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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Old Testament reading. You may be seated. Some of us would ask our parents, “Why did you name me the name that you named me?” And some of your parents can give you an absolute perfect answer because they remember why. I was the youngest of four and all my parents said goes, “I don’t know.” I think they were just glad to find a name they could put on me. I don’t know.
But there were three men whose names were very important to them because their mother and their father made sure it connected them to their God. One of them’s name was Hananiah. One of their names was Mishael. And the third one was Azariah. Now these three men had those names that tied them into their God. But when the Babylonians came and took the Jews from Israel to Babylon, one of their ways of assimilating them into their culture would be to rename these three men.
And these three men’s names you’re much more familiar with from the Babylonian perspective. Hananiah was named Shadrach. Mishael was named Meshach. And Azariah, he was named Abednego. And why did they name them those? Because that tied them into the Babylonian culture and to the Babylonian gods. The other one you may not be so familiar with, the other Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, well, he was really named Daniel, the one that ended up in the lion’s den.
And while they were in Babylon, these men and the rest of Israel were continually accosted with the culture of Babylon, the false gods of Babylon, wearing them down. And remember, they were there for 70 years. So the people that came, middle-aged, they died in Babylon. And it was their grandchildren who grew up knowing nothing else but Babylonian culture and language that actually went back to Israel 70 years later.
Every single day, each of you are accosted by the culture outside of this world. Church, over 2,000 images or advertisements accost your senses each day. You see them in the newspaper, in the magazines, television, radio, and the internet. Those mediums deliver over 2,000 images to each of us every day. And you’ve been affected by it, just like I have.
You choose the shoes that you wear. You shop at HEB because of the advertisement, probably. Right? I’ve never seen a Randall’s advertisement. Interesting, isn’t it? You shop at certain stores because of the advertisement that you’ve seen. You buy a certain car. All of those things are designed to get you to change or view what you do differently. It’s not all bad. It’s a part of living in this fantastically blessed culture in which we live.
The problem is that Satan loves to tempt you to think, and me, that we can have our cake and eat it too. We can have all this and have all that out there and not be compromised. No different than that’s what Satan was doing to these Israelites when they were brought to Babylon. This is what is right, not what you heard in Israel. This is what is wrong, not what you heard in Israel. That’s what the culture outside of this church is telling you.
This lifestyle is wrong. This lifestyle is right. This way of thinking is wrong. This way of thinking is right. And it wears us down. Because it wears us down to the point where we begin to think in terms of the logic, which is flawed, nevertheless, but the logic of how the world views things and the complete lack of logic, according to the world, that God views things.
We have things that mark us. Maybe our names aren’t exactly what marks us. This gold band on my hand marks me. It says I belong to someone, and I have to maintain the fidelity to that someone all my life. And even if I didn’t wear this and I was single, it means that I’m not yet married to that someone, and I must maintain my fidelity to God until I share that with someone. It’s not as if I can choose to test drive anything prior to.
And my bride wears a gold band on her left hand as well, marking her as mine. God told the Israelites, mark your door with the blood of the lamb that the angel of death would pass over because you belong to me. In Hebrew, leh Yahweh. Leh Yahweh. Leh Yahweh. The best translation is belonging to the Lord. Leh Yahweh.
Abraham was told, circumcise yourself and all the males from this time forth, because you need to know in your own flesh you belong to someone and you’re different. Even Cain himself, after he had killed Abel, prayed to God, “Lord, please somehow protect me from all the other people, because they’re going to kill me because I’m the first murderer.” And what did God do but give Cain a mark? Mark. So that they would know Cain belongs to whom? God, even though Cain had murdered his brother.
Thus says the Lord God, who made you, who formed you from the womb. Life begins at conception, and God is very clear about it in this text. That’s another thing also that this world tries to change the viewpoint of society rather than what God says from what they say. God has told his story about you in his skin. In the prophet Isaiah, he writes, “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and his form marred beyond human likeness, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him… the iniquity of us all.”
Again, written about Jesus. “I gave my back to those who strike and my cheek to those who pull out the beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.” So Jesus was marked, not because he had to be shown he belongs to God, but because you had to be shown whom you belong to.
One spear… three nails, one crown of thorns, they all left marks on Jesus’ skin, and his marks are eternal. You remember when he rose from the dead, the first thing he did after he said, “Peace be with you,” was to show the disciples his hands, his feet, and his side, so that they would know it is he, the one who was murdered for them, who has risen from the dead. And then he made sure that Thomas knew about these marks as well.
Many of us have scars that mark our lives of either accidents, foolish behavior, or illness, which all marks us as sinful human beings, doesn’t it? The fact that 10 years ago I didn’t have to wear these says to me, yeah, I’m marked. I’m marked as one who’s dying, like all of us. The wrinkles, the lack of hair, the scars. But none of those scars that you bear on your body and none of those marks that you bear that says, “I’m a sinner,” will be on you in the resurrection. The only one who will bear such scars will bear them for your glory, is your Lord Jesus. They are eternal. The scars that you bear are not eternal. Because he paid for them.
And it all began at the baptism. When the pastor said, “Receive the sign of the Holy Cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart. To mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.” This action right here is not a Roman Catholic action. It is tracing on yourself what the pastor traced on you at your baptism and what I’m tracing on you when I do the same thing to you. You are marked by Christ the crucified.
It’s kind of an interesting culture in which we live. Growing up, like many of you, the only people that I ever saw with a tattoo were military members. Second World War veterans or Korean veterans, Vietnam veterans. Not so anymore. Not so anymore. In fact, it’s kind of interesting because prior to that, tattoos were really a part of the military culture. They’re not anymore. And one can’t say that tattoos are countercultural because they’ve become so common that they’re no longer countercultural. They’re now cultural tattoos.
You want something counter-cultural? You’ve been marked with the cross of Christ. That’s counter-cultural. This world looks at this and says, bizarre, antiquated. The world looks at this and says, it is far, far from our culture. Embrace this that is counter-cultural. Be counter-cultural.
Paul said to the church, “I bear the marks of Christ upon my body.” That doesn’t mean he had forehead scars that bled at certain times of the year or hands that bled at certain times of the year. It meant that his eyes were marked with tenderness and kindness. Lech Yahweh. Because his eyes belonged to the Lord. His smile was marked with delight and friendship to other people. Lech Yahweh. Because his smile belonged to the Lord.
His mind… it was marked with toughness and truth to deal with this world. Let Yahweh, because his mind belonged to the Lord. His hands were marked with helpfulness and humility toward others. Let Yahweh, because his hands belonged to the Lord. His mouth spoke Jesus and joy, blessing, not curses, to other people. Because let Yahweh, his mouth belonged to the Lord.
You belong to the Lord, not because you’re marked, but because he was marked for you eternally. Just because we live in this world does not mean we have to live as if we belong to this world. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were told time and time again that was their name. They had to remind themselves, “No, my name is Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. That is my name.” And Daniel had to keep telling himself his name is Daniel, not Belteshazzar.
You are marked with the cross of Christ because Christ was marked for you, that you may be his. Written on your hand is Leh Yahweh, belonging to the Lord, not because there is a scar there, but because there is a scar there, written on his hand, in your name and all of ours, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.