Readings: Genesis 2:7-17 | Romans 6:19-23 | Mark 8:1-9
Text: Romans 6:19-23
Martin Luther wrote in a 1523 sermon:
“Unbelief is the cause of all sin and vice, which have now taken the upper hand in all stations of life. How does it come to pass that everywhere there are so many foolish women and rogues, so many rank imposters, thieves, robbers, usurers, murderers and sellers of indulgences? It all comes from unbelief. For such men judge alone according to human reason, and the reason judges only according to that which it sees; but what it does not see, it does not wish to lay hold of...Observe, thus it comes to pass wherever men permit their reason to govern them, and are not ruled by faith.” (“Sermons of Martin Luther,” Lenker ed., vol. IV p. 208)
We often think of the difference between faith and unbelief in terms of actions—whether a particular words or behavior is sinful. This is fine for teaching children, because they benefit from learning right from wrong behavior. But if our understanding of faith versus unbelief remains immature like this, and we wring our hands over how decrepit the state of morals are today when compared to decades or generations past, then we will have somewhat missed the foundation of the problem.
If we think that the olden days were better simply because men were men and women were women, news broadcasters could be trusted, and marriage was an “institute you can’t disparage” (Frank Sinatra), then these words of St. Paul may miss the mark of where a sinful man or woman’s problem lies:
19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What comes to your mind when you think of someone who is a “slave to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness”? One imagines liars and cheaters, scofflaws who swear like sailors, drug addicts and criminals. The wages of sin is death, just as the fruit of the lewd behavior of men led to AIDS and death. And yes, it is true that these are gross examples of impurity and lawlessness. But where does it come from? Such that it is true for all people: “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”? That is to say, everyone from your sweet, pious grandmother to the roughest drunk who threatens to fight you in the parking lot.
It goes back to verse 19, where St. Paul says, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.” This translation is problematic because it seems to excuse us for just being “natural.” Instead, listen to the King James: “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.” The problem is the destruction our sinful flesh has wrought, and it runs deep.
Martin Luther wrote about this in terms of reason versus a faithful trust. While our minds are a gift from God, in sin their capability to reason, measure, and predict have become a deadly opponent of a faith which rests in God. This defect in our faculty of reason is the root of all manner of sinful thoughts, words, and actions. Here’s an illustration from Luther:
“Take an example: If I were a man who had a wife and children, and had nothing for them and no one gave me anything; then I should believe and hope that God would sustain me. But if I see that it amounts to nothing and I am not helped with food and clothing, what takes place? Then, as an unbelieving fool, I begin to doubt, and go and take whatever is at hand, steal, deceive, cheat the people and make my way the best I can and may...See this is what shameless unbelief does.” (Lenker, pp. 205-206)
Honestly, it’s easy to say that you believe in God and trust in Him. It’s quite another thing to actually live trusting in Him. The “infirmity of our flesh” makes itself known in symptoms of distrust of God, anxieties, dissatisfaction, and all kinds of “taking matters into one’s own hands.” We fail to take God’s Sabbath rest because we think we have more pressing things to take care of. We write off others as worthless fools because we think our judgment is the only one that matters. Through technological advances, so much has become easily available, so why not pluck of its fruit? Such an affluent lifestyle is seen as the norm, so why shouldn’t I put my financial welfare at risk to obtain it?
In the Gospel today, this was displayed by the disciples’ response to the crowd of people whom Jesus desired to feed. That’s nice, you idealist Rabbi, but back here on earth, it takes a whole load of money to buy bread for people. This is the response when reason, blind to God’s ways and faithfulness, takes over.
Our reason evaluates situations by what we can see and measure and predict, and that wouldn’t be completely wrong, if it weren’t for the other part: Our reason never figures God fairly into the equation. Today, we have positive opinions of words, like pragmatic, practical, and realistic. It’s comfortable to hold these up as paradigms, and by it say that we are more responsible than others. But at the end of the day, we all need to count ourselves with the disciples and be dumbfounded when God fulfills His promises to provide for our creaturely life.
Here’s how Luther describes it:
“But if I am a believer then I close my eyes and say: O God, I am thy creature and thy handiwork and thou hast from the beginning created me. I will depend entirely upon you who cares more for me, how I shall be sustained, than I do myself; thou wilt indeed nourish me, feed, clothe and help me, where and when you know best.” (Lenker, p. 206)
This kind of surrender reason can’t stand. Foolish! Naive! Childish! After hurling insults at faith, reason is proud that it hasn’t let go control of our lives and future. Where would we be without reason?
“1I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)
“16The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.” (Psalm 33:16-17)
So, the Holy Spirit is calling every one of us to repent of all the times we have let our fleshly reason rule our lives and be our god. Definitely, it is something of which we are now ashamed. It sounded so wise, and seemed right in our eyes, but it’s end was death as Proverbs 14:12 declares: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
But Christ Himself has come and set you free from the deceitful bondage of reason, of your fleshly weakness. He, with His Holy Spirit, is at work in each of us to kindle and increase our faith, if we are turn and put Lord Reason in the grave. Here we see how the weakness of our flesh has corrupted and eroded our faith. But just as our Lord was merciful to His disciples as He tested them, He knows our weakness as well.
He will turn our eyes and hearts from the empty pursuits of being masters of our own lives, and cast ourselves into the hands of a faithful Creator and do good [1 Peter 4:19]. You will see the hand of God at work, and you will know Him who does what He has promised and no less. You will see this as a humble child in His Kingdom, not by what you can reason to be. In this hope, you will also receive what you cannot now see: the “free gift of God [which] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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