Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37

Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37
From Wesley C. McCarter "Glory and Greatness"

We got a glimpse of Christ’s glory and coming kingdom in the transfiguration narrative (Mark 9:1-13), but the recounting of the episode regarding the demon-possessed boy just afterwards reminds us why Jesus came and why he had to go to the cross (Mark 9:14-29). Sin had to be remedied. One should point out that even in the glorious account of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain, the Lord explained, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (Mark 9:12-13). The inner circle of disciples who witnessed the things on the mountain may have been a bit confused at first, but Jesus makes clear that “Elijah, as forerunner, did not come to prevent the Messiah's suffering and death but to foreshadow it” (Blomberg, 1992:266).

The Christian path to glory and greatness is by way of suffering, service, humility, and a willingness to associate with the same. Christ, our Lord and Savior, is a suffering servant (Mark 9:30-37). He was a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief. Let us descend into the valley of the shadow of death with him by faith. Let us take up our crosses and follow him. Let us die with him and so live with him. Let us endure and then reign with him.

Brief Commentary on Galatians 3:13

An excerpt from Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatian 3:13:

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

"When we hear that Christ was made a curse for us, let us believe it with joy and assurance. By faith Christ changes places with us. He gets our sins, we get His holiness. By faith alone can we become righteous, for faith invests us with the sinlessness of Christ. The more fully we believe this, the fuller will be our joy. If you believe that sin, death, and the curse are void, why, they are null, zero. Whenever sin and death make you nervous, write it down as an illusion of the devil. There is no sin now, no curse, no death, no devil because Christ has done away with them. This fact is sure. There is nothing wrong with the fact. The defect lies in our lack of faith. . . . If I examine myself, I find enough unholiness to shock me. But when I look at Christ in me, I find that I am altogether holy."

--Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 1535, Gal. 3:13

Communion Meditation: Uniting Past, Present, and Future

The Lord’s Supper unites past, present, and future.

1 Cor 11:23-26

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

 

The Holy Meal is simultaneously a remembrance of what Christ did in the past, a proclamation of that Gospel in the present, and an anticipation for the coming kingdom of God in the future.

 

Right now, in our eating and drinking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, past, present, and future are united in the event. We participate in the Eternal and with the Eternal One.