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May God grant us His grace and peace.
Dear Christians, when the Son of God, long before His incarnation, came to visit our Father in the faith Abraham, Abraham received Him with all eagerness. He probably didn’t even know at first that it was the Lord, specifically the Son of God, disguised as a man and accompanied by two angels, but his self-denying hospitality led him to welcome these strangers. So the old man began to run. He showed them all reverence, brought water for washing, food for refreshment, and prepared quite the feast for them. To experience such loving hospitality as a stranger, even as someone far from his home country, is certainly wonderful and extremely moving. I can tell you that from my personal experience looking back at the past year.
In the case of Abraham and then later Mary and Martha, however, it was something even greater. Abraham hurried; he ran back and forth to serve his guests. But finally, he sat down at the feet of the Lord and listened to his word. To have Jesus as guest and to receive him is indeed the greatest thing that can ever happen to anyone. We rightly pray before our meals, “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” And when he is our guest, it turns out very quickly that he is not a normal guest. He comes to stay. It turns out that he actually is the host and we are the guests. He promises to all of you, where he says in John, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him.”
The Lord Jesus, as he journeyed through Israel in his earthly ministry, came to visit many sinners. And not only did he visit Mary and Martha and later people like Zacchaeus, but he visits sinners even today by his precious holy word. And by his Holy Spirit, they receive him. So I’d like to consider this with you this morning, that to receive Jesus in his word, first, is to truly serve him. Second, it means to sit at his feet. And third, it is the one thing necessary.
First, to receive Jesus in his word is to truly serve him. This is not how Martha thought about it. She thought she would serve the Lord by working for him. So, as she was busy running back and forth, she finally couldn’t take it anymore, seeing Mary, her sister, just sitting around there. So, approaching the Lord, she burst out into complaint, “Lord, do you not care? Tell her to help me.”
This is how we tend to think about serving God. We serve God by working in the church, for most of you in your free time, or by various works of mercy. We serve God on Sunday mornings by praying to him, worshiping him, singing to him. And to be clear, Jesus does not tell Martha that her service is bad. We do actually serve God by serving our neighbors. There’s nothing wrong about that. And we even serve God by praying to him and singing to him. But this is not the service that Jesus wants first and foremost. Divine service, first of all, means that God is serving us. Or, in other words, to serve the Lord means to receive from Him.
And in order to receive something, you need to halt. You need to stop doing something, like Mary did when she stopped working, left her sister, and sat down at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word. This is what Sabbath means. That’s why we need to rest from our works. You rest from your works, and then you can ponder His work. You begin listening to His word. This is what we do every Sunday morning, and hopefully every day a little bit.
So think about this. You serve God by sitting down and listening to the readings and then listening to the sermon. In fact, the greatest worship you can give to God is not a great hymn of worship. The greatest worship is to receive his gospel, to believe that he came to visit you. There’s nothing that the Lord delights in more than this. So even preaching a sermon is praising God because the Lord delights in his doctrine being taught and proclaimed. And this is why you are going to come to the sacrament later, not in order to give the Lord anything, but to receive. To receive His true body and true blood under the bread and wine for your forgiveness. So, this is how you serve the Lord best when He serves you.
Now, second, to receive Jesus in His word means to sit at His feet. Here you can see that it has always been about the Word. We don’t have a disadvantage in not being able to see the Lord with our own eyes, like Mary and Martha did, because even for them, it was all about Christ’s preaching. Now, indeed, it was a great honor to be able to touch the Word of life, to see the face of Jesus, and to hear His physical voice. But Mary did not sit down at the feet of Jesus in order to touch those feet but in order to listen to his word and teaching.
And as she literally sat at the feet of the one who had now truly assumed the human nature and become man, so do you sit at the feet of Jesus when you listen to his word, when you ponder it in your heart and keep it. Mary truly received Jesus. And she showed us the meaning of the third commandment, to not despise preaching in his word, but to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
Martha, on the other hand, she had heard about Jesus. And she certainly heard some of his preaching as she was running in and out of the room where Jesus sat. But she had one problem. She was constantly being pulled away by the cares of this life. She heard it, but she wasn’t listening. This is our great danger. What are the cares of life that occupy you? That when your mind wanders, you think about them? Whether it be the political affairs of this country or the world, globalism, the deep state, health, climate change, your family, work, the house, what to cook for dinner, or the next party, fill in the blank. All these cares can distract us and pull us away so that we are not sitting at the feet of Jesus.
We are in danger of losing the word. But as the Lord deeply loved Martha, so he loves you. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” He does not want you to lose his word; as he wanted her to sit at his feet, so he wants you to truly listen to his word. So, allow not all these things to consume you and drive you away from Christ and his word. He does not want to remain on the front porch but to make a home in your heart. And that is what really matters.
So, third, to receive Jesus in his word is the one thing necessary. Man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives from every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” To these words, Mary attentively listened as she watched the mouth of the Lord move. These words brought life, the life of the precious blood of his cross, by which he made peace and reconciled the world to God.
As the Lord Jesus journeyed throughout Israel, he was a guest in many a sinner’s home. And where he was received, there he brought forgiveness to those who were alienated and enemies dead in their trespasses. And where he brought forgiveness, there he also brought life and salvation by his word. This word is your life also. That’s why it’s the one thing necessary. If you have this word, you have Christ himself. Like Abraham had Christ in his word, that is, in that beautiful promise of life from his already dead body. The Lord promised Sarah would have a son. And from that son, the promised seed, the savior of the nations, would one day be born.
So with Abraham and Mary, let us hold fast and cling to that word. Whatever happens to this world or to this country, whatever may happen in your personal life, the one thing you truly need is Christ and His Word. Everything else is passing away, withering like the grass in the summer heat. But this life-giving Word stands forever. And it’s quite beautiful.
That’s also what Jesus promised to Mary when he said, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” You dear parents, you believe this, and that’s why you brought little Noah to holy baptism today. This is the one thing needed, that Noah has Christ, that he receives his Lord in his word combined with the water through faith, that he grows up being fed by that word, and that he is not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
And likewise, you, Joshua, who will be confirmed in just a little bit, you have come to believe that too. And you are about to receive the Lord’s body and blood for the first time and confess that this word is more important even than your own life, because in that word you have eternal life. That is what really matters.
So, looking back at this past year, I can only thank the Lord for all of you, for your love for his word, and for your love for the ministers of that word, including those who are still being trained to be such. That Christ and His precious blood is proclaimed—that’s the one thing that really matters. When that happens, lost sinners receive their Savior Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So as I’m about to go back to the seminary, I can only encourage fellow young men to consider becoming a pastor. And likewise, if you’re a father of young boys, put away all those dreams of a great career for a moment and consider your sons becoming pastors. Now is the time to preach the gospel, to spread the word of God, so that God’s people would continue to sit at the feet of Jesus and say with the psalm, “Thou art my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep thy words.”
You are already sitting at the feet of Jesus together with Mary. He truly is the good portion, the most precious thing we have, our heavenly inheritance. He shall never be taken away from us. “Thou art the portion I have sought; thy precious blood my soul has bought.” To him be all the glory forever and ever.