Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 1

20 Feb 2024

Text: Mark 3:20-35

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

It’s easy to forget how much opposition our Lord had during His three-year ministry that changed the world.  The demons opposed Him.  The local government opposed Him.  The Imperial government opposed Him.  The Jewish religious authorities of every sect opposed Him.  One of His disciples betrayed Him.  The leader of His disciples denied Him.  At His trial, all of the to-be apostles fled from Him.  Upon hearing Him say that His followers must eat His flesh and drink His blood, many of His disciples abandoned Him.  On the cross, Jesus would pray Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  And at this early phase of our Lord’s ministry, even as the multitudes come to be healed, His own family said, “He is out of His mind.”

Our Lord’s miraculous works were so open and numerous that nobody could deny them.  Nobody could say that these were magic tricks or people acting like they have been healed – as we see with modern-day religious frauds and showmen who use tricks like hidden earphones with people feeding the so-called “faith healer” information, and putting healthy people in wheelchairs so as to order them to walk around.

Jesus did so many verifiable miracles that His enemies could only claim that He was a sorcerer, using the demons to effect miracles.  Jesus points out the obvious: “How can Satan cast out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”  The works of Jesus are forgiving sins, liberating people from bondage to evil spirits, healing people of diseases, and even raising the dead.  These are acts of God, not of the devil.  And here, Jesus warns against such hardness of heart that would call God evil: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” 

In spite of the opposition of the entire fallen world and of the fallen angels in the world unseen – Jesus doubles down and continues His ministry.  He is not concerned with majorities, with numbers, with worldly influence.  He casts the seeds of the Good News like the sower in His own parable: announcing the kingdom, exorcising demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, and most importantly of all, atoning for the sins of the world at the cross.  For many of those who rejected Him will come to Him.  Some members of the local government, the Jewish council, will emerge as His disciples.  In time, the Imperial government will become Christian.  Nearly all of the Jewish sects will disappear, while the church will be established the world over.  Eleven disciples will come back to Him, will be ordained, and sent to evangelize the world.  Judas will be replaced.  And St. Paul will be added to the number of the apostles.  Billions of people will eat His flesh and drink His blood.  And He, the crucified one, was vindicated by rising from the dead.  And “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23) to this day.

His own family would no longer claim that He had lost His mind.  His mother, who saw Him crucified, would be taken care of by John the apostle in Ephesus.  Our Lord’s kinsman James would become the first bishop of Jerusalem.  The demons will continue to oppose Him, but helpless in their desire to defeat Him.  And the family of Jesus has been expanded to include “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” redeemed by His blood, confessing Him as Lord, being rescued from not only soul-destroying unbelief, but also from the malice of demons and from the ravages of sin, including death.  We, the church, confessors of Jesus, are His family.  He has not lost His mind, but has rather won forgiveness, life, and salvation for us by His blood.  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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