Jesu Juva

“Crossing the Finish Line from Time to Eternity”

Text: Mark 1:29-39; 1 Corinthians 9:16-27; Isaiah 40:21-31

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

It is said of great athletes - truly great athletes - that they have not only exceptional talents and abilities, but they also make others around them better. That’s what separates them from other tremendous athletes who also, no doubt, have exceptional talents and abilities, but somehow don’t achieve the same level of greatness. What elevates a Michael Jordan or a Patrick Mahomes above others. What they do affects and influences and raises up others. Sometimes how they play makes others play better. Sometimes they have to get in a teammates face and lay down the law. Sometimes they have to give them a pat on the back and lift them up after they’ve messed up. But they are able to do what others can not or will not do.

St. Paul in the Epistle today mentioned athletes and competing, writing to the Christians in the city of Corinth, one of the largest and most important cities in Greece at that time - the country which started the Olympic Games. So they knew a little about this, just as sports has permeated our society today. He says that Christians should be like that - and even more! For we’re not competing for a perishable wreath, or crown, or to make a name for ourself today that will be forgotten tomorrow. Our crown, our name, as Christians, is eternal. So we should live that way! But . . . what does that mean? What does that look like? Hang onto those questions. I’m going to come back to them . . .

But first remember what we heard in the Holy Gospel today. Last week Jesus was in the synagogue in Capernaum and cleansed a man of an unclean spirit. Immediately after that, Mark says, as we heard today, He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever just with His touch. Then, when word about that gets out and around town, when the sabbath is over at sundown, the whole town comes out to Jesus with all their sick and diseased and demon-possessed for Jesus to heal. And He does. He does until the next morning, when after praying, it is time to move on to the next towns and villages, to do more of the same.

Notice what Jesus is doing . . . He doesn’t just come and go to the cross, though He could have. He is making everyone around Him better. And not only by miracles like these, but when He goes to the homes of both pharisees and sinners and eats with them. Or when He hangs out not just with those society likes, but with those society considers undesirable. When He gets in someone’s face and preaches the Law to them, and when He encourages and lifts up those who have been chewed up and spit out by the world with His Word of Gospel, His Word of forgiveness and life. When He cares for Jews and non-Jews, widows and centurions.

And for this He gets crucified! By making everyone around Him better, no matter who they are or where they are from, He is making those who don’t, those who are only in it for themselves, look worse. So Jesus has to go. But then after three days in the tomb, Jesus rose from the dead - Jesus crossed the finish line from time to eternity, the finish line no one else could cross, and so won the race Paul was talking about. The race not for riches, fame, power, or popularity, but for everlasting life. None of us could do that, but He did. And even then, Jesus continues doing what He did before and has always done: make others, make us, better by giving that victory to us. Giving the forgiveness, the resurrection, the life, and the kingdom He won to us. So that we are the winners, too. He is a Saviour like no other.

So now, back to Paul . . . Paul who said run to win the prize. But Jesus already won the prize and gave it to you! When you were baptized you were made a child of God and promised eternal life. That’s already yours! So . . . running the race, competing now . . . what does that mean? What does that look like?

Well, first of all, it means not dropping out of the race. If you do, obviously you’re not going to cross the finish line! So we keep coming to church, keep hearing the Word, keep living in our baptism, keep receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus. Keep receiving the gifts of God that give us the victory; Jesus’ victory. That’s first.

But also it is to make others around us better. For if we’ve already been given everything, we can now do for others. We do not run alone. We’re in this with others. Paul is addressing a church. And so in that context, to run to win is to outdo one another not for myself, but in love, in forgiving, in service, in selflessness, in giving. Giving to others what we have already received, and what will never run out.

Paul talked about how he did that, in words often misunderstood. He says that though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all . . . that I became all things to all people - to Jews, those with the law, those outside the law, the weak, whoever - to make them better, to give them the Gospel, to share the blessing of Christ’s victory with them. Now, Paul didn’t literally become a Jew again, or a hooligan, or a prostitute, or a murderer to win the hooligans, prostitutes, and murderers! That’s absurd. Paul didn’t change who he was, just as Jesus didn’t change who he was. But he went to them and walked along side of them. He didn’t just bark commands at them or tell them to try harder - he lived with them and made them better. By loving them with the Law and the Gospel, by calling them to repentance and giving them forgiveness, so they, too, could have the victory. Christ’s victory, which is for all people.

So now think . . . who has done that for you? Who came to you and spoke the Law to you when you needed it? When you were wayward and proud? You may not have appreciated it, but you needed it. And who came to you and forgave you when you needed it? When you were despairing and burdened and thinking you’d never measure up and be a good Christian? And someone pointed you to the cross and said: You’re right! You’ll never win! But there’s the one who won for you, and gives His victory to you here. They made you better, not because there was something in it for them, but because they already received that crown, victory, and life, and so could help you.

Now think who you could do that for . . . Who in your family? Who in your neighborhood, work, or school? Who here in this church who needs you and what you can give them? Maybe they need some Law - Get back to church! Stop gossiping! Stop coveting and chasing after the things of this world! Or maybe they need some encouragement and Gospel, to hear that they are important, that they matter, that we miss them not being here, that they are dearly loved and forgiven. And you can do that. Because you already have the crown of life, and are fed by the Body and Blood of Jesus here to strengthen you and for the forgiveness of your sins.

So, Paul says, I do not run aimlessly. Or, to put that in a different way, I keep my eye on the goal. That’s what the greats do, right? They don’t get distracted. They don’t sidetracked into things that don’t help. And there’s a lot of things in this world that distract us and get us off track, isn’t there? That use up our time, attention, and energy, so that when it comes to what really matters . . . I don’t have enough time. I’m too tired. Satan loves that. Why do you think he keeps bombarding us - sometimes with big things, yes! But more often, I think, with thousands of little things. To keep us busy. To distract us . . . with problems, with pleasures, with stuff that doesn’t even matter. To pull us away little by little, so we don’t even notice. Until finally, we don’t even care anymore. Think that happens?

Maybe that had happened or was happening in Capernaum. But Jesus came to them. Jesus, who fulfilled the words of Isaiah that we heard today. For Jesus, the very Son of God, is the one who sits above the circle of the earth, over all creation, and we are like little grasshoppers to Him. He is the one who stretched out the heavens, who raises up and brings down princes and kingdoms. He is the one who cares for the earth and its seasons, making it bud, bring forth, and flourish. He is the one who brings out the stars at night and keeps the planets in their orbits. He is the one who sees and knows all you are going through - nothing is hidden from His sight. So to say Jesus came to the people of Capernaum . . . remember, that’s who came to the people of Capernaum! That God! The great and only God. Who didn’t have to be there, but wanted to be there. Who wanted to go to the cross. And who wants to be here, today, too. For you.

So that day - and night! - in Capernaum . . . well, listen again to Isaiah:

Even youths shall faint and be weary,
   and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
   they shall walk and not faint.

They waited for the Lord, and He did not let them down. He renewed them. He strengthened them. He healed them. They could see again. They could walk and run again. They could hear again. They were set free from their bondage.

And one day, they would grow weak again, and be faint and weary again, and one day they would die. But even then, Jesus was there for them. And will be there for us. He died with us, He was buried with us, and then He rose for us. To renew us and give us a new life where there will never again be a weary and exhausted, a discouraged and despairing, a sinful and unclean and adrift. A life across the finish line from time to eternity. That new life begun in Baptism, renewed with His Absolution, fed by His Body and Blood, and brought to completion at the resurrection. All for you.

So that day in Capernaum, Jesus did visibly what He is doing here for us invisibly. Saving, renewing, strengthening, conquering the ravages of sin and death. Winning the race we could not win, and then taking us with Him to victory. Paul took that victory with him wherever he went. So can we. And with that love and forgiveness and life, make others around us better, too.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.