Pentecost IV (Proper 6 B) [Mark 4:26-34] (17-Jun-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In the Book of Judges, we read about Gideon. Gideon was one of the judges whom God raised up, and he defeated the Midianites in battle. When Gideon was gathering together an army, God kept telling him that he had too many soldiers. We read: The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Eventually God kept on reducing the number of the army from 32,000 men down to 300 men. If 32,000 men won a victory, they would congratulate themselves. But if they could win the victory with only 300 men, then they would give glory to God for helping despite such bad odds!

In the Book of Judges, we also read before the battle, how God sends Gideon down into the Midianite camp to listen to what they are saying, and he overhears a man telling his fellow soldier a dream. He says: Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. Here we head about this man having a dream where a bread roll rolls into the camp and knocks over a tent. The other soldier says: This is no other that the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp. And so we read that Gideon with his measly 300 men, wins the victory over the Midianites. From a human point of view, it seems so unlikely and so impossible, but God is on their side. It is as unlikely as a bread roll knocking over a tent!

And so, also in our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us about seed scattered on the ground, or a mustard seed being planted. From a human point of view, these seeds look so small, so insignificant, so useless, but actually, they grow up and become useful plants, and large bushes and trees. The seed here in the reading is God’s word, and the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God. It looks so small and insignificant, just like a bread roll, or Gideon’s army of 300 men. But when the seed grows, it flourishes and blossoms and flowers and produces fruit. God’s word, the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God have all the power in heaven and earth to destroy all the strongholds of the devil and to crush him. When God is the one at work, then a little bread roll can knock over a whole tent, and Gideon’s army of 300 men can defeat the Midianites.

So in our reading we read about two parables: the first is about the seed scattered on the ground, and the second is about the mustard seed.

Jesus says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle.

This is an amazing parable. Here the seed is the word of God which is scattered, and grows into the wonderful kingdom of God. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we read where it says: All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world”. Here Matthew quotes this prophecy from Psalm 78: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

In the parable of the scattered seed, it brings us back to the foundation of the world, back to Genesis chapter 1, where we read about creation. Here we see God creating the world, but he doesn’t just sit down and set about doing it, he does it in a particular way and with particular means. God creates the world through his word. He speaks and it happens. He says: Let there be light, and there was light. And so we see how God’s word has this wonderful creative power in it. It does things, and it brings things about, and brings new things into existence. It’s really quite an amazing reality for us to think about!

But we also read about the creation of plants and seeds. It says: Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

So we see here how God’s word produces plants, but then that these plants yield seed. And these seeds fall to the ground and produce more plants and more seed. God creates nature to be continually fruitful, and productive.

And so we also read in our reading today, how God created seeds and plants to reflect the way in which the word of God, and the kingdom of God works, and how they grow, and produce, and are fruitful. God created seeds to work in a similar way to his spoken word. Just as his word brings things into existence, so also seeds bring forth rich harvests, bountiful crops, fruitful vines, bushes, and abundant trees. Jesus says: The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

What is so important in this parable is that the most important thing is the seed. And this tells us something about mission. We are living in a time when we are seeing a great decline in churches all throughout the western world, and it is something that can sometimes make us depressed and worried. We can worry about our congregation and parish finances. People start to think, “how can we bring more people in”?

Now, we are living in times that are dominated by buying and selling. Everything is for sale, and it seems like everyone is trying to sell us something. Sometimes we can easily fall into the trap of thinking like this as Christians too, and we start to think, “How can we grow the church, so that we can pay the church’s bills?” No wonder people are suspicious sometimes of Christians, if they think we’re just after their money! So there’s a real danger of treating the church like a business, and people like consumers.

The problem is that we focus on the harvest, instead of the seed. We often want to see the church full of people, we want to see the church as successful, and productive, and flourishing! But every farmer knows that if you want a harvest, you have to plant your seed. Unbelievers are not customers—they are empty ground in need of the seed of God’s word. We could share the word with them as we are able, we could pray for them, we could invite them to church, or make friends with them and help them, and treat them as we think a Christian should treat them. God has placed us in particular homes, in particular areas, workplaces, or families, and we all have our different gifts—some in speaking, some in serving, some in helping, or however. What Jesus calls us to think about here is not the harvest – let God sort that out. He calls us to focus on the seed. And the seed here is the word of God—it doesn’t look like much, but it has incredible power to produce a very rich harvest indeed.

Now, in the parable, we read something quite amazing. It says: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

Here we see that the power to grow this seed belongs to God and not to us. The seed grows and sprouts even while the farmer is asleep. Now there is a very famous quote of Martin Luther about this passage. He says: I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. (LW 51:77).

You can see here how confident Martin Luther was knowing that he has simply preached the word and sowed the seed. He could go to sleep now, and have a beer, because he knew that the Gospel was now doing its work. Now, Luther was not saying that once he had preached the Gospel, he could now have the other six days of the week off! But he was saying that while he slept, while he drank his Wittenberg beer, the word of God was working, it was changing people, it was growing a harvest. And so the glory did not belong to him, but to God who was doing the work.

In 1 Corinthians, St Paul talks about how people were playing him and Apollos off against one another. We suspect Paul was not a particularly good public speaker, but Apollos was known to be eloquent. And even though Paul was the apostle, and Apollos was not, people started to prefer Apollos because he was a better speaker. But in the church, we are not simply sowing the seed of public speaking and rousing speeches; public speaking and rousing speeches can whip people up for a while. Even Hitler knew how to put on a good speech! We are sowing the seed of God’s word, and the glory belongs to him. So St Paul says: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The glory belongs to God, not to Paul and Apollos.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Paul and me and you are nothing but insignificant bread rolls – the power to knock over a whole tent belongs to God.

Sometimes, we might look at ourselves and our weaknesses and our insecurities and our failings and all of the things that we wish we had or we wish we could do or we wish we were, but in reality we don’t have, we can’t do, and ain’t – then it’s time for us to look to Jesus’ words in 2 Corinthians 12, where he says: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul writes: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And so Jesus says, while you sleep, while you are weak, while you are useless, while you are completely out of the way, the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

Now we come to the second part of the reading, about the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus says: With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is grown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

Now, there is a wonderful passage in the book of 1 Kings, where Elijah is feeling very miserable for himself. There is a terrible king on the throne, King Ahab, and Elijah thought he was the only faithful follower of God left. But God says to him: I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal. Elijah feels like he is the only one left, like he is just a little mustard seed, a little black speck on white sandy beach. But God knows how to grow a large tree from a mustard seed.

We might even look at the life of Jesus. He lived in a time when he was the only one who preached the message that he did. His own people didn’t receive it, and every single nation on earth did not know the God of Israel. He was just a small mustard seed – but here we are, over 2000 years later, on the other side of the world, part of that mustard tree, part of his branches.

But then, sometimes in the church, we can often find ourselves as small insignificant people in a big world, where nobody cares about us or what we’ve got to say. But we speak the same word of God, we plant that same Gospel, even if no one in the whole world cared for it or not, even if no one in the whole universe listened to us. Because when it is God’s word that we speak, then we know that his power is able to make that mustard seed turn into a large bush, a large garden plant, and put out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

At the end of the reading today, we read two little verses, that look very insignificant, like two grains of mustard! It says: With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The amazing thing about the way Jesus teaches here, is that as we think about these parables, and churn them over, we find new insights and new discoveries that we never thought about before. The pictures that Jesus plants in our minds of the seed and the mustard seed produce fruitful and rich thoughts in our minds. Sometimes we don’t understand the parables, and we think about them, and think about them, and push and push, but we don’t seem to get it.

Now, just imagine if we were reading some Shakespeare, or something, and we didn’t know what he meant. And all the Shakespeare scholars don’t really know either. If Shakespeare were still alive, we could ring him up, or write him a letter, and ask him just what he meant.

But the Scripture is different, because for every book of the bible, there are two authors. We have the person who wrote the Gospel, whether it is Matthew, Mark, or Luke, or whoever – and then we have the Holy Spirit. Now we can’t ring up Mark or John or Ezekiel what they meant, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are still alive. The problem is not that the word is not clear, it’s that our minds are not clear. Sometimes there are people who think that the bible is just a dead word, and not the voice of the Holy Spirit. So no wonder when they talk about the bible, it sounds like a coroner’s report. However, Jesus is alive, the speaker of the parable has risen from the dead, and if we ask him, he will teach us and send us the Holy Spirit, and explain to us what the parable means.

So we read: With may such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. By nature, because of our sin, we are simply unable to hear the word, until the Holy Spirit comes and opens our ears. It says: He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. To the outsider, nothing that Jesus is saying makes sense. But when Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding, then it makes sense. It’s similar to when the apostles found themselves very busy in the book of Acts, and they appointed some helpers to share their work. And they said: But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. These two things go together: prayer and the ministry of the word. They go together because they can’t do the ministry of the word without Jesus’ help, and so they continually ask him for help.

So let’s commend ourselves to him, to Jesus, who died for us and rose again from the dead, to win the forgiveness of sins for us and the promise of eternal life. This word of God doesn’t look like much, maybe like a little seed, but it grows and produces, and puts out branches, and brings about a wonderful harvest. Amen.

Dear Jesus, plant your saving and powerful word in us, and let your kingdom grow. Send us the Holy Spirit, that we may hear and understand your word more and more. Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service I [Luke 23:5-12] (21-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Herod with his soldiers treated [Jesus] with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, bless all of us with your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

In our mid-week series this year, we are going to be looking at those things which happened to Jesus just before he was crucified. Tonight we’re going to be looking at the event where Jesus was sent to Herod. Next week, we’re going to be looking at the event where Pilate offers Jesus’ freedom to the crowd, alongside a notorious criminal called Barabbas. Over the last three weeks, we will be reading about Jesus being scourged, and sentenced, and then led on his way to the cross.

So let’s look at our text for tonight.

So far in the history of Jesus’ suffering and death, Jesus has been arrested and he has been interrogated by the High Priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and now he has been brought before Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor. Judea, at that time, had been conquered by the Romans, and one of the ways in which Romans exercised control over people was to take away the people’s right to sentence a person to death. So if the Jewish people wanted to sentence Jesus, they had to bring him to Pilate—and this is what had happened.

Pilate by this stage found himself in a very awkward position, because he had questioned Jesus, and couldn’t find a reason for sentencing him to death. On the one hand, the Jewish priests and the crowd were adamant that Jesus was a criminal, but Pilate couldn’t work it out. On one hand, he was under tremendous pressure from the Jewish leaders and the crowd, but also the case wasn’t clear to him either.

This is where we’re up to in the historical order of things. So tonight we’re going to look at our text in four different parts:

I.                   Why did Jesus end up being sent to Herod?

II.                 Who is this Herod, and why was he in Jerusalem?

III.              How did Herod treat Jesus?

IV.              What came about as a result of this event?

So may the Holy Spirit enlighten us this evening as we listen to his word. Amen.

I. Why did Jesus end up being sent to Herod?

Just before our reading begins in Luke 23:5, we read at the beginning of our chapter where Pilate had been talking to Jesus, and then went out to the crowds, and said: I find no guilt in this man. Now for the Jewish priests and the crowds, this was a real blow to their cause. They were dead set on making sure that Jesus was sentenced to death. They had carefully planned it—they had paid Judas to betray him, they had arrested him, they had questioned him, and they weren’t about to be made fools of now—there was no turning back. Could you imagine what they must have thought when Pilate comes out and declares Jesus to be innocent? They must have been furious!

So they brought something more for Pilate to consider. We read: But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”

What do they mean by this? What wrong are they accusing Jesus of now? They said: He stirs up the people. Obviously, we see that these people here themselves are stirred up! But this is not really what they meant! They are accusing Jesus of creating unrest, of causing a revolution. We see in the Gospels many times where Jesus simply teaches people the word of God, calls them to repentance, and where he goes around and heals people and comforts them. How did the priests say that Jesus was stirring people up? Simply by teaching! Now funnily enough, on the face of it, you wouldn’t necessarily expect this kind of thing to stir people up, but in fact it does. You might remember how Jesus went to Nazareth, and the people tried to push him off a cliff. And then you probably remember how John the Baptist, when he went around preaching, was locked up and finally beheaded. People were stirred up! But then if you read the Book of Acts, we read about the apostles going out everywhere, and people were sometimes very much stirred up, even to the point of rioting! When Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica, they were accused of turning the world upside down. And even Paul says about himself: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned…

Now what do we make of all this? Because every culture and every people and every society and every family and even every individual is completely corrupted by sin, the call to repentance and the gift of the forgiveness of sins really do turn the world upside down, because these things are from God himself. So many people who are converted to Christianity later in life often find themselves thinking that their whole lives have been turned upside down.

Now one thing that the Jewish priests mentioned is not just the fact that Jesus was stirring people up, but that he was teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. All of a sudden, Pilate’s ears prick up and he says to himself: Galilee, you say?

We read: When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. Why did he ask this question, do you think? Because there was a Roman law that said that if you were on trial you had to be tried by the person in charge of your own province. So if Jesus was from Galilee, then Pilate would be off the hook. He would simply send him off to the tetrarch of Galilee.

So we read: And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

And Pilate must have thought: Boy, that’s a load off my mind! It saves him making a decision. He passes the buck down the line. He tries to shrug off his responsibilities and actually making a statement under a pretext. “It’s not my department!”, he says. So often when it comes to us thinking about hard questions for our life and for our faith, we often pass the buck and take the easy way out, to avoid having to take a stand. It’s easy to put on a show—but it’s not easy when we find that we have to take a stand. But even in the face of all this human weakness, Jesus knows exactly what he is doing, and he stands firm for us. He is passed around, fobbed off, but he is standing still. The world may carry on and swirl and twirl around Jesus, but Jesus—our Saviour—stands still and he holds his ground. And thank God that he does, because he is the solid rock on which our faith is built.

This now brings us to our second question:

II. Who is Herod, and why was he in Jerusalem?

When we read about the birth Jesus we come across a King Herod, who was also known as Herod the Great. He was the one who tried to trick the wise men from the east into telling him where the baby Jesus was, and pretended to them that he wanted to come and worship him too. Also, in his rage, he killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem, to make sure that Jesus was wiped out.

The Herod in our reading today is actually King Herod’s son, also known as Herod Antipas. Herod’s family is also descended from the Edomites, who are the descendants of Esau. You might remember all the way back to the book of Genesis, where Jacob tricks his twin brother Esau. Esau first of all sells his birthright for a bowl of soup, and then Jacob pretends to be Esau before his blind father Isaac, and takes away his blessing. Isaac then says to Esau: Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck. Right from this time, there is a conflict between the tribe of Jacob, the tribe of Israel, and also the tribe of Esau. We read in Genesis 27: Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. In some sense, this hatred continues to rise and flare up all throughout history, and this is what happens in our reading today, when Jesus is brought before Herod. Jesus is from the tribe of Jacob, and Herod is from the tribe of Esau.

We also know something about this Herod in our reading from the time when he had had John the Baptist beheaded, because he had made a silly promise to his daughter in the presence of his guests at his birthday party.

Now the reason why Herod was in Jerusalem was because it was common for people from all over the place to come to Jerusalem for the Passover. It is probably the case that this is also the reason why Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at this time.

This now brings us to our next topic:

III. How does Herod treat Jesus?

This is what we read about what happened to Jesus, when he was in Herod’s house: When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him. Herod is a strange, twisted man. He’s a man who likes a show, he likes a display, but when his conscience gets in the way then he swats it like a fly. For example, it says that Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And yet, when he promises up to half of [his] kingdom to Herodias’s daughter, we read the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. Hmm! -- You wouldn’t want to break your word to a spoilt teenager when she oversteps the line, but beheading a prophet, that’s OK! This is Herod.

Also, we read that when Herod heard about what Jesus was doing, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. Herod had thought that Jesus was John the Baptist come back from the dead. What a bad conscience he must have had! He knew he had killed a holy man, and so he thinks that Jesus must be John come back from the dead to wreak some revenge on him.

And yet, when Jesus is brought before him, we read: He was very glad. Actually, Herod had liked John too. We read: When [Herod] heard [John], he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. On one hand, he knew John was right, but he wasn’t prepared to break up his unlawful marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. He was afraid of the consequences.

It says that Herod had long desired to see Jesus, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. Jesus had performed many signs: He had healed the blind, made the deaf hear, made the mute speak, made the lame to walk and had raised the dead. But those things weren’t simply things to show off, but Jesus had compassion on those people themselves and wanted to comfort them and heal them and send them away rejoicing. What about Herod? Well, he wanted to turn everything into a magic trick show. Did he want Jesus to turn some water into wine for him? Did he bring in a leper which he had prepared earlier, and get Jesus to whip up some soft smooth baby skin for him?

So you see how twisted this is? Jesus isn’t a circus clown. He isn’t in the entertainment industry. This is also how the devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness. He says to him: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. What’s the point of that? The same goes with Herod. It’s almost as if he says: Now that you’re here, Jesus, if you’re the Son of God, can you do a back-flip off my garbage-bin?

It all sounds so ridiculous when put like this, but many of us are not far from treating Jesus like this ourselves. For example, how many people go for years and years without prayer, or pray in a sanctimonious kind of way, but then one day something happens and they go to Jesus and say, “Are you really there? If you are there, can you do a back-flip for me?” And boy, do we get angry when Jesus doesn’t perform the miracle that we wanted. Jesus knows what we need even before we ask him.

Or what about church? Why do we come? Do we treat Jesus like a performing seal at Sea-World, doing clever tricks? Do we come to church expecting entertainment, and a Sunday morning thrill? Do we come expecting an emotional high, a spiritual rush, a mountain-top faith experience? All of this closes our ears to the word of God, and to the wonderful truths that Jesus wants to speak to us, and that he wants us to learn. He is not here to perform for us; he is here to save us, and to forgive us, and finally, after this life, to rescue us from this sinful life and take us to live with himself forever.

Do you see now what happens with Herod? So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.

Jesus is innocent. He has nothing to answer. And he will not throw his pearls to the swine. He will not give what is holy to the dogs. His shame is our shame—he takes it upon himself and he dies for it.

We see then the Herod goes a step further. When he doesn’t get the sign that he wants, he turns nasty. He calls in his soldiers—he bolsters his weakness with some strong men, against a man who has already been beaten and blindfolded. We read: Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.

Here’s the amazing thing… what Herod does to Jesus is done out of mockery and contempt: he clothes his in one of his royal robes. And yet what he doesn’t recognise is that the man who stands before him really is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This Jesus really is the king of glory. The intent is wrong, the action is true. He really is a king, and though they don’t recognise it, the angels do. Herod and the soldiers mock, the angels bow in adoration. Herod is playing dress-ups, but Jesus is for real.

Jesus wears our sin, our guilt and our shame. He takes it on himself. Jesus stands before God in his suffering and death wearing the garment of our sin. And all this he does so that when we stand before God, we stand before him wearing the garment of his righteousness, given to us in Holy Baptism. He covers us completely over. We read in Psalm 32: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Isaiah 61:10 says: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. What a wonderful thing this is that Jesus does for us!

This brings us to our last question:

IV.  What came about as a result of this event?

We read in verse 12 of this chapter: And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been an enmity with each other.

In Psalm 2, we read some very well-known words: Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.

Here we see the governor, Pilate, and the tetrarch, Herod, and the chief priests all working together against Jesus. Even Pilate and Herod become friends as a result! In Acts 4, we read about when the first Christians prayed together about this very fact: For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

But also, we learn from this that the purpose of Christianity is not simply to make friends. Other people know how to make friends too. Other people can reconcile with one other and it doesn’t make them Christians. There are many people who unite together against Christ. It’s amazing how opposition to Jesus can draw all kinds of unlikely people together.

But in the church, we are drawn together around Jesus and his word. And this is the thing that draws us together—the friendships that we develop in the church come from this. We also need to be careful that we don’t make friendships—even in the church!—in opposition to God’s word and against Jesus.

So as we consider all these things tonight in our reading, let’s look to Jesus, who is the Lamb of God who remained silent, like a lamb before its shearers. Let’s thank him for his wonderful patience as he bore the weight of the world’s sin and our sin. Let’s thank him for having freely taken on the garment of our shame, and for giving us the robe of his righteousness, the gift of baptism and faith. And no matter how many friendships the world may make with each other, let us ask Jesus to draw us ever closer into friendship with him, as he teaches us, just as he did so long ago throughout all Judea, from Galilee and even to this place here today.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world—have mercy on us! Amen.