Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Mark 1,1-12. 19th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Mark 2,1-12; Matthew 9,1-8; Luke 5,17-26; John 5,1-16 4915

19. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 064

Philip, Deacon

Burkhard, Bishop of Würzburg, Germany. † 754

11. Oktober 2015

1. O Eternal God, Thou our Hope and our Life, who saved the world through Thine only-begotten Son. Send forth the Holy Spirit with Thy healing word to save us from the tribulations in this corrupt and fallen world. Amen. (VELKD, Prayer for 19. Sn. n. Trinitatis § 1 2015)

2. And when Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And He was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic: „My son, your sins are forgiven.“ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: „Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?“ And immediately Jesus, perceiving in His spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them: „Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic: ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say: ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins“ – He said to the paralytic – “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.“ And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying: „We never saw anything like this!“

3. St. Mark doesn’t beat around the bush; he begins his Gospel by telling us straight up who Jesus is: »The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God« (Mark 1,1). One chapter later, Mark writes that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.

4. The moment Jesus told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven, the scribes sat up at took note. Jesus had said: »My son, your sins are forgiven.« The scribes had just heard Jesus commit blasphemy: He had just claimed to have the Divine authority to forgive a man his sins. Only God can do that. In their opinion, such a declaration by Jesus was a violation of the first two commandments: »You shall have no other gods be fore Me« and »You shall not take the Name of Yahweh your God in vain«.

5. St. Mark tells us that Jesus forced people at the very beginning of His ministry to answer the question: Who are You, Jesus? Is Jesus a mere man, a great teacher of Holy Scripture and a blessed healer? Is Jesus something more than that? Is Jesus the Divine Son of God?

6. The scribes refuse to accept the possibility that Jesus is God Himself. So Jesus gives the scribes a sign: He heals the paralytic. Can a mere man heal someone who is paralyzed? Here the scribes, and even we ourselves, are confronted with the old theological trilemma made popular by C. S. Lewis: Jesus must be a lunatic, Lucifer or the Lord. Lewis writes:

„I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God“ (Lewis 36-37).

7. The scribes choose a different answer: they believed Jesus did these mighty deeds by the power of the devil. Just a chapter later from today’s Gospel pericope, St. Mark tells us: »And the scribes who went down from Jerusalem were saying: „Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul,“ and „by the prince of demons he casts out the demons“« (Mark 3,22). Beelzebul was a common proper name for the devil in Jesus’ day.

8. Jesus acknowledged the truth that sometimes the devil tries to deceive by wondrous signs. Jesus said about the abomination of desolation: »False christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect« (Mark 13,22). The Apostle Paul wrote bout the second advent of Jesus in his epistle to the Thessalonians: »Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive, unless the rebellion arrives first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. The advent of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power, false signs and wonders« (2. Thessalonians 2,3-4.9).

9. In response to the bold blasphemy against Jesus, our Lord told the scribes: »How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, then that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, then that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, then he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house« (Mark 3,23-27). Jesus says He overcomes Satan because He is God. Jesus is Satan’s Creator, and He has more power and authority than 12 legions of angels. Jesus exhibited this Divine power and authority when He forgave the paralytic of all His sins and then cured his paralysis. Jesus is the true christ and the true prophet. His signs and wonders do not lead people away from God but draw them closer into His midst. His words and miracles promise people forgiveness and a new life, both in this terrestrial world and the spiritual world.

10. In response to all this there is the joyful proclamation of the crowds: „We never saw anything like this!“ Jesus taught and healed with His own authority, and not like the scribes. Jesus forgave people by His own Divine authority. The Gospels proclaim that Jesus is neither a liar or a lunatic; Jesus is the Lord and the Son of God.

11. The result is that the words and miracles of Jesus are not the end result of His ministry, nor are they the primary goal of His ministry. The teachings and signs of Jesus are the opening salvo on a war against Satan that ends with Satan defeated and plundered. Jesus was crucified and resurrected to put us right with God and give us a fresh start (Lewis 37). Jesus gives us this righteousness and fresh start in Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Faith receives these and has what they promise: forgiveness and eternal life. These are not some future, spiritual blessings but real, here-and-now blessings that He gives to us through His Church. Christ offers us something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing (Lewis 81). The paralytic was brought to Jesus hoping to be made whole; he received more than he ever dreamed: he was made whole, and all his sins were forgiven too! He was brought to Jesus looking for a doctor, but He walked away as Jesus’ disciple. Jesus has done the same for each one of us too. We have His gospel and the promise of forgiveness and everlasting life. We receive it by faith, faith in Jesus who is God Himself. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord, Your steadfast love endures forever. You have not forsaken the work of Your hands, for You have sent the world Your own Son to die and rise for us so that we are now sons and daughters in Your heavenly reign. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Mark 1,1-12. 19th Sunday after Trinity

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