Reformed and Always Reforming by the Word of God
October 27, 2024 Reformation Sunday
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 34:1-8Mark 10:46-52
“Reformed and Always Reforming by the Word of God”
Melissa K. Smith
507 years ago, the Church changed forever. Martin Luther, a young Catholic monk, was deeply and painfully aware of his sin. Day after day he spent time in prayer, passionately confessing his sins. But every time he would say amen, he would remember more sin. He physically could not confess all his sins at once, no matter how hard he tried. He wasn’t any more sinful than you or me – he was just deeply aware of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” During his torment, he was angry with God and frustrated with the Church. Instead of taking their sin seriously, the Church was selling indulgences – a “get out of purgatory for a fee card.”
In Catholicism it was believed that when someone died, if their sins weren’t purified on earth, they went to purgatory to purify themselves of sin before they went to heaven. So, the Church in the 1500s began to sell indulgences – for a price, a person could purchase their purification or the purification of a loved one and they were told that this worked. The main man selling them, John Tetzel would announce that indulgences made the sinner “cleaner than when coming out of baptism,” and “cleaner than Adam before the Fall,” and that “the cross of the seller of indulgences had as much power as the cross of Christ.” And the buyers were told, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
Where were the funds of the indulgences going? To help finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica.
It is not hard to see why Luther was angry. In the midst of his theological query, Luther finally came to the conclusion that “the justice of God” wasn’t a hateful thing that just pointed out sin for the purpose of making one distraught, but rather, Luther realized that the righteousness, the justice of God, is an act of love – that we receive forgiveness, grace, and salvation not by the work of penance or even confession but through living out a life of faith – that is enough by the grace of God.
Luther recognized that the church was blind to the faith we are called to have. By paying indulgences, faith was written out of the equation. Rather, Luther looked more closely at passages like Ephesians 2:8-9, “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” and he was struck by what the church lost sight of: we are not saved by coin or indulgence, we are saved by grace through faith.
And he specifically looked at Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
Luther was livid when the theological truth about the Gospel, the merciful forgiveness of God, and the importance of faith were being thwarted by false claims to sell indulgences.
So, he wrote 95 statements, a document titled “Ninety-five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”. He nailed it to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany – and without the intention of such a huge reform, he sparked the Protestant Reformation.
In this morning’s scripture reading, faith is on display. It is a healing narrative, yes, but it is also a call to discipleship and a recognition of the significance and importance of faith. In their own ways Bartimaeus and Luther show us that faith is paramount in our discipleship journey.
The main question in the Gospel of Mark is, “Who is this?” “Who is Jesus?”
Bartimaeus is the only named person to experience healing in the Gospel of Mark and he is the subject of the last healing narrative in the Gospel. He answers the primary question of Mark immediately, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”
To call Jesus the “Son of David,” Bartimaeus is claiming that Jesus is the Davidic messiah, that he is the one to succeed King David. In 2 Samuel 7, God says to David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” Bartimaeus believes that Jesus is the one the world has been waiting for.
As the Son of David, Jesus is the expected messianic king – he is the Messiah, the Christ. And if he is the Christ, then he has the power to heal.
Jesus’s ministry and miracles have been increasing his popularity, and Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is in the vicinity and he has faith, trusting that Jesus can and will restore his sight and heal him. He yells out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” And Mark tells us that “many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he yelled out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Mark does not tell us why they told him to be quiet. We can speculate that it was because the crowds didn’t believe Bartimaeus could be healed so it was a waste of Jesus’s time or perhaps it was because the crowds believed Jesus had better things to do. Mark does not speculate because he wants our focus to be on what Jesus does do. He continues, “Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”
Jesus has heard his plea and looked out at the crowd, likely seeing their dismissal of Bartimaeus’ cry, and he stops his journey to invite Bartimaeus to come to him. Bartimaeus joyfully accepts the call and jubilantly runs to Jesus and finally can give his plea: “Rabboni, my teacher, let me see again.” His request is the expected plea for a blind man with faith: He wants to see, and he believes Jesus Christ can heal him.
Jesus responds, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Bartimaeus was not healed by Jesus touching his eyes, like he did to the blind man in chapter 8. He was not healed by physical touch like the deaf man in chapter 7, but rather, he was healed by the power of Jesus because of his faith. His faith saved him. Mark continues, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” Bartimaeus, upon receiving his sight, did not return to his life as it was before. Instead, he followed Jesus “on the way” – in other words, he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. In Mark’s Gospel, it is at this point that Jesus is intentionally heading towards Jerusalem and towards the cross. Discipleship is a journey to the cross, and Bartimaeus has jubilantly said yes to the call of discipleship.
When we are blind to the significance of faith, we are blind to the reality of the cross, we are blind to who Jesus is, and we are blind to the Gospel. When we believe in Jesus Christ, when we clearly see the cross, and when we read and share the Gospel, we are participants in Jesus’s mission of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Martin Luther recognized the importance and priority of faith, and he urged the church to not be blind to its significance.
On this Reformation Sunday let us not be blind to the significance of faith. Let us heed Luther’s warnings and put the Gospel first trusting in Scripture alone, faith alone, and grace alone.
Have faith and let it lead you on the way to discipleship as we together follow
Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 34:1-8Mark 10:46-52
“Reformed and Always Reforming by the Word of God”
Melissa K. Smith
507 years ago, the Church changed forever. Martin Luther, a young Catholic monk, was deeply and painfully aware of his sin. Day after day he spent time in prayer, passionately confessing his sins. But every time he would say amen, he would remember more sin. He physically could not confess all his sins at once, no matter how hard he tried. He wasn’t any more sinful than you or me – he was just deeply aware of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” During his torment, he was angry with God and frustrated with the Church. Instead of taking their sin seriously, the Church was selling indulgences – a “get out of purgatory for a fee card.”
In Catholicism it was believed that when someone died, if their sins weren’t purified on earth, they went to purgatory to purify themselves of sin before they went to heaven. So, the Church in the 1500s began to sell indulgences – for a price, a person could purchase their purification or the purification of a loved one and they were told that this worked. The main man selling them, John Tetzel would announce that indulgences made the sinner “cleaner than when coming out of baptism,” and “cleaner than Adam before the Fall,” and that “the cross of the seller of indulgences had as much power as the cross of Christ.” And the buyers were told, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
Where were the funds of the indulgences going? To help finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica.
It is not hard to see why Luther was angry. In the midst of his theological query, Luther finally came to the conclusion that “the justice of God” wasn’t a hateful thing that just pointed out sin for the purpose of making one distraught, but rather, Luther realized that the righteousness, the justice of God, is an act of love – that we receive forgiveness, grace, and salvation not by the work of penance or even confession but through living out a life of faith – that is enough by the grace of God.
Luther recognized that the church was blind to the faith we are called to have. By paying indulgences, faith was written out of the equation. Rather, Luther looked more closely at passages like Ephesians 2:8-9, “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” and he was struck by what the church lost sight of: we are not saved by coin or indulgence, we are saved by grace through faith.
And he specifically looked at Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
Luther was livid when the theological truth about the Gospel, the merciful forgiveness of God, and the importance of faith were being thwarted by false claims to sell indulgences.
So, he wrote 95 statements, a document titled “Ninety-five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”. He nailed it to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany – and without the intention of such a huge reform, he sparked the Protestant Reformation.
In this morning’s scripture reading, faith is on display. It is a healing narrative, yes, but it is also a call to discipleship and a recognition of the significance and importance of faith. In their own ways Bartimaeus and Luther show us that faith is paramount in our discipleship journey.
The main question in the Gospel of Mark is, “Who is this?” “Who is Jesus?”
Bartimaeus is the only named person to experience healing in the Gospel of Mark and he is the subject of the last healing narrative in the Gospel. He answers the primary question of Mark immediately, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”
To call Jesus the “Son of David,” Bartimaeus is claiming that Jesus is the Davidic messiah, that he is the one to succeed King David. In 2 Samuel 7, God says to David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” Bartimaeus believes that Jesus is the one the world has been waiting for.
As the Son of David, Jesus is the expected messianic king – he is the Messiah, the Christ. And if he is the Christ, then he has the power to heal.
Jesus’s ministry and miracles have been increasing his popularity, and Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is in the vicinity and he has faith, trusting that Jesus can and will restore his sight and heal him. He yells out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” And Mark tells us that “many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he yelled out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Mark does not tell us why they told him to be quiet. We can speculate that it was because the crowds didn’t believe Bartimaeus could be healed so it was a waste of Jesus’s time or perhaps it was because the crowds believed Jesus had better things to do. Mark does not speculate because he wants our focus to be on what Jesus does do. He continues, “Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”
Jesus has heard his plea and looked out at the crowd, likely seeing their dismissal of Bartimaeus’ cry, and he stops his journey to invite Bartimaeus to come to him. Bartimaeus joyfully accepts the call and jubilantly runs to Jesus and finally can give his plea: “Rabboni, my teacher, let me see again.” His request is the expected plea for a blind man with faith: He wants to see, and he believes Jesus Christ can heal him.
Jesus responds, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Bartimaeus was not healed by Jesus touching his eyes, like he did to the blind man in chapter 8. He was not healed by physical touch like the deaf man in chapter 7, but rather, he was healed by the power of Jesus because of his faith. His faith saved him. Mark continues, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” Bartimaeus, upon receiving his sight, did not return to his life as it was before. Instead, he followed Jesus “on the way” – in other words, he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. In Mark’s Gospel, it is at this point that Jesus is intentionally heading towards Jerusalem and towards the cross. Discipleship is a journey to the cross, and Bartimaeus has jubilantly said yes to the call of discipleship.
When we are blind to the significance of faith, we are blind to the reality of the cross, we are blind to who Jesus is, and we are blind to the Gospel. When we believe in Jesus Christ, when we clearly see the cross, and when we read and share the Gospel, we are participants in Jesus’s mission of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Martin Luther recognized the importance and priority of faith, and he urged the church to not be blind to its significance.
On this Reformation Sunday let us not be blind to the significance of faith. Let us heed Luther’s warnings and put the Gospel first trusting in Scripture alone, faith alone, and grace alone.
Have faith and let it lead you on the way to discipleship as we together follow
Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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