The Lutheran Hour
-
"Truth Suffers and Serves, to Save!"
- Download MP3 No bonus material MP3
-
Text: Mark 6:12-17
-
The Crucified One is risen, He is risen, indeed and that truth is the key for your life, now and forever. Amen.
Why does it seem that in this world for truth to finally win the day, it must suffer first?
Even when people try to speak the truth in love, with kindness and gentleness, out of care and concern, most people still don’t want to hear it. Often times their first reaction is mind your own business. In fact, many times people are more apt to punish you for caring so much. It seems that the greater the truth that needs to be told or shared, the greater the sacrifice that must be made for it to be received as love.Let me illustrate what I mean. Do you remember the movie, “Gladiator”? It was a cinematic presentation of the gory entertainment that was part of the Roman culture back in the first four centuries. In the middle of the movie, Maximus, a great Roman general reduced to a gladiator, battles the blood-thirsty emperor Commodus.
But, if you watch the movie, the ending gives the impression that Maximus’ victory ends the games and returns Rome to truth and sanity. But do you know how this practice really ended? It didn’t happen between two warriors. No, it happened because of a simple monk. The monk’s name? Telemachus.
During Telemachus’ life the gladiator games were very popular. People were fascinated by the sight of blood and gore upon the arena floor. And that alone brought the rightful criticism of bishops and priests from within the church. But, it didn’t stop it. Even worse, most of the gladiators who fought in the arena were not there voluntarily. Most were slaves and political prisoners who were forced to train and fight for their lives for the sheer entertainment of others. Telemachus knew that men were not animals, they were made in the image of God and redeemed by His undeserved grace! So, he felt even more must be done. He set out for Rome.
When he entered the city on the day of the fight, Telemachus observed that people were almost mad with excitement for the fights to come. They shouted, “To the Coliseum” as they hurried to get their place with the choicest view. He followed to the arena. Once inside, the humble monk could feel the tension. It was eerily silent as they waited for the combatants to appear. Then suddenly two men appeared, the crowd roared with excitement. They faced the emperor, then faced each other, and with swords unsheathed, the fight to the death was on.
But at that very moment Telemachus took a fateful action. He rose from his seat and ran down onto the arena floor. To save his own people from their bloodthirsty inhumanity, he held high the cross of Christ, and threw himself into a position between the two gladiators, crying aloud, “In the name of our Master, stop fighting!”
The two men put their swords away momentarily, but the crowd went wild, calling for blood. Telemachus had robbed them of their gory entertainment, one which this crowd determined they would have one way or another. If a monk was the first to die today, so be it. With the crowd roar rising, one gladiator then raised his sword and with one quick thrust, Telemachus lay dead, slain before their very eyes.
But no roar of approval went up at that moment. No call was made to get on with the contest. At the sight of the battered body of the monk laying lifeless in the arena, a sudden quiet overtook the Coliseum. The truthful reality of the event was suddenly clear. A feeling of revulsion at what had been done swept over them. Emperor Honorius rose and left the Coliseum. The people followed him and abruptly the games were over. They were really over. In the matter of a day Honorius issued an edict.
And so it was, that because one individual, filled with the love of Christ, dared to speak the truth of the Master in love, to suffer, even to die for the truth, finally the brutal gladiatorial games were over.
It cost him his life, but truth and mercy finally won the day, at least for that day.
But, why does it seem like truth must suffer at our hands before it saves our lives? Why must truth be subject to ridicule before it redeems? Why do we see, in our lesson for today, a righteous prophet, the very forerunner of Jesus, reduced to a political prisoner of a nobody magistrate, dying at the whim of a jealous queen, at the order of a drunken, lusting politician? Why, indeed. You can read the whole story in Mark 6:14-29 with all the gory details. But hear what many of Jesus’ day thought of Herod’s cowardly deed.
Our lesson today says: Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in Jesus….But others said that he is Elijah. And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
It seems that truth always suffers in this world before it saves!
And the Bible does declare why. In fact, here, the Bible pulls no punches. The reason why God’s truth takes a beating in this world is because the world is sinful, rebellious, and evil. And, as sinful people all of us enjoy the lies much better. We enjoy the truth of our own making, rather than the truth of God.
Like it says in John 3:19ff — “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”
And we all are part of that sinful unwelcome wagon when God’s saving truth enters the neighborhood of our lives because we enjoy the lies that we tell ourselves so much more.
The Leo Burnett Advertising Agency did a nationwide telephone survey a few years ago on lying, cataloging when we lie, how we lie, and why we lie.The results were interesting.
Ninety-one percent of all Americans confessed that they regularly lied. Seventy-nine percent had given out false phone numbers or invented new identities when meeting strangers on airplanes. One out of every five admitted that they couldn’t get through even one day without going along with a previously manufactured lie.
Now here’s what I found most intriguing about the study: people no longer seem to care about lying. We accept it. It doesn’t bother us. We don’t get upset anymore when someone exaggerates, falsifies, fabricates, or misrepresents the truth. We live in a day when we’ve been bombarded with erased tapes, tampered evidence, illicit cover-ups, padded resumes, and exaggerated ads to the point that we’ve pretty much given up on truth being a viable enterprise. The study found out that in the past, people thought lying was wrong. Now, almost half of all Americans say it isn’t.
When people are so enamored with lies, of course, real truth takes a beating. For many, truth is what makes them feel good at the moment. With that kind of truth, there’s no need to change our ways or discipline our lives. After all, we’re the only ones that need to be satisfied, right?
But, we need to be clear; our lesson for today isn’t merely a moral story about how tough it is to do the right thing in this world. That may be true, but the real story in this text is what truth has to do to save the world.
John was not merely any preacher; he was the forerunner of the Savior. He came “bearing witness to the Truth, Jesus Christ,” calling people to repentance and faith in Him. This lesson demonstrates the lengths that truth must go to save sinners from themselves. Herod is just another example of a sinful, selfish, self-centered power broker in an evil world. Truth confronts him through the person and work of John and truth confronts us all in the Person and work of Jesus, ultimately to save.
Truth suffers in this world, not just because the world is evil, truth suffers so that this evil world might be saved.
I love how Psalm 85 pictures God’s work to save the world. The Psalmist says, “Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
The message of the Bible isn’t “Here’s some truth, follow it and you will be blessed.” The message of the Bible is that Jesus is the literal Way, Truth, and Life of God in our midst In Him, justice and peace meet; in him, righteousness and mercy hang together. He had to take on the justice that truth demands, so that he could pour out God’s eternal love faithfully to all who would trust in Him. In Christ, there is no mere truth for the moment, there is truth with righteousness and peace as only God can provide.
When God saves, love and faithfulness go hand in hand; righteousness and peace are bonded together, and justice and mercy are perfectly balanced and offered.
So, the death of John the Baptist was not merely a tragedy, it was a foreshadowing of what was yet to come in Jesus.
John prepared the way for the Messiah, he not only called us all to repentance and faith, he gave us a glimpse of the kind of work that Jesus, Himself must do so that we can be reconciled back to God the Father. When truth entered this sinful world, it would bear the sacrifice necessary so that sinful, rebellious people might not go the way of their lies, but go the way of truth’s salvation.
It’s interesting that the people of that day thought you couldn’t keep real truth in the grave. If they only knew what really was yet to come in Jesus.Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in Jesus….But others said that he is Elijah. And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
When John died, it got people’s attention. When Jesus showed up on the scene, the connections were already being made. Some thought that maybe John was back! But, in reality, he had done his finest work of pointing people to Jesus alone.
When a righteous man or woman dies, that’ll get your attention.
When a righteous man or woman dies because of you; that might even move you to sorrow or grief. But, when The Righteous God-man, Jesus, dies because of you, even in your place, and rises to give you the life that only He can give, that calls for your repentance and faith!
God isn’t merely trying to get your attention today; He’s offering you the truth of Christ’s work for you. He’s challenging you to put the truth of God’s mercy and grace to work in your life; because, that’s what really changes things in this world!
Corrie Ten Boom and her family secretly housed Jewish people in their homes during WWII. Their “illegal” activity was discovered, and Corrie and her sister Bessie were sent to the German death camp, Ravensbruck. There, Corrie would watch many, including her sister, die.
After the war she returned to Germany to declare the grace of Christ. She said,
“It was 1947, and I’d come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. It was the truth that they needed to hear most in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture, the depths of the sea, that’s where forgiven sins were to be thrown. ‘When we confess our sins,’ I said, ‘God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. And even though I cannot find a Scripture for it, I believe God then places a sign out there that says, ‘No Fishing Allowed.’“The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a cap with skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush-the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! I was back at Ravensbruck, in the presence of one of its most cruel guards.
“Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: ‘A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!’ And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course-how could he remember one prisoner among thousands of women? But I remembered him. I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I’m ashamed to say that I was a guard there.” No, he did not remember me. He went on… “But since that time I have become a Christian. I have asked God to forgive me for all that I had done there. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make things right. Now, because of Jesus, I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would very much like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein,”-again the hand came out-“will you forgive me?”
“I stood there, frozen. I, whose sins had again and again been forgiven by Jesus, now, I could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do.
“My heart was cold towards this man. But forgiveness is not an emotion. I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, resourced by God in Christ, and that will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ‘Jesus, help me!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’ And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust out my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried, “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was not my love. I had tried and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit. ”
Truth again, willing to suffer so that others might know the salvation and healing that only God could provide!
This lesson today is a hard one to preach. What was the esteemed John the Baptist doing in Herod’s cell? Why did he suffer the indignities that he did? And, later in the Bible, there’s an even harder question to face, “What is Jesus, the perfect Son of God, doing hanging on a cross for me, for you?”
Truth be told, He’s there to suffer, to serve, and to save you.
The work of John was to point you to Jesus so that you could see God’s truth in action for you. Trust in His word, receive His full forgiveness, and put the power of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, to work in your life and in your relationships. You’ll be glad that you did because that’s how God changes our lives every day!
Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 15, 2012
Topic: Burned by Church?ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, we talk about bringing Christ to the Nations and the Nations to the Church. A listener says, “Well, what if you if you have gone to church and the church has hurt you, has burned you? What then?”
SELTZ: Wow, Mark, the first thing that we can say is “I’m sorry if the church or if someone in the church has burned you or let you down. It’s important for us to remember that ALL of us go to church to be confronted by Christ’s law and Gospel. We go because we need forgiveness and Christ’s power to live godly lives in this world.
ANNOUNCER: It does hurt, though, when you go a church that teaches the things of Jesus and you get let down at your time of need.
SELTZ: It sure does. Wow. But, that’s why all of us in Christ’s Church, go to Him first and foremost with our cares and concerns. Sinners, and that’s what we are, we’re forgiven sinners, will always have days, even on our best days, when we let people down. The Bible calls all of us to come to Him through His Word, His gifts, so that He alone can fill us with lasting joy, peace, and love without limit.
ANNOUNCER: So, what you’re saying is even if you’re hurt from someone within the church, bring that hurt to Christ first.
SELTZ: Yes, exactly, and then get back to church!
ANNOUNCER: All right. But, what’s so special about that; why go to church if you’ve been hurt there before.
SELTZ: Well, first and foremost, being in Christ’s Church does not mean being in a building, it means being in His Word, receiving His gifts of forgiveness and salvation in Baptism, in His Supper. Faith needs to be fed and that’s the number one reason that the Body of Christ gathers each Sunday.
ANNOUNCER: And, when people gather at church, many people are gathered there along with their hurts, their struggles, and they’re bringing that all to Christ, right?
SELTZ: Right; and they are also there, then, to receive His power to live repentantly, serving others His way. The key point of the Christian life is to “love and forgive, the way Christ loves and forgives us.” Being a part of the church, Christ’s extended family of faith, is not loving people who are perfect, but loving other sinners with Christ’s perfect love and grace.
ANNOUNCER: Does that mean just forget about the hurt, let it go?
SELTZ: Well, I can’t say for sure. I’d have to know more clearly what the hurt of our particular person was about. If it was something that can be brushed off, then yes. As Christians, we do need to be a people who don’t take offense so easily. But, if it is something or was something significant, even a sinful thing, such things need to be talked out, repented of and forgiven, for the other person’s sake, not just for ourselves. That’s how Jesus does it with us, gently, confidentially, and humbly.
ANNOUNCER: And, if the church is where people are growing together in their understanding of God’s Word, they should be able to discern such things more clearly.
SELTZ: They sure will. I love the Bible passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 10 where it says, “5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. 6” Or as Philippians 2 tells us, “We are to have this mind in us which was in Christ Jesus.” That mindset becomes clear as we live in community with forgiven sinners, gathered around the word of the Gospel.
ANNOUNCER: Any practical advice for our friend regarding giving the church a try?
SELTZ: Well, always look for a church that faithfully proclaims the Jesus of Scripture, the fullness of God’s word, for without that, nothing good can happen. But, also, take it slow. Get to know people from the church who do some of the same things you do. Serve with others in some things you would enjoy doing with other Christians and let Christ bring spiritually mature friends back into your life because He knows that you need them like we all do.
ANNOUNCER: Well, just like family, the Church is sometimes a messy proposition this side of heaven.
SELTZ: That’s very true, but there are some things worth doing over and over again. Committing oneself to the public body of Christ is another way to put Christ’s promises to work in your life. He’s the One who will sustain you, even when, at times, some in the church might let you down.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Seltz. It’s good to know that even with our problems as church members; it doesn’t get in the way of the forgiveness and blessing Christ brings to us through His church. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Hail, Thou Once-Rejected Jesus” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“On What Has Now Been Sown” From Every Voice a Song (© 1995 Concordia Publishing House)
“Let All Things Now Living” arr. Robert A. Hobby. From Thine Is the Glory by Robert A. Hobby (© 1997 MorningStar Music Publishers)