Followers of Jesus Marvel at Jesus

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Sunday, May 24, 2009

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

Last week, about a week ago, I had an awesome experience, something I’d wanted to do for a long time. The new 2010 Chevrolet Camero is out and it’s at your Chevy dealers and I just had to look at it. Boy, ever since I was a little kid, I’d been wanting to own one because we had one in 1967. We had one of the very first Cameros to come out. And I heard at the dealership they had some of the old ones on display so I went over there on my day off and I was looking over the showroom. Oh, they had beautiful cars, Z-28's, 1968 models, almost like what we had and they were great.

And as I was walking around the showroom, I ran into one of our members that works there and he said, “You want to see the new one?” And that’s really what I was there for. “Sure.” I’d seen this thing on the internet about two years ago at the Detroit Auto Show and I just couldn’t wait to see one in person. So he went and got the keys and hit the remote start. It started right up and, hey, that was kind of fun. It was yellow with black stripes on it, kind of a racing stripe kind of a thing. And he said, “You want to get in it?” I said, “Sure.” So we went and got in it. It was like a dream. Dream car. We’re just sitting there looking at all the features and everything. He’s pointing things out to me. I said, “Can I drive it?” He said, “Yeah, so let’s go. Let’s go out on the interstate, too.” So we took it out there and I found out there’s a thing called a speed limit. It actually has this little thing and, when you go over this certain speed, it will beep at you and let you know. We didn’t pay any attention to that, though. What a car! I just marveled at it. What a car. I couldn’t help but just get all caught up in the moment. And I even noticed that as I was driving, people were looking at it. I’m like, “I’ve never driven a car that people looked at. This is kind of fun.”

Well, our theme today is marveling at Jesus. Followers marvel at Jesus. And it’s based on the message that you heard earlier, the story from Mark 6 where Jesus was with His disciples and He had just sent out the 12, the 12 disciples. He had appointed them as apostles and sent them out with His authority to teach and preach and do all kinds of things. He sent them out to preach that people everywhere should repent and He also sent them out to cast out demons with the authority that, in Jesus’ name, they cast out demons and also to anoint the sick with oil for healing. The disciples marveled because everything Jesus sent them to do happened. They preached and people did repent. They cast out demons and the demons listened to them when they commanded them in Jesus’ name. And when they anointed people in Jesus’ name with oil, they were healed. And the disciples marveled that He was working through them, His power, His name, was working through them.

And as they returned to tell Jesus all about it, they were just so caught up in the moment but they poured out their hearts and all their energy ministering to the people as they went to all these towns. It was just an endless task of people coming up to them and asking for healing and people turning to God and praying with people and hearing all the burdens they were carrying and just the burdens of the people were becoming the burdens of the disciples as they ministered to them.

So they returned to Jesus filled with excitement but they were running on fumes. They were running on adrenalin because they had laid it all out there. And now they were exhausted and they were tired and Jesus saw that and He said, “Come with me. Let’s go to a quiet place and get some rest.” The crowds were coming so consistently, so persistently that they couldn’t even take a moment to eat. So they had to go somewhere else. They got in a boat and, as they pushed off from shore and headed across the lake, the crowds are watching and they saw, “Oh, He’s going to go over there.” So they all got up and ran around and they even got more people from other towns all in the area and they went around the lake and met where the boat was going to land.

So when Jesus pulls up to the place where they’re going to get out of the boat, He looks and sees the crowds. Now the disciples saw Him, too, but I think they had different reactions. The disciples were exhausted. They were played out. They were ready to call it quits for awhile and so when they saw the crowd, I’m sure they kind of groaned like, “Oh, can’t we get away from these people? I mean, this is great, but can’t we get away from these people? We’re tired.” But when Jesus looked at them, He looked with different eyes.

When He looked at them, He could see what was going on in their lives, the pain, the struggles, the joys, the illness, the loss, all the different things they were carrying, Jesus could see it and He saw this huge multitude of people and He had compassion on them. And the way He described it is, “They were like sheep without a shepherd.” And we know Jesus came to be our shepherd, the good shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. So when He saw that multitude with all those problems, His heart was moved and, instead of saying, “Oh, we’re not going to stop here. We’re going to move over to the other side of the lake.” No, He didn’t do that. He got out of the boat and it says that He began to teach them many things and the crowds marveled at Him. They marveled at Him.

Now these disciples hadn’t eaten but neither had the crowds and the disciples were getting tired of waiting. And as Jesus went on and on and on, they’re kind of, you know, trying to figure out how they’re going to pull the plug on this preacher guy and get on with the meal. Finally, one of the disciples said, “You know, it’s really getting late. We haven’t eaten. They haven’t eaten. Send them away so they can buy some food for themselves.” Jesus said, “You feed them.” Of course, the immediate reaction was, “This huge crowd? It would take eight months of a man’s wages.” It’s not hard to calculate. You think two-thirds of your annual income, eight months of a man’s wages just to feed that crowd and they really were wondering, “Do you really want us to spend the money that we’ve been carefully managing to feed this crowd one time?” Jesus said, “Well, how much food do you have? How many loaves do you have?” They went and took inventory. Five. And two fish, like that’s going to make a difference. Jesus said, “Bring them here.” He took the bread and the fish, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, “Take it to the people.” He did the same thing with the fish, divided it among them. Five plus two fed 5,000. A miracle.

The crowd marveled. The disciples marveled. Everyone marveled. And as you think about Jesus’ ministry, it seems like it was filled with moments like that. When He did extraordinary things or said incredible things and people marveled, one event after another. That’s what it seemed like. The crowds marveled at Him.

As He taught as a young boy, He taught the teachers. And at the wedding in Cana as He changed water into wine; now that would be a handy kind of thing to be able to do. As He healed people from the incurable disease of leprosy, as He worked with the man, remember the one who they tore the hole in the roof and they lowered him down and Jesus looked at him and said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Now this guy was paralyzed. He wasn’t even thinking about sins. What sin could he be committing? But Jesus looked at this man with paralysis and knew that the worst problem this man had wasn’t physical, it was spiritual. And so He dealt with the biggest problem first. He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” And then his opponents were in the crowd and they said, “Who is this who is forgiving sins? Who does He think He is?” Jesus said, “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, take up your mat and walk.” And this man who was completely paralyzed stood up and picked up his bed and went. They marveled at Him.

They marveled at Him when He restored sight to the blind. They marveled at Him when He walked on the water and when He spoke to the wind and the waves as we speak to our children and said, “Be still,” and it obeyed. They marveled at Him. They marveled at Him when He gathered with His disciples and He knelt to wash their feet. They marveled at Him when He spoke with authority and then, in the garden of Gethsemane, when He allowed Himself to be arrested. They marveled at Him when He refused to answer the false charges leveled against Him. And when He was whipped and beaten and finally nailed to the cross, they marveled at Him. When hanging on the cross, He looked at His tormentors and He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They marveled at Him when He hung there and said, “It is finished,” and gave up His spirit. They marveled at Him as He was laid in the tomb and as He rose from the dead. They marveled at Him when He appeared to His followers after His resurrection and they marveled at Him as He ascended on the clouds into heaven. They marveled at Him.

What about now? It’s easy to look back in time, back in that time and see all the different things He did that were so wonderful and incredible. It’s easy to marvel at those things but what about now?

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with my nephew who had consistently made bad choices as a young man. This is somebody I’m very close to because his mom had gone through a divorce when he was young and so, for many years, I was like a dad to him, doing the dad things and teaching him the Christian faith and things like that. And so we were having this conversation when, as a young man, he was making bad choices, I said, “Do you still believe?” And he said, “Yeah, I still believe but sometimes I just wonder where God is.” I think what the problem in that situation is when God is this way and we’re going this way, of course we’re not going to see Him. When we’re stubbornly choosing our own path and not following God’s path, of course, we’re not going to find Him in the things that are going on in our lives. But God doesn’t give us on us, does He? Even in those times when we’re stubborn and wayward and making bad choices, He doesn’t quit. He keeps coming after us. He keeps seeking us out, just like God did in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned.

You see, followers today marvel at Jesus because they see Him everywhere. Followers today marvel at the miracles Jesus is doing today. They marvel when God gives them a precious baby, a true miracle that they saw come into the world. They marvel at Him when they sit bedside with a loved one wracked by a terrible disease and they marvel at the thought that when they breathed their last, they’re instantly with Jesus in paradise and no longer suffer, no more pain, no more need for medicine. They marvel at Jesus when they see a sunset or a beautiful flower or a tiny little kitten. They marvel because they know that all these things were created through Jesus. They marvel as they look in the mirror and they see who they really are, a sinner. And yet, as they continue to look, they see someone so precious and so dearly loved by God, that Jesus considered them worth dying for.

Followers of Jesus marvel today because their eyes have been opened to the Lord’s work in their lives. This past week, I had an occasion to witness another of Jesus’ miracles. I was honored and privileged to perform a wedding. The groom was a friend of mine. He had been married 53 years and then suddenly, lost his wife. I performed the funeral and got to know the family at that time. It was a difficult time and I witnessed the depth of their grief and the great sense of loss that he felt. The bride was also a friend of mine. She, too, had been married 53 years and lost her spouse a few years ago. And I got to know her as she came to our grief groups. She went through the program and, in time, began to help lead the groups. This week, to stand with them at that sacred moment when they exchanged their vows was truly incredible. The emotions flowed and, as I stood there taking it all in, I marveled at Jesus.

There is great value in marveling at Jesus. For in these moments of amazement, a sense of love and awe beyond words washes through us. We dare not cheapen life by talking about luck or fate or karma or even our own intellect or skill. The good and wonderful events in our lives are the work of Jesus who never stops giving and forgiving, who never stops loving, who never gives up on us or turns His back on us. It is Jesus that fills our lives with such good things and surrounds us with people who care and want the best for us. It is Jesus.

Have you ever received an anonymous gift? That’s kind of a strange way to describe a gift, isn’t it? An anonymous gift. It’s kind of funny. But no gift can be anonymous. Somebody gave it. You just don’t know who. What would you do if you found out who it was that gave you that wonderful gift, who thought of you on that day, who remembered you, who knew what you liked and blessed you with that gift? What would you do if you knew who gave it to you?

Your Lord Jesus has given you the best things that you possess in this life, the greatest gifts that you can possibly receive and we are His followers. We marvel at Him. Amen.

Copyright 2009 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church