Sermon Illustrations for Lent 2 (2025)
Illustration
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Today interactions are handled through contracts. Contracts are legal agreements that involve work, services, or pay. Contracts can be (and sadly often are) broken when one party does not live up to the terms of the contract. Contracts are important, but they are not the way God interacted with Abraham. God’s way was deeper than the letter of the law on a contract.
God made a covenant with Abraham. It was a unilateral promise, in this particular case, a three-fold promise. He would give Abraham’s descendants the promised land, he would make Abraham’s descendants a great nation and make Abraham’s name great. The Lord himself passed between the pieces of the slaughtered animal, which was cut in half, thus signifying is willingness to accept the terms of the covenant.
God indicated to Abraham that he would keep his promise. The covenant indicated how serious God was about that. God’s faithfulness gives us confidence in our own lives. Charles Spurgeon once said, “There is no more blessed way of living, than the life of faith based upon a covenant-keeping God - to know that we have no care, for he cares for us; that we need have no fear, except to fear him; that we need have no troubles, because we have cast our burdens upon the Lord, and are conscience that he will sustain us.”
Bill T.
* * *
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
There is something awe-filled about Abram’s encounter with the God I AM that’s not entirely explainable. I can’t help but be impressed with God’s willingness to take an all or nothing approach to answer Abram’s lament that God’s promise after many years still has not come to pass. The Hebrew word for covenant includes the root word for “cut.” (Remember back when before digital transactions when we spoke of “cutting” a check? Same idea.) One cut a covenant by cutting up a carcass as part of a sacrifice. The implication of cutting the carcass of the sacrifice in half is that if God, who is the guarantor of the covenant, doesn’t come through, God will suffer the same fate – to be cut in half, to be destroyed, to no longer exist.
This is not the only time God makes an existential bet. In the second chapter of the Book of Job the adversary, stung because Job proved God was right that in adversity his voice would not be raised in a curse against the divine, raises the stakes, and not just in asking for permission to afflict Job’s person instead of his possessions. “Skin for skin!” the Satan taunts God. In other words, “It’s you or me. Whoever loses this bet ceases to exist.”
Did you ever notice that following this chapter, through Job’s challenges and laments, his frustrations and complaints, and in God’s reply and the eventual restoration of much of what Job lost – the adversary is not a factor?” My Old Testament professor, Bob Neff, told me once, “God will bet on us every time.”
This passage is difficult, and not entirely explainable, and I don’t feel the need to explain it so much as experience it. In the midst of despair, Abram’s, Job’s, Christ on the cross, and ours, God is there, confident what we will come through. God is there with us. God is on side.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 3:17--4:1
While preaching a sermon on this text, Martin Luther noted how afflicted we are with sin:
The world cannot conduct itself in any other way, when the declaration comes from heaven saying, “True you are a holy man, a great and learned jurist… and honorable citizen, and so on, but with all your authority and your upright character you are going to hell; your every act is offensive and condemned in God’s sight. If you would be saved you must become an altogether different man; your mind and heart must be changed. (Complete Sermons, Vol.4/2, p.349)
John Calvin nicely summarizes the faithful’s total dependence on grace. He wrote:
… when we are called by the Lord we emerge from nothing; for whatever we seem to be we have not, no not a spark of anything good, which can render us fit for the kingdom of God that we may indeed on the other hand be in a suitable state to hear the call of God, we must be altogether dead in ourselves. (Calvin’ Commentaries, Vol.XIX/2, p.175)
Luther proceeds to describe faith and how it changes us:
Faith is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1(:12-13)… O, it is a living busy, active mighty thing this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly… This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace [that faith provides] makes men glad and bold and happy in dialing with God and with all creatures. And this is the word that the Holy Spirit preforms in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything out of love and praise to God Who has shown him this grace. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, pp.370-371)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” (v. 31)
While researching this passage, I noted one commentator assumed that the Pharisees who warned Jesus about the real threat from Herod Antipas had ulterior – and bad – motives. In other words, they were not warning Jesus in order to protect him, but to get him out of town so he wouldn’t be competing against them. Of course this might be true – but that’s an assumption based on the formula Pharisees = bad.
Now it’s true that many of the Pharisees who appear in the gospels are against Jesus, but let us not forget that it was the Pharisees who believed in the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead. Rabbis who taught the people in local synagogues were Pharisees. If we were living in that time and faithfully attending services on the Sabbath, in other words, our clergy would likely have been a Pharisee and we would have relied on them for insight into scripture and pastoral care.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee. In one of the gospels, a Pharisee asks Jesus answered his question about the greatest commandment and was praised by Jesus (cf. Mark 12:28-34). Gamaliel, who was Paul’s teacher when he was a child and who suggested the other religious leaders back off when it came to persecuting Christians, was a Pharisee.
Whether this particular Pharisee had access to Herod, or simply knew other Pharisees who knew Herod personally and therefore heard the scuttlebutt about what the ruler planned to do about this Galilean prophet is not known. This Pharisee might have been genuinely concerned about Jesus – and might have also listened intently to his answer and nodded his head when Jesus said prophets can’t die before getting to Jerusalem.
The point we can make is that we can’t assume everyone who belongs to a particular faith, denomination, political party, profession, are all alike, nor can we judge them on that basis. That’s one reason I don’t like using the term “The good Samaritan” in a manner that suggests all Samaritans are heels.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
It is clear from this lesson that Christ knew the sacrifice he needed to make. It seems like such a sad story, but not according to Martin Luther:
Why does Christ suffer? He is a fine, good fruitful tree and has not deserved so stern a sentence; but he suffers it for our sake. He is now undertaking this journey in order to carry out his office as priest; and he intends not only to pray for sinners but also to sacrifice his body and life on the altar of the cross so that … poor sinners will be freed from the wrath of God and be heirs of eternal life. That is why it hurts the Lord to see that we weep at the sight of his suffering. He wants us to be glad, praise God, thank his grace, extol, glorify and confess him; for through this journey, we come into the possession of the grace of God. (What Luther Says, p.180)
The profound love of Christ is said to be portrayed in this text, according to an early church series of homilies called The Clementine Homilies. The preacher there declares:
And yet [despite the suffering Christ was to endure] he loved even those who hated him, and wept over the unbelieving, and blessed those who slandered him, and prayed for those who were in enmity against him. (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.8, p.242)
About this love and Christ’s care for the world, Augustine once wrote:
But Christ came, and he chose that which he made, not what he found; for he found all evil, and by his grace he made them good. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.6, p.410)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
“If only.” These might be the most heart-wrenching words in the English language. These words express remorse and regret. They lament what might have been but wasn’t. Roger Whitaker, in 1970, released a song called “I Don’t Believe In If Anymore.” The second verse says:
If I knew then what I know now
(I thought I did you know somehow)
If I could have the time again
I'd take the sunshine leave the rain
If only time would trickle slow
Like rain that melts the fallen snow
If only Lord if only
If only Lord if only
Whitaker, in this song, laments decisions he made long ago and ponders, “if only” he had done things differently. In this text, Jesus laments the city of Jerusalem. He notes how “often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (vs. 34). Jerusalem made a wrong choice with respect to Jesus. If only they had believed him when he told them who he was, it might have been different. “If only.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Calvin makes comments about the nature of Christ the disciples beheld at the Transfiguration. He wrote:
His Transfiguration did not altogether enable his Disciples to see Christ, as he now is in heaven, but gave them a taste of his boundless glory, such as they were able to comprehend. (Calvin’s Commentaries, p.345)
Martin Luther well describes the awesome character of God’s Majesty in Christ portrayed in this text. We will want to get the flock to see God this way. Luther wrote:
But the power of God cannot be so determined and measured, for it is uncircumscribed and immeasurable, beyond and above all that there is or may be. On the other hand, it must be essentially present at all places, even in the tiniest leaf. Therefore, indeed he himself must be present in every single creature in its innermost and outmost being, on all sides, through and through, below and above, before and behind, so that nothing can be more truly present and within all creatures than God himself and his Power. (Luther’s Works, Vol.37, pp.57-58)
Given this understanding, of the power of God in Christ, Luther notes what it means for us, that Christianity is indestructible. He writes:
No faith on earth battled and fought so valiantly against all obstacles and persecutions as did the Christian faith… But they have not been able to gain anything…Other faiths go down even though they are entirely unopposed; but the Christian faith is attacked by all and yet holds its own… The Christian faith prevails and is victorious. (What Luther Says, p. 256)
Mark E.
Today interactions are handled through contracts. Contracts are legal agreements that involve work, services, or pay. Contracts can be (and sadly often are) broken when one party does not live up to the terms of the contract. Contracts are important, but they are not the way God interacted with Abraham. God’s way was deeper than the letter of the law on a contract.
God made a covenant with Abraham. It was a unilateral promise, in this particular case, a three-fold promise. He would give Abraham’s descendants the promised land, he would make Abraham’s descendants a great nation and make Abraham’s name great. The Lord himself passed between the pieces of the slaughtered animal, which was cut in half, thus signifying is willingness to accept the terms of the covenant.
God indicated to Abraham that he would keep his promise. The covenant indicated how serious God was about that. God’s faithfulness gives us confidence in our own lives. Charles Spurgeon once said, “There is no more blessed way of living, than the life of faith based upon a covenant-keeping God - to know that we have no care, for he cares for us; that we need have no fear, except to fear him; that we need have no troubles, because we have cast our burdens upon the Lord, and are conscience that he will sustain us.”
Bill T.
* * *
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
There is something awe-filled about Abram’s encounter with the God I AM that’s not entirely explainable. I can’t help but be impressed with God’s willingness to take an all or nothing approach to answer Abram’s lament that God’s promise after many years still has not come to pass. The Hebrew word for covenant includes the root word for “cut.” (Remember back when before digital transactions when we spoke of “cutting” a check? Same idea.) One cut a covenant by cutting up a carcass as part of a sacrifice. The implication of cutting the carcass of the sacrifice in half is that if God, who is the guarantor of the covenant, doesn’t come through, God will suffer the same fate – to be cut in half, to be destroyed, to no longer exist.
This is not the only time God makes an existential bet. In the second chapter of the Book of Job the adversary, stung because Job proved God was right that in adversity his voice would not be raised in a curse against the divine, raises the stakes, and not just in asking for permission to afflict Job’s person instead of his possessions. “Skin for skin!” the Satan taunts God. In other words, “It’s you or me. Whoever loses this bet ceases to exist.”
Did you ever notice that following this chapter, through Job’s challenges and laments, his frustrations and complaints, and in God’s reply and the eventual restoration of much of what Job lost – the adversary is not a factor?” My Old Testament professor, Bob Neff, told me once, “God will bet on us every time.”
This passage is difficult, and not entirely explainable, and I don’t feel the need to explain it so much as experience it. In the midst of despair, Abram’s, Job’s, Christ on the cross, and ours, God is there, confident what we will come through. God is there with us. God is on side.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 3:17--4:1
While preaching a sermon on this text, Martin Luther noted how afflicted we are with sin:
The world cannot conduct itself in any other way, when the declaration comes from heaven saying, “True you are a holy man, a great and learned jurist… and honorable citizen, and so on, but with all your authority and your upright character you are going to hell; your every act is offensive and condemned in God’s sight. If you would be saved you must become an altogether different man; your mind and heart must be changed. (Complete Sermons, Vol.4/2, p.349)
John Calvin nicely summarizes the faithful’s total dependence on grace. He wrote:
… when we are called by the Lord we emerge from nothing; for whatever we seem to be we have not, no not a spark of anything good, which can render us fit for the kingdom of God that we may indeed on the other hand be in a suitable state to hear the call of God, we must be altogether dead in ourselves. (Calvin’ Commentaries, Vol.XIX/2, p.175)
Luther proceeds to describe faith and how it changes us:
Faith is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1(:12-13)… O, it is a living busy, active mighty thing this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly… This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace [that faith provides] makes men glad and bold and happy in dialing with God and with all creatures. And this is the word that the Holy Spirit preforms in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything out of love and praise to God Who has shown him this grace. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, pp.370-371)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” (v. 31)
While researching this passage, I noted one commentator assumed that the Pharisees who warned Jesus about the real threat from Herod Antipas had ulterior – and bad – motives. In other words, they were not warning Jesus in order to protect him, but to get him out of town so he wouldn’t be competing against them. Of course this might be true – but that’s an assumption based on the formula Pharisees = bad.
Now it’s true that many of the Pharisees who appear in the gospels are against Jesus, but let us not forget that it was the Pharisees who believed in the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead. Rabbis who taught the people in local synagogues were Pharisees. If we were living in that time and faithfully attending services on the Sabbath, in other words, our clergy would likely have been a Pharisee and we would have relied on them for insight into scripture and pastoral care.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee. In one of the gospels, a Pharisee asks Jesus answered his question about the greatest commandment and was praised by Jesus (cf. Mark 12:28-34). Gamaliel, who was Paul’s teacher when he was a child and who suggested the other religious leaders back off when it came to persecuting Christians, was a Pharisee.
Whether this particular Pharisee had access to Herod, or simply knew other Pharisees who knew Herod personally and therefore heard the scuttlebutt about what the ruler planned to do about this Galilean prophet is not known. This Pharisee might have been genuinely concerned about Jesus – and might have also listened intently to his answer and nodded his head when Jesus said prophets can’t die before getting to Jerusalem.
The point we can make is that we can’t assume everyone who belongs to a particular faith, denomination, political party, profession, are all alike, nor can we judge them on that basis. That’s one reason I don’t like using the term “The good Samaritan” in a manner that suggests all Samaritans are heels.
Frank R.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
It is clear from this lesson that Christ knew the sacrifice he needed to make. It seems like such a sad story, but not according to Martin Luther:
Why does Christ suffer? He is a fine, good fruitful tree and has not deserved so stern a sentence; but he suffers it for our sake. He is now undertaking this journey in order to carry out his office as priest; and he intends not only to pray for sinners but also to sacrifice his body and life on the altar of the cross so that … poor sinners will be freed from the wrath of God and be heirs of eternal life. That is why it hurts the Lord to see that we weep at the sight of his suffering. He wants us to be glad, praise God, thank his grace, extol, glorify and confess him; for through this journey, we come into the possession of the grace of God. (What Luther Says, p.180)
The profound love of Christ is said to be portrayed in this text, according to an early church series of homilies called The Clementine Homilies. The preacher there declares:
And yet [despite the suffering Christ was to endure] he loved even those who hated him, and wept over the unbelieving, and blessed those who slandered him, and prayed for those who were in enmity against him. (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.8, p.242)
About this love and Christ’s care for the world, Augustine once wrote:
But Christ came, and he chose that which he made, not what he found; for he found all evil, and by his grace he made them good. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.6, p.410)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
“If only.” These might be the most heart-wrenching words in the English language. These words express remorse and regret. They lament what might have been but wasn’t. Roger Whitaker, in 1970, released a song called “I Don’t Believe In If Anymore.” The second verse says:
If I knew then what I know now
(I thought I did you know somehow)
If I could have the time again
I'd take the sunshine leave the rain
If only time would trickle slow
Like rain that melts the fallen snow
If only Lord if only
If only Lord if only
Whitaker, in this song, laments decisions he made long ago and ponders, “if only” he had done things differently. In this text, Jesus laments the city of Jerusalem. He notes how “often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (vs. 34). Jerusalem made a wrong choice with respect to Jesus. If only they had believed him when he told them who he was, it might have been different. “If only.”
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Calvin makes comments about the nature of Christ the disciples beheld at the Transfiguration. He wrote:
His Transfiguration did not altogether enable his Disciples to see Christ, as he now is in heaven, but gave them a taste of his boundless glory, such as they were able to comprehend. (Calvin’s Commentaries, p.345)
Martin Luther well describes the awesome character of God’s Majesty in Christ portrayed in this text. We will want to get the flock to see God this way. Luther wrote:
But the power of God cannot be so determined and measured, for it is uncircumscribed and immeasurable, beyond and above all that there is or may be. On the other hand, it must be essentially present at all places, even in the tiniest leaf. Therefore, indeed he himself must be present in every single creature in its innermost and outmost being, on all sides, through and through, below and above, before and behind, so that nothing can be more truly present and within all creatures than God himself and his Power. (Luther’s Works, Vol.37, pp.57-58)
Given this understanding, of the power of God in Christ, Luther notes what it means for us, that Christianity is indestructible. He writes:
No faith on earth battled and fought so valiantly against all obstacles and persecutions as did the Christian faith… But they have not been able to gain anything…Other faiths go down even though they are entirely unopposed; but the Christian faith is attacked by all and yet holds its own… The Christian faith prevails and is victorious. (What Luther Says, p. 256)
Mark E.
