Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Reformation Day, 2023

31 Oct 2023

Text: Matt 20:17-34

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

It is a natural thing for parents to want their children to become great, and to share their joy when their children accomplish achievements: academic, athletic, career milestones, and the joys of family life.  In fact, we all want to do well and achieve success.  So it should not surprise us that “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” appealed to Jesus for her two sons, James and John, to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in His kingdom.  Of course, her bold and forward appeal was met with indignation by the other ten disciples.  For in the world, the greatness of two means the exclusion of ten.  And how embarrassing for James and John that their mommy is trying to get them good jobs. 

Well, the kingdom doesn’t work the same way as the world.  In the kingdom, greatness is given by grace.  For James and John, all of the apostles, and every person who ever lived with the exception of Jesus is a poor, miserable sinner.  And while it is natural that we aspire to greatness, and we want our children to be great, we cannot earn it.  It can’t be bought.  It can’t be acquired through the greatness of others by means of gazing upon their bones and objects that they have touched.

For we are all flawed and marked for death like the two blind men sitting by the roadside, crying out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”  And while “the crowd rebuked them,” Jesus did not.  For this is the greatest act of all: to acknowledge our wretched state, and to cry out to Jesus for mercy.  The kingdom is so unlike the world.  And all sinners need to be reminded of our need for God’s grace, whether professors, princes or popes, whether students, teachers, or parents, whether preacher and chaplain, or hearer or reader of the Word.  We are all in need of daily reformation and remembrance of where our greatness lies, and we are truly made great by God’s grace alone.

The Word of God teaches us this, and whether it is recited by little ones in their daily prayers, preached into a microphone and sent all over the world by means of technology, or nailed to an obscure castle church door in a university town in Germany, we need to be reminded about greatness and grace.  We need Jesus and His Word.  For while Mrs. Zebedee was seeking greatness for her boys, Jesus had just reminded the Twelve where they were headed: “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.”

This is not the greatness that a mother has in mind for her Son.  And yet, the Blessed Virgin Mary was told that a sword would pierce her soul.  She would bear witness to her Son’s greatness on the cross.  Reformation Day is ultimately not about Martin Luther and a debate over indulgences.  It is about Christ dying to save sinners by grace.  It is confessing our sin, singing: “Lord, have mercy upon us,” in our liturgy, hearing the Good News of God’s grace, believing it, and by means of Word and Sacrament, receiving the gift of the greatness of Jesus.  And indeed, in the kingdom, the greatness of two does not mean the exclusion of ten.  For the first will be last, and the last, first.  We exchange our sin for Christ’s greatness, even as He exchanges His crown of glory for a crown of thorns. 

“He said to them, ‘You will drink My cup.’”  Indeed, dear friends, we sinful, selfish, blind, and dying sinners are permitted to drink His cup, to eat His body, to hear His Word, and like Jesus, to walk out of our own graves.  Our Lord’s mother also saw her Son’s greatness in the resurrection, and so will we.  May our prayer for greatness ever be: “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”  Let that be our reformation.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.