumstances around you? Identify where you need support and help, and go seek that out? Operate as if the bad things aren’t happening? Strength is subjective.

This morning, we have some examples of strength from God’s Word. We heard the classic (and narratively, one of my favorite) accounts from the Old Testament in the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, where Elijah demonstrated unwavering faith and strength in God against the prophets of a false god. Jesus showed his power over even the demons his disciples lacked the strength to drive out. In our Second Reading, which is our focus for this morning’s meditation, we have Paul’s encouragement to put on the armor of God. So, what does it mean to truly be strong? And more to the point, what does it mean to be strong in the Lord?

We first need to establish that we are in a battle. But this battle is not against other people, our neighbors in the human race. We are not set against them; instead, we are at war with the forces of spiritual evil. Paul explained it this way: Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This is important to remember in an increasingly polarized world. Never mind the upheaval that we find in politics, people pitting themselves or being pitted against each other. But think about things from a spiritual standpoint, of matters of faith and eternity. You don’t have to look very hard to find someone who doesn’t see eye to eye with you on who Jesus is and what he did, how important that is, or what it means to be a Christian. You don’t have to search very long to find someone who considers your faith foolish, your focus on eternal, spiritual things misguided, and your desire to share your faith with others manipulative. But, even as you find so many people set against you and your faith, your battle is not with them. Your battle is with those things that would lead them away from God’s truth and into these misguided beliefs.

However, the focus on other people is, in many ways, missing the true point. We want to be aware of where there is a threat to our own souls and faith in the attacks waged by these spiritual enemies. After all, we can’t help others if we are in need of help ourselves. And so as we walk through this life where spiritual battles rage around us and even inside of us, Paul has one clear direction: Put on the full armor of God.

Paul lists several pieces of this armor set, and this imagery likely originates in Isaiah chapter 59, where God’s intervention for his people is described this way: The truth is missing, and anyone who turns from evil makes himself prey. The Lord looked and saw something evil—there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one who could intervene. So his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness supported him. He clothed himself with righteousness like armor and wore a helmet of salvation on his head. He dressed in garments for vengeance, and he wrapped himself with zeal like a cloak. … Then a redeemer will come for Zion and for those in Jacob who turn from rebellion. This is the declaration of the Lord (Isaiah 59:15-17, 20). God himself puts on the helmet of salvation, cloaks himself with righteousness, and serves as a Redeemer for those who had turned away from him.

Jesus was that armor-bearing Redeemer, although he didn’t look well-equipped for his battle. Stripped of his garments rather than decked out in armor, nailed to a cross by his enemies, he looked like he had lost the battle before it started. But, as is true for us, so it was true for Jesus: his battle was not against flesh and blood. He didn’t lose the battle against the Jewish leaders or the Roman authorities because he was never actually in conflict with them. Instead, he was making the ultimate stand against the Devil. There at the cross, our Redeemer won despite the apparent loss. His death paid for all sin, and his victory would take just a few days to prove when his tomb was empty because he rose from the dead.

So now we take out stand not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness. The battle that rages around us is a battle for our souls. Satan is trying to pry us away from God, to get us distracted from him, his love, and his forgiveness so that we end up losing our souls the same way he lost the battle with God. So he cowardly launches his flaming arrows of temptation at us—both to sin against God’s will and to doubt God’s goodness to us. Everything that comes from our spiritual enemies is meant, one way or another, to undermine our confidence in God, to separate us from him so that we turn our back on his forgiveness.

This battle may not always feel like a battle. Perhaps we are being pried away from God by luxuries and joys in this life, so we start greatly valuing entertainment, leisure, work we love, or anything else that captures our imagination. These things that, at first blush, feel like blessings, not danger, may lead us to value them more than we value God, to seek them out rather than be concerned about what God says and has done.

Other times, this doesn’t feel like a battle because it feels like we’ve already lost, as our spiritual enemies use fear and desperation for things in this life to pry us away from the comfort of God’s love. Anxiety goes to the extreme, fears and worries sink us into deep depression, and we may approach this life as if the battle is already over and we lost because we’ve stopped considering what God has done and can only see where we have failed.

So whether we feel it or not, see it or not, acknowledge it or not, this battle rages around us; it is enflamed within us. And as a result, we might speak of the fighting as if the outcome is uncertain. Two enter, and one will leave. It’s us against Satan, us against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. But that gives our spiritual enemies far, far too much credit. It ignores what Jesus has already accomplished. Our confidence is not that Jesus will win; it’s that Jesus did win. As a result, our confidence is not that we will win, but because of Jesus’ victory in our place, we have won. This isn’t actually a contest anymore; Jesus won! We win!

How would knowing the outcome change the way you feel about entering a contest? If you knew your team would win the championship, would you sweat the ups and downs of the playoffs? If you knew your nation would win the war, would you despair in the ebb and flow of the battle? Knowing the outcome would make weathering the storms of conflict much easier. There might still be times of distress, especially if the inevitable end slipped your mind briefly, but you could always return to the certainty of the outcome you already know for comfort.

Such is the case with these spiritual battles. Jesus already won; the conflict just has to wind down. Satan and his cohorts will rage and scream and act like they have not lost; they will try to get you to think that they have not already been defeated, but they have been. They die defeated at the foot of your Redeemer.

And your Redeemer does not leave you alone. He gives you his armor to wear to weather the storms of Satan’s death throes. Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. Also take the helmet of salvation. All of those pieces of armor serve as defense, not offense. You won’t attack anyone with a helmet or try to whip them with a belt. That’s not going to be effective at all. But that belt will hold your clothing together safely, the plate armor will protect your vital organs, the shield will render the enemy’s assaults worthless, and the helmet will protect your head.

This ultimate defense is what God provides. He doesn’t promise that we will not face trouble, hardship, or sorrow, but he does promise that they will not eternally and mortally wound us. Satan is not able to drag us away from God. Like a dog on a chain, he is limited, and like a violent criminal awaiting sentencing, he will be locked away. God is our sure and certain defense. To use a slightly different picture, we might call our God a mighty fortress.

But there is one piece of this armor set that is for offense. We are to take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The one tool, the one weapon we have to ward off all the ill of this life, is the only one we need—God’s Word. God’s Word is the certainty of our salvation—it tells us of Jesus’ already-completed victory. God’s Word is the thing that Satan cannot stand against. James encourages us, “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Jesus himself met Satan’s head-on temptations with the promises of God from his Word and stood his ground perfectly (see Matthew 4). So, too, you and I have that sword in hand, ready at all times, to ward off the attacks of our spiritual enemies. And if we look at the description of the other pieces of the defensive armor: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation—all these, too, flow from God’s Word. God’s Word is for us both offense and defense, unbreakable and undefeatable in both uses.

Remember where we started? What is strength? How can we be strong in the Lord? His Word. Clinging to his promises, clinging to the work he’s done for us, allowing your weak self to find strength in God’s almighty power that forgives your sins and rescues you from all doubt—that is strength.

Personally, I feel like every day I understand the father speaking to Jesus in our Gospel a little bit better, not as a parent, but as a person, “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is how and where God tends to that unbelief and doubt in all of us: his Word. He wraps us in the armor of his protection and assures us of his promises to make our way through this spiritual battlefield. The end is certain; the end is victory in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, my brothers and sisters, today, this week, the rest of this year, and until the Lord calls you home, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. How? Put on God’s armor. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"God Will Come and Save You" (Sermon on Isaiah 35:4-7a) | September 8, 2024

Sermon Text: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Date: September 8, 2024
Event: Proper 18, Year B

Isaiah 35:4-7a (EHV)

Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
6The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
7The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.

God Will Come and Save You

“How are you doing?” We’ve all had that question asked of us, but depending on the context, the answer can be very, very different, even if asked by different people on the same day. If it’s small talk with the cashier at the grocery store, a simple “Good” or “Fine” might come out. But if you’re sitting with a trusted friend, a dear family member, a counselor, therapist, or pastor, the answer might be just a bit… more. It can be terrifying to be open and honest about how we’re really doing, what we’re really feeling, and only in the safest places might we feel secure enough to be vulnerable and honestly share our hearts.

Why are we hesitant to share our fears? Why are we fearful of letting people know what is really going on in our hearts and minds? Maybe it’s shame—we know that the way we’re thinking or the attitudes we’re holding on to are wrong, and we don’t want to be rebuked, even as we might desperately need support to help make some changes. Maybe it’s fear—how will people judge me, or what will they think of me if I let them know what’s happening inside me? Maybe it’s protection, either protection for self or protection for others—if I share what’s really going on between me and that other person, will I hurt the person’s reputation? Or what will the person I’m talking to think about me?

What does my fear or apprehension or anxiety or depression or whatever say about my trust in God? Can someone really be a believer and wrestle with any of those things? Don’t they all, in their own way, betray a lack of faith in God, or at least a faith that is frighteningly weak? Would any true believer, any true Christian, ever have thoughts or feelings like that?

This morning, we will spend some time with a few verses from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s book is one of both judgment and peace, harm and restoration. We might know many of the rich gospel promises in his book: A champion is promised, born, astonishingly, of a virgin. He calls himself our Redeemer and reminds us that he is the one who formed us even in the womb. He promises that he will be pierced and crushed to save us from our sins.

But a significant portion of Isaiah’s words also speak God’s condemnation on the world's nations and even God’s own people. He rebukes their hardheartedness and their rebellion. We heard Jesus quote Isaiah last week, saying that his people paid him lip service but did not serve him with their hearts. Isaiah is an Old Testament book overflowing with both law and gospel, God’s anger with sin and his mercy in sending a Savior to rescue us.

Chapter 35, from which our First Reading is drawn, comes near the end of an extended section of law in Isaiah. In fact, while not entirely law, most of the book up to this point is heavy condemnation. Chapters 13 through 23 call out judgment against many different nations on the earth, and chapters 23-35 are primarily focused on a more general judgment upon the earth for sin. It’s necessary to hear but difficult. Consider just these verses from the chapter before our reading, “The Lord is angry with all the nations, and he is furious with all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction. He has handed them over for slaughter. Their fallen bodies will lie unburied, and the stench of their corpses will linger. The mountains will flow with their blood.” (Isaiah 34:2-3). That’s not exactly the pick-me-up we might hope for from God’s Word.

But then, chapter 35 begins with a different tone. It speaks of gladness on the earth where there had been so much destruction proclaimed. And there is a direct command from God in the verse just before our reading, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make the shaky knees steady” (Isaiah 35:3). If the wrath and judgment of God made you afraid, here is God coming to strengthen and uphold you.

And so then our reading begins with pure comfort, “Tell those who have a fearful heart: Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your God will come with vengeance. With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.” There are still some harsh, condemning words: vengeance, retribution. But these are in your favor, not against you: he will come and save you. This vengeance and retribution are against those who threaten you, against those who are your enemies, or perhaps even more directly, against those who are God’s enemies.

Why would our knees be weak? Why would we have a fearful heart when considering the judgment of God? Because we know who we are. We know that, by nature, we stand as those deserving of this vengeance and retribution. Our sin makes us God’s enemies. So when you hear about God’s wrath and anger over sin, your conscience loudly (and correctly) screams, “This is you! He’s mad at you! He’s coming for you!”

So you, by nature, are the enemy of the almighty God. We asked earlier if fear or apprehension or anxiety or depression would ever have any part in the Christian’s heart. And here we can say resoundingly, yes! When you know what you are by nature, when you know what you deserve, who wouldn’t have their knees buckle? Whose hands wouldn’t shake like leaves? You are held accountable for sin that you can do nothing about by a Judge who has no lack of power or resources to carry out his just punishment.

Then what, in all the world, would there be to strengthen these hands and bring stability to knocking knees? What could possibly make us confident, not fearful, in God’s presence? What could make such a change that we would go from fearful despair and hopeless depression to confidence and joy? What could ever change this fearful heart in us?

God illustrates this change in the latter verses of our reading. Here, the gospel images are a total reversal from bad to good: Blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing, the crippled dancing, the mute singing, and where there is just dryness and desolation, there will be life-giving water. What had been broken is fixed; what had been a disaster is now a blessing. This is the change God works when he works for us.

In our Gospel for this morning, we saw Jesus literally doing a bit of this as he opened the ears of the deaf man. “Ephphatha!” (Mark 7:34). Likewise, Jesus gave Peter the ability to help that man who was crippled from birth, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). Jesus’ mission was not to simply work healing miracles like this, and the promise in Isaiah was not for someone who would heal these physical ailments and provide physical water. As we heard Jesus speaking of himself as the Bread of Life for weeks in our previous Gospel readings, these promises also point to spiritual rather than physical concerns.

Because that sinful nature leaves us blind, deaf, mute, and crippled spiritually. More than that, sin causes spiritual death so that we are left not just in a bad spot or in a difficult situation but as helpless as a corpse. Our sin means eternal death in hell, unless God intervenes, unless God saves. And what is God’s promise to you? He will come and save you.

Jesus took up this reversal work in full at the cross. There, God suffered for the sins you and I committed against him. The punishment that brought us peace was whipped into his back and pierced through his hands and feet, pinning him to that cross. When God the Father abandoned God the Son, there was the truest punishment we deserved, which Jesus took in our place. There was the inevitable judgment of our sins, but God himself suffered it instead of us in the most baffling of reversals.

Everything changes because Jesus paid for every sin—even sins of doubt, fear, weakness, and lack of trust in him. Spiritual blindness to spiritual sight: look at your Savior crucified yet risen from the dead! Spiritual deafness to spiritual hearing of his gracious words, “I forgive you.” Spiritual lameness to spiritual strength, healed and empowered to move by God’s love and mercy. Spiritual muteness to spiritual shouting praises to the God who saves. Spiritual desolation to spiritual water, raised from spiritual death in our sins to eternal life by God’s gracious gift.

Do the thoughts of fearing God, depression over what is to come, and so forth make sense? Certainly. But, my dear sister, my dear brother, you need not be controlled by them because the one who died and was raised is greater than all—even greater than the thoughts and feelings of your mind and heart. When your heart is overwhelmed with guilt that doesn’t feel like even a loving God could forgive, call out your heart’s lies or at least its misunderstanding. When Satan whispers to your mind that God could never love or forgive someone like you, send him and his lies and deception packing. You, after all, are a baptized child of God; Satan knows nothing about God’s forgiveness.

We were in a desperate, helpless, and hopeless place, but the one who has done everything well (Mark 7:37) certainly accomplished your soul’s salvation well. It is finished, complete. There is nothing for you to pay. So my dear friends in Jesus, let your fearful hearts find rest in your Savior’s love and work for you. That work will not mean the end of sorrow and hardship in this life—sin will always be present with us on this side of heaven—but it does mean peace with God forever. It also means that God stands by you every moment of every day, no matter how trying and difficult the circumstances, to make even earthly things work out for your eternal good.

We don’t need to fear God or the future because our God is a God of love and forgiveness, and the future is as certain as Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your God will come with vengeance. With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Joyful Service Comes from Within" (Sermon on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) | September 1, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Date: September 1, 2024
Event: Proper 17, Year B

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (EHV)

The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. 2They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. 3In fact, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they scrub their hands with a fist, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions they adhere to, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches. 5The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

6He answered them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:

These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

7They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.

8“You abandon God’s commandment but hold to human tradition like the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”

14He called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. 15There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean.

21In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. 23All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

Joyful Service Comes from Within

Cause and effect and correlation can be tricky to figure out. What is caused by something else and what happens along side it? For instance, since our family moved here in 2012, there have been zero Bengal tiger attacks in Belmont. Now, I don’t want to take credit for that, but it is interesting that our living here has coincided with zero tiger incidents, isn’t it?

Of course, that’s ridiculous. But some things are harder to tell. Did that new, experimental drug really help that person’s disease, or would they have gotten better on their own, and they just happened to be taking the medicine while their body did the work it would have done anyway? Did that questionable fast food burger make you sick, or did you pick up a stomach virus somewhere else along the way?

We can ask related and even more difficult questions about spiritual things. Did this thing happen to me because I did that other thing? Is God upset with me, so he’s letting trouble come my way? Are these positive things in my life because of my devotion to God? What is cause? What is effect? And what just is?

This morning, Jesus has an opportunity to address the Pharisees’ concerns and help them to see the true origin point not only of sin but also of proper, thankful, joyful service to God. Our problems come from the inside, not the outside, and once God has purified us from sin, our thankful life also comes from within us.

We’re in the second “half” of Jesus’ ministry, where his earthly popularity is waning, and more than ever before, everything is heading toward the cross. As a result, Jesus is increasingly more direct and blunt both with his disciples and those who are opposed to him. This morning, Jesus very directly confronted a sinful problem and misunderstanding that the Pharisees had.

A crew of religious leaders, some of the Pharisees and some of the scribes (who were experts in the law), came up from Jerusalem to where Jesus was teaching. They were continually looking for reasons to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people so that either the people would stop following him and this nuisance would just disappear on its won, or they might concoct some “justifiable” way to get rid of him. And so on this opportunity, this group zeroes in on traditions, or in Jesus’ group’s case, lack thereof. The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. … The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

There was a tradition among the leaders and forefathers of the people that, before you eat, you gave your hands a ceremonial cleansing. This had little to do with hygiene in the modern sense of that term (although, we certainly see some hygienic benefit for this tradition) and it had more to do with being having cermonially clean hands so that the food you ate would also be ceremonially clean. Without that, you might pollute yourself spiritually by eating unclean food, which brought with it all sorts of other challenges and requirements in the ceremonial law and in the traditions of the people.

What’s the issue here? The leaders’ question to Jesus is, “Why do you let your disciples sin by allowing them to eat without doing this traditional ceremonial washing?” They were equating man’s traditions with God’s commands. And Jesus, using the words of the prophet Isaiah, condemns them for that: These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.

Jesus is really getting at the heart here. For the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day, the widespread consensus was that it was enough to look good, but they would often ignore the heart. If the lips said the right thing, the heart's motivations didn’t matter. If you were pious and upright by all outward appearances, that must be what you were.

But this is a legalistic mindset that presumes we can be right with God through our conduct. Even if we could control our words and actions perfectly (which you and I both know well we cannot), there is still the problem of our sinful hearts. Even doing good things to make God happy with us betrays a total misunderstanding of our relationship with God and why we would do things God deems to be “good.”

Our natural state is as sinners at war with God. We are by nature not honoring God with our lips, but indeed, our hearts are from him. We bring God’s wrath down on ourselves in this hostile conflict with the Almighty. Because God is a just God, our sin needs to be punished; God would violate who he is if he just turned a blind eye to our disobedience. And so there is no escaping the punishment for sin, and no matter how good we might try to look on the outside, we will never be perfect on the inside.

And so, the principle issue we have is not so much the sinful actions we commit or sinful words we say, but the origin point, the cause of those sinful words and actions: our corrupted hearts. Jesus describes who we are by nature: “Everyone, listen to me and understand. There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean. In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

What is Jesus’ point? Your traditions are worthless because a ceremonial splash in the water does not fix the true source of your uncleanness. Dirty hands didn’t make you unclean, nor even the things you eat, but the spring of spiritual corruption and poison is deep in your hearts. So, if our lives, actions, and words are being corrupted at the very source, if our very motivation is being poisoned by sin, there will be nothing we can do to change that status unless that corruption is removed, unless the spring of raw sewage that bubbles up from inside of us is purified.

Jesus wanted them to see this because until they could see the corruption of their hearts for what it was, they would never understand the purification he was bringing. They had to see themselves as God sees them—hopelessly lost sinners—rather than as the models of good living they thought they were.

The same is true for us. Jesus has very little value for us if we don’t recognize our own complete corruption by sin. Not realizing that is what produces ideas like, “I can be good enough to make God happy with me!” or “I’m not so bad! In fact, I’m mostly good!” This mindset that so easily creeps in is the exact one that Jesus is trying to purge from the hearts and minds of the religious leaders.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot make God happy by how we live our lives. Because God’s requirements are not “do your best” or “give it your all” or “be better than most other people.” God’s requirement is perfection. You and I have not been perfect, and the sinful hearts inside of us prevent us from even making it possible to be perfect from this moment forward—not that that would be what God was looking for anyway.

But Jesus is not trying to get the religious leaders of his day and us today to see this corruption and despair. He wants us to see how we can do nothing about this cause of sin so we can rely on him completely. Because this is the good news that Jesus came to bring and the work he came to do. Yes, God’s justice would never be satisfied if sin was not punished, but God’s love would also never be satisfied if we were condemned to hell with no hope. And so, from the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden onward, God’s plan and purpose was always a rescue mission—to save us from hell, to save us from ourselves.

And that’s what Jesus did. He put his face toward the cross, scorned the shame that would come from it, and endured what you and I deserved. In his mercy, Jesus took our place. The one who had no internal corruption and sinful nature suffered hell as if he were the only sinner that ever lived. Because he lived and died for us, our sins are forgiven. Despite this spring of poisonous sin inside of ourselves, we are healed and made whole again. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proves that he paid for all our sins and that we will be with him forever in eternal life.

And now, we do what is right, not to try to make God happy with us but because he is happy with us. We live lives that honor God, not to try to make him love us but because he loves us. We seek what is good and avoid what is evil, not to try to prove our worth to God but because he values us so much. The cause of sin was internal, and the cause of joyful service to God is also from within because he has purified us. We obey God in joy, not fear; we follow God’s law in thanksgiving, not terror. As Paul said in our Second Reading, “To everyone who believes, Christ is the end of the law, resulting in righteousness” (Romans 10:4). The law’s purpose of making us right with God has long since become impossible. Its purpose now is to guide our thankful living to God.

So, my brothers and sisters, recognize that the source of your sin doesn’t come from things around you—the company you keep, the things you read, or even this wildly corrupt world in which we live. No, your sin stems from inside of you, from the sinful nature you were born with—conceived with! But see that your service to God also comes from within—from the joy that God instilled in you by forgiving all your sins and assuring you that you’ll be in heaven. Let us not go through the motions of looking like we’re living a Christian life; let us embrace and value the complete forgiveness Jesus gives and let that cause our lives to be ones of joyful service to him.

Lord, keep this motivation ever in our hearts and minds. Thank you for your patience, love, and forgiveness. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.