WORSHIP VIDEO LINK (linked after 10:45 AM Service)
WORSHIP AUDIO LINK
SERMON AUDIO LINK
BULLETIN
SERMON TEXT BELOW
Pentecost 14 2024, Proper 16B
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
August 25, 2024
Isaiah 29:11-19, Ephesians 5:22-33, Mark 7:1-13
Sermons online:
Text and Audio: immanuelhamiltonchurch.com click “sermons”
Text: pastorjud.org
Audio: pastorjud.podbean.com
itunes: bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio: bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship
Jesus is the Word. The Logos. The understanding. John 1:1–3 (ESV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
God is eternal. He has no beginning and He will have no end. God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit has always been. In the beginning, the Word, Jesus, was with God the Father, and then, 2,000 years ago in the small town of Nazareth, at the announcement of the Angel Gabriel, Jesus comes down from heaven and takes on human flesh in the womb of a virgin named Mary. God the Son humbles himself to become man. Paul writes about this in Philippians, encouraging humility. Philippians 2:3–8 (ESV) 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus submits to His Father’s will. He subordinates Himself to God the Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prays, Luke 22:42 (ESV) 42 … “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Jesus leaves His throne in heaven to take on human flesh in order to save His people from their sins. He humbles Himself even to death on the cross to redeem His Church.
Ephesians 5:25–27 (ESV) 25 … Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Christ gives everything to save the Church and the Church’s main function in her relationship to Jesus is faith; faith that gives up on trying to save itself and instead gives itself into Jesus’ salvation. The Church subordinates itself to Christ. Christ is the head of the Church. Christ is the servant leader of the Church.
Paul teaches that marriage is a living picture of Christ and the Church but this can be so misunderstood. Ephesians 5:22–24 (ESV) 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”
When wives hear this verse it can be irritating and they can get ready to argue that they are just as smart and capable as their husbands. But to submit; to subordinate yourself to another is not to say the other person is more valuable or intelligent or capable. This is not about boys being better than girls, or girls being better than boys. This is not about competition, it is about community. Jesus subordinates to the Father, but He is not less than the Father. So, what is Paul trying to teach here?
We need to keep reading because if Paul is describing the organizational chart for a business-type relationship he might continue with, “Husbands, rule well over your wives. Husbands prudently command your wives. Husbands wisely manage your wives.” But that is not what he says. What is Paul’s instruction to husbands? Husbands, love your wives. And how should husbands love their wives? Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. The husband is the head; he is the leader, but he is a servant leader. His role is to sacrifice himself for his wife and his children just as Christ sacrificed Himself for the Church. The husband is willing to risk his life to provide for his wife and children. The husband is ready to die to protect his wife and children. When a man and woman get married they each leave behind life as an individual and begin life together in a new community -- dependent on each other. Just as Jesus left His Father to cleave to the Church…Ephesians 5:31 (ESV) 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
The Christian wife places herself into her husband’s care as the Church is in Christ’s care. The Christian husband loves his wife as Christ loves the Church. At first glance it may seem like the woman is getting the worse end of this arrangement, subordinating herself, but she is the one receiving love and service from her husband. She is getting a servant leader to meet her needs, to love and cherish her, to support her and comfort her; to love her as he loves himself. Ephesians 5:28–29 (ESV) 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church…” A wife’s calling is at least somewhat doable. Husbands are to love like Christ. That’s all we have to do guys. Just love like Jesus. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church and each day we struggle to live out our callings.
The predominant culture of our time does not understand the Christian marriage of a man and a woman. Our society insists on promoting radical individualism above everything else. Individual freedom is promoted as the greatest freedom so that the idea of a man and a woman getting married and having children is considered to be very weird. The new normal is to worship yourself and indulge your every desire in their post-Christian, infertility cult of death which views children as an unneeded burden to be avoided, or eliminated. Society today rejects community in favor of radical individualism and finds itself very alone and very lonely.
As a follower of Jesus, you are not called to live out life as an individual. You are called to live in community; community in the Church. Community in your family. God-willing…community in marriage, with children.
Paul’s approach to marriage was counter cultural when he wrote this letter 2,000 years ago. At that time husbands sternly ruled over their wives, and Paul is not teaching a relationship of ruling or commanding or managing, but instead a relationship of the husband being a loving, servant leader and the wife joyfully living under her husband’s care. This is still countercultural today, especially for those who believe in radical individualism; those who refuse to subordinate themselves to anyone -- not parents, not teachers, not bosses, not husband. And it is also counter cultural for men who believe that they should be the stern ruler of their wives modeled after a boss/employee, coach/player or drill sergeant/soldier relationship.
And so Paul’s teaching about marriage can be confusing because in this life we so often look at relationships with a view to power and control. But that is not the way relationships work in the Church and that is not how marriage works. This is why Church politics can be so strange and difficult because politics is about power and control and the Church is about love and service. The same with marriage. Marriage is not about power and control. Marriage is about love and service. Marriage is not about individuality. Marriage is about community.
As a natural born sinful individualist, this is a difficult teaching. Jesus has called you out of the darkness and transferred you to the Kingdom of Heaven. As a redeemed child of God you are to submit joyfully to those God has given to care for you; parents, employers, the government, husbands. Thomas Winger, the president of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario writes about those who are to be caregivers, “And Paul invites those to whom God has committed headship to receive it with both joy and humility, with the spirit of self-sacrifice, recognizing that it is not given on the basis of merit nor for the sake of domination, but that the head might be an instrument of blessing.”[1] Christ’s headship of the Church brings blessings to the Church. A husband’s headship of his family brings blessings to his family. For this, wives respect their husbands and the sacrifices they make to bring those blessings.
So, while, at first glance, it may seems that this is a harsh teaching for wives, I believe most women really do want a loving, servant-leader husband to protect her and care for her and who is there for her when times are tough to hold her tight and tell her, “We are going to get through this…together,” and to every day tell her, “I love you.”
Marriage is not about power and control. It is not a competition. It is a Christian community established by God. It is a picture of Christ and His Church. Amen.
[1] Thomas M. Winger, Ephesians, CPH, pg. 642