Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
Fourth Ranks Lower Than First, Second, or Third
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ! Amen! In today's Gospel Jesus so thoroughly bored His disciples with
His sermon that they acted like they didn't even hear it.
Dear Christian friends,
Our Lord must have felt like He was preaching to stones or to brick walls
when He spoke to His disciples about His suffering and death. Today's Gospel
is not the first time Jesus "began to tell them what was to happen to Him."
Not once, but twice before in St. Mark's book, Jesus preached sermons to His
disciples about His suffering, death and resurrection. On each previous
occasion, the disciples did not react to His preaching as well as our Lord
might have liked:
· Jesus preached His first sermon about His suffering and death not
long after Peter confessed to Him, "You are the Christ" (Mark 8:29). Jesus'
first sermon about how "the Son of Man must suffer many things" (Mark 8:31)
did not sit very well with His congregation, and Peter "took [Jesus] aside
and began to rebuke Him" (Mark 8:32). You remember how well that turned out,
with Jesus' responding, "Get behind Me, Satan!" (Mark 8:33)
· Jesus' second sermon about His impending death did no better than
the first. Jesus preached, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the
hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three
days He will rise" (Mark 9:31). None of the disciples rebuked Jesus this
time, but that is because "they did not understand the saying, and were
afraid to ask Him" (Mark 9:32).
Today's Gospel is the third sermon Jesus preached on the same topic:
Taking the twelve again, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him,
saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be
delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn
Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him
and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will
rise."
Maybe we should think of this third sermon as an example of how
the hearing of God's Word makes people worse instead of better. Just look at
the progression of reactions over the course of these three sermons preached
about Jesus' suffering and death: In the first sermon, the congregation
reacted negatively, but at least they reacted. In the second, the
congregation wanted to react, but it felt too afraid to say or do anything
in response to the Word. The reaction to this third sermon in today's Gospel
is the worst of the three because there is no reaction at all. Jesus had
just preached a sermon about His death and resurrection, which are the very
heart of the Christian faith, and the disciples do not even act like they
heard a Word of it.
· James and John had their eyes totally on themselves. They were
unswayed by the preaching of the Word, devoting their attentions only to
their own concerns. Vying for position, they appear to have thought
themselves worthy of title and rank. "They said to Him [Jesus], 'Grant us to
sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your glory.'"
· James and John are not alone in ignoring the Words Jesus preached
to them. The other disciples jumped right in with them. "When the ten heard
it [James' and John's request], they were indignant." Theirs was not a holy
indignation that objected to James and John ignoring the preaching of the
Word. Theirs was a selfish indignation. They, too, were ignoring the
preaching of the Word and concerning themselves only with getting with their
own share of the pie.
Three sermons of the purest Gospel, preached by the Lord of Life Himself;
three reactions that go from bad to worse. Opposing the Word, as Peter did
in the first sermon, is bad enough. Allowing the Word to go into one ear and
out the other, as all twelve do in today's Gospel, is worse.
You might object to what I said earlier, that the hearing of God's
Word makes people worse instead of better. Tell me, then: why do people grow
bored with the preaching of the Word? Why doesn't your attention stay
riveted to the Word any better than it does? If God's Word truly works
improvements in us, then why do you and I both immediately return to our
preoccupations and our worries as soon as worship is over? I can hardly say
the Benediction before my mind returns to how I might juggle the bills; how
I might squeak out a little more time to give to the wife; how I might pick
up a couple extra writing contracts; and how I might balance my travel
schedule with my bedside manner. It is really no surprise to me that James
and John act as though they have never even heard the Word. These men do not
surprise me because I do the same thing and I do it all the time.
Of course, we Christians must always bear in mind the Fourth Petition of our
Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). Perhaps
the most important thing that we should remember with regard to the Fourth
Petition is the fact that it is the fourth, and not the first or the second
or the third. The Fourth Petition is the fourth petition, which suggests it
might not be quite as important as "Hallowed be Thy Name" (Mathew 6:9), "Thy
Kingdom come," and "Thy will be done" (Matthew 6:10). It is only the Fourth
Petition to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but we are continually
tempted to make daily bread our first petition, our primary concern, and our
main food for thought.
James and John fell into that same sin before us. Jesus was preaching about
holiness of God's name and the coming of the kingdom and the accomplishment
of the will of God when He preached about His suffering and death. Stated
another way, Jesus was bringing His disciples the very best of God's
promises and assurances for their salvation. All the while, James and John
(and the others, too) were concerning themselves only with daily bread.
"Teacher," they said, "grant us to sit, one at Your right hand an done at
Your left, in Your glory." It is as if these men were saying, "Enough about
the cross, Jesus! Make my position and status sure. Give me assurances that
I will maintain a certain level of honor and reputation and comfort, no
matter what happens in the future."
You might still be hung up by my suggestion that the hearing of God's Word
makes people worse instead of better. Maybe I could revise the statement to
make it more acceptable: If the hearing of God's Word does not make people
worse instead of better, it certainly brings out the worst in us. That is to
say, God's Word displays our sin with indelible clarity.
· As you can see from this Gospel, God's Word lays bear our
James-and-John type motivations and our ten-disciples type jealousies.
· Beyond that, the Word of God makes impossible demands upon us, such
as the command Jesus gives to you and to me in this same Gospel: "Whoever
would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first
among you must be slave of all." Good luck accomplishing that!
· Even beyond that, this Gospel holds us also guilty of allowing the
living and miraculous Words of God to go into one ear and out the other.
This is the third sermon Jesus preached to the disciples on the same topic,
and their reactions worsened with each preaching. If the closest disciples
of our Lord were capable of such negligence and stoniness at the hearing of
His Word, so also are we. That seems like pretty good motivation for our
Lenten repentance.
Yet even while the Word of God brings out the worst in us, it delivers to us
the very best of our God.
Taking the twelve again, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him,
saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be
delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn
Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him
and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will
rise."
Here is the Holiness of God's name established among us: that
Jesus preaches the stuff of your forgiveness and salvation, earned for you
when God the Son suffers and dies at the hands of the Gentiles. Here is the
coming of God's Kingdom and the greatest manifestation of His glory: that
Jesus is enthroned on the cross and crowned with thorns, glorified between
two thieves whose places were prepared for them by God's own justice. Here
is the accomplishment of God's Will: that "they will mock Him and spit on
Him, and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise."
Take this Gospel to heart, dear saints! Mark it well! In this
Gospel, Jesus assures you that the first three petitions of the Lord's
Prayer have been fully answered and accomplished for you. Do not pass these
promises lightly by. Take them as evidence and assurance that your God shall
faithfully answer your Fourth Petition prayers as well. As St. Paul said in
another place, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all,
how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
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