Luke 10,38-42. Quinquagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Luke 10,38-42              1519

Quinquagesima (Estomihi) 022 

Kunigunde, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, ✠ 1040 

John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, ✠ 1554

3. März 2019 

1. O Gracious God, Who delights in being merciful, grant unto us, by the suffering of Your Son, that we hate our sin and receive comfort from You (Löhe 474).  Amen. 

2. »Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said: „Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.“ But the Lord answered her: „Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.“« 

  3. The Mary and Martha of Luke 10 are the same Mary and Martha in John 11 whose brother had died but Jesus resurrected four days later. This family was close friends with Jesus and were His disciples; they lived in Bethany which is about 2 miles from Jerusalem. It is quite probable that Jesus and His disciples stayed at their home when He went to Jerusalem. 

4. There is a clash of activities in Luke 10. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. Martha was busy with serving her guests and in doing so became distracted from hearing Jesus’ teaching. Both learning from Jesus and serving are good and proper activities, but there is a time and a place for each. Solomon gives us wise advice: »To all things there is a time, and a season for every matter under heaven; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to lament and a time to dance« (Ecclesiastes 3,1.4 lxx). Jesus reminds Martha: There is a time to learn and a time to serve; today is your time to sit, listen and learn. It was Martha’s time to be served by Jesus. 

5. Like Martha, the apostles were anxious about many things, particularly who would be granted the seats honor at the left and right of Jesus. They had their priorities wrong. They also had their interpretation of the Scriptures wrong. 

6. Twice already Jesus has told His disciples that He must suffer, die and rise again (Luke 9,21-22.43-45). This was not well received by the disciples, for they thought nothing like this would or should befall the Christ. Jesus had to patiently teach and re-teach the lesson of His Passion to them. 

7. Jesus commends Mary for choosing to sit and listen to Jesus teach. This good portion will not be taken away from her. Luke does not record for us what Jesus taught that day in the house with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. The event that follows is Jesus teaching His disciples the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11,1-13), and Luke notes an interesting commentary by Jesus: »My Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him« (Luke 11,13). Jesus refers to this as a good gift, just like He praised Martha for choosing the good portion of learning from Him. Luke wrote his gospel to Theophilus so that he may have certainty concerning the things he had been taught (Luke 1,1-4). Thus Jesus encourages us to continue to learn from Him, particularly by studying the Holy Scriptures and asking the Holy Spirit to help us rightly understand of the Bible. 

8. God’s grace is not easily understood, but God’s grace is found squarely in and with Jesus Christ. Immediately prior to this morning’s Gospel pericope, the apostles had declared that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8,29; Luke 9,20), and Jesus immediately declared that the Christ they just confessed must be a Suffering Christ (Mark 8,31). Such a confession marks one as a disciple of Jesus. As the 3 Gesima Sundays draw to a close today, the season of Lent begins with its focus upon the Suffering Christ who takes up His cross and bids us to follow Him to Calvary for that is where we see God’s grace on full display. 

9. To confess Jesus as the Christ is to confess the Crucified Christ. The way of the cross is the way of the rock: the rock of the apostles’ confession and the rock of the Skull, that is, the hill of Calvary. There is certainty in this rock, for the rock of certainty is Christ (Nagel 276). All petty tyrants, sin, death and even the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Rock of Calvary (Nagel 277). Peter confesses the Rock – Christ Jesus (Nagel 277). Mary and Martha also confessed the Rock (John 11,27). They often stepped from the Rock, but the Rock carried them through (Nagel 277). Martha saw this Rock raise her dead brother back to life (John 11,43). He is our Resurrection and Life, too.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Jesus, Christ, Thou Suffering Servant; send to us the Holy Spirit as we walk with You to Calvary, so that we see and understand everything the Prophets have written about You, which You, the Son of Man, have accomplished for our salvation. Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

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.

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. 

Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.