Sermon Pentecost 2B June 2, 2024 Mark 2:23-28 J. Wackler
/Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The title of the sermon today is related to the OT reading where the Third Commandment is given; Observe (You shall remember) the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Within that text is also this other command, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
For today’s sermon title, I have shortened that command to You shall remember. There are four things to remember. 1. You were a slave to sin. (You shall remember that..) 2. God saved you by his mighty and outstretched arm. (You shall remember that..) 3. Remember the Sabbath. (You shall remember that..) 4. It’s good to be a slave of Jesus.
(You shall remember that..) You were a slave to sin. There are many ways to be a slave to sin. You can be a slave to one or more of many addictions. You can be a slave to your job, a slave to your own evil desires, whatever that may be. We pretty much agree as a culture that owning another person, slavery is not good. Being a slave owner is not good. Our nation endured a war to end slavery.
However, by many current accounts, slavery is flourishing all over the world right now. At the 2016 LCMS Youth Gathering I had a long conversation with the leader of the band Remedy Drive about his work in southeast Asia. He went undercover to rescue primarily young girls who had been sold into slavery. There are stories and videos on their web site, which is listed in the bulletin.
Shocking! Yes. Disgusting! Definitely. But this information serves to uncover the darkness lurking in all people in a painfully immediate way. We were all slaves to sin, born enemies of God. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. To be a slave to sin is to be helpless to change your status as slave to sin. We needed to be rescued out of that slavery to sin or we would have died in it.
According to the Remedy Drive website, 901 young slave girls have been rescued through the efforts of Remedy Drive, operation Exodus Road and cooperating law enforcement agencies in southeast Asia. Without that rescue, I don’t want to think of what would happen to them. I don’t want to think about what would happen if God had not provided a rescue for the sinner, for you and for me.
(You shall remember that..) God saved you by his mighty and outstretched arm. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The glory of God is Jesus Christ crucified for sinners. Yes our sinfulness was so bad that the sacrificial death of the only begotten Son of God was necessary to break the bond of slavery to sin that we were in. It was at a huge cost in humiliation, pain and suffering when the Lord of Life gave His life for the life of the world. He willingly received the punishment and death that you deserved. This act of love broke the bond that held you in slavery to sin.
(You shall) Remember the Sabbath. All of the commandments are given by God out of love for his fallen people. These commandments curb violent outbursts of sin, and keep order in the world. They show us our sin and our need for a Savior. They guide us into Christian living. The first three have to do with our relationship with God. These were given so that we can remember who we belong to, and it’s not some generic god concept. We belong to the One True God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is our Creator. Our salvation and the forgiveness of sins is dependent upon the actions of the Holy Trinity in time for us. You shall have no other gods because there is only one true god, and the main false god is self.
We remember or observe the Sabbath because it is a gift of God to us for our benefit. Theologian and pastor, Theodore Buls has written this; The Sabbath was an Old Testament (look forward to) everlasting life through Jesus Christ. The (3rd commandment) of rest on the Sabbath was a sign between God and the Covenant people (the Jews). The observance of the Sabbath was a matter of physical and spiritual blessing. It pointed to the God of promise, Jesus Christ, who gives rest now and forever. Jesus is the author of the New Testament. (Jesus had the authority to fulfill) the Sabbath, the sacrifices, the Temple, (which pointed to Jesus, but were) all mere shadows of Himself. But He never violated the Sabbath Day. He put Himself under the Law. He redeemed all those under the Law. At the same time He was Lord even of the Law.
Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, Christians are free to worship whenever we want, but Sunday has become the primary day of Christian worship because Jesus rose on the first day of the week. We also understand Sunday as the eighth day, which symbolizes eternity. Christian worship is God serving us with his gifts of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
(You shall remember that..) It’s good to be a slave of Jesus. Romans 6:22 says, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Because you are a slave of Jesus, you receive a life made holy by his blood, shed on the cross. In that sense, you get to live a Christian life of love towards God, and of service to your neighbor. Love of God is faith in Jesus the rescuer. Love of neighbor is lived out in so many ways through vocation, through refraining from doing harm to neighbor, and through acts of kindness and sacrifice that benefit and serve the neighbor. The world can be a formidable place, but even when it is at it’s worst, remember that Christ has conquered sin, death and Satan. That battle is over, and now we live in anticipation of the goal of history, the return of Jesus.
You shall remember that Jesus fulfilled his love for you, his neighbor, perfectly when he laid down his life at the cross for you. Because he did that, you have been rescued from sin, death, and Satan, and given the gifts of forgiveness, salvation, and life eternal for Jesus' sake. You shall remember your Baptism, when you were joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus. You shall remember God’s mighty saving work in Jesus. Amen
The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.