Prayers...

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon:  “I Came to Preach” - Fifth Sunday after Epiphany February 8, 2015

Mark 1:29-39  
And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.  And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.  Jesus Preaches in Galilee  And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text, And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The last three weeks have taken us step-by-step through the first chapter of St. Mark. The problem is, when you chop up the verses this way, and handle one little section each week, you lose the flow of the text, the urgency of the situation, the rapidity with which everything is happening. Six times in these twenty-five verses is the word immediately used… Jesus is on the move with a goal in mind, and he’s not stopping for anything. And yet, as quickly as He moves, just as quickly arise road blocks – last week, “immediately” a man with an unclean spirit confronts Jesus in the synagogue; today, “immediately” the illness of Simon’s mother-in-law commands attention. 
And yet, even these hurdles the Lord uses for His purpose, as the healings and casting out of demons display for us the authority of this Jesus. Last week, we heard that all the crowd was astonished at this One preaching with such authority. Today, Mark again reminds us of this authority, (even appealing to not just one demon cast out, but “many demons” being cast out)… but, this morning, Mark’s appeal to Jesus’ authority includes a subtle reference upon which we do well to meditate.
Ponder this question for a moment: What’s the purpose in Mark recording that Peter’s mother-in-law was healed of her fever and ‘went about serving them’? What’s the point? To prove she was really healed and didn’t just ‘appear’ healed? With so many witnesses would the validity of the healing really be questioned? 
Maybe the description is included to prove she’s a good hostess. That seems to contradict what Jesus says about Martha and Mary, when he lauded Mary for choosing the better portion by sitting at His feet and listening.
In reality, this reference to Peter’s mother-in-law serving them must be seen in light of the first sentence of our reading; in fact, it’s far better understood if we didn’t take Mark’s first chapter apart in little sections but read it as a whole: This healing happened on the Sabbath. Last week, we heard that on the Sabbath Jesus entered into the synagogue to teach and was confronted by the demon. Leaving the synagogue, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law on the same Sabbath. And she gets up and serves them on the Sabbath. 
Why is that important? Remember, according to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, there was to be no work, no effort, on the Sabbath. Righteousness was earned by keeping that law. Yet, here, in direct contradiction of such custom, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. It’s not unlike when Jesus was despised by the religious leaders for healing on the Sabbath or letting his disciples pick heads of grain on the Sabbath. In fact, seven times, Jesus performed a miracle on the Sabbath, showing Himself to be Lord over the Sabbath laws. 
And, not only does Jesus heal on the Sabbath, but Peter’s mother-in-law gets up and immediately works. She completely disregards the Sabbath Law because she recognizes Christ to be the Lord of the Sabbath – the One in whom God has long-promised eternal rest. The mother-in-law goes right to work, as if confessing, “The Jewish Sabbath customs cannot win me salvation, but this Jesus wins me salvation. Why should I any longer trust in ceremonial customs when the Kingdom of God is found in this Jesus?”
Now, as if Mark wants to remind us yet again of this, the very next words paint for us an amazing picture: “That evening at sundown” or, more properly, “That evening, when the sun set.” Why is that important? Because it meant the Sabbath was over, and with it, the ceremonial laws keeping people from exerting effort. And, as soon as the ceremonial laws no longer shackle them, the ill and oppressed flock to Jesus. 
You can almost imagine the scene as the sun drops: With great piety and every intention on outwardly keeping the law, the needy and their families inwardly despise the Law and yearn for the sun to set. All eyes on the sun as it gradually slides through the sky; people standing at the door as if the starting gate of a horse race, and, as soon as the Law has been met, they’re off to see Jesus.
Isn’t it a pathetic sight, in some ways, and yet a telling one: The people all know the Law can’t help them. They’re so eager to lay hold of this Jesus, this flesh-and-blood gospel, and yet they feel compelled by guilt and legalistic thought to pay proper respect to the legalistic customs… perhaps just in case this Jesus doesn’t pan out, at least they know they’ll have kept the Law and can fall back on that!
We sick and oppressed think and act the exact same way! What good is our effort in keeping the customs? How exactly does it help us if (for example) “Remember the Sabbath” is kept to simply ‘go through the motions’? We know such legalism is of no benefit! And yet, we pride ourselves in doing so… When life gets difficult and it seems that Jesus isn’t helping us the way we’d like, we fall back on the fact that “I’ve been a good person, I’ve tithed just so. I’ve sat through every Sunday service. I’ve served my church religiously. I’ve tried my best to keep the rules. With that God should be pleased.”
But we know that’s not how it works. How often do we need to hear the Scriptures tell us that we are dead in our trespasses, that no one is righteous, that it is the sick who need a physician… how often do we need to hear that, before we realize we don’t come to church each week to ‘follow the custom’, but because we need Jesus and the healing touch He here freely gives?
If you come to this place proud that you have done your best to keep the Law, if you come thinking God is pleased with your legalism, if you come to keep the customs and to go through the motions, your faith is a dead faith, a sterile spirituality… and you will die in your unrighteousness. 
Friends, don’t wait to lay hold of Christ until you have perfectly kept the Law, or else you will never lay hold of Him. Christ came not for the righteous but for sinners…for those of whom the Law says, “It is not proper to help them. They can’t be helped, ought not be helped.”
This must be understood properly, for we too easily abuse this great and blessed truth: We sinners hear such exhortation to depend not on legalism, but on Christ, and we say, “Well then, I should simply disregard God’s Law, sin boldly and sin often, and Christ will forgive me.” Such is dead faith too. The one who depends on Christ’s Gospel sees that Christ’s Law is worth cherishing… not because it gains you anything, but because the Law belongs to the very Christ you cherish. It’s His Law; therefore we cherish it and gladly do as He commands. 
But, as He is Lord over the Law, then when the question of salvation is at the fore, we do not run to the Law, but to the Lord over the Law. We do not stand at the threshold of the door and wait for the sun to set before we sprint to Christ. Such does not save us. Rather, we run to Christ for salvation, for forgiveness, for divine gifts of Word and Sacrament, specifically because the Law has served its purpose and has pointed us to its Lord. 
For the broken sinner, the one dying in his guilt and shame and cancerous sinful nature and disease of every dark misdeed, for that one who knows his illness – he knows it because of the Law. Rightly, he doesn’t disregard the Law; rather, he sees himself in the Law’s mirror and says, “I am diseased, as good as dead. The Law condemns me. I cannot save myself, nor can the Law save me. I need something even greater.”
And, at that point, the desperate sinner cares not if customs or traditions tell him to wait until sundown; he says, “I cannot wait. I need Christ now.” And, far from trying to justify himself in his keeping of the Law, the sinner throws himself at Jesus’ feet and says, “Lord, your Law rightly condemns me. I am sick and dying, oppressed by my sins, full of evil. Have mercy on me.”
And have mercy Jesus does. With the whole city gathered at the door, Jesus heals many, casting out demons, healing the sick. 
Now such show of Jesus’ authority, such good news that this Jesus is Lord over the demons and diseases, even this good news we sinners misinterpret. We misinterpret it by saying this is what Jesus should be doing for us, this very literal healing: “Why am I still a cancer patient? Why do I still have heart disease? Why am I still struggling with depression? Why must I die?” We begin to think that – if Jesus was truly here for me, as he was for the crowds – then he should be ridding me of all my problems.
But, that’s not at all the point of the text, is it? Christ himself says so when Simon, fresh off the joy of his mother-in-law’s miraculous healing, finds Jesus early in the morning and says, “Everyone is looking for you.” In other words, “Jesus, do for everyone else what you did for my mother-in-law.” 
And Jesus says No. 
Instead, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
I imagine Peter may have been frustrated to hear that Jesus wanted to preach, when everyone else wanted miracles. Are you frustrated that you’re not getting what you want from Jesus to make this life better? Then you need to hear the truth again:
“Let us go… that I may preach… for that is why I came.”
This is an amazing statement when you think about it! Jesus basically distances Simon Peter’s attention from all the healings… Jesus completely separates the healings from the preaching, and He says, “The gospel is not about healing ills temporally. Mine is no social gospel. I came to declare an eternal gospel.” And yet, what’s so stunning about this is that, if you read back through the last twenty-some verses of Mark since these healings began, you’ll find the gospel writer doesn’t once mention what Jesus is saying! Mark points out the healings, the casting out of demons, says that Jesus preached with authority that stunned the crowds… but Mark doesn’t record what Jesus actually said!
And there’s a simple reason for that… it’s because what Jesus said was recorded by Mark at the very first, from the outset, to overarch and define everything that comes after it… from the very first, Mark mentions this simple sermon, and it’s the same preaching, the same sermon, over and over and over again: 
From verse. 14 (three weeks ago): “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”
For all the healings, all the raising up of the sick, all the miracles… in a sense, it’s not the gospel. To be sure, it flows from the Gospel and points to the Gospel. It manifests the One who is the Gospel and brings the Gospel. But, temporal healing is not in and of itself the gospel. Notice, as the text concludes, it says that Jesus went preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons (more of that spiritual warfare we talked about last week), but it says nothing about healings and physical improvement.
Jesus’ healing touch is there to manifest Jesus’ identity as the One who has authority over the Law and all of Sin’s effects, so that – true – the temporal healing does foreshadow the resurrection! Sometimes in life, Jesus momentarily grants you His same healing touch that foreshadows the resurrection; but it’s Jesus’ preaching to which all souls must cling:
“Repent and believe in the gospel” – the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, the life everlasting.
Friends, how complacent do we grow in hearing it, and yet the gospel which we are to believe forever rings out – “Christ died for you.” There’s the message that Jesus preaches. The time is fulfilled, at hand is the Kingdom of God in the person of Jesus. Repent, believe the gospel… for Christ died for you.
Epiphany is soon over; the ‘manifesting’ of Jesus soon gives way to His passion and suffering. But the preaching remains the same: “Christ died for you.”
For the one who stands at the threshold and waits for the sun to set – for the one who still thinks that maybe keeping the Law ‘just so’ might gain heaven – the gospel of Jesus falls on deaf ears. But, for you who know your sin, know how constantly you fail the Law’s demands, know how thoroughly you are in need of a constant stream of forgiveness – from his cross to this font to this altar: repent and believe in the gospel… for Christ died for you.

In the Name of the Father  And of the Son And of the Holy Spirit.
+ AMEN +  
Rev. Mark C. Bestul Calvary Lutheran Church February 8, 2015

Prayers

* Hear my prayer for those who are ill, suffering, or injured, especially Norm Bunge*, Connie Block*, Debbie Taylor, Sue Ail, LaVerne Andersen*, Mark Babler (a friend of the Hopkins family with stage 4 lung cancer) and (my grand-niece) Ava Williams who has been in the hospital with ear problems) ; comfort them with the certainty that – because their sins have been forgiven on account of Christ Crucified – they may be certain that you will provide for their temporal health and their eternal well-being, in accord with Your will.

* For the anxious, lonely: O God, You promise to answer those who call upon You in their day of trouble. Hear my prayer on behalf of my nephew Joe, my son Mark, and my niece Roxanne, forgive them where – in trial and tribulation – they grow weary and doubt your Word. Strengthen them through Your Word of Truth and its promises, reminding them that – because they are forgiven in Christ – nothing can separate them from Your love.

* For the mourning: O Lord, You take no delight in the death of even the wicked, but desire all men to be saved, and have given Your only-begotten Son to bear the sins of all the world. Hear my prayer on behalf all who mourn the death of loved ones.  Comfort them with the promise that we have been forgiven in Christ, so that all who die in Christ still live with Him in paradise. Comfort them in this time of sorrow, that they would not grieve as those who have no hope, but as those to whom belongs the certain hope of “the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

* For the rejoicing: O Lord, because You have paid the redemption price in Christ, and have forgiven all our trespasses, You also delight in giving us every blessing under heaven. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving on behalf of all those who rejoice. Grant thankful hearts to my brother Don and his friends and family as we rejoice in his recent retirements and the many blessings that flow to us as ones forgiven through the blood of the Lamb.

* Please bless Calvary shut-ins Velma Mass, Irma Martin, Velda Miller, Bruce Morecraft,  Alice Breneman and also bless all Widows and Widowers of Calvary

Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, in Whom we have the forgiveness of sins and, thus, the right to come to you as dear children who have been taught to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…