11 August 2024 - Trinity 11 - Ephesians 2:1-10

The TV show “The Walking Dead” was in production for twelve years, from 2010 to 2022. I personally never watched an entire episode, and couldn’t really get interested in the storyline, but this was a popular show, and remains so in syndication.

This series told the tale of what the world was like after a zombie apocalypse. Thankfully this was fiction. There are no “walking dead” - at least not in the sense meant by this show.

But a description of the “walking dead,” in a different sense of the term, is a component of what St. Paul tells us in today’s text about the natural, fallen human condition. He writes to the Ephesians, and to you, that you - that we -

“were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, ... among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.”

Dead men don’t walk: except in zombie movies, and in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where St. Paul describes people who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and who walk according to the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil, rather than according to God’s ways.

The word “death” means separation. When someone physically dies, this means that his spirit or soul separates from his body.

And when someone is spiritually dead, this means that his spirit or soul is separated from God’s Spirit and from God’s life. Those who are spiritually dead - “in trespasses and sins” - are also separated from God’s approval, and are instead “by nature children of wrath.”

If you have ever watched an episode of “The Walking Dead,” or any zombie movie, you no doubt identified with the normal and healthy people in the story, who were trying to escape from the zombies and to survive.

You certainly did not feel any affinity with the walking dead in that story, whose soulless, disintegrating bodies were driven by mindless compulsions, and who were alive without really being alive.

But in St. Paul’s story, you do need to identify with those who were, or still are, “dead in trespasses and sins,” and who “walked,” or still walk, “according to the course of this world”: because that story is about you.

All human beings came into the world like this: separated from God and under his judgment; deceived by Satan’s lies and captive to his power; and driven by selfish impulses and destructive passions in their thoughts, words, and deeds. Even when people are able to put a civilized veneer on it, this is all still there beneath the veneer.

People may not perceive this level of corruption within themselves, but that’s because their power of perception is itself corrupt and unreliable. Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord reminds us:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

What is reliable, however, is the testimony of Holy Scripture. And in Scripture, St. Paul says that we were all like this.

When God saved us in Christ, this is what he saved us from. This is what we were. And this is what we will return to, if we ever forsake God and his Word.

But God did save us. God saved you. Unlike the TV show, for the walking dead in Paul’s story - in God’s story - there is a cure.

The cure to our spiritual death is God’s grace. And this grace has been administered to you in the means of grace. Paul writes:

“God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..., and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

You came into this world dead in trespasses and sins. On the cross, Jesus your sinless Savior also became dead - with you and for you - to atone for your trespasses and sins.

The trespasses and sins of the whole world were credited to Jesus and laid upon him, so that he could carry them to the cross, and on the cross redeem and liberate the world from them.

He endured not only a physical death, but also experienced, in effect, a spiritual separation from the holiness of his Father in heaven. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?,” he cried.

But Jesus was then raised from the dead by his Father, fully alive once again: because his atoning sacrifice, and his death for you at all levels, was accepted by God. And in Christ, you are now accepted by God, too: no longer a child of divine wrath, but a child of divine, adoptive love.

When Jesus rose, he rose with a resurrection power that now makes you alive, and raises you up from spiritual death.

Your salvation is God’s gift to you. The faith by which you receive and believe his promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation, is God’s gift to you.

And the new, spiritual life that the Holy Spirit bestows through the gospel, which he energizes and directs into the new way of “walking” and living that now characterizes your existence, is God’s gift to you.

And so Paul concludes his thought:

“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

God’s grace, which saved you from spiritual death in the past, saves you even now, from the lingering remnants of that death, and from the continuing threats to your new spiritual life that are always brought to bear against you by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

God’s grace brings strength, so that you can resist temptations to return to the way of death. And God’s grace bring forgiveness, and a new beginning in God’s life, when those temptations were not resisted.

God’s grace planted you in the fellowship of God’s church. And more specifically God’s grace has planted you in the fellowship of this congregation, where his Word is honored and revered, studied and expounded.

God’s grace through Scripture teaches you the truth of God and shows you his will, in how you should think, speak, and act. God’s grace through Scripture exposes the lies of Satan, and fills you with an evangelistic compassion for those who are still enthralled by those lies.

Because of God’s grace, and God’s grace alone, you are no longer the walking dead. You have been restored to fellowship with God, and so you are filled with the life of God, and walk in that life. God has put a living hope into your heart, and God has put joyful songs on your lips:

By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless; My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise? Hath Scripture ever falsehood taught?
Nay! Then this word must true remain: By grace thou, too, shalt heaven obtain.

I walk with Jesus all the way; His guidance never fails me.
Within His wounds I find a stay When Satan’s power assails me,
And, by His footsteps led, My path I safely tread.
In spite of ills that threaten may, I walk with Jesus all the way. Amen.

---

18 August 2024 - Trinity 12 - Mark 7:31-37

I think each of us is, in one way or another and to one extent or another, a little bit of a show-off. If we are good at something - athletic prowess, musical or acting ability, or even just doing some kind of trick - we will often be tempted to exercise and display that skill in a boastful kind of way: so as to get the attention of others, and to impress others, for the building up of our pride.

When I was young, I was good at coin snatching. I could pile up a bunch of coins on my arm, near my elbow, and then drop my arm really fast and catch those coins in my hand. My record was 55 pennies. On many occasions, I showed off that skill, to get the attention of others, and to impress others.

Even when we know that we have a calling from God to employ a truly useful skill or ability in the service of those who depend on us, we still often have a tendency to mix into that sense of duty before God, an additional ulterior motive of wanting people to notice what we are doing, and to praise us for it.

Was Jesus a show-off? Maybe not all the time, but sometimes, did he do things for the purpose of getting the attention of others and of impressing others?

Jesus certainly did have some remarkable abilities. His power to heal and restore the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, was especially unique.

Did Jesus, perhaps with a little bit of boastful pride, enjoy the praise he got for those miracles? And did he, as a show-off, seek to get even more praise and adulation, as he continued to perform these remarkable feats?

In today’s text from St. Mark’s Gospel, we get an answer to that question. Jesus healed a man who was deaf and who had an impediment in his speech.

By the power of his word, “Be opened,” Jesus caused the man to be able, in an instant, to hear, and to speak plainly. The people who had witnessed this were amazed. But then we read:

“He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’”

Jesus had indeed made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. He frequently had compassion on suffering people by miraculously healing them. But Jesus also intended his healings to serve as pictures of the deeper healing of the soul that was his real mission in this world.

It is appointed to all men to die. Physical healings are just a temporary reprieve from the inevitable.

But the healing of the human soul is an eternal healing, and is a permanent cure for the condemning guilt and corrupting consequences of human sin. Jesus said:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

By the power of his Word, God justifies the ungodly in Christ. By the grace of the gospel, Christ himself forgives the penitent through his death and resurrection. By the effective application of the means of grace, the Spirit of Christ regenerates and indwells the converted believer.

This is how sin-sick and even spiritually dead souls are brought from a state of spiritual death to spiritual life by Jesus, the great physician. Physical healings can illustrate this, and can draw people closer to Jesus, so that they can then listen more attentively to Jesus’ preaching.

Jesus placing his hands on the bodies of the physically wounded worked wonders. But when Jesus did this, it was not because these healings were supposed to be an end in themselves; or because Jesus was trying to get people’s attention, or make an impression on people, simply for the sake of the physical healings.

Jesus, as a physical healer, was not showing off. His purpose was always to serve the deeper needs of people - of all people everywhere.

His goal and desire was not merely to place his hands on the bodies of the physically wounded, but it was to place his words into the minds and hearts of the spiritually wounded, so that unspeakably greater wonders could be worked - for them and in them.

But these greater wonders are lost on those who look only to the outward miracle, with worldly awe and carnal fascination, without lifting their eyes to the higher horizon of heaven and of the hope of heaven.

It was easy for Jesus to become famous as a wonder-worker, when word of his miracles spread. But that’s never what he wanted. And so sometimes he would tell those who had witnessed a miracle not to speak of it to others. He did that in today’s text.

The Lord’s outward healings were performed in a context where the Lord’s preaching and teaching would also be taking place, so that an inner healing could also be experienced by any who listened to him and believed his message.

But a sermon that reaches into the heart, that transforms the will, and that unburdens the conscience, is not a spectacular and flashy thing. So, when the crowds spread their report - which always happened, regardless of Jesus’ requests to the contrary - the larger context was always lost.

So too in today’s text, the crowds exclaimed:

“He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

They did not exclaim, as Jesus would no doubt have preferred:

“He has done all things well. He makes the unrighteous to be counted as righteous before God, and the guilty to be forgiven by God.”

The Lord was not a show-off. But in his life and death, he does show us many important things.

Jesus shows us the goodness of God in the good works that he performed. He shows us the mercy of God, not only in his bodily healings, but also in the words of love and acceptance that he spoke to the outcast and the downtrodden.

On the cross Jesus shows us the wrath of God against all human wickedness. He had taken the sins of all men upon himself and had carried those sins to the cross. There, in the place of all men, he suffered the divine punishment that those sins deserve.

In his resurrection Jesus shows us the justification of God. Jesus’ sacrifice for humanity was now finished. Humanity’s sin was no longer clinging to him. Christ, as humanity’s Savior, was now vindicated and justified by God. And through his justification for us, we by faith are now justified in him.

As the risen Lord of his church, Jesus today shows us the sanctifying grace of God. He regenerates us and absolves us. He fills us with his Spirit and with the fruit of his Spirit. He gives us eternal life.

Indeed, Jesus shows us many things, but none of this is a matter of “showing off.” In the Book of Acts, St. Peter - speaking on behalf of all the apostles - said that

“We are witnesses of all things which [Jesus] did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.”

Even in his resurrection appearances, Jesus did not “show off” by appearing to his enemies and persecutors: either to vindicate himself with a boastful “I told you so” message; or to make them quiver in their sandals with fear. That’s not the way he wants to interact with people, and that’s not the way he wants people to see him.

When Jesus appeared, he appeared to his disciples: whose hearts had been prepared by God’s Word for the true meaning and blessings of his resurrection; and who were then sent out with a mission. Peter continues:

“And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

Everything Jesus did and allowed to be done, was for us and for our salvation, and not for himself. Everything Jesus does now, through his gospel and sacraments, he does for us and not for himself. He said:

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

And the Son of Man comes now, too, not to be served, and not to show off, but to serve: to serve us with his forgiveness, life, and salvation; to deliver us from sin, death, and the devil.

He does not want to be noticed in a way that feeds his pride, but he wants to be noticed, and received, in a way that feeds the spiritual hunger of his people with his body and blood, for the remission of their sins; and that quenches the spiritual thirst of his people with the water of life, for the renewal of their faith.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus told people who had witnessed his healing miracles not to go around telling others about those miracles, in a way that would represent him as a celebrity wonder-worker and nothing more. Jesus doesn’t want us to represent him to others as a celebrity wonder-worker, either.

He doesn’t want to be known today simply as a divine “higher power” who can be called upon to help people solve their earthly problems, and to help people be more happy in their lives in this world.

He can do those things, of course, and he often does - just as he could heal the sick during his time on earth, and often did so. He can help those plagued by addiction to become sober, and he can help those who are depressed to become functional and cheerful.

If you struggle with these or similar problems, it’s okay to pray to him for help. But that’s not his main purpose. And that’s not the defining reputation he wants to have. Those kinds of problems are also not your fundamental problems. They are symptoms of deeper needs.

At the deepest level, what Jesus really wants to be known as, is the forgiver of sins, the healer of wounded souls, and the giver of eternal life.

He forgives your sins. He heals your soul. He gives you eternal life. And he wants you to invite other people also to come to him for reconciliation with God, and for peace in their conscience before God.

We close with these lines from the poet and hymnist Elisha Hoffman:

I sing the praise of him today who washed my many sins away.
His love is more than tongue can tell. My Jesus has done all things well.

I marvel at his grace to me. It is so boundless, rich, and free.
His grace is more than tongue can tell. My Jesus has done all things well.

A blesséd life it is, to be – through Jesus – saved so wondrously!
His pow’r is more than tongue can tell. My Jesus has done all things well.

Oh wondrous peace! Oh sacred rest! In him I am supremely blest.
His peace is more than tongue can tell. My Jesus has done all things well.

Amen.