Sermon - Lent Midweek 2, 2021

 

Jesus was very explicit about what it was that He came to do. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” He is even very explicit about what His death and resurrection are to accomplish: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Christ has ransomed us from our slavery to Satan, so that we may be lifted up to heaven and here on earth serve one another.

Every aspect of Jesus’ death that He foretold came to pass. As we listen to the reading of the Passion account, which is a combination of all four Gospels, we see very plainly that it all happened just as He said. Jesus indeed went up to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; on Maundy Thursday He was delivered over to the chief priests and scribes who condemned him to death; on Good Friday He was delivered to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified. On Easter Sunday He was raised from the dead.

It all happened just as Jesus said, and we can all plainly read that history in the scriptures. But more importantly yet than the historical exactness of what Jesus did, is that Jesus did all of this in order to give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus was crucified, died, buried, and raised as the ransom payment to set us free.

So here’s the situation: we are all enslaved to Satan, sin, and death. We are slaves to these wicked masters, which means that we are not our own and have no power to release ourselves. Being thus enslaved to Satan, our situation is quite dire; we’re doomed to hell. But then comes along Jesus! He alone has the wealth to pay off our ransom, and so He offers up His life as the ransom payment for our sins! Only the sinless spotless Lamb of God can offer up Himself as our substitute in order to satisfy the Father’s wrath. Only He can drink the cup of wrath and make payment for our guilt.

By His blood we are healed. All our trespasses are forgiven since Christ has paid the ransom and set us free from our bondage to sin by dying in our place. The life of One, Jesus Christ, was forfeited so that the lives of many would be rescued. All has been done by Christ. He alone made the payment on Calvary. Your sins are forgiven. You have complete and full remission because Christ has paid your ransom.

Considering how clear Jesus is about this, isn’t it strange then that Jesus’ apostles don’t get it! Jesus tells them He’s going to die for them, and then the sons of thunder, James and John, ask to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in glory. Jesus tells them that He’s going to die for them, and all the apostles can think about is having glory in heaven and getting to sit in the places of honor and privilege.

As wicked as it is for James and John to have made this request, they weren’t alone in their desire for glory. “When the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.” Why were the other apostles indignant? Because they too wanted to sit at Jesus right and left hand, and they were peeved that they hadn’t thought to ask Jesus first! Someone else beat them to the punch!

Jesus offers freedom from slavery to sin, and all the apostles could think of was how they could get the most glory and prestige, and even be set up above their brothers. But Christ corrects them and shows them a different way. “As the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,” likewise, among us, “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.” 

Jesus, who is true God and Lord of all the earth, came to be the servant and slave of all the earth, by laying down His life as a ransom for many. Jesus later would wash the apostles’ feet, illustrating that He came to serve man by washing not just feet from their filth, but souls from their sin. So we who follow Christ and bear His name upon our hearts and His cross upon our heads, we too are lords and masters over all creation, being freed from Satan by Jesus. Yet, since we bear the name of Christ and carry our own crosses, and take sips of the cup from which Jesus drank, we too are servants and slaves of all.

Like the apostles, all of us Christians are tempted towards pride and pretentiousness, wanting to see ourselves as masters and lords over all. Afterall, that’s how the world works! “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” Far too often this is how we treat the church and behave towards one another.

We act as if this church were ours, as if it belongs to us. Those who volunteer more, donate more, have attended longer, have a family history in the church, we behave and think as if we are above others. Or in particular to us, we Lutherans who have the pure unadulterated Word of God, may view other errant Christians as being less than we are. Either way, it tends to be the case that we each view ourselves more highly than one another. We’re often no better than those boisterous, sons of thunder, James and John.

Thus Jesus declares: “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.” Having been freed from our slavery to Satan by Jesus, we now enter into a new sort of slavery, a voluntary slavery; we become the servants of one another. We may be free and we may even be masters and lords, but as Christians we become each other’s slaves in love.

Afterall, Jesus, who is our Lord and Master, laid aside His divine glory at the incarnation. He assumed our human flesh, adorned Himself with our poverty and sorrow, and became the slave of us all by paying the ransom price with His blood. Jesus is the greatest Lord of Lords, but for us became the most pitiful servant of all.