Preparing for Worship - January 28, 2024

The last two weeks we have seen Jesus calling disciples to follow Him and learn from Him and eventually to be “sent-out” ones, apostles, sharing the Good News of Jesus with everyone they could. This Sunday our focus is on the ministry of Jesus Himself. In the Gospel lesson, Mark 1:21-28, Jesus amazes people with both His Words and His actions. He taught “with authority,” unlike their scribes, who spoke very tentatively, quoting this rabbi or that one, without certainty. Jesus also acts with authority, casting out an evil spirit, who must do what He says and even admits who He is, “the Holy One of God.” News about Him spread quickly, as a result.

Jesus was showing that He was in the line of the prophets of God, beginning with Moses, as described in the Old Testament lesson, Deuteronomy 18:15-20. Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament and predicted that more prophets would come. God would put His Word in their mouths, and they would speak all that God commanded them. Everyone was to listen to the words of these prophets, or they would be in trouble with God Himself. There would also be false prophets, who would speak their own ideas or in the name of other gods, and they would be in big trouble and deserve death. Moses is finally pointing to the greatest Prophet, our Lord Jesus Christ, who would always speak the truth and act on it and whose Word would always come true.

As Jesus was powerful in deed, as well as in Word, so the Psalmist, in Psalm 111, thanks and praises God for His many “wondrous works.” The Lord remembers His “covenant” promises and fulfills them by being “gracious and merciful” and “sending redemption to His people” (especially in sending His only Son, Jesus, to be the Redeemer of the world). What the Lord says is “trustworthy,” and we will “praise Him forever.”

In the Epistle lesson, Paul deals with a practical problem in his time. Non-Christians would often offer sacrifices to false gods in pagan temples, and then leftover food from these sacrifices would be sold in markets. Could Christians buy and eat such food, that had been sacrificed to idols? Paul reminds people that “there is no God but One,” the Triune God, the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ (and the Holy Spirit, about whom Paul had spoken earlier in this letter). All other gods and idols have “no real existence,” and cannot affect or pollute any food. It is OK to eat or not eat such food. However, not everyone has this “knowledge,” and so Paul asks Christian believers not to use their freedom in Christ in a way that hurts the conscience of people who truly think it is wrong to eat such food. Paul says he would be willing to limit his own freedoms, at times, if that would help others not to stumble in faith.