Sunday, June 9, 2024, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
“Brothers and Sisters and Mothers”
Psalm 133:1-3; Genesis 3:8-15; 2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1; Mark 3:20-35
Divine Service III, no Communion
Hymns: #644 “The Church’s One Foundation”; #507 “Holy, Holy, Holy”; #649 “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”; #685 “Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Man, Jesus could draw a crowd, couldn’t He? If you want to draw a crowd down here on earth, so the advertising people say, you have to have a hook, a gimmick, a drawing card. If you want to draw people to your business, or your organization, or your church, you have to have something different, something to draw attention, something to offer people that will promise them a benefit or a profit, or at least a bit of entertainment or amusement. Jesus, in our Gospel reading, was already drawing huge crowds to this brand-new ministry of His. How was He doing it? What was His bit? What did Have that drew the crowds in? If it worked for Him, maybe it will work for us, too.
If we go back to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, it’s not hard to see what Jesus was doing that accounts for the crowd He was drawing. In Mark Chapter 1, at the beginning, it’s just Him, out in the wilderness, facing down the devil all alone. Then He comes out from the desert and calls His first disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, John. Then He works one of His first miracles, right in His hometown of Capernaum, driving an evil spirit out of a man in their synagogue. The people are amazed – “Here’s a new teaching, and one with authority.” A teaching that actually works; words that are more than just talk, but actually do something. News about Him quickly spreads all over Galilee.
Jesus goes from there to Peter’s house and cures his mother-in-law of a fever. That evening, the whole town shows up at the door, and Jesus heals them all. In the morning, He goes off to begin the day with prayer, and His disciples come to find Him. “Everyone is looking for You,” they tell Him. And they begin from there to walk though Galilee, from town to town and from synagogue to synagogue, with Jesus preaching and healing people as they go. He touches a man with leprosy and heals him.
As chapter 2 begins, Jesus heals a paralytic, after forgiving His sins; and there’s where Pharisees begin to complain and accuse Him of blasphemy. But the people are saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!” Jesus calls Matthew Levi the tax collector to be His next disciple and eats dinner at Matthew’s house with the tax collectors and sinners. The crowds that follow Jesus get larger, and the complaints of the Pharisees get louder: “Jesus and His disciples don’t fast like they ought to. He and His disciples eat without washing their hands, and break the rules about the Sabbath!” Jesus tells them that He Himself is Lord of the Sabbath, and that what He’s been doing should be all the proof of it they need. The Pharisees grumble and doubt and complain; but the poor people know, and the crowds continue to grow.
At the beginning of chapter 3, Jesus heals a man with a shriveled hand, in a synagogue, on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees complain again; and Jesus rebukes them for remembering the finer points of the law, but forgetting about mercy. And that’s when the Pharisees begin to lay plans to have Jesus put to death. Meanwhile, the crowds keep coming from everywhere, as word about what He’s been doing spreads. Jesus goes out to the shore of a lake, and preaches from a boat, because the people are all pressing forward, just trying to touch Him. And who can blame them? They’ve never had any hope or relief for their pains and sorrows before, or for their families and loved ones or children. That’s the draw Jesus has; that’s the hook. He has real power, and can give real hope to people that have never had it before.
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called those men who’d be called the 12 apostles to Himself, to prepare them to help make this tremendous thing He was doing even bigger still. If the disciples thought Jesus was going to confine His preaching to Galilee – oh, no, no, no. This was going to be so much bigger than that. He had His eye on Jerusalem, and on a cross, knowing all along His Father’s plan was for Him to sacrifice Himself for the sins of all the world, then raise Him up again in glory from the dead. God’s plan was big enough to take in not just Galilee, Judea, and Israel, but to bring the good news of God’s grace to all the world, so that crowds of people from everywhere would come looking for hope and find it in Him. Satan would do his best to try and stop Him (and he’s still at it). But there would be no stopping what Jesus started, and what He came to do in the world.
And now we get to where our Gospel begins in Mark 3, and now we know where that crowd that surrounded Him was coming from, and what brought them there.
“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that He and his disciples were not even able to eat.” The disciples must have been wondering what they’d gotten themselves into. The thing was snowballing. Things were getting out of hand. The crowds were growing, coming from everywhere, filling the house, mobbing the doors. It must have seemed like everyone in the world was outside wanting in. The Pharisees and Jewish leaders were growing more and more concerned, and more and more angry. “Look! The whole world has gone after Him!” they said. Word would have quickly gotten back to the Roman governor about the gathering crowds and a possible breakdown in civil order. Then again, did Jesus come to walk quietly through the streets and not change anything? No! He came to raise a fuss! There was a method to His madness; He came “not to bring peace, but division.” He came to take on the devil. He came to poke the bear.
Now Jesus had a family on earth, a mother and brothers and sisters who loved Him and cared about His well-being. They didn’t understand at the time what He was doing, or why He was doing it, and they were afraid for Him. They were afraid the Jews would stone Him, or that the Romans would arrest Him, or that He’d be trampled and torn to pieces by the crowd. They were afraid He’d gone out of His mind; so they came to get Him and take Him home.
The Jewish law teachers and Scribes, the church lawyers (the worst kind of lawyer, some say!) were also waiting outside the door. They’d from Jerusalem down to Galilee to investigate and see for themselves what Jesus was doing. They were jealous that the crowds were coming to Him and not to them. They told everyone who’d listen that He wasn’t just insane, but possessed by an evil spirit. They knew He was doing great miracles, and they couldn’t deny it, because He’s done them in public for everyone to see. So they claimed He was doing them by the power of Beelzebub, Satan, the prince of the demons.
And Jesus – and this is one of the things I love about Jesus – stands in the middle of all the arguing, pushing, shoving, and turmoil around Him, and calmly tells one of His parables. He calls the scribes and lawyers to come closer, and He asks them, “How is Satan able to cast out Satan?” And why would Satan do that? Why would the devil fight against himself? The devil is evil, but he’s not stupid. If a kingdom or a country is divided against itself, says Jesus; if there’s no agreement in a nation about good vs. evil or right vs. wrong, no agreement about direction or policy; if we’re wasting all our time
and energy fighting each other instead of our real enemies, our country isn’t going to last very long. And if a family or a house full of people can’t get along, if every day in our house is an argument and a constant squabble and a family fight, then we’re not going to last as a family, and all our lives will be misery. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, Jesus says, then his end has come.
But Satan’s kingdom isn’t divided, not at all. The devil runs a deadly and efficient kingdom. He has a terrible, awful plan for battle plan, and he’s sticking to it. He’s determined to destroy everything God loves, and to ruin all of us and all of our children. He’s stronger than us, stronger than all of us put together, and if we try to fight him on our own, there’s no way we can win.
And that’s why Jesus came into the world. Jesus says, “No one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” Satan is the strong man, the prince of darkness, the prince of this world, just for a little while. His prized possessions are human souls, yours and yours and mine. It’s not that we’re dear and precious to him in any way; it’s just that he’s jealous, mean, and angry at God, and he wants to take God’s most treasured possessions away from Him, simply out of spite. Jesus came to rob the devil, and to bind him and tie him and plunder his house – and the plunder, the prize being fought over, is us! He came to “free us from the waterless pit,” prophet Zechariah says.
The devil uses sin to keep people in chains. It began with that first sin in the garden that we read about today. Adam and Eve rejecting God and His Word, led to all the jealousy, envy, and anger in the world, and to the first murder, and countless millions of murders, and all the terrible sins, large and small, that happened after that. That accounts for the world Jesus walked into, with all its brokenness, sickness, and hopelessness, and all the bitterness, hatred, and anger that He found all around Him in this place. Jesus had compassion when He saw those things, He felt pity and love for us in the deepest part of Himself, because the people were “harassed and helpless, like shepherdless sheep.” That’s why Jesus did what he did. He came not to condemn the world, but to save it.
The human problem, the human tragedy, the human disaster, is our sin; and the only answer for our sin is that we somehow find forgiveness, mercy, and grace, a way out of the trap of sin and death and hell. And that’s what Jesus came to bring us. And - here again is what I love so much about Jesus – look what He used to fight the devil,
and what’s He’s given us to fight with. It’s not swords, guns, weapons, or armies. Jesus had none of those things, and God’s Church doesn’t have an army, either.
Instead He’s given us words to speak that will put the devil on the run. He’s given us a Holy Word – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - to add to a little pure water. He’s given us a Baptism with the Holy Spirit’s power in it, to bring faith and forgiveness and life to whoever the blessed water touches. He’s given us His very own body and blood, shed on a cross for our sins. Forgiveness is ours when we speak Jesus’ words over a little bit of bread and wine, and come in faith to eat and drink. And these are the simple things He’s given us to offer to the world: A word of hope, Good News to speak into a world full of chaos, hopelessness, and fear; and simple Sacraments, with the Word of God in them, to fill those who receive them in faith with “hope and a future.” Nothing complicated. Nothing difficult. No hooks, no gimmicks, no tricks. “We don’t use deception, but set forth the truth plainly,” St. Paul says. That’s our drawing card! All we have to offer is water and bread and wine, and a Word from a Savior who’s faithful and true, and truly has the power to help us.
That “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” that Jesus warns the Pharisees about? That’s simply not taking the Lord at His Word, and not believing Him for His promises that come in those simple things. It’s turning away from God and looking for other ways to be saved, and for other things to try and satisfy our souls. But “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we must be saved.” And “Whoever has the Son of God has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Jesus says, “The work God requires of us is this: To believe in the One He has sent.” “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”
In our Gospel, Jesus is told that His mother and brothers are outside, wanting to talk to Him. And He answers, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does God's will is My brother and sister and mother." Do you see what Jesus is doing there? Do you see the wonderful depth and beauty of what He’s saying? Do you see what’s He’s building and establishing in the world, and what He’s made us a part of? He’s doing what the devil hates most of all, for one thing, the one thing that will divide his awful kingdom and finally bring it down forever. Jesus is binding His people together, gathering us together around simple things and simple promises.
That phrase, “We’re a family Church” is really true! We welcomed a little one into our family this morning by saying: “We receive you in Jesus’ name as our brother in Christ… We welcome you in the name of the Lord.” That’s huge! That’s monumental! That’s marvelous! That’s what this Christian Church is all about, and what we’re doing here – baptizing babies into our family, and a grown-up once in a while, too. (If you know anyone who needs to be baptized, bring them to me, we’ll get it done!) Jesus came to make us a family. “God sets the lonely in families,” one of the Psalms says. So that phrase, “We’re a family Church” is really true!
So long as faithful parents keep bringing their children to be baptized; so long as we’re faithful in worship and in sharing Christ’s body and blood together; so long as we remember that we’re brothers and sisters and mothers in this family God has made us a part of; so longer as we care for one another like families should, and treat the people we meet along the way as brothers and sisters, like Jesus did, and invite them to come and be part of our family, too; so long as we keep our hearts in the simple things Jesus gave us, the devil cannot win. And we’re going to be here, generation after generation, year after year, until Jesus comes for us all.
So dearest Lord Jesus, we ask You to keep this family of Yours close to you. In Jesus’ name; Amen.