2nd Sunday in Lent
March 12, 2006
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wieting
Text: Mark 8:27-38
In the Name of Jesus, Dear followers of Christ and bearers of your cross:
You know as I do that some things go together. Childrearing and discipline go together. University classes and tests go together. Aging and bodily changes go together. A Wisconsin winter and snow go together. The togetherness of these things is never perfect.
Some days a child may willingly mind, while on other days loving discipline may be the foremost need. With some instructors testing is tough; with others pretty painless. For some senior citizens bodily changes are steady and severe; for others more slight. Some Wisconsin winters are brutal; others like this one, quite mild. These things go together, but sometimes it’s a matter of degree; sometimes more and sometimes less.
Jesus spoke of something that goes together in a relationship that is never more or less, never a matter of degree. “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.” Here Jesus clearly shows that HE AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER.
The Greek word for ashamed is used most commonly in Scripture to denote the judgment of God. Those full of proud confidence and expectancy at His coming will be disgraced. Shame will be enforced upon them. Incredibly, those who should know and fear that shame are instead ashamed of the one who will judge them and the words by which He will judge them (John 12:48). JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER all the way to the last day.
The setting for His teaching was Caesarea Philippi a bustling city with pagan temples and idol worship of Caesar himself. The city offered sophisticated amusement for the wealthy and sensual pleasure for Roman soldiers on leave. It presented a plethora of worldly and spiritual choices. It was here in this idol infested, entertainment oriented city that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter’s answer was right. “You are the Christ”. Then Jesus lifted the veil on precisely why Christ came in the flesh.
It was less than a year before Jesus’ death and he began to speak openly about His crucifixion. “…he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.” The Greek word indicates blunt outspokenness that concealed nothing. It was impossible to miss what Jesus intended to say.
But it was possible to disagree with Jesus’ words. That’s what Peter did. Peter rebuked Jesus like Jesus had rebuked the demons. He meant it in a pragmatic, protective, peace promoting kind of way. But the bottom line was that he rejected Jesus’ clear words about the cross. To this criticism Jesus also spoke plainly, “…turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting you mind on the things of God, but on things of man.”
Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
“Bearing the cross” was not a Jewish metaphor or symbol. The common reference of the cross in studies of that culture was the actual crucifixion of 2000 Jews some 30 years before by the Roman governor of Syria. The condemned in such executions actually carried the cross-beams to the stake of execution. Taking that into account, Jesus’ words could well mean actual martyrdom for His disciples. Even as He would carry the cross beam to which He was spiked, so there was the possibility of a death march for His disciples. JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER even when His words are repulsive to His hearers.
As there was a cross for Jesus’ followers then, so there is a cross for you His Church today. It is not presently a physical cross-beam carried to an execution stake. It is rather determined by the words that Jesus speaks to you in your time and place in life. JESUS STILL SPEAKS PLAINLY. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL GO TOGETHER. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL BRING A CROSS.
A cross is something God gives us to do that is difficult to bear, sometimes painful, not easy to accomplish, setting our mind on the things of God, not of men.
Parents impress the commandments upon your children, daily talking about them (Deut 6:7, 8)
Children obey your parents in everything (Col 3:18)
Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her (Eph 5:25)
Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord (Eph 5:22)
Pastors preach the word with great patience and careful instruction (II Tim 4:2), not lording it over those entrusted to you (I Pt 5:2-4)
Christians, love your neighbor as yourself (Rom 13:9), in fact, love even your enemies, pray for those who persecute you (Mt 5:44), and warn those going astray (II Thes 3:14, 15 Titus 3:10, Gal 6:1).
Beloved, JESUS STILL SPEAKS PLAINLY. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL GO TOGETHER. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL BRING A CROSS, because our minds are set on our own things, the things of men. God calls us to be totally faithful to His Word in the ordinary duties of daily life, and that just kills us! God calls us away from concern for ourselves to total fear and love and trust in Him. That leads our sinful hearts to daily try to kill Him. We want to be in charge. We want to have control. We want to save our earthly lives.
The cross is therefore not some special thing that we dream up, but what His word actually tells us to do in daily life. The criteria for following Jesus, is not feeling like I have Him bottled up in my heart. It is rather following His words, whatever my feelings may tell me about His words.
“Why call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say” (Luke 6:46)? “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes…” We still live in an adulterous and sinful generation. The enlightened relativism (truthiness) of our age like the city of Caesarea Philippi still offers a surplus of reasons to be ashamed of God’s words.
Dr. Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not professing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.” Dear Christians, the attack is on everyday and the points aren’t so little. Whether it is His words regarding creation or inherited sin or God’s gift of life in the womb or carrying our cross or the love of discipline or honoring Him with our first fruits or honoring the marriage bed or Christ’s second coming, the attack is on. The heart of these attacks is pictured well by Peter. He had such positive thoughts for Jesus that he felt compelled to correct Jesus’ view of the cross. We also can have such fine, pragmatic plans for Jesus and His Church that we are tempted to set aside His clear words.
But JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER. Rejecting His words is rejecting Him. “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:48) Of such rejection we all stand guilty. Of such judgment we therefore all stand guilty as we earlier confessed.
That’s why Jesus put His words together with His actions. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER. All of the prophecies that the pre-incarnate Christ made through the centuries, He fulfilled. Abraham was made the father of many nations, indeed the father of all who believe through Christ, indeed your father. And true to His word, Jesus was led away to a place of execution, carrying his cross. Then in total shame and suffering he confessed by word and deed that He was not ashamed of us ungodly ones, us sinners, us enemies of God.
“Who do you say I am?” “You are the Christ.” What did I come to do? To endure the cross for the joy of our redemption! Fellow-redeemed, what would we do if Christ had not died for the ungodly? What would we do if we did not have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? What would we do if He did not remember His mercy and steadfast love from of old? Since JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER, that is not a question you will ever have to answer.
The once bustling, idolatrous city of Caesarea is now only ruins. Its citizens, its glory have long since faded from this earth. And so, we also are quickly fading away. The years of disciplining children in the home pass so quickly. Tests at the university may seem like they’ll never end, but they do, just like that. The challenges of aging are trying but temporary. A few warm days remind us that the snow of winter is here today and gone tomorrow. But, beloved, the Word of God endures forever!
JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER, including His words that after three days He would rise again. Risen from the grave Jesus spoke words of rebirth to you in your baptism. He is still connected to those words. Risen from the grave Jesus speaks words of life to you today at His altar. He gives just what He says to you.
What would it profit if you gained the whole world and forfeited your life? Nothing! What can you give in return for your life? Nothing! You can’t save it. But Jesus could and did! Joined to His words He comes to give you that blessed exchange still today. In the Name of Jesus, AMEN.
(Stand) The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wieting
Text: Mark 8:27-38
In the Name of Jesus, Dear followers of Christ and bearers of your cross:
You know as I do that some things go together. Childrearing and discipline go together. University classes and tests go together. Aging and bodily changes go together. A Wisconsin winter and snow go together. The togetherness of these things is never perfect.
Some days a child may willingly mind, while on other days loving discipline may be the foremost need. With some instructors testing is tough; with others pretty painless. For some senior citizens bodily changes are steady and severe; for others more slight. Some Wisconsin winters are brutal; others like this one, quite mild. These things go together, but sometimes it’s a matter of degree; sometimes more and sometimes less.
Jesus spoke of something that goes together in a relationship that is never more or less, never a matter of degree. “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.” Here Jesus clearly shows that HE AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER.
The Greek word for ashamed is used most commonly in Scripture to denote the judgment of God. Those full of proud confidence and expectancy at His coming will be disgraced. Shame will be enforced upon them. Incredibly, those who should know and fear that shame are instead ashamed of the one who will judge them and the words by which He will judge them (John 12:48). JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER all the way to the last day.
The setting for His teaching was Caesarea Philippi a bustling city with pagan temples and idol worship of Caesar himself. The city offered sophisticated amusement for the wealthy and sensual pleasure for Roman soldiers on leave. It presented a plethora of worldly and spiritual choices. It was here in this idol infested, entertainment oriented city that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter’s answer was right. “You are the Christ”. Then Jesus lifted the veil on precisely why Christ came in the flesh.
It was less than a year before Jesus’ death and he began to speak openly about His crucifixion. “…he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.” The Greek word indicates blunt outspokenness that concealed nothing. It was impossible to miss what Jesus intended to say.
But it was possible to disagree with Jesus’ words. That’s what Peter did. Peter rebuked Jesus like Jesus had rebuked the demons. He meant it in a pragmatic, protective, peace promoting kind of way. But the bottom line was that he rejected Jesus’ clear words about the cross. To this criticism Jesus also spoke plainly, “…turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting you mind on the things of God, but on things of man.”
Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
“Bearing the cross” was not a Jewish metaphor or symbol. The common reference of the cross in studies of that culture was the actual crucifixion of 2000 Jews some 30 years before by the Roman governor of Syria. The condemned in such executions actually carried the cross-beams to the stake of execution. Taking that into account, Jesus’ words could well mean actual martyrdom for His disciples. Even as He would carry the cross beam to which He was spiked, so there was the possibility of a death march for His disciples. JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER even when His words are repulsive to His hearers.
As there was a cross for Jesus’ followers then, so there is a cross for you His Church today. It is not presently a physical cross-beam carried to an execution stake. It is rather determined by the words that Jesus speaks to you in your time and place in life. JESUS STILL SPEAKS PLAINLY. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL GO TOGETHER. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL BRING A CROSS.
A cross is something God gives us to do that is difficult to bear, sometimes painful, not easy to accomplish, setting our mind on the things of God, not of men.
Parents impress the commandments upon your children, daily talking about them (Deut 6:7, 8)
Children obey your parents in everything (Col 3:18)
Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her (Eph 5:25)
Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord (Eph 5:22)
Pastors preach the word with great patience and careful instruction (II Tim 4:2), not lording it over those entrusted to you (I Pt 5:2-4)
Christians, love your neighbor as yourself (Rom 13:9), in fact, love even your enemies, pray for those who persecute you (Mt 5:44), and warn those going astray (II Thes 3:14, 15 Titus 3:10, Gal 6:1).
Beloved, JESUS STILL SPEAKS PLAINLY. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL GO TOGETHER. HE AND HIS WORDS STILL BRING A CROSS, because our minds are set on our own things, the things of men. God calls us to be totally faithful to His Word in the ordinary duties of daily life, and that just kills us! God calls us away from concern for ourselves to total fear and love and trust in Him. That leads our sinful hearts to daily try to kill Him. We want to be in charge. We want to have control. We want to save our earthly lives.
The cross is therefore not some special thing that we dream up, but what His word actually tells us to do in daily life. The criteria for following Jesus, is not feeling like I have Him bottled up in my heart. It is rather following His words, whatever my feelings may tell me about His words.
“Why call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say” (Luke 6:46)? “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes…” We still live in an adulterous and sinful generation. The enlightened relativism (truthiness) of our age like the city of Caesarea Philippi still offers a surplus of reasons to be ashamed of God’s words.
Dr. Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not professing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.” Dear Christians, the attack is on everyday and the points aren’t so little. Whether it is His words regarding creation or inherited sin or God’s gift of life in the womb or carrying our cross or the love of discipline or honoring Him with our first fruits or honoring the marriage bed or Christ’s second coming, the attack is on. The heart of these attacks is pictured well by Peter. He had such positive thoughts for Jesus that he felt compelled to correct Jesus’ view of the cross. We also can have such fine, pragmatic plans for Jesus and His Church that we are tempted to set aside His clear words.
But JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER. Rejecting His words is rejecting Him. “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:48) Of such rejection we all stand guilty. Of such judgment we therefore all stand guilty as we earlier confessed.
That’s why Jesus put His words together with His actions. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER. All of the prophecies that the pre-incarnate Christ made through the centuries, He fulfilled. Abraham was made the father of many nations, indeed the father of all who believe through Christ, indeed your father. And true to His word, Jesus was led away to a place of execution, carrying his cross. Then in total shame and suffering he confessed by word and deed that He was not ashamed of us ungodly ones, us sinners, us enemies of God.
“Who do you say I am?” “You are the Christ.” What did I come to do? To endure the cross for the joy of our redemption! Fellow-redeemed, what would we do if Christ had not died for the ungodly? What would we do if we did not have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? What would we do if He did not remember His mercy and steadfast love from of old? Since JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER, that is not a question you will ever have to answer.
The once bustling, idolatrous city of Caesarea is now only ruins. Its citizens, its glory have long since faded from this earth. And so, we also are quickly fading away. The years of disciplining children in the home pass so quickly. Tests at the university may seem like they’ll never end, but they do, just like that. The challenges of aging are trying but temporary. A few warm days remind us that the snow of winter is here today and gone tomorrow. But, beloved, the Word of God endures forever!
JESUS AND HIS WORDS GO TOGETHER, including His words that after three days He would rise again. Risen from the grave Jesus spoke words of rebirth to you in your baptism. He is still connected to those words. Risen from the grave Jesus speaks words of life to you today at His altar. He gives just what He says to you.
What would it profit if you gained the whole world and forfeited your life? Nothing! What can you give in return for your life? Nothing! You can’t save it. But Jesus could and did! Joined to His words He comes to give you that blessed exchange still today. In the Name of Jesus, AMEN.
(Stand) The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
3/13/2006
