This is how God treats His slaves

Sermon for Trinity 7

Romans 6:19-23  +  Mark 8:1-9

As we deal with the aftermath of the terrible shooting that took place yesterday in El Paso, we do well to come to the One who reigns at the right hand of God, to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, for help and for answers.

If we don’t turn to God’s Word for answers, then we’ll end up making fools of ourselves, like so many who have been so swift to blame people and things that aren’t to blame. Sometimes they do it to score cheap political points. But sometimes they do it to avoid dealing with their own guilt, to avoid coming to grips with the depravity of our own society that teaches our youth to reject the morality of the Ten Commandments most of the time, and then wonders how a person could be so immoral as to kill other people. Our youth are taught that the mass murder of innocent human beings is good and right right up until the moment they’re born, and only then does it suddenly become wicked and reprehensible. And we wonder where such wickedness comes from! But this is the reality that everyone dreads to face: that the sin that drove a young man to shoot over 50 innocent people yesterday is a wretched symptom of the same disease, of the same sin that dwells in us all.

St. Paul explains in today’s Epistle. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. So yesterday a young man who was a slave of sin, and free in regard to righteousness, obeyed his master as a slave. He did what his own sinful, godless heart wanted him to do, spurred on by the devil himself, leaving us all appalled and angry and upset, and rightly so. But notice that St. Paul wrote these words to Christians. You, too, were once slaves of sin. You, too, Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2, used to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. “The others,” meaning the rest of humanity. The same sin that led a young man to open fire yesterday with a rifle dwells in all people. It just shows up differently, like different forms of cancer have different symptoms. It may show up as rebellion against authority, attacking someone’s reputation, condoning sex outside of marriage, unscriptural divorce. It may show up as pride or as indifference toward God’s Word or as a stubborn determination to live contrary to His Word or as a refusal to believe His Word and to exalt human reason above it. The fact is, everyone who is born to sinful parents, going back to Adam and Eve, is born a slave of sin and remains a slave of sin until he is set free by the Son of God, until he is delivered from that slavery by Christ Jesus and placed into God’s own version of slavery.

And you, dear Christians, have been delivered from it. Not that sin no longer dwells in you, but that you are no longer ruled by it and no longer condemned by it. You were delivered from slavery because the Son of God made Himself a slave. Now, there are different kinds of slavery, but one thing all slaves have in common is that their will is no longer their own. They must do the will of another. They don’t seek to better themselves or their own life; they seek to serve and to better their masters’ interests. What did Jesus say to His Father? “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. Jesus willingly made Himself a slave to God’s Law. He obeyed. He followed. He served as a slave of righteousness. He was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross where He suffered even greater violence and injustice than those who suffered in yesterday’s tragedy. He did it in order to redeem us from our slavery to sin, to pay for our sins with His own blood, with His own death. And then, risen from the dead, He has called us through the Gospel to renounce sin’s slavery and to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins, sealing that forgiveness to us in Holy Baptism and turning us into His own slaves, in a much different kind of slavery with a much different end. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

People shamefully serve sin as slaves in order to have just a fleeting feeling of fulfillment, a few happy moments in this life that ends in death. But those who receive God’s gift in Christ Jesus have been placed into the service of a loving God who has promised, not a few happy moments in this life, but eternal happiness in the life to come. In this life, in this world, Jesus says to His slaves, you will have trouble. And He was not wrong, was He?

Even so, what is it like to live as slaves of righteousness, as slaves of God who are bound to do His will, not our own? That we see in today’s Gospel of the feeding of the 4,000. What do you receive now as slaves of righteousness, as people who are bound to Christ Jesus? You receive His constant care and compassion. You receive everything you need. And in the end, you receive eternal happiness in eternal life. This is how God treats His slaves.

The 4,000 men, plus women and children, had continued with Jesus 3 days. He had led them out into the wilderness, away from town, away from work, away from chores, away from family, away from “fun,” in order to teach them. And they followed gladly. They listened. They paid attention to His every word. Like “slaves,” in a sense. Their own lives didn’t matter. Only the will of their Master.

But again, what kind of Master is this? How does He treat His slaves?

He has compassion on them. He considers their need. He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”

Now Jesus’ disciples had already seen the feeding of the 5,000. And yet, when He mentions wanting to feed 4,000 people, they still have no idea how He could possibly do it. How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?

Doesn’t it often seem like that to us and with us? We’ve seen the Lord provide so many times. We’ve seen His protection in our own lives. We’ve seen His providence. And when trouble has come, we’ve seen His help and received His strength to get through it. But the next time trouble or scarcity hits—that’s always going to be the exception, in our minds. “How can He satisfy us this time?” That’s the sin that still dwells in us. Even though it doesn’t rule us Christians, it’s still always there, rearing its ugly head, trying to take the reins of control again.

But there in the wilderness, Jesus’ purpose wasn’t to rebuke His disciples. It was to show them, and the crowds, and us, what kind of Master He really is. He takes the seven loaves of bread they have, gives thanks, blesses them and breaks and them and gives them to His disciples to give to the people, along with a few small fish. And His divine power multiplies the food so that there’s enough, not only to satisfy the 4,000, but to fill seven baskets with the leftover pieces.

That’s what He did for those who faithfully and eagerly set aside their daily tasks for a while in order to hear His word. He will do no less for you who serve Him in the slavery of righteousness. He will provide the food you need, the people you need, the strength you need, the help you need to face the scarcities and troubles of this life, whether it’s a mass shooting nearby or whether it’s simply the troubles of daily life. He is powerful to help in every situation, to provide all the help you need for this bodily life.

And He will also provide the food for the soul that you need in order to keep trusting in Him and to keep putting to death the sinful flesh and living as slaves of righteousness. The language in our Gospel as the Lord gave thanks, blessed and broke the bread, is similar to the language of the Lord’s Supper, and that’s no coincidence. Our Gospel is a reminder that the Lord will continue to provide ministers for those who appreciate them, for those who pray for them. He will continue to provide the pure word of God to those who care.

Only take note of one thing: The 4,000 didn’t walk away from their homes and from their pantries and from their jobs on a whim. Jesus is the one who led them into the wilderness. Be careful not to be led down a path that Jesus has not laid out for you in His word, a path that you know will draw you away from His word or that is outright contrary to His word. In that case, you should not expect His providence, but His rebuke. Those who live as His slaves will always have Him as their gentle Master; those who go off on their own, however, will be on their own.

That doesn’t mean, though, that you won’t sin or that you won’t fail as you serve Him. He knows you will. Being His slave doesn’t mean you’ll actually succeed at serving Him all the time. It means you’ll repent when you’ve done wrong. It means you’ll listen to His word when He calls you on your sinful thoughts or words or behavior. It means you’ll then submit to Him again in humility, so that He can lift you up with the forgiveness of sins. It means that you’ll struggle each day against your sinful flesh, determined to live instead for righteousness.

The fruit of this slavery, as we’ve already seen, leads to eternal life, which is the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s why we can live without the exaggerated fear of those around us. People aren’t only upset by yesterday’s events because of the innocent who were injured or killed. They’re upset because they’re afraid for themselves and their loved ones. People were afraid to leave their homes yesterday, even here in Las Cruces, afraid to go to the store or to drive down the street. But you and I don’t have to live like that, in constant fear. We have a compassionate and powerful Master who is always watching and always in control. And so we know that one of two things will always happen. Either He will send divine protection so that we are kept safe from harm, or He will use the wicked intentions of wicked men to deliver us once and for all from this valley of sorrow, taking their murderous act and forcing it to serve His good purposes, to spare us from further earthly evil and to grant us the reward of the righteous: eternal happiness in eternal life.

Let the kindness and compassion of Jesus be your focus in these coming days. Let the knowledge of His divine governance calm your fears. Let the hope of eternal life be your strength. And let the word of God be your guide to live as beloved slaves of righteousness each and every day, knowing that your Master is good and is truly worthy to be served. Amen.