An Ark In The Midst Of A Watery Hell

Text: Mark 6:45-56

To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.

It seems that everyone knows who He is.

At His baptism, a voice from Heaven spoke, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  God the Father announces Jesus’ identity and knows who He is. 

In the city of Capernaum, even a demon knows who He is, for when encountering Christ the demon cries 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.”

Leprosy and diseases know who Jesus is, for when Jesus encounters these illnesses and speaks to them; they listen and submit to His authority. 

Death even knows Jesus, for Christ speaks to death—death which had seized the daughter of Jairus—and death itself bows out in defeat. 

There is no doubt about it that in the Gospel of Mark that demons trembled, death scurried away, and sickness bowed out when Christ came near.  They knew who they were dealing with.

“Little girl get up!”  Death let go.

“Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”  Demons trembled and dashed away. 

“Be made clean!”  The leprosy vanished. 

“Stand up and take your mat and walk!”  The paralysis released.

Indeed, all of creation knew exactly who Jesus was and responded appropriately. 

In today’s Gospel reading, it is more of the same.  We hear that the disciples are in the midst of a troublesome storm on the sea.  They were straining their oars against the harsh wind and the brutal rolling waves.  It was a watery hell.  Jesus on the other hand, came walking on the water.  Now, He wasn’t bouncing up and down at the mercy of the waves, but with full authority the waves bowed their might to the Son of God becoming smooth as glass. 

It is a rather stark contrast.  The disciples are giving all they can, paddling against the fierce storm, and the fierce storm relinquishes it violence becoming docile at the sight of Jesus.

Truly, Jesus’ walking on water shows that He is the all-powerful God who is master of His own creation.  The water, waves, wind, and rain all knew who Christ was and bowed to His supreme authority, as He walked with them under His feet.  Then, getting into the boat, the wind ceased and all became calm. 

Now, you would think that the disciples would be super encouraged in seeing exactly who Jesus was and is.  Otherwise stated, one could conclude that demons, diseases, death, wind, waves, and the like all recognize Jesus for who He is, thus the disciples should recognize Him as well.  However, do you know what we hear from today’s Gospel reading?  All of creation knows exactly who Jesus is; the major exception though is the human race.  That’s right!  The disciples, who witnessed all of creation bowing to the Son of God, did not understand Jesus.  This Jesus—who cast out demons, walked on water, raised the dead—terrified them.  They freaked out when they saw Him walking on water thinking that He was a ghost.  Then after seeing that it was Jesus and after He got into the boat, the disciples failed to grasp that Jesus is God in the flesh who came to make things right.  The reason why this is so, is that the disciple’s hearts were hard.  They were a stiff necked people. They did not connect the dots.  They were incapable of understanding who they were in the presence of. 

Keep in mind though that even though their hearts were hard towards the reality of Jesus, they were not Jesus’ enemies.  Even though they were fearful of Christ and had hard hearts, they did not plot against Him, but rather followed Him.  They did not understand, but they still brought Jesus the sick.  They did not comprehend, but they still hung upon His words. 

It is easy to single out the disciples from our text and berate them, to snub our noses at them.  However, we must confess that these hard hearts are not unique to the disciples.  The disciples do not corner the market on crusty and callous hearts.  The fact of the matter is that the disciples were really no different than all the other hard-hearted people in the scriptures.  For example: a simple paging through the Old and New Testament shows us a hard-hearted Pharaoh, hard-hearted Israelites, hard-hearted Pharisees, and so forth.  Somethings never change.

Even today we find this same hard heart in the Lord’s Church, as we baptized saints confess with the Apostle Paul, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”  Admittedly, our sinful nature is stubborn, inflexible, rigid, and unwilling.  Even though we are baptized into Christ, we must confess that our sinful natures can only do one thing: sinfully rebel. 

Considering all of this, what does God need to do?  When will our hearts be ultimately softened?  Well, you know the answer to this!  Our hearts will seize to be hard, stubborn, and rebellious when we see the Lord face to face.  That is to say, we will be rid of this sinful obstinate flesh that doesn’t believe, can’t believe, and won’t believe, when the sin that plagues us and the evil one that seeks to destroy us are no more.  We will be rid of this stubborn, headstrong, pigheaded, rebellious sinful nature when we breathe our last and are delivered from this veil of tears into the arms of Jesus. 

In the meantime, while we live within this veil of tears and while we do life together under the sun, we do so knowing that Jesus does not shy away from mankind.  He did not torpedo the disciples’ boat sinking them into the abyss.  He did not grab them in their unbelief and drag them down to the depths of the sea.  He also did not run away from the disciples, but entered into the boat with them.  He drew near to them.  He came to those who did not understand and those who were terrified and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 

The account of Jesus walking on the water and coming to the disciples gives us one more example that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.  In spite of creation bowing to Jesus, we human beings just don’t understand.  Jesus must come to us, and He does.  He comes and climbs into our boats.  He joins Himself to our dilemma and then gives us forgiveness, and where there is forgiveness, there is also life and salvation. Yes, in spite of your circumstances of hardened hearts, in spite of the stormy sea raging all around you, He comes to you and says, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; I forgive you of all your sins; take and eat, take and drink, I am with you always even to the very end of the age."  The waves of chaos are stilled and sins are forgiven in Christ.  The screaming of the watery hell, the accusations of the evil one, and the condemning voice of sin are silenced once and for all when Christ draws near.

Dear friends, listen yet again. Christ comes to you for He is the Savior who draws near towards terrified and hardhearted sinners with forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The reason why?  “He is the One who endured the bloody sweat of Gethsemane and the bloody mud of Golgotha.  In the agony and shame of His beatings and crucifixion, He has ground out a salvation that is for all people [—that is for you and for me.]  Just as Jesus came on the water to His disciples, so He comes on the waters of Holy Baptism to you.”[1]  He brings you the peace of eternal life.

Just as Jesus got into the boat and everything became peaceful, take heart and do not be afraid, for you have peace as well.  This peace is not because Christ is an extra person to help you row through the storms of life.  This peace is not because you have an extra person to help you scoop water out of your sinking boats.  No, being with Christ means that you have been baptized; forgiven of your hard hearts; given life and given salvation.  It means that you are taken from your water leaking decrepit paddle boat and placed into the Holy Ark, the Christian Church, where you are safe and sound.

From within the boat, the Holy Christian Church, you and I will live within this veil of tears as we are continually gifted Law and Gospel—taught the truth—and administered the sacraments.  Thus, you are kept, preserved, and forgiven within the Holy Christian Church—the ship that sails in the forgiveness of Christ crucified. 

From within the Holy Ark of the Christian Church—where Christ preserves you—you need not worry about the raging sea “for Jesus already sunk to the very depths of darkness and death and despair, enduring God's wrath and being completely forsaken by His own heavenly Father, all so that we could have the perpetual flat-calm of peace that is known only in Him and His love and grace.”[2]

Take heart; do not be afraid; Christ is with you and for you.  You are forgiven and are in the Holy Ark, the Christian Church, where Christ is with you.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] James Batchelor, “Ninth Sunday After Pentecost,” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=4243 (accessed July 23, 2015).

[2]  Jason Zirbel,“Keep In Christ,” LCMS Sermons,  http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2858(accessed July 23, 2015).

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Hungry?

Text: Mark 6:30-44 

To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.

It is easy for us to get tied into knots about our material needs.  The reason being, we are hard-wired to survive.  It is one of our basic instincts.  When our tummies get hungry, we want to fill them with food.  When the air gets cold, we want to cover ourselves with clothing.  When we get tired and threatened, we want to sleep in safety.  Hunger, coldness, and tiredness cause us to seek out a solution that will satisfy these needs. 

But what happens when these needs cannot be satisfied or fulfilled right away?  Well, naturally, uneasiness sets in.  Fear and worry can end up consuming us. 

All this stated, we need to pause for a moment and be honest with each other.  That is to say, most of us here in North Dakota cannot comprehend what it is like to truly go hungry or to not have clothing or shelter.  Frankly, the poorest 10% of the people in America are still better off than the richest 10% in Mexico. 

I don’t say this to lay North American guilt upon you, but rather to simply point out that here in America we are very blessed by the Lord materially speaking.  We rarely go hungry more than a day, there ample opportunities for job assistance, and there always seems to be housing support. 

Consequently, as Americans it is easy for us to take for granted that the most ordinary blessings, those blessings without a hint of the miraculous, are actually the Lord’s loving hand for us.  Even though we are so used to these things being available, they are still the Lord’s gifts to us.  Otherwise stated, the $1 candy bar, the 90% ground beef at the grocery store, the shirt you are wearing now, and the bed that you slept in last night, are all gifts from the Lord to you.  They are from the Father who showers us with all sorts of material gifts. 

Indeed, our problem of hunger, our problem of sleep, and our problem of being cold at night are solved by the Lord working to supply you and me with food, food stamps, food pantries, apartments, houses, blankets, sweaters, t-shirts, and jeans.  Through the various vocations of farmers, construction workers, seamstresses, grocers, humanitarian volunteers, and so forth, the Lord solves our problems of hunger, coldness, and fatigue by supplying gifts to and for us. 

Now, is this the point of today’s Gospel reading though?  Is the phenomenon in our Gospel reading the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ filled a bunch of hungry stomachs with bread and fish?  Is today’s Gospel reading merely about Jesus providing for the physical needs of the people and that we should seek to do the same? 

There is no doubt about it that Jesus did miraculously multiply five loaves of bread and two fish; however, what we need to realize is that this miracle was a sign.  It was a physical, tangible, and real miracle that not only fed a bunch of tummies, but also signaled that Jesus was the Son of God.  In other words, all the miracles of healing the sick, exorcising demons, and multiplying the food, which were recorded in the New Testament Gospels, were to serve as Jesus’ credentials, the proof that He was who He claimed to be—the Savior of the world.  These miracles were signs that granted faith to the people. 

However, as the Gospel of John shows us, this crowd lacked faith.  Instead of these signs drawing the people closer to Jesus and His teachings, the people became fascinated with the miracles themselves.  In a nutshell, they had essentially forgot the giver and marveled at the gifts.  They did not necessarily want Jesus; they just wanted the gifts that He dispensed.

Unfortunately in our day and age, things have not changed.  The church is literally infected with what is called the prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all.  This awful theology—most often found in the sermons of popular TV preacher—focuses on the doctrine that financial and material blessings are the will of God for the Christian. 

Two points of caution for us in regard to this prosperity theology.   First, we can get so fixated on getting the gifts—getting health, wealth, and prosperity—that we fail to recognize the giver of the gifts.  “Give me bread, give me fish, give me health, give me wealth, and give me prosperity… oh, and I will take Jesus too if I need to.”

Secondly, we can get so fixated on health, wealth, and prosperity that we fail to recognize the Lord’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  “Just give me money, answer my prayers for good healthy, and make me happy, but I don’t need all that talk about the forgiveness of sins and life after death.   That stuff is just too scary and too irrelevant to my everyday life.  Show me the money.  That’s what I want and what I was promised.”      

What the prosperity gospel teaching fails to realize is that sometimes, instead of solving our problems and giving us our wildest dreams, the Lord may allow our problems to remain. He may choose to have you suffer the hardship for a time, even as He supplies you with the strength to endure. This, also, is the Lord’s loving hand.  Or instead of supplying what you need for your problem, the Lord may choose in His wisdom to remove you. In other words, He may take you to Himself in heaven, where all troubles cease.

The point being, the Lord may not always help you in the way that you want. He may supply miraculous help, as He did with the five thousand hungry individuals in our Gospel reading or He may give you a miracle even if you do not recognize it at the time. Or instead, you may experience something that seemed like a miracle, even though it may have only been God using natural resources to solve your problem. That is how the Lord works at times, He organizes and orchestrates events in exactly the right way and at the right time to help you. 

Dear friends, God gives us our daily bread, that is to say, food, drink, clothing, shoes, home, money, goods, good weather, friends, and so forth.  And the Lord also gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation, for we are given the true bread of Heaven.  Indeed, God not only provides our physical needs, but more importantly He provides our spiritual and eternal needs by giving us Jesus. 

The crowd that followed Jesus did not see Christ correctly, even though they saw Him.  Their reaction to Jesus is debatable.  In other words, they saw “something” in Jesus; however, something is not everything.  Their faith was misplaced.

You see, to believe merely that the Lord cares for your daily needs is good, but frankly, it is not saving faith. Any pagan can believe that. That is why the Holy Spirit's main work is to show you and me that we are sinners and then turn our eyes upon Christ, the Savior. The Holy Spirit gave you first the Kingdom and His righteousness. All the other things will follow after.

What this means for you is that you are safe and absolutely secure, no matter what happens around you, because you have Christ. Because you have Christ through your baptisms, the Word, and the Holy Supper, let the world threaten you. Let demons surround you. Let your houses be taken, your pillows snatched, and your food spoiled.  Let family, friends, and even your life be taken away. If all these things happen, you are still forever founded upon Christ and His life. You cannot be destroyed, whatever may come. You have been marked by the Name of this holy Lord whose death has made you alive by the bread of heaven.  Even if the Lord’s material gifts to you are snatched away by pirates, looters, thieves, and tyrants, your Lord surely never stops giving, for when these old tents, our bodies, finally wear out, He promises us in His Word to clothe us with a perfect body on the Day of His return. 

The Lord has come to you with the forgiveness of sins in the Word and Sacraments.  This is bigger than all your sin and His forgiveness is indestructible; it is stronger than any death you’ll ever face.  His Word of forgiveness is that which is sure and constant whether you have much or little, whether you are rich or whether you are poor, whether you are healthy or sick, dead or alive.  His promise of forgiveness places you with Him forever. 

Come, then, and feast with Christ - here’s food that by His Words and promise will keep alive in you the life He freely gave you at Your Baptism.

Here’s food that will keep you breathing the sweet air of the resurrection and make the moment when your body stops breathing no big deal; no big deal at all - not to any who trust His Words and promises, not to any who are in Christ.

The Lord indeed, gives everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body and the soul.  All pure gift: nothing deserved, all given—for you.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What Is To Be Done About This Unpopular Invading Word?

Painting by Steve Dawson

Text: Mark 6:14-29

To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.

John the Baptist is a unique character.  He offends our modern sensibilities.   He is difficult to label.  Every time that we read about him, it is apparent that we cannot tame him.  

John the Baptist’s attire of camel hair and a leather belt definitely communicate a wild-man prophet.  His diet of locusts and wild honey are not found on most lunch menus as the daily special. 

His message of repentance and baptism echoes off of the wildness and collides with our political correctness.  His message cannot be sugar coated, no matter how many layers of frosted sugar are applied to it. 

Thus, John the Baptist and his message offend.  The offense then fuels anger. 

Yet, in the midst of this offense, there is a peculiar draw to him, for apart from everything that is undomesticated about him, deep down his message and straight forwardness hits our conscious and we find ourselves confessing that he is a righteous and holy man. 

As for being offended and also intrigued by John the Baptist, we actually find that this mixture of offense and intrigue is the current situation in our Gospel reading from St. Mark.  Otherwise stated, there are two main characters in our Gospel reading from this morning – Herod and his wife Herodias.  They are intrigued and outraged by John the Baptist. 

Herodias, on the one hand, was irritated by John and his message.  In fact she was so furious about John and his message that she wanted to have him tortured and killed.

Herod, on the other hand, found himself strangely attracted to John and his message; John the Baptist had a soft-spot in Herod’s heart.  In other words, Herod was perplexed by John’s message, yet he enjoyed listening to him. Therefore, he protected John the Baptist from Herodias, that is to say, until he buckled under the pressure to have John killed, resulting on John’s head being placed upon a platter. 

Even though we can be fascinated with the drama of today’s Gospel reading, this troubling story is actually a vivid reminder of what happens when the Word of God is proclaimed.  Indeed, there is no more dangerous place on earth than a pulpit or when you proclaim the Word of God.  The reason being, when the Word goes forth, the message of the Lord not only has a way of perplexing and interesting individuals, but also offending.  This is so, because the Word of God is truth.  The truth resonates with and pricks the conscience; it offends the sinful nature.  

You see, the Word of God is living and active—sharper than any two-edged sword.  The Word “breaks through and wounds. It takes away every ground of trust and ascribes redemption solely to the blood of Christ; it pricks and wounds the soul.”[1]  What this means is that God’s Word has aim. “God’s word is not a reference book in a library that we pull off the shelf when we want information. There is nothing inert or bookish in these words. God’s words, creating and saving words every one, hit us where we live. . . . These words get inside us and work their meaning in us.”[2]  The Word of God works us over in order to show us our sin and show us Christ crucified for sin.  The Word grants us repentance and gifts us faith.  Simply put, “the Word of God invades the world of sinners,”[3] because “we are unfinished creatures requiring complex and extensive assistance in every part of our being….”[4]  Indeed “the Bible is not content to leave modern people as they are. It wants to convert and change”[5] –you and me.

Dear friends, the Holy Spirit through the Word ‘must’ invade; the Word must continually function as the only source, rule, and standard of the church’s faith and practice, for apart from God’s Word the world is left in despair with counterfeit words and can do nothing.[6]  “The Holy Spirit must always work in us through the Word, granting us daily forgiveness.”[7]  It is undeniably needed.

Regarding all of what was just stated, like Herodias and Herod, you and I and our neighbors resist this invasion of the Word.  As church going folks, many times we listen to the Word like it was any other triviality and we keep coming back to church out of custom.  Otherwise stated, after the pronouncement of the Benediction by the pastor, the Word rolls off us like water off a duck’s back, and then we rush out the doors to watch football at home.  We are like little Herod’s who hear, but really don’t listen.  We can hear the Word and it entertains us from time to time, but we resist it taking root. 

We are also like a little Herodias, who actually fights against this Word, wanting to have it our own way.  The Word is preached, it offends us; therefore, we end up criticizing the Word and demanding that it be stated in a more politically correct way to suit our own fancy.  We will even decapitate the Word in order to diminish potential blowback.  When confronted by portions of the Word that we disagree with, we say that we can’t take the whole Bible serious, or we do what Thomas Jefferson did, start cutting out the portions of the Bible that go against our modern eyes.

Fear of persecution, the lure to place harmonious fellowship above truth, the yearning not to upset numerical church growth, and the narrative of tolerance all encroach upon us, tempting all of us to either shrug our shoulders at the Word of God, like Herod, or eliminate portions of it, like Herodias, in order to satisfy the mantras of the day.

It really makes sense why such preaching of the Word put Jeremiah in the stocks, resulted in Isaiah being sawn in two, and resulted in John the Baptist losing his head.  This is the way that it has always been and always will be with the Word of God.  When the Word of God goes forth, whether from pastors or laypersons, it confronts and collides with the lies that we believe, lies formed by sin and lies whispered into our ears by the devil.  Truly, proclaiming the Word of God results in receiving a bull’s-eye upon the forehead so that the evil one and the world have something to shoot at. 

This is the way that it was for John the Baptist.  Herodias was offended by John calling out her sin against the sixth commandment.  As a result, Herod, not wanting to appear bad in front of his friends and not wanting the bull’s-eye placed upon him, honored a request from a frivolous promise that he made, and had John the Baptist killed.  This appeased Herodias and relieved Herod of embarrassment.    

The convicting message from the man with the breath of sweet honey and locusts: slaughtered.  Herodias got her wish, a head dripping with the preacher’s blood.  Slaughtered so that her conscious would not be offended; slaughtered so that she might obtain the feeling of being whole.  Herod got his way too.  Even though he was sad to see John dead, Herod was no longer in an awkward position of looking bad in front of Herodias and fellow company.

This is the way that typically goes, the Word never achieves popularity in a world full of people who love lies and love the dark.  Don’t be surprised dear friends, the world is hostile to the God’s Word and your sinful nature is too.  Indeed, the Word is foolishness to those who are perishing and foolishness to our old sinful flesh, that is, our old Adam.

And so it goes, John was preparing the way, giving his head for the head of the Church, the one, Lord Jesus Christ, who would soon be dead by another ruler’s decree.” 

And so it goes with Jesus Christ as well.  Like John the Baptist, Jesus experienced the same fate.  The Lord Jesus continually revealed that He was Israel’s true shepherd.  Through His ministry and teaching, He essentially triggers the conflict as His teaching and actions rubbed against the establishment and undercut their sense of control. 

The world, the evil one, and our flesh simply can’t handle the Word… so we kill Jesus and those who profess Him. 

Beaten, bloodied, and crucified—because of you and me.

A decapitated dead body taken and placed in a tomb, because his message was too much to handle: the death of John.

A crucified dead body taken and placed in a tomb, because His message and Words were too much to handle: the death of Jesus. 

This is where the path of the Christian faith leads, my friends.  All roads lead to death.  All roads lead to the cross for John, for Jesus, for you, and for me.  

Listen, Christ didn’t suffer so that you wouldn’t suffer; He wasn’t crucified so that you would be spared the cross; He did not die so that you wouldn’t die.

…

Oh, but hear the good news of the Gospel that is for each and every one of you!  Christ was beaten, bloodied, and crucified—for you.  Beaten for you who, like Herod, don’t take the Word of God to heart.  Bloodied for you who, like Herodias, fight against and hold a grudge against the Word of God.  Crucified for you who, like John the Baptist, suffer persecution from the attacks of the world.  Otherwise stated, Christ Jesus was beaten, was bloodied, “was crucified, and died so that in Him—welded to His flesh in the heat of [your] baptism—you might be plunged into the same death and emerge alive again in His resurrection.”[8] 

Dear friends, the kingdom of God is at hand.  Listen to the Word today, drop your defenses, welcome the Word that breaks through and takes away every ground of trust and ascribes salvation solely to Christ, fear God and not man; flee to Christ who is not dead, but alive and who is the head of the Church. 

Hear today: Christ was beaten, bloodied, crucified, ‘and’ resurrected—for you.  

Do not doubt, do not fear, you are forgiven. 

You are not a little Herod or a little Herodias, but you are a baptized saint, covered in the forgiving blood that dripped from Jesus’ head. 

Yes, your sin will put you in a tomb, but the Gospel places you in Jesus’ tomb, where God has raised up for you a mighty Savior, a Savior not confined to death, but a Savior who lives and reigns today with you and for you as your Lord. 

With John the Baptist, do not fear the guillotine, but recline at the table of the life giving Lord, for the resurrected Lord is with you in this life, through death, and unto eternity. 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Martin Luther, Luther's works, vol. 12: Selected Psalms eds. J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 225.

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms As Tools For Prayer (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1991), 25.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Peterson, Answering God, 35.

[5] William H. Willomon, Shaped by the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1990), 63.

[6] See John 15:1-ff.

[7] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 438.

[8] Chad L. Bird, Christ Alone: Sermons and Meditations (Chad Bird Copyright 2014), 100.