Wednesday, March 11th, 2026
Lenten Midweek 3
Text: Mark 1:35–39
Sermon Audio
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This evening, we continue to dig into the hymn “O Love, How Deep.” When we look at our text from Mark 1 we see just how extraordinarily ordinary God’s deep love is through Jesus’ earthly ministry. He does such marvelous things as waking up way before the crack of dawn to go by Himself into the wilderness to pray to our Father in heaven. Then, it’s time to get to work. He goes from town to town and… preaches. Only after Jesus has done these things does He throw a miracle or two in there. Jesus continues this pattern throughout His days here on this earth: praying and preaching. He says it Himself in our text, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” Preaching is the purpose for which our Savior came forth. He did the ordinary things of praying, teaching, and working without ever looking out for His own interest.
That is hard for us to understand. Even the most selfless of us would be hard pressed to say they fully did a single, ordinary good deed without at least wanting acknowledgement for our work. A simple thank you and maybe a write up in the bulletin telling everyone of the donation of time and effort that I put in to help the poor of our community would be nice. Time is money after all, especially here in our American culture. You only need to take a look at your most recent doctor bill to see how much time can be worth. To do a single task out of pure selflessness is completely foreign to our sinful nature. Receiving recognition for good is not a bad thing, but to desire it as the incentive to do the work that God has set before us certainly is. That is part of what makes Christ’s earthly ministry so astonishing to us. Even at our best, we don’t know how to not be at least a little bit selfish. Jesus’ selfless ordinary work is remarkable. As stanza 4 of our hymn puts it, “For us He prayed; for us He taught; For us His daily works He wrought, By words and signs and actions thus Still seeking not Himself but us.”
Jesus did not do anything to get something in return. Everything He did on this earth was for us. His prayers, preaching, and daily works were all to seek us out and to bring us into His salvation. Jesus was often praying for us. In John 17 we get a glimpse of how He prays for us in the upper room, right before He went off to pray by Himself for the last time on this earth in the Garden of Gethsemene. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” He was praying that the Father’s love would be with you, who know Jesus. This is the love that Jesus made known throughout His earthly ministry. This is the love that He continues to pray for, to the Father, for your sake. This is the love that Christ continues to make known through His church in His continued earthly ministry. This love is made manifest in the glory of the cross of Christ and shown in His preaching.
In our reading from Mark 14 we see this as the central point of Jesus’ preaching. As the Jews and the rulers of this world were putting Jesus on trial for crimes that He didn’t commit, Jesus remained silent. That is until they asked him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” To which Jesus answered, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” The central message that Jesus is the Christ the son of the Blessed must always be faithfully proclaimed, no matter the cost. The world rejected it from the mouth of Christ and it will continue to reject that message from the mouth of His church. He whom the world rejected and crucified is the means by which the world is to be saved. Jesus continued His ordinary work by being delivered over to death in order that God’s love would be glorified in His suffering. God uses what is foolish to the world to make known His wisdom. Through this selfless act of obedience to God, Jesus brought forth the salvation of the world. He simply did the work that God gave Him to do, in a way that only the true Son of Man can.
Just like all of the other times throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus’ simple acts of prayer and preaching were followed by miracles. This time far more than a few people in a small town were healed and had their demons exorcised. Through the simple act of obedience our Lord brought forth healing and restoration for all and defeated the works of the devil. Christ’s death put to death all sin, illness, and wickedness in the world. In His resurrection the whole world was reconciled to God and made alive because of Jesus’ ordinary and selfless works. His Spirit was breathed out into the world so that Christ could continue to work today by the extraordinary acts of… prayer, preaching, and works.
His church still gets on their knees and prays, interceding on behalf of the people of this world. We still pray that the message that Jesus is the Christ the son of the Blessed would reach the hearts of all of those who hear us. We pray that the Father would make them one just as He has united us to Him through faith in His Son. This is the faith that is still miraculously worked and sustained through the forgiveness of sins in the preached Word and the miracles of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This is the message of selfless love that is carried out by us today. We continue to make the message of Christ and Him crucified the focus of everything we do so that the glory of God may be shown through us. Because we are united to Christ’s selfless love we are now able to proclaim the same without giving heed to any selfish thought of our own. This is the work of the Holy Spirit who continues Christ’s work through us.
Just as the world couldn’t stand the ordinary work of Jesus, His church today shouldn’t expect to be greeted any better. The world rejected Christ in His earthly ministry, it will still reject us because it first rejected Him. You, the baptized faithful, are called to remain faithful and pick up your crosses and follow Christ. This puts to death all selfish desire and proclaims God’s love, giving no heed to the devil and the world who seek to thwart you at every turn. Our faithful God will sustain you in your baptismal grace until He comes again in great power in clouds of heaven. Until that time, stand firm in the faith by doing the ordinary things that God has given you to do.
Fathers, raise your children in the fear and love of God, guiding them to give up their selfish desires and point them to the foot of Christ’s cross. Do the work that God has given you to do to provide for the earthly and spiritual needs of your family. Mothers, tend and nurture your families as the Church tends to and nurtures God’s children in this world. Protecting them from the wiles of Satan and the world while we wait for Christ to return so that He may find His faithful people here when He comes again. The whole community of God’s faithful people come together and support each other in these tasks in order to equip each other against the works of the devil. These extraordinarily ordinary tasks from a Christian stand out as the sacrificial work of God for the people He has given you to care for in your lives. Gandalf may have put this best when describing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: “[Some believe] it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay—simple acts of kindness and love.”
The everyday deeds of Christ brought forth salvation for the world. His faithfulness unto death and His resurrection gives us life. His simple acts of kindness and love still are made known though His church. Christ still uses His church to pray, preach, and work through the ordinary means of His spoken Word. The selfless lives of His people proclaim His love in extraordinarily ordinary ways. Jesus will continue to sustain His church on earth through the ordinary means of water in Holy Baptism and bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. These miracles that give us new birth and feed us His body and blood will continue to strengthen us for our tasks of bearing our crosses for Christ’s sake until he comes again in great power. By words and signs and actions thus, Jesus is still seeking not Himself, but us. Thanks be to God!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.