S-1517 20SAP/3B 10/11/2015 Hymns: (O) #593; (S) #707; LS. #696; #617; #623; (C) #918
Texts: Psalm 112:3-6; 5:67, 1015; Hebrews 3:1219; Mark 10:17-22
Theme: “The Journey of Life!” (Mark 10:17-18)
Question: “What journey stands out in your mind?” (7th sermon at Trinity)
Faithful followers of the Savior, Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! The text is the Gospel reading. “And as He [Jesus] was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:17-18).
In Nomine Iesu
Precious Bride of Christ, life is a journey—sometimes the journey is sweet and other times it is bitter. All of us in this holy place have been invited to journey with our Savior Jesus to the cross and the empty tomb. But often times we don’t know what that means or where the journey leads.
A story is told of an Iranian Muslim woman named Padina. Listen as she tells her story that took her on unexpected journey. As a devout Muslim, Padina was taught all of the Islamic rules and to hate Christians because Jesus can’t do anything for you. Padina followed the Islamic Law by praying faithfully. In preparation for the prayer she would wash her hands and face according to their teaching. Many times she wasn’t sure that she washed well enough. This caused her much anguish that during the prayer she would interrupt the prayers and wash herself 10 times.
She began to hate herself because she wasn’t a good Muslim and felt Allah was very distant from her. She wanted to die because Allah wasn’t helping her or her mom who was dying from MS. She told her mom, “She wants to kill herself, because she can’t live like this!” Her mom told her, “If you are going to kill yourself, you will have to kill me also!” She agreed to her mom’s request.
That evening as Padina was about to carry out her plans, her mom turned on the TV. A pastor was speaking about Jesus and said: “If you are depressed, angry, hate life and want to commit suicide please don’t! Call me, and my Savior can help you!”
The Holy Spirit moved the mother that she picked up the phone and talked to the pastor for a long time. Padina began to get angry at her mom for talking to the pastor and said, “Mom, why would you want to go to hell in your final hours of life by talking about Jesus?” The mother urged Padina to speak with the pastor, but she refused. Eventually her mother convinced her to do so. When she did, she told him that she was going to kill herself. He challenged her saying: “Ask Jesus to help you. Why not wait for another week. You are going to kill yourself anyway. Another week is not going to make any difference. If you want to kill yourself then, you can do it on the air.” She accepted the challenge and even said, “Allah, I am going to kill myself on live TV for you, so people know who you are, compared to Jesus!”
The next morning she heard an unusual sound. To her amazement she saw her mom walking normally and without any pain. She took her mom to the hospital for a checkup. After the tests, the doctor said: “There is no MS, and she is completely healed. This is a miracle!” The Dr. asked “Which Imam did this?” Padina answered, “It wasn’t an Imam, but Jesus!” That day began her Christian journey of life with joy and peace; even in the underground Church in Iran. PAUSE. (You may see her story on youtube).
Precious bride of Christ, taking a walk in the early morning or in the evening, to clear the mind, or to get the old blood flowing is a grand thing. Taking a walk with a friend or with your beloved, that is all the better. Ah, but to take a journey...now a journey implies some intentionality like a vacation like a plan for your future, that is something all the more important. A journey means you are going somewhere. It means you have been somewhere.
Today our Savior has come from Judea. He is nearing Jerusalem after having been up north in Caesarea Philippi with His disciples. This is important, for this reentry into the region of Judea draws our Jesus, our Savior ever closer to the Cross. Mark begins our story with Jesus “Setting out on His journey.”
Every day and with every step of His journey...that is the intentional walk, has as its goal Golgotha! He was walking relentlessly and single-mindedly toward what should have been my cross and your cross, my condemnation and your condemnation. He was not out on a nice little stroll. Our Savior was completing the journey begun from before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame in Him (Ephesians 1:4).
There appears to be a stop along the way as a man, an unnamed man, came in an attitude of servitude, of humility, he knelt before Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This dear man wants to inherit eternal life, and do so by doing something.
Beloved, he is our brother. Ever since the fall into sin, we have sought to selfjustify, and in that to selfpay for our sins. In so doing we cut Jesus out. We want Him as a dear friend, even as a “Good Teacher.” Ah, but a Savior? No! That would imply that I need something other than the right selfhelp book, something other than the right recipe, the right formula. That would imply that I am really THAT Bad! Oh, yes I am! PAUSE.
We really are that bad. We all are imprisoned with sin. By our very nature without Christ’s righteousness we are on a one way journey to hell.
This summer my dear brother in Christ, Pastor Jeff Nehrt, was a speaker at the International LWML Convention in Des Moines, IA. He spoke to over 5000 precious daughters of the Lamb, who faithfully, lovingly, and joyfully had been moved by the Spirit to give their hearts and their mites to prison ministry. During his talk he showed a power point of some of the men incarcerated who by the nature of their crime were BAD very Bad. But through their journey of incarceration they were given the good news of Jesus Christ. Just like all of us…one sin separates us from God and just like all of us one drop of our Savior’s blood gives us complete forgiveness. This is why Christ made His journey for you and me and the world. Our journey is to make this Christ known to those we know and love to the world. And we don’t make this journey alone. We have great partners. The partners include the women of the LWML. Through their nickels, dimes, quarters and the occasional folding money, the journey of the LWML is to share the GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST.
The journey of life for us is not in doing something or paying for it, but journeying with the Savior. There is nothing for us to do to earn salvation or eternal life. It is a gift from God’s grace given in the blood of the Lamb shed on the Altar of the cross. We only journey with Him because He bids us come. He is the One who offers medicine for those who are depressed, angry, sick of life and dealing with pain. But He is more than an example. He is the Savior who has journeyed to Golgotha and the empty tomb and came out victorious.
Today, the Savior calls us to come follow Him because He knows the way that leads to eternal life. The Lord of life bids us hear His voice and leave everything behind and follow Him. I pray that we hear and heed His voice as Padina did and not unlike the young unnamed man in the Gospel reading.
By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit helps us follow Jesus throughout His earthly ministry all the way to Calvary. Along the way, we see something unique play out. From the very moment that Jesus journeyed from heaven to earth in human form, there were forces who were trying to destroy and kill Him. But He wouldn’t allow anyone to stop Him from reaching His final destination—the cross upon which He would be extended for the unnamed man and us who don’t always follow Him.
From the cross we hear unbelievable, unthinkable and unimaginable words of love and compassion. We hear of forgiveness. We hear of love and learn what love means. Love means traveling a journey of death to offer life. Grace means giving to someone what they don’t deserve and mercy unearned.
Precious bride of Christ, by the grace of God, we witnessed today the beginning of another journey of a child of God. Erin Marie Beach has been joined to the family of faith on an eternal journey through the water and the Word. Like Erin, you too, have been invited to journey with Jesus, not only to college, job, marriage, home or retirement, but to the glories of heaven. Today, He invites you to follow Him on the path that leads to eternity. Oh, what a journey awaits us—a journey of a lifetime, established and paid for by the blood of the Savior to give us an eternal home with Him forever and ever.
As His precious and blood-bought bride we rejoice on this journey begun in Baptism and will culminate in paradise with the groom who made it all possible. Amen.
Now the peace…
SOLI DEO GLORIA
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