Twenty-Second Sunday after
Pentecost
Commemoration of Simon and
Jude, Apostles
October 28, 2012
Today we celebrate as Reformation Day. The Reformation is a big deal to
us. But why? In a sense, the Reformation is an odd thing. The Holy Christian
Church is truly the one, universal Church. Why is it that some church bodies
have a celebration of reformation while others don’t? That doesn’t seem to speak
very well to unity in the Church. We wholeheartedly celebrate the unity of the
Christian Church even as we celebrate the Reformation. So why is reformation
necessary? Perhaps one way to look at this is to see what Mark is doing in the
Gospel reading.
He starts off by saying that Jesus went to Jericho. In the very next
sentence he tells us an event that occurred when Jesus was leaving Jericho.
Wouldn’t you like to know what happened while Jesus was in the town? What we
know is that we don’t need to know. We need to know what happened as He was
leaving the town. The reason Mark tells it is because he is delivering Jesus to
you. You need to know what occurred with Bartimaeus because that’s how Mark is
delivering Jesus to you. And that’s what the Church does.
The Holy Christian Church delivers Jesus to people. When it doesn’t do
that there’s something wrong. That’s why we have the Reformation. The Reformers
weren’t saying that the Holy Christian Church was in error. Here is where we
agree with all those who say that the Church doesn’t need reformation. The
problem isn’t with the Church but with the people in it. In His infinite wisdom
God chose to make up His holy, pure, universal Church with sinners. That’s what
the Reformation was about, not attacking the Church, but rather the teachings
that people in the Church were delivering to the people of God that directed
them not toward God but toward themselves. The Church delivers Christ to
people. When those within the Church deliver something else to them there’s a serious
need for reformation.
The Holy Christian Church is not merely an organization. The Church is a
living entity, the Communion of Saints. The Church is where we get the forgiveness
of sins. This is not done generally but specifically. Mark tells us of Jesus
moving out of Jericho with a great crowd. But it wasn’t the crowd Mark was
interested in, it was this one particular individual who found himself on the
side of the road. He was blind but could hear very well that Jesus was about to
move on away from him. So he cried out.
What is it that the Church teaches us about who you are? You are dead
in your sins. You are laying on the side of the road, blind and unable to get
out of your condition. What is it that prompted Bartimaeus to cry out to Jesus?
Was there something within him that moved him to approach Jesus? This is a
remarkably frequent understanding of how one comes into a relationship with
God. You must cry out to him. You must make the first move and then He will
come to you.
What does Mark show us, though? Jesus was the one who came to Jericho.
It’s very possible Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus before Jesus even came to
Jericho. It’s also possible in the time, whether brief or a few days, that
Jesus was in Jericho that word got around about this man who came into town
with a large crowd on His heels. That Bartimaeus cried to Him as the Son of
David shows us that Bartimaeus knew who He was. Even before Jesus passed by Bartimaeus
Bartimaeus knew who this man was; the Son of David, the Messiah. This is how
faith comes to a person, through the Word getting out and by hearing that Word.
Even before Jesus passed by Bartimaeus Bartimaeus had heard. He had received
the message that Jesus, the Savior, was here.
But he was laying there. Would he miss out? The cry of faith prevented
that. He cried out to Jesus and even so he still seemed to be prevented from receiving
from Jesus the help he needed. The crowd rebuked him. You need to stay silent.
Here in this detail also Mark is showing us how he is delivering Jesus to you.
The Word rings out and cannot be silenced. At the same time, the cry that goes
out to God for mercy will be attempted by many to be squelched. The crowd
wanted to leave Bartimaeus to his own wretched state. They tried to silence
him.
What does faith do in this circumstance? It cries out all the more. It
is fixed on Jesus, not on the pressing cries of silence. Jesus hears this cry. When
all seems to go against you you cry out all the more to Jesus. He hears this
and responds to it. That’s exactly what He did with Bartimaeus. “And Jesus
stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take
heart. Get up; He is calling you.’” Jesus called to that man in His wretched
state. He didn’t demand anything of him in order be freed from his wretched
state. He simply called him. He met Bartimaeus where he was at.
And so He does with you. The crowd that tried to silence him now spoke
words that should remind you of the importance of reformation and why it is
always necessary: “Take heart. Get up; He is calling you.” This is the message
the Church must always make known. Take heart. Get up. He is calling you. When
those in the Church tell you of what you must do in order to gain God’s favor reformation
is needed. When those in the Church tell you that you aren’t in fact in a
wretched state, that you aren’t by nature sinful and unclean, reformation is of
utmost importance. When those in the Church tell you that you must be the one
to come to God in order for Him to come to you, reformation is the order of the
day. This is shown when Mark tells us what Jesus did for the man and what He
said to him.
First, what did the man do when he heard the message that Jesus was
calling him? “And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” This
is a picture of repentance. Repentance is so misunderstood, which is one of the
reasons the Reformation happened and one of the reasons reformation continues
to be necessary. Repentance is the work of God. We think of it as our work
because we are the ones who turn, we repent. But when you repent you are not
producing anything. And how could you? You are by nature sinful and unclean.
How could you produce and accomplish the good work of repentance? You couldn’t
just as Bartimaeus couldn’t. He was blind even as you are. Even though your
eyes see you can’t find your way to heaven any more than Bartimaeus could have.
When you throw off the cloak of your sinful nature and leave it behind and
spring up and come to Jesus, this is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. Bartimaeus
was given this ability to do this by Jesus Himself when He called Bartimaeus.
What did Jesus ask Him? And Jesus said to him, “What do you want Me to
do for you?” Notice these words of Jesus to Bartimaeus. They are to Bartimaeus.
There’s a throng around Him, there are multitudes of others who are in need,
and yet Jesus’ words to this man are to this man specifically. “What do you
want Me to do for you?” This is at the heart of the Reformation and of reformation
as it continues in the Church. The ‘for you’ of the Gospel. Jesus died for the
world and He died for you. Who is the one doing the for you? It is Jesus. The Reformers
saw that there was entirely too much focus on what we must do to appease God
and the ‘for you’ of the Gospel was getting pushed to the back. “What do you
want Me to do for you?” The Gospel is always what Christ does for
you and never what you do or must do for Him.
Because the Church is made up of sinners and sinners always carry
around their sinful flesh it’s natural for us to take the words of Scripture
and gravitate toward those words that seem to indicate that we must make some
effort toward God in order to be saved. Bartimaeus cried out; Bartimaeus threw
his cloak down and went to Jesus. Bartimaeus had faith. There’s no doubt these
describe action on the part of Bartimaeus, a human and a sinner just like you
and I are. The question is, how was he able to accomplish these actions? Of his
own power? Of his own will? This is what many in the Church teach and this is
the reason why reformation is still necessary.
Mark gives Bartimaeus’ answer to Jesus’ question, “What do you want Me
to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my
sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” Faith.
When we confess the faith in the Creed, what do we do? We say, “I believe.” I
believe in God, the Father Almighty. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord. I believe in the Holy Spirit. This is faith. When you believe in God,
in salvation in Christ alone. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said
to Bartimaeus that he had faith.
This is all well and good, but it’s so easily misunderstood by people
in the Church. Why that is is because we’re all sinners. Sinners have their
focus on themselves. So when the Word of God talks about us having faith, we
jump up, ready to please God, and say, “Yes, I have faith! I believe in Jesus.”
This is the kind of thing the Reformation sought to expose for what it is:
idolatry. The Church exists to point people outside of themselves, not within
themselves. You are not to come up with faith. Look to God for that. He is the
one who gives you the very faith required of you.
The First Commandment demands it: You shall have no other gods. What
does this mean? We should, fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
So there you go, do that and your golden. The problem is when people in the
Church actually impress that on people as if that’s something they can actually
do! Try it. You will fail. You will not get pretty close, or do pretty well, or
make a good effort of it. You will fail. And you will fail miserably. Because
you are a poor, miserable sinner.
You must have faith but you do not have it. So how it is that you
believe? You have faith, how? What do we confess in the meaning of the Third Article
of the Creed? I believe that I cannot believe. “I believe that I cannot by my
own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” This
is what the Reformation is all about. It’s what the daily Christian life is all
about. Jesus is delivered to you, you don’t go after Him.
When Jesus gave sight to Bartimaeus he followed Jesus on the way. Jesus
was going the way of the cross. Jesus has since gone that way. He went to the
cross. He accomplished salvation there, for the world, for you. He doesn’t go
that way again, but the Church continues to go back to it, constantly
proclaiming Christ crucified for sinners, for people in the Church and out. For
everyone and for you. He still makes His way but it is not the way of the cross
but rather is the way of being delivered directly to you in the Church. In the
proclaimed Gospel He is delivered to you. In your Baptism He is delivered to
you. In His Holy Supper He is delivered to you. Sinners are the ones who hear
the Gospel proclaimed and who are Baptized and who eat and drink the body and blood
of Jesus for the forgiveness of all of their sins.
Reformation is always necessary because we are always in need of
forgiveness. The unity of the Holy Christian Church is found not in Christians
coming together and feeling good about each other or putting aside differences
but rather in the observance and celebration of those means in which Jesus is
delivered to them. Reformation is necessary because God loves you too much to
leave you in your wretched state and so He calls you, He tells you to take
heart, He delivers Jesus to you. Amen.
SDG
No comments:
Post a Comment