Preparing for Worship - September 22, 2024

The psalm for this week is Psalm 54. The introduction tells us that this psalm was written by David when he and others had fled from Jerusalem when King Saul wanted to capture and kill him. David had gone to the town of Ziph, and people of the town went and told King Saul where David was hiding. (You can read about this in 1 Samuel 23:19ff.) The people were not following God’s will but the evil plans of the King. David finds out that he has been betrayed and is able to escape. He prays to God to help and save him because these “strangers” from the town had risen against him and were trying to help take his life. David trusts that God would still uphold his life, in His faithfulness to him as the future king. David freely makes sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord for His goodness. (In the chapters that follow 1 Samuel 23, David has opportunities to kill King Saul, but he does not do so since Saul is still the anointed King. David trusts that the Lord would deliver him in His own time and way, as the Lord did, and would give him the kingdom.

In the Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah 11:18-20, the prophet Jeremiah also had great difficulty. He had been speaking against the leaders and people of Judah and Jerusalem for going against the Lord and worshipping and making offerings to false gods. Jeremiah did not realize that the people wanted to cut him off and kill him, as a lamb led to the slaughter, until the Lord revealed it to him. Like David, Jeremiah committed himself to the Lord, who knows the hearts and minds of people and would judge righteously and care for him

What happened with David and Jeremiah, even when they tried to follow the Lord faithfully, was happening also to our Lord Jesus, in our Gospel lesson, Mark 9:30-37. Jesus knew that those opposed to Him, the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, would eventually lead Him to slaughter, at their own hands and the hands of the Roman authorities, as He suffered and was crucified and died on the cross. This was necessary to take away the sin of the world, as predicted by John the Baptist in John 1:29,36 and Old Testament prophecy. Yet, after three days, Jesus would rise again in victory. Jesus had told His disciples about this before (see Mark 8:31-33 and 9:9-12), but again, they did not understand what He meant and were even afraid to ask Him about it.

Part of the problem, of course, was that they were mostly thinking about themselves, instead of Jesus. They were trying to hide the fact that they were arguing about which of them was the greatest disciple. Jesus had again to sit down with them and teach again that they were to be “last of all and servants of all,” servants even of a little child. That is what Jesus Himself would do. He was the Son of Man, who “came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). In fact, He “gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6), so that the Good News of Jesus could be proclaimed to all people. And with Christ, one would also receive the blessings of His Heavenly Father, who sent Him and the Holy Spirit, who worked through Jesus and His Word.

What the disciples struggled with, the focus on themselves and the sinful world and its appeal, instead of Christ Jesus, is also what James talks about in our Epistle lesson for this Sunday, James 3:13-4:10. In this third reading from his letter, James speaks very strongly, in 4:1-10, about the dangers of “friendship with the world,” which can make one “an enemy of God.” He speaks of fights and quarrels and coveting and passions and adultery and even murder. (That sounds far-fetched, but we saw in the news a few weeks ago that five people were killed because one family member thought he might be cheated out of his inheritance.) We know of King David’s problems with both adultery and murder. We know of Jesus’ warning about bad thoughts and desires in our minds that are also sins. And how often do we pray, asking too much for our own desires and not for what our Lord would want? All this is a call to repentance from our worldly pride in ourselves and the need for humility and asking the Lord to help us to submit ourselves to Him and His will.

What we really need is what James talks about in the first part of our reading, James 3:13-18, a focus on “the wisdom that comes down from above.” James had said in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” The greatest gift of God is, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24) and did His saving work for us. Once we are baptized believers in Christ, our Lord will not easily let us go away from Him either. James says that the Lord “yearns jealously over the Spirit that He has made to dwell in us” (James 4:5). Twice James speaks of God giving us His grace, and more grace, His undeserved love and favor for us (James 4:6 and Proverbs 3:34) and helping us battle sinful worldly pride and keeping us humble before Him. He does that through Scriptures like this passage, which shows us the reality and danger of our sins, but above all, He shows us again the Wisdom, mercy, and forgiveness of Christ our Savior. There is our hope.