St. Mark 8:27-38
WARNING: from the text today the Lord will repent you. It will hurt. It will be painful. Dying to sin always is. Also, the Lord will faith you – in Him all the more for salvation. In addition, He will guide you in how He wants you to live as a Christian, a follower of Him. Ready? Great! Fasten your seatbelts. Here we go.
In our Sunday morning Bible study of the Book of Revelation we have observed that the Roman empire was chock full of idolatrous emperor worship. Caesarea Philippi was no exception. The Greeks called this part of the world “Panion” in honor of the Greek god Pan. The Romans dedicated Caesarea Philippi to Caesar Augustus and they built a temple there so that they could worship Augustus as LORD CAESAR.
No wonder then that Jesus takes this opportunity to ask His little church of disciples two questions. First, “Who do men say that I am?” I.E. What’s the word on the street? On social media? On X? On Instagram? What do people say about me? Doesn’t Jesus know this already? Of course. He asks because He wants His disciples to see and to say the difference between the world’s speaking of Jesus and the church’s confession of Jesus. It’s the difference between faith and unbelief, between confessing Jesus and denying Him. It is ultimately the difference between eternal life and hellacious everlasting death.
The first question’s answer goes like this: “Well, Jesus, our surveys give various opinions. Many say that you are John the Baptist 2.0. People loved and respected John. Many thought he was the messiah who would make Israel great again and they were champing at the bit to follow him. Disappointingly, King Herod’s FBI agents arrested him, stuck him in a deep, dark prison and made him shorter by a head for the dis-informational or mal-informational crime of calling King Herod’s shack-up arrangement with his sister-in-law immoral! Others, however, say that you’re Elijah come back to life again. Malachi said that Elijah would come before the great and terrible day of the Lord and that you fit the bill. Still others say that you’re a prophet like all the great prophets of old.”
What wasn’t mentioned from the public opinion polls about Jesus? They didn’t say Jesus was God-In-The-Flesh-Savior-Redeemer-Of-The-World! They didn’t say He was the promised Messiah!
So, the second question Jesus asks is the biggie. One of the most important questions Jesus ever asks in the New Testament. It’s the salvation-at-stake-question. “But who do YOU say that I am?”
Peter, of course, boldly steps up to the plate. Speaks for the whole lot. “Jesus, you are the Christ.” Bingo! True! However, As Jesus commands them not to tell anyone. Why? Well, in those days, to call someone “the Christ” was a politically loaded term to say the least. The term “Christ” in those days carried the weight of, to use the language of our day: “right-wing revolutionary!” “Insurrectionist!” “Threat to our democracy!” So Jesus “strictly charged them to tell no one about Him,” because the last thing Jesus needed at the moment was to be misunderstood and demonized as a leader of domestic terrorists looking for a political revolt.
Then Jesus begins to unpack to His little church of disciples what it means for Him to be the Christ. For us miserable sinners and for our salvation He must suffer many things. He must be rejected by the religious authorities. In addition, He must be killed and after three days rise again. This is what it means for Him to be the Christ. This is what it means for Him to be the one and only Savior of a world full of sinners. Of which you and I, qualify! Jesus will do what it takes to save Peter, James, John, you, me and the whole world. This is what it means for Him to be the Christ. This is the essence of Christianity!
Unfortunately, boldly confessing Peter also becomes the immature and mouth-of-Satanic Peter! What do I mean? Well, Peter wants a Christ and Christianity on his terms! Peter’s words are better than the Lord’s. A humiliated, rejected, suffering, dead and risen from the dead Christ doesn’t fit Peter’s profile of what the Christ and Christianity should be. As far as Peter is concerned, if Jesus is the Christ, He simply cannot be spurned, hung on a cross as a capital criminal, let alone rise from the dead! A Holy Week, a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday cannot happen! Not according to Peter! He will not have a Christ or Christianity in that way!
So, Peter, like an infallible pope, takes Jesus aside and reads Him his first encyclical letter. “Really Jesus? You’ve got to be joking. And if you are, it’s a really morbidly bad one! We didn’t leave our lucrative fishing business to see you get rejected and murdered! That’s not what we signed up for! I’m not going to stand for it! I won’t! I forbid it! This doesn’t happen to the Christ!”
If Peter has his way, then you know what’s a stake. Don’t you? Jesus does! If Jesus is the Christ in the way of Peter, then you, Peter, and the entire world are not saved. You are still in your sins! This Satan’s hellacious plan. Your salvation is at stake! So Jesus will save you on His terms. Jesus will have a Christianity on His terms. He will do it the Father’s way!
So He takes Peter out to the proverbial woodshed to kick his proverbial *&^%#. Flat-out-to-his-and-in-his-face Jesus reprimands Peter! “Get behind me Satan!” Sadly, at this point in his life, Peter, has become the spokesman for Satan. And Jesus will have none of it. Peter will need to be repented. Like all of us who brazenly, like Peter, insist on having a Christ and a Christianity on our own terms!
It’s easy for all of us to pull a Peter. Like Peter, we are faithful confessors and deniers all wrapped up in one person. We, like Peter, are capable of great faith and great unbelief, of great confession and of great denial, of speaking on the side of Jesus and then speaking against Him, sometimes even in the same breath. Mercifully and thankfully, He repents and faiths us all the more!
And then, like all preachers, Jesus has more to say. You’ll note what He doesn’t preach: “Hey, all you LCMS-ers! If you want to be a Christian just do whatever floats your boat! Do whatever makes you happy!” Not hardly! Good grief! That too would be pulling a mouthpiece-of-Satan-Peter. It would be having a Christ and a Christianity on our own terms. Instead, having a Christ and being a Christian means this according to the Lord Jesus Christ: “If any man would come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF and TAKE UP HIS CROSS and follow me.”
Did you hear that? A Christian DENIES himself. A Christian who follows Jesus takes up His cross! This too is Christianity at its essence and most faithful. Jesus isn’t talking about giving up caffeine, chocolate, or binge watching your favorite streaming series for Lent.
So what does Jesus mean? It is the life of sacrifice! The denial of self is the denial of the 24-7-365 endless pursuit of trying to save ourselves apart from Jesus and His cross. It means putting an end, a deadly end, of trying to save our lives all on our own without Jesus’ cross and empty tomb. It means giving up on hanging on to anything within ourselves to save ourselves without Jesus.
Jesus warns us: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, the only way to live is to daily die to sin, daily deny that you are your own savior and believe in Jesus alone for your salvation.
In addition, to take up your cross to follow Jesus means that being a baptized Christian and confessing Jesus to be the Christ will cost you! To be a follower of Jesus means that you will have to sacrifice things that are very precious to you in your life. Would you give any of it up to follow Jesus? Or would it hurt you too much? Would you let anyone take it away from you because you say you are a Christian? Most Christians in the churchly box of chocolates, especially the LCMS assortment, will not let their lives be interrupted or inconvenienced in any way, shape or form by Jesus and His call to follow Him. We deny ourselves nothing and are in danger of denying Jesus.
“If any man would come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF and take up his cross and follow me.” The times are coming and are perhaps already here when confessing and following Jesus in this very decadent and wicked world may cost you all that you have on earth: possessions, honor, house and farm, spouse and children, body and life. Today Jesus teaches us to remain steadfast in faith toward Him so that we will suffer patiently whatever happens to us and to let go of whatever the world would take away from us because we follow Him.
Then Jesus asks: “What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can man give in return for his life?” We struggle, we strain, we toil to make a profit, to acquire retirement wealth, infinite possessions and stuff. We sacrifice thousands of hours and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to leave a legacy, to make a mark, to leave a significant footprint in our work and lives, But what is it all worth if you or your children lose the one thing that makes it all possible – your life?
And the life Jesus is talking about here is: eternal life, our forever life with God. He’s talking about our eternal destiny which is to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And so think in terms of “temporal” and “eternal.” Nothing in this temporal life lasts forever. It either corrodes, decays, or dies. But life with God and life from God is eternal. It never ends. It never dies. So put things in proper perspective. Seriously! Better do that before it’s too late. What use is there for all the gain in this temporal life if in the process you and your children forfeit eternal life?
Jesus has more to say. It’s as if He was an LCMS preacher before there were LCMS preachers! He talks about being ashamed of Him. “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Jesus wasn’t simply speaking of His own generation when He called it “adulterous” and “sinful.” Ours is no better and probably worse. You know the adulteries and other sins well enough, and we all participate in them more than enough.
But the sadness and grief is that we’re not ashamed. We’re really not. We are not ashamed of anything because we all falsely believe that we are victims. What is more: we brag and boast of our shameful thoughts, words and deeds. We justify all our shamelessness by allowing no one including God Himself to judge us.
Wait! We are, however, ashamed of something. Yes, we are. We keep it hidden and personal. Not our sins but Jesus the Christ, the Savior. Ashamed NOT of our sins but ashamed of the cross of Jesus! We are not ashamed of our sins, but we are ashamed of the One who takes away our sins, who justifies us, who hung in great shame bearing all our sin, and who washes our sin away with His Good Friday Blood. “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words …” That only ends hellishly!
You can see why Jesus said this. He was going the way to His death. Peter wanted nothing to do with it. Peter, who made the bold confession to Jesus’ face would deny even knowing Jesus to a humble servant girl. He was ashamed of Jesus. Embarrassed for being seen with Jesus. Ashamed of the One who lost His life to save the world, who endured the cross, scorning its shame, all for the joy of saving you.
Brothers and sisters, be repented of being ashamed of Jesus and His words. After all, Jesus is not ashamed of you. He wasn’t ashamed of Peter. And I’m here to tell you that your salvation depends only on Him. He denied Himself to the point of being rejected, suffering, dying and rising on the third day FOR YOU in order to answer for all your sin with all its shame.
So, who do you say Jesus is? Your answer is: He is the Christ who died FOR ME. Who rose FOR ME. FOR MY SALVATION. That provides you the freedom and joy of daily denying yourself and taking up your cross to always follow Jesus. He is your Savior! The only One!
In the Name of Jesus.
St. Mark 9:2-9
This is one of the most staggering and important stories in the Bible. It’s the day when Jesus, on the mountain, is transfigured. The Greek word is “metamorphosized.” Changed in appearance. The kids would say, “morphed.” Jesus was morphed before them.
Here was a Jesus Peter, James and John had not seen before. Now, He shines. He is glorious. Radiant. Glowing. His divinity is leaking out all over the place. So He shines brighter than the brightest light. His clothing gleam with an unearthly white. The three disciples see the divinity of Jesus. That means that He is God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, as the Nicene Creed lays it down. Every part and aspect of His human Body blazed with the radiance of God. This is precisely why St. Paul preached Jesus this way: Jesus: fully God and fully man in one Person. What an incredible sight it must have been!
It’s one thing for Jesus to be God in the flesh. But it’s quite another thing for Jesus to be God in the flesh FOR YOU and for your salvation. So, that’s why Paul preached it this way: “In Him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,” (Col 1:19). Get it? Because of God in the Flesh Jesus, God the Father is not at war with you. He is not your enemy. Jesus, His divine Son, took on human flesh to Good Friday die FOR YOU. And in Him you are saved. Forgiven. Reconciled to God!
Oh, but’s there is more. The two greatest figures of the Old Testament are there too. Moses and Elijah. And they are talking with Jesus. Luke says that they speak of Jesus’ exodus. I.E. the Transfiguration Talk is about Jesus’ Good Friday Death and Easter Morning Resurrection by which He exoduses the entire world out of sin and death.
Moses, you remember, died in the wilderness on some unnamed mountain and God buried him in an unmarked grave. Elijah didn’t die. Instead, God whisked him up to heaven with the flaming chariots and horsemen of Israel. Now both Moses and Elijah are on the mountain with Jesus. Quite alive and quite well.
Moses, as a foretaste or forerunner of Jesus, was the chosen mediator, the go-between, between God and Israel. Moses talked with God on Mt. Sinai. It was Moses’ faced that glowed with the glory of God when he came down off the mountain. Elijah, the prophet, preached God’s Word to Israel. Stern and condemning law. Sweet and comforting gospel. His fiery ascension into heaven was a picture or a foreshadowing of Jesus’s ascension. The lives of both men, Moses and Elijah pointed prophetically to Jesus. And now here they stand with Him on His mountain. And they are recognizable for who they are. No one asks, “Hey, who are these guys?” They are known.
The Transfiguration of Jesus is also a preview in miniature or a sneak peek at the Last Day resurrection, when all the dead will be raised in the power of Jesus’ Easter Morning resurrection. And then you will be known for who you are. In addition, you will recognize all believers: Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Elijah, Peter, James, John, Paul, James, Matthew, Mark, etc. You will recognize people you never met, and they’ll recognize you. How do we know this? Well, Peter, James and John had never met Moses and Elijah. But here on the mountain they know who they are and vice versa. Now that’s what I call a reunion! No silly name tags that never stick! And you will look your absolute best! No need for a makeovers, face lifts, or body sculptings on Resurrection Morning!
Peter gets caught up in the terrifying moment. “Rabbi, it’s a good thing we’re here,” he says. “Let’s build three tents – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Now Mark explains that Peter was so afraid, he didn’t know what he was talking about. So we’ll just leave it at that and move on.
There is more great stuff to unpack from the text. A thick cloud covers the mountain of Transfiguration. Same cloud that covered Mt. Sinai. Same pillar of cloud that led Israel in the wilderness on her way to the Promised Land. Same pillar of cloud that covered the Tent of Meeting. When this cloud is going on, God is going on, i.e. God is present. He’s there, hidden in, with and under the cloud.
And so here from the same cloud we hear the Father’s voice. “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” Sounds like the same sermon we heard at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan river. Remember? God the Father preached and the Holy Spirit descended. So too, once more on the Mountain of Transfiguration. “Do you see this Transfigured Jesus? He is my Son. I love Him!” All attention is one Jesus. Moses and Elijah pointed to Jesus. Now God the Father does too. Why? Well, that’s so Captain Obvious. Right? Jesus, God in the flesh, is the Savior of all sinners by answering for all sin in His Good Friday dying. The Father has chosen Him to do that FOR YOU so that in Jesus you too are chosen and elect.
But then comes the last part of the Father’s sermon. Did you miss it? Were you nodding off? Let me remind you. It’s huge. Salvationally huge! “Listen to Him!” the Father proclaims. Hear Jesus. Hearken to His words. Why? Well, because He has the words of eternal life. His words are Spirit and life. Listen to Him. His words are what you need. Like these words: “I died FOR YOU! I forgive you all your sin. Believe in me and you will live forever. Eat my Body. Drink my Blood. They’re given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all you sins. I am the Resurrection and the Life.” That’s exactly why the Father says: “Listen to Him.”
When the cloud lifts, Moses and Elijah are no longer seen. Peter, James and John now only see Jesus. Just Jesus. Only Jesus. Jesus alone. And that too is exactly what the Father wants. He want you to see Jesus only. Focus your eyes solely on Him. Not Moses. Not Elijah. Just Jesus. For He alone is your Savior. Only Jesus dies and rises and takes the whole world with Him. Only Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of the world. And only in Jesus are you reconciled to the Father, redeemed, renewed. Only in Jesus are you forgiven. Only in Jesus are your sins washed away. Only in Jesus do you have life. Moses and Elijah are nice. But they didn’t die for you. Jesus did!
On the mountain gave Peter, James and John the revelation that He truly is the Son of God. Once that’s over, they begin their trek down to mountain. Jesus won’t stay there. And now you know why. Jesus has another mountain to climb: Mount Calvary. So, as they make their way down, Jesus barks out a command: “Don’t tell anyone what you’ve just seen.” That’s a tall order. I mean really! How could Peter, James and John keep their mouths shut? I don’t think I could have. “Wait,” Jesus says. You can tell people about it after, “the Son of Man rises from the dead.” “Then tell everyone! Proclaim, preach and broadcast it to the world. But not a moment before. First let me hang dead on a cross, be buried, and rise from the dead. First let me do what I came to do – die and draw all into my death, and rise from the dead – and then you can tell everyone what you saw today.”
I want to reemphasize a point a briefly mentioned earlier. It’s this.
The transfiguration of Jesus is a sneak peek of your resurrection on the Last Day when Jesus will appears gloriously – Judgment Day Transfiguration-ally — not just to Peter, James and John, but to the entire world! Every eye will see Him! And the gleaming white light of His Last Day Transfiguration glory will flash like lightning that fills the sky from east to west. On that Day all the dead from the beginning of the world to the very end will rise in the power of His resurrection. Unbelievers will be raised too. But they will be raised bodily only to spend a bodily, eternal existence in hell with Satan and everlastingly apart from the Lord. However, you and all believers in Jesus will be “changed,” transfigured, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” (1 Cor 15:52) … to be like Jesus in His glory and share the everlasting joy of heaven.
Yes, brothers and sisters, the transfiguration of Jesus is a glimpse of the glory that is yours in Jesus. St. Paul says that even now by faith we reflect His glory and are being transfigured, “morphed,” changed into the likeness of Jesus, from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). You can’t see it now with your eyes. There is no mirror to look into that will show what your life looks like that’s hidden in Christ. First you too must die and rise, just as Jesus died and rose. And then Jesus will show you what He’s been up to with you, and you will see what this glory of Jesus looks like on you. For now you must believe and trust, that when God looks at you, He sees you through His Son. And the sight is glorious for you are in Christ and Christ is in you.
In the Name of Jesus.
Amen.
St. Mark 1:29-39
We continue to romp through the first chapter of Mark’s gospel. Today we see that Peter’s mother-in-law is quite sick. High fever and flu. Maybe some vomiting as well. She’s so sick she stays in bed. The Lord Jesus, the Great Physician, makes a house call. Goes to her bedside PDQ. She is very precious to Him! Takes her by the hand. Raises her up. As quick as you can say “Bob is your uncle,” the fever is gone! And then she’s off to the kitchen putting the kettle on and pouring some tea. Maybe it was coffee. Put sandwiches, chips and pickles on the table. Maybe even a piece of chocolate pie for dessert.
Word leaks out pretty quick that Jesus is there and that He heals. And so by the time the sun sets folks from all over town are gathered at the house! “The whole city was gathered at the door.” Peeking in the windows. Pounding on the front door. Milling around the front yard. Trampling down mother-in-law’s grass and flower beds. Ransacking mother-in-law’s garden. They’re absolutely everywhere!
And what a motley crew they are! Demon possessed folks. Can you imagine the bitter blasphemies, morbid curses, F-bombs and other ugly vulgarities spewing and spilling out of their mouths? Let alone all the green bile and white foam projectile-ing out their gullits.
The demons know who Jesus is. But Jesus forbids them to speak. The last thing Jesus wanted was a bunch of evil, Satanic demons to talk. Jesus will be glorified as God’s Son when He’s hanging dead from the cross. And then who will Jesus allow to talk? Yes that’s right. The Roman centurion who oversees His crucifixion. “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mk 15:39)!
In the mob there were others with dreadful, nasty and appallingly contagious diseases. Coughing up a lung. Hacking up juicy loogies. Wheezing, rattling, panting and sneezing. All over the place and on everyone! Still more with hideous maladies and all kinds of disorders and deadly malignancies. The front yard of the house looks like an inner city ER. No, I take that back. Instead, it looks like hell on earth with all these diseased and demonized people. And it all started when word leaked out of mother-in-law’s healing from Jesus the Great Physician.
The next morning, very early, Jesus, “departed and went to a desolate place and there he prayed.” Jesus was always doing that when life got to be so crazy busy. We all could learn something from that. When our lives are fraying around the edges, take time to pray. His praying, however, is interrupted. Simon Peter and the boys search for Jesus, find Him, barge in on His praying and inform Him that: “Everyone is looking for you! Come back to town please.” Implying that there was no end to healing the diseased and demon possessed in Capernaum. Implying that there was more to heal and more demons to cast out.
You’d think Jesus would answer the call for help and head back to Capernaum. Nope! Listen to what He says. It’s incredible. “Let’s go to the NEXT towns, so that I may PREACH there also, because that’s why I came out.” Capernaum and the rest of all their sick and demonized are now in His rear view mirror! He will leave them as is. As they are. Off and on to the “next towns!” The Capernaum-ites will need to learn like St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” (2 Cor 12:9).
Listen again to Jesus just in case you missed it or fell asleep: “Let’s go to the next towns so that I may preach … because that’s why I came out.” Get it? Are you picking up what Jesus is throwing down? He came to … P-R-E-A-C-H! It’s Jesus’ M.O. Immediately (to borrow Mark’s favorite adverb) He preaches after His baptism in the Jordan. Remember that? Mark 1:14, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God.” Jesus is a preacher! He preaches that the kingdom of God has come in Him. He is the kingdom-of-God-King who reigns for the salvation of sinners and that, of course, culminates in His Good Friday Dying and His Easter Morning Resurrection.
And that’s the point of the miracles in Jesus’ ministry. The miracles, healings and exorcisms Jesus did in Capernaum and elsewhere prove that He is who He says He is and what He has come to do for the salvation of the world on the cross. The miracles, healings and exorcisms were all sneak peeks of Good Friday’s salvational physical benefits: the resurrection of the body in its perfect redemptive restoration! Bottom line: the miracles, healings and exorcisms are not the main events of Jesus’ ministry. He came to preach the gospel, the good news, that His Good Friday dying counts for all sinners and all sin. He wants you to believe that. So Jesus preaches because, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Jesus,” (Rom 10:17).
And yet it’s preaching that we Christians are bored with and most Christians sadly choose to do without on a regular basis if not for an entire lifetime. Tell Christians, especially those of the LCMS variety, that the pastor will be preaching God’s Word. The eyes will roll and the list of endless excuses for not hearing the sermon will be offered ad nauseam. But, if healings or other miracles are on the agenda, then the church will be packed to the rafters! Christians are bored stiff with preaching. They avoid it like the plague! Christians in America covet healings, miracles and exorcisms. However, I humbly remind you once again what Jesus says: “Let’s go to the next towns so that I may preach … because that’s why I came out.”
This should lead us all to repent PDQ. Seriously. The church’s and our personal priorities are upside down. Preaching? No thanks. More important things to do. And then, when we have troubles in our life, we expect all the wrong things. We want immediate relief and healing from God. Happy pills. Quick fixes. “Jesus, make me healthy, wealthy, and happy yesterday. And if you don’t, then I’m done with You and Your church.” We demand instantaneous healing for our ailments, sicknesses, disorders and diseases. We want our demons and devils muzzled. And all Jesus wants to do is … P-R-E-A-C-H!
In the New Testament Jesus constantly preaches sermons. Some short. Some long. Sermon after sermon. He came to PREACH. He sent His apostles to preach. He sends ministers to His church to preach. He sends His church to preach. Preach. Preach. Preach.
It bears repeating as well to note once again that Jesus didn’t heal everyone in Capernaum. Why not? Well, it’s simple. It’s because it wasn’t necessary to heal everyone. Jesus didn’t come to heal everyone. He came to die for everyone! He came to die for everyone! He came to die for everyone!
The ultimate way that Jesus deals with demons and diseases is to Good Friday-ly die and then to drop all our diseases and demons down into the black hole of His death. The way Jesus heals us is to do His Good Friday death and Easter morning resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins. And the long haul benefits of Jesus’ forgiveness is the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Now, in the meantime, as we live in this world, we do get sick like Peter’s mother-in-law. We suffer from various diseases, disorders and cancers. We pray for healing. Sometimes Jesus uses the doctors and medicines to grant that healing. And those healings point dimly to the total healing that will come in the resurrection. But sometimes not. Sometimes He just leaves things as they are. Like the people He left behind at Capernaum. Sometimes, He lets you have sickness or a disease so that you’ll learn trust in Him all the more. That you are nothing and that He is everything. Learning to be, “for the sake of Christ … content,” as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, “with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, the I am strong.”
However, on Resurrection Morning, Jesus will personally reach down to you, as He did with Simon’s mother-in-law and grant you permanent and everlasting healing with the resurrection of your body. He will take you by the hand and raise you up from the bed of your grave. And then, on that glorious morning, all those prayers for health and healing you ever uttered for yourself, and all the prayers others prayed for you in this life, will find their “yes” and “amen” in your bodily resurrection. Jesus hears all your sighs, groanings and prayers.
And He’s already done something about them. He died. He rose from the grave. FOR YOU and for all. That’s why He sent me to PREACH, PREACH, and PREACH here at Trinity, Sunday after Sunday. It’s why Jesus put His divine and saving name on your body in holy baptism. It’s why Jesus physically feeds your body with the bread that is His Body and the wine that is His Blood. So that by believing in Jesus you have life, resurrection life, eternal life in His name. Bodily resurrection. A physical healing like none other. Better than you could ever imagine!
Happy believing.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
St. Mark 1:21-28
Jesus is off to the synagogue in Capernaum. Goes to church. Peter and Andrew, James and John are there too. Jesus wastes no time. He steps right up to the pulpit to preach and teach God’s Word! Everyone is astonished at his teaching. He taught them as one who had authority, not like the scribes.
What distinguished Jesus from the scribes is that he didn’t use credentials. No footnotes! A scribe credentialed his teaching by his teacher. “I was taught by rabbi so-and-so, who was taught by rabbi so-and-so, and on and on back to Moses.” A scribe’s teaching was only as good as his ordination papers proving that his teachers went back to Moses.
Not so with Jesus. “You have heard it said to the people long ago, but I say to you….” Such teaching the people had not heard since Moses and the prophets. Jesus’ teaching came with the full blast authority of the Lord, and there is no higher authority than the Lord, not even Moses. To hear Jesus is to hear it straight from God. His words are God’s words. His teaching, God’s teaching.
His teaching astounded the people. The Greek word for teaching here is didache, the Latin doctrina, the English “doctrine.” Not just amazing grace, but amazing doctrine. Some misguidedly think that doctrine is a dirty word. “The Bible unites; doctrine divides” and “We teach no doctrine but the Bible.” Sounds like straight stuff from the Lord. The trouble with that way of thinking is that the Bible is doctrine and was written for the purpose of teaching doctrine. And so if you aren’t teaching doctrine then you aren’t teaching the Bible.
Now we aren’t told precisely what Jesus was teaching that day in the synagogue in Capernaum that so amazed the people. St. Mark doesn’t provide a transcript, but he did give us the basic outline, which we heard last week. “Repent and believe the good news of God,” Jesus said. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The Law applied lawfully and the Gospel applied evangelically is the doctrine that Jesus taught which amazed the people.
Where the doctrine of Christ is, there the devil and his demons are sure to be working their mischief. There is nothing the devil despises more than doctrine or the teaching and application of God’s Word. There is nothing more dangerous to the devil and his demons than for people to know what they believe about Christ and why. Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
The devil saves his greatest mischief for inside the church, closest to the Word and sacraments, where Christ and the forgiveness of sins are. He even sounds religious while he’s at it. “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” It sounds like pious praise but it’s really devilish distraction. The devil disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers as servants of righteousness, says St. Paul. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, complete with deceptive signs and wonders that look so much like the real thing.
But not every spirit is the Holy Spirit, and not all pious-sounding praise comes from God. “Holy One of God” Jesus surely is, but not in the way the demons proclaimed him. The devil’s desire was, and still is, to separate Christ from the cross. To short-circuit Calvary. To “let the cat out of the bag” ahead of time. To prematurely let out the secret about who Jesus was and why he had come before his hour of glory, before his being handed over to be crucified and his rising from the dead.
That’s what lies behind the devil’s temptation of Jesus to turn stones into bread to feed himself, to jump off the top of the temple, to worship him in exchange for the glory of the kingdoms of the earth. The devil’s temptation was for Jesus to be a power and glory Christ, an end-justifies-the-means kind of Christ, instead of a crucified Christ.
Peter himself unwittingly stepped into Satan’s shoes trying to keep Christ from the cross. Jesus had told his disciples that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” Peter wanted no such crucified Christ. He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. “That must never happen to you.” But Jesus turned and rebuked Peter instead. That was not God’s talk but the devil’s talk. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
In St. Mark, only when Jesus hangs dead on the cross does he permit himself publicly to be called the Son of God. And then it is by a Gentile soldier. On the cross Jesus is the most Son of God, most Holy One of God, for us and for our salvation.
With a word, Jesus silences the demon in the synagogue. “Be quiet.” It’s the same word he used to silence the wind and the waves that threatened to swallow up the disciples’ little boat during a storm on the sea of Galilee. “Be quiet. Come out of him.” Jesus sounds a bit like someone scolding a puppy for having chewed up the curtains. The demons are no threat to him. A few little words is all it takes to bring them into line.
Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us.
We tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not overpower us.
This world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will.
He can harm us none;
He’s judged the deed is done.
One little word can fell him.
The littleness of that word that fells the devil accents the authority that lies behind it – Jesus’ authority. He doesn’t need many words, or impressive exorcisms, or displays of power. The only frightful thing in the synagogue was when the unclean spirit caused the poor man to convulse and scream. Forget what you might have picked up from movies like “The Exorcist.” It only goes like that in Hollywood, on TV. The description in St. Mark is more like a little child throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store. In the end the demons must obey the word of Jesus. Jesus is Lord even over the devil and his demons.
Such authority astounded the people in the synagogue even more. What is this? A new teaching, with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. There is a hint of fear and awe. Where the people once feared the demons, now they feared the Lord, and in the fear of the Lord there is the beginning of wisdom and the end of all fear because the Lord is greater than the demons.
This was not simply persuasive preaching. This was a DOCTRINE that silences the demons. And if even the demons obey his word, what is there left that Jesus cannot do with his word? Change water into wine. Calm the wind and the waves, cleanse the leper, lift a paralyzed man from his bed, raise the dead, forgive sins, declare sinners to be saints.
His Word makes simple water a holy water, Holy Baptism, the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. His Word makes simple bread and wine his own body and blood given and shed on Calvary. His Word works faith in us and delivers to us forgiveness and life. It is a DIVINE Word that comes with the full authority of Jesus, the One to whom alone has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, who exercised the authority given him by giving his life in exchange for the world, for us, and for you.
His word comes backed up with his cross. The cross is Jesus’ authority in action. When he casts out demons with his word, it is already in view of his death on the cross by which he achieved the final victory over sin, death, and the devil. Whenever and wherever Jesus’ word is heard, it is in view of his death, by which he won the victory for us.
It means for us that the word of forgiveness that the Lord speaks to his church today through a fool like Kuhlman, a called and ordained servant of the Word can be heard with the full authority of the crucified and risen Christ. When we hear the words “I forgive you all of your sins,” those words come to us fully authorized by the One who died and rose again for our sins. It is not Kuhlman’s “I” but Christ’s. Not Kuhlman’s word, but Christ’s word. Not Kuhlman’s forgiveness, but Christ’s. It is not Kuhlman’s authority to forgive but Christ’s. Nor is it Kuhlman’s doctrine, or Trinity Murdock’s doctrine, our even (dare I say it? Yes I will) — Lutheran doctrine, but Christ’s doctrine, his teaching, his voice, his Word that is to be heard and that of no other.
Such an amazing Word. Such an amazing doctrine! It silences the demons. It brings joy to God’s people, and shortly, His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. You have his Word on it.
In the Name of Jesus.
Brent Kuhlman's Blog 