Insignificant Jesus [Trinity 7]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 2:7-17

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat”

 
And Jesus shows His compassion today as we ponder this very upside-down scene that is the feeding of the 4000. It is upside-down because, in the usual form of worship, devotees, being insignificant, bring gifts to the gods, who are significant. Today, God is offering His gifts to His worshippers. 
 
Baptism grants us life after death, in Christ. Along with that, it grants us space at God’s Altar where we may be reconciled to He Whom we have sinned against. This week, St. Paul concludes Romans 6 which began with baptism and ends with the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, through baptism.
 
The significance of this baptismal gift from Christ is that it has your very own name on it. It is yours and no one else’s. You, by name, personally being offered a seat at the Lord’s Altar, blots out any insignificance anyone can feel. And this is part of the purpose of the grace of God. That you are welcomed, as an individual, to His Altar, to His font, and to His Supper. 
 
This God-given significance is one point which the devil, the world, and our sinful nature target to produce unbelief in you. I will quote 3 men as proof, with whom I hope you are familiar, but if not, know that these 3 are significant in modern Scientism. And we will hear them because a modern, relevant problem we have is this supposed James Webb telescope which they love, but is racist at the same time.
 
First is Carl Sagan, who is famous for his “pale blue dot” comment on our earth. He says, “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” He then applied that doctrine of insignificance to justify his sins against others in his own life.
 
You are insignificant, is the repeated dogma of this religion. In fact, it is the “truth” upon which this religion stands or falls. For if you are significant, then stardust, black holes, and trillions of years holds no meaning and the religion falls apart for the scam it is. But if you are insignificant, then you must bow to your betters.
 
This Dogma continues in the mouth of Stephen Hawking. He says, “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies...We are just an advanced breed of monkeys…”
 
He tries to make it better by saying things like, “But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special” and “even if the universe does come to an end, it won’t be for at least twenty billion years.” How do you know you understand the universe, Stephen, with your chemical scum brain? Did the universe tell you that? The universe would never lie to you, right?
 
Our final “man”, Neil deGrasse Tyson, then peddles the true nature of Scientism and its scientites, that is that it is a religion. For all he offers you is the “science” you cannot prove, interact with, experiment on, or repeat yourself. He says don’t feel small, that’s just your ego getting in the way. Instead feel humble that you get to learn about the universe. Instead be one with the universe, for those big stars produced the atoms you are composed of and so you are linked to the big things and are therefore big yourselves.
 
And these are the men we are trusting with science textbooks and billions of tax dollars??
 
Do you hear the religion? None of them have ever seen or experienced this largeness of the universe first-hand and they have never seen, nor been able to reproduce, a star producing the proteins and chemicals needed for life. They simply make seemingly profound statements with no proof and tell you that you are included in some mystical, non-scientific, and impersonal way, that only they can figure out. These “priests” use philosophy, not science to make their claims and don’t even think about questioning them.
 
Repent. In one sense, these men are correct. You believe you are significant in your sin, in a pride filled way. Yet, even if you believe you are insignificant in your sin, you use that as a weapon against God, pretending that your insignificance is your significance, in other words, the Victim Card. There is no good ending there.
 
Dear Christians, your significance does not come from yourself. Your significance comes from God’s insignificance. Indeed, Jesus’s significance is based entirely on your significance. For He has promised to care for and save you and if He does not keep His promises, even in your utterly destructive and condemnable sin, then He would be truly insignificant.
 
God does not do that to Christians and God did not do Christmas that way. Jesus’ mother insignificantly made her way to Bethlehem among an insignificant group of wayfarers. She was not distinguished from the others in the least. When there was no room at the inn, Jesus’ mother made do in a manger. Jesus and his family, not Herod, were forced to flee for their lives to Egypt. Of all the wise men in the world, only three showed up. 
 
Jesus grew up humbly in the insignificant town of Nazareth, from which no good comes. He had no significant education, no money, no credentials, no nothing. Like His mother, He was indistinguishable from anyone in the crowd. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2). 
 
Look at the Gospel for today, again. Jesus says to the 4000 that He is feeding, “who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (St. Luke 22:27). 
 
The crowd brings nothing to the table. Nothing except their lack of food and lack of strength to make it home for the day. That is debt. A wage. The wages of sin, which is death before making it back home. Yet, even in the face of that insignificance, Jesus still says, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
 
Jesus makes Himself insignificant, empties Himself, becomes sin Who knew no sin, in order to do His Father’s will of purchasing and winning eternal significance for sinners, justifying them. In Jesus’s insignificance, the Father promises to “chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:28), in that His very significant Son suffers and dies on a cross.
 
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). It is Jesus’s hairs which are numbered. It is Jesus Who is more valuable than sparrows. 
 
God found Jesus in the desolate place, as our Gospel said, with no food or drink to satisfy righteous hunger, yet He encircled Him, He cared for Him, He kept Him the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10) and raised Him from the dead, never to die again, in His Glory forever.
 
In Christ, God has made the full significance of the godhead dwell bodily. Significance and insignificance are brought together to accomplish the greatest work of all: your significance. 
 
In Christ you are baptized. What is His is yours. In Christ, you are not floating in nothingness on a pale blue dot, you are seated with Him on His Sapphire throne (Eze 10:1). In Christ, you are not chemical scum or an advanced breed of monkey, you are knit together in the womb by His hands and in His Image.
 
In Christ, you are not one with an impersonal universe, but fed by a personal God Who comes to your person, redeems your person, and raises you up, as a person, to be a prince (Ps 113:7). The one, true Omnipotent Good cares for every one of you as if you were but one” (Augustine’s Confessions, 3:11:19).
 
You are insignificant. Your sin has made you like dead men, unable to even last through life without dying. In Christ, you are significant. In His gift you should find humility and significance, not any false humility in fear from nature. He shows true humility and true significance, for He is the gift. And this gift He offers only in His Body and Blood, only in the heavenly food that is found held in His nail-pierced hands for you.