The Rev. Paul J Cain
Mark 10:2-16
Foundations
Proper 22B, 07 October 2012, LWML Sunday
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, WY
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Today Mark 10 gives us an opportunity to talk
about two foundations of our life together in this world, Holy Matrimony and
Holy Baptism.
LSB: Holy
matrimony is an honorable estate instituted and blessed by God in Paradise,
before humanity's fall into sin.
[Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote in a wedding sermon, “It is
not your love which sustains the marriage, but from now on the marriage that
sustains your love.”]
In marriage we see a picture of the communion between Christ
and His bride, the Church. Our Lord
blessed and honored marriage with his presence and first miracle at Cana in
Galilee. This estate is also commended to us by the apostle Paul as good and
honorable. Therefore, marriage is not to be entered into inadvisedly or
lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for
which it was instituted by God.
The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is
intended by God for the mutual companionship, help, and support that each
person ought to receive from the other, both in prosperity and adversity. Marriage was also ordained so that man and
woman may find delight in one another.
Therefore, all persons who marry shall take a spouse in holiness and
honor, not in the passion of lust, for God has not called us to impurity but in
holiness. God also established marriage
for the procreation of children who are to be brought up in the fear and
instruction of the Lord so that they may offer Him their praise.
For these reasons God has established this holy estate. [Christian
couples often] desire our prayers as they begin their marriage in the Lord's
name and with His blessing.
Mark 10 is probably one of the most unromantic texts to hear
on one’s wedding day.
2 And
Pharisees came up and in order to test (him) [Jesus] asked, “Is it lawful for a
man to divorce his wife?” 3 He
answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a
certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness
of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But
from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man
shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall
become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God
has joined together, let not man separate.”
10 And
in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces
her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Not everyone can receive this saying. That is true to our
experience, too. We live in a culture of divorce, of revised or
compose-your-own wedding vows. When the words “submit,” “forever,” and “Jesus”
are being revised out of wedding services held within some “Christian”
churches, you know something is going wrong in the culture. If the Bible is
being ignored within the Church, no wonder the traditional, Biblical,
historical understanding of marriage consisting of one man and one woman until
death do they part is under attack.
You are people to whom these sayings are given. What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. As Christians,
each of us is at the same time a sinner and a forgiven saint. Both husband and
wife promise to remain faithful and committed to the marriage in sickness and
in health, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. You never know what
might happen. God has joined one man and one woman together in Holy Matrimony to
support one another through it all, given as good gifts to each other from Our
Father in Heaven.
Some Christians count Holy Matrimony as a sacrament. I’m
sensitive to that fact. Christian traditions have different definitions of that
churchly term, sacrament. A Lutheran sacrament has to have the Lord’s
institution, mandate, and visible means, and it must offer and deliver the
forgiveness of sins. Holy Matrimony certainly has the Lord’s institution and
mandate back in the Garden of Eden before humanity’s fall into sin. The Lord Jesus
also blessed the sacred institution by His presence and first miracle at Cana
in Galilee. Marriage does not promise or give you the forgiveness of sins.
Holy Matrimony cannot survive without the forgiveness of
sins. Therefore, be ready to confess your own sins to each other—and be always
ready to forgive. If you do not forgive those who sin against you, Jesus says,
then neither will the Lord forgive you. Therefore, forgive as you have already
been forgiven. Love as you have been loved by God in Christ. On Calvary’s cross
He proclaimed, “It is finished.” He has forgiven every one of your sins—His
work of salvation is completed. Forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation are
your present possession. You have been forgiven completely. Forgive completely.
Bury the hatchet—including the handle. Hear Bonhoeffer again: “It is not your
love which sustains the marriage, but from now on the marriage that sustains
your love.”
We now turn to a brief discussion of Holy Baptism, based on
the Gospel text from the rite of Holy Baptism, Mark 10.
13 And
they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples
rebuked them. 14 But
when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to
me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you,
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in
his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Unlike Holy Matrimony, Holy Baptism promises and delivers
the forgiveness of sins. The translation “like
a little child” is clearer and more faithful to the Greek than “as a little child.” We baptize people of
all ages who need what Holy Baptism gives, forgiveness of sins, rescue from
death and the devil, and eternal salvation for all who believe, not because
Luther said so, but because Matthew
28, Mark 16, Acts 2, Romans 6, Titus 3, and 1 Peter 3 say so.
The children Jesus embraces in Mark 10 includes the very
youngest. Theirs is the kingdom of God. Christ wants infants to be saved and
gives them faith. Holy Baptism is Jesus’ means for all to be saved apart from
works, apart from reason, apart from decision, solely by grace and God’s gift.
Infants need what baptism gives because they, too, are conceived and born in
sins. And He blesses those little children brought to Him. According to
Colossians 2, Holy Baptism is the successor to Old Testament circumcision. If
that was administered to an eight day old boy, this circumcision of Christ made
without hands can and should be administered to infant boys and girls. Indeed,
the apostles baptized entire households, not once but twice in Acts 16.
Adapted from LSB: In Holy Baptism, God graciously preserves
and enlarges His family, making men and women and boys and girls members of His
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and heirs with us and all the saints of all the
treasures of heaven in the one holy Christian an apostolic church. They are our
brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we hear His Word, receive His gifts,
and proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His
marvelous light.
This day we thank the Lord for our wives, our mothers, and
faithful Christian women, as well as for the LWML.
The world needs Holy Matrimony and Holy Baptism as the Lord
established them. And so does our nation, our state, our community, and our
congregation. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
