Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Mark 12,28-35. 18th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Exodus 20,1-17. Mark 12, 28-35 4813

18. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 063

✠ Michael the Archangel and all angels. W ✠

29. September 2013

1. O Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee the Only God. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, 18. Sunday after Trinity). Amen.

2. And God spoke all these words, saying: „I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I am your only God. Do not make any idols nor worship them. Do not take My Name in vain. Worship Me on the Sabbath. Honor your parents. Do not murder.Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet your neighbor’s possessions.“

3. The question was asked of Jesus: Which of these commandments is the greatest and noblest? Jesus had Ten Commandments to choose from. Jesus summarized the Decalogue, saying: „»Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.« The second is this: »You shall love your neighbor as yourself.«“ Jesus takes the Law (torah) seriously, and so should we. Jesus tells us that the heart and will of God is that we first love Him and then our neighbor. Jesus exhorts the proclamation of the psalmist, who says by Divine inspiration: »Blessed is the person whose delight is in the torah of Yahweh; and he meditates in His torah day and night« (Psalm 1,1-2).

4. This summation of the torah convicts many people. To the pious person who says: „I love God“, and worships God every week in church, gives a weekly offering, reads the Bible everyday and prays, but does not help or love his neighbor, such a person does not truly love God. To the philanthropist who says: „I love my neighbor“, and goes out of his way to help him, speaks well of him and gives liberally to charities, but does not love God or even denies His existence, such a person does not truly love his neighbor. The Apostle John exhorts us: »We love because God first loved us. If anyone says: „I love God“, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Jesus: whoever loves God must also love his brother« (1. John 4,19-21).

5. The two go together: love God and love your neighbor. Understanding this is one thing, but it is another to practice this commandment for loving God and our neighbor is a difficult thing to do. Even more difficult is the next question Jesus answered. The scribes and Pharisees taught that loving God and loving the neighbor were the heart of the torah. The scribes and Pharisees also taught that the Christ is the son of David (Mark 12,35). This is also a difficult teaching, for how can this be when David himself declared: »The Lord said to my Lord: „Be seated at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet“ (Mark 12,36). Jesus then said: »David calls the Christ his Lord, so how then is the Christ David’s son?« (Mark 12,37). While the scribes and Pharisees could understand that loving God and neighbor is the central commandment, they could not answer how the Christ could be both David’s son and Lord. They only thought in human terms. The Christ was to be a human descendant of King David. They did not entertain the understanding that the Christ would also be Divine. Many people today hold the same view of Jesus.

6. Many rob Christ of His Divine nature. To them He is merely a man, a teacher and a prophet, but the Holy Scriptures teach that Jesus is God. The Psalmist David, King of Israel, tells us that the Christ is both his descendent and his God. Mark the Evangelist, companion of both the Apostles Paul and Peter, begins his Gospel with these words: »The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.« The Christ is both God and man. He is one hundred percent Divine and at the same time He is one hundred percent human together in one, distinct Person, by the name Jesus bar-Joseph of Nazareth. Those who truly love God thus confess that Jesus is both God and man.

7. The torah (law) is summarized by love, and love is manifested in Christ Jesus. It is one thing to understand that the summary of the law is to love God and the neighbor, but it is another thing to keep that law. We are incapable of loving God and the neighbor as The Commandments require. What is impossible for sinful human beings is possible for God. Thus, Christ perfectly kept the law: He loves His Heavenly Father with all His heart and His neighbor as Himself. Jesus willingly became the Greater Isaac who was offered up by His Father for your sins. Jesus is the Second Adam who overcame the devil and freed Eve’s descendants from hellish tyranny. Jesus showed this unconditional love for God and neighbor on the cross.

8. People throw around the phrases „God is love.“ and „God is a loving God.“ so often that they have become like the adjective „nice“ ... they have lost a real meaning. To say God is love is to say that God is nice, for those phrases about God lack any meaning in our language without a qualifying example. God’s love truly is deep and wonderful. His love is not some Romantic sentiment or Victorian philosophical ideal, but „God is love“ is grounded in a real, harsh reality. Jesus really suffered; He was crucified upon a rough cross; He truly died and was buried in a tomb. Jesus endured these tribulations for the sake of the world and for you. Jesus on the cross is the fullest expression of God’s love for you, His neighbor. Jesus loves His Heavenly Father and His neighbor for He suffered in your place and He bore the punishment of your sins. Jesus took your spot so that God’s wrath would not strike you down. This, dear congregation, is love, yes, unconditional love of God and neighbor.

9. The reign of God is not far from you. God’s reign was manifested with a dead Jesus hanging on the cross and a living Jesus risen from His tomb three days later. The reign of God is in your midst, and you have access to Jesus, to God’s reign and its benefits through faith in Jesus. God the Father loves you. He has forgiven you. He now sanctifies you to love God and your neighbor, and through this love you bear forth the fruits of faith for God’s glory and your neighbor’s benefit. The Apostle John teaches: »Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. We love because He first loved us. (1. John 4,15-16.19).

10. May the Holy Spirit give you opportunities to draw your neighbors unto the threshold of the reign of God. May you invite your neighbors here on Sunday morning so they can experience the reign of God in Christ Jesus, for „through Christ, by His love for us, we are in the reign of God, not merely close to it. Is not it wonderful that we have such a lovable God?“ (Martens § 17). Yes, it is wonderful! You can now sit here today, and you can walk out these church doors, with full confidence that your sins are forgiven. On the last day when you stand face to face with God the Awesome Judge, you can stand before Him with all boldness and joy, for you will stand before the Great Judge with all your sins forgiven by the merit of Jesus. Truly our Triune God is a loving God! Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord, our Loving God, Your friendship is for those who fear You; in Your Begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, You have made known to us Your new testament so that we are assured of our forgiveness and salvation. Amen.

Christ crucified and risen for you

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 11. October 2009 (18. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Mark 12,28-34. Copyright © 2011 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, September 30, 2013

Mark 12,28-35. 18th Sunday after Trinity

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