Two weeks ago, Dori Beecham became a member of our congregation. In that rite of membership, I asked her several questions. One such question was, “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” To this, Dori answered, “I do so intend by the grace of God.”
That’s a bold question. For are any of us honestly prepared to answer it? It’s not unlike a marriage vow. It’s easy to say “I will” on your wedding day: “Will you love, honor, and keep your spouse in sickness and health… as long as you both shall live?” After all, sickness and worse have yet to come. Yet, we make vows, speaking with certainty into a future that is unknown. That’s why our membership rite says, and as Dori answered two Sundays ago, “I do so intend by the grace of God.”
Now, truth be told, you’ll probably never have to endure torture, beatings, crucifixion, or beheading for being a Christian, unlike our brothers and sisters in Christ living in Iraq. In our day, in a nation filled with creature comforts, the devil and his minions have rarely needed to resort to such tactics. He is successful with so much less!
Think about what often wears down our call to come to receive Jesus in Word and Sacrament. It’s often something as soft as a pillow and blanket on Sunday morning. It’s something as simple as letting our priorities call the shots instead of heeding the call for the Supper of our Lord.
People usually renounce their faith little by little, by making a compromise here and there, so as not to seem too out of place. It’s those little compromises with the world, here and there, this time and that, which chip away at the Word of God, Jesus Christ, and how He comes to us. And so Jesus becomes less and less important.
Allow your body to be flayed because of your faith in Christ? That sounds insane. And yet, Satan has you for much less, as you daily fail to renounce the devil, his works, and all his ways. Repent and return to the identity that God has given you in your baptism.
And so we come to today, where our pulpit, lectern, and altar are all adorned in red, symbolizing the blood of the martyrs and Apostles. They gave their lives to testify to the truth of who Jesus is. But today, we remember a specific saint and thank God for the blessings given to the Church through Saint and Apostle Bartholomew.
Today, we remember someone whom the Lord forgave, called to repentance, and called to serve in His Church. Bartholomew was his family name, “Bar-Tolmai,” son of Tolmai. John’s Gospel gives us his first name, Nathanael (John 1:45-51; 21:2). He was one of the Apostles. And Christ’s Church always remembers and celebrates the Apostles with joy, for they are the foundation of the New-Covenant Church, with Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20).
Yet, outside of the New Testament, we know little about Nathanael. From the scanty, historical record, we know that he eventually traveled to Armenia, where he preached the Word and presided over the Sacraments as a pastor in Christ’s Church.
There, he preached the Gospel for several years, when God the Holy Spirit working through the Word granted repentance and faith to the King of Armenia. But this deeply upset the king’s brothers. And so they colluded, had Bartholomew arrested, and killed him. What little we do know is that Bartholomew was flayed alive. That’s why Bartholomew’s symbol in the Church is three flaying knives.
What compels someone to endure, even to such an unbearable end? We leave our air-conditioned homes and drive in our air-conditioned cars to go our air-conditioned church. And some of our neighbors think us odd for wasting our Sunday morning. But other than that, most of us take care to appear reasonable and not fanatical in any way. After all, our lives often don’t look that different from everyone else’s.
People who claim to be Christians use foul language just like everyone else, myself included. You just haven’t heard me after I’ve stubbed my toe and haven’t yet regained control of my tongue. We Lutherans drink alcohol, just like everyone else; we just clearly teach that drunkenness is not godly. We lust after the physical niceties of this world like everyone else, just look at the cars in our parking lot.
And so, this day, I ask you: “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” Oh, reckless are the vows we make. But for Nathanael, son of Tolmai, that question was not merely theoretical. He followed his Lord, even unto death.
Yet, it wasn’t always so. Bartholomew, like the other disciples, was once overcome with pride. Pride is an illness worse than cancer. Cancer kills the body, but pride kills the soul. And the soul consumed by pride is in danger of eternal death.
Today’s Gospel shows how deeply the sickness of human hubris can go. After Jesus instituted His Supper to His Apostles for the Church, immediately following that, they began arguing about which of them was the greatest!
So, Jesus scolded them, teaching that to be a Christian is to be a servant. But like them on that Thursday evening, our main wish is to serve ourselves, and have others serve us. The longing of the sinful, fallen mind is for what satisfies self. But the new self given us in our baptisms yearns for what pleases God. And greatness in the kingdom of God, as Jesus says, is in serving others–specifically, “table service.”
What an odd phrase for Jesus to use! What does “table service” mean, anyway? Well, remember that Jesus spoke about serving in such a way after His disciples had just communed. At that first Lord’s Supper, Jesus was the Servant. He became the Table-Servant who had served His disciples. Jesus became the waiter, serving at table, serving them with the life-giving food and drink of His body and blood.
In His meal, Jesus serves you with the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body. He serves us, fallen beings that we are, who, like the Apostles, also argue in Christ’s Church about authority, power, and control. We want to protect this or that. We don’t want someone else to have this or that authority, as if somehow you are without sin and won’t seek what is in your best interest. Jesus calls us to serve, each in the vocations where He has placed us.
Yet, for those arguing disciples, those selfish disciples, those proud disciples, those jealous disciples, those sinful disciples, Jesus went to die. What does that mean? That means that Jesus also died for you, for you also are selfish, proud, jealous, and sinful. That also means, as Jesus did with His first disciples, that He serves you His meal that connects and unites you to the flesh-and-blood, forgiving God.
How you feel at the Table doesn’t matter. How the meal tastes on your tongue also doesn’t matter. For, although you eat this meal with the mouth, you taste it with your ears, as the Lord speaks His Word to you: “Take and eat; take and drink.” “This is the New Covenant in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”
And then, like His disciples, Jesus sends you out into the world. He sends you to home and work, to husband or wife, to your community, and so forth. And like those first disciples, the devil and the world will also attack and test your faith. And your fallen flesh will urge you to give in to temptation, “for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38). And it all ends in suffering and death.
But the Apostle Paul tells us: “On every side, we are troubled, but not crushed; frustrated, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Why? It’s because we are in Christ, who has already overcome everything for us.
That’s why, Nathanael, son of Tolmai, could bear the flaying of his body. The Christian can endure because we live our lives knowing that the resurrection of the body awaits us. “While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus.” Why is this so? “So the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:11).
“That is why we don’t lose heart…. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). That’s why Bartholomew could go to his death. He could even endure being skinned alive, for he knew that nothing could take away from him what the Lord could not give back–in a fuller and perfect measure. He had been to the Lord’s Table. Jesus had served him. And in that meal, he received forgiveness, life, and salvation–and the seed of the resurrection.
Like St. Bartholomew of old, we still battle the forces of evil from without and within. And like Bartholomew, we are also servants, serving Christ in the needs of our neighbor with all the blessings that He has entrusted to us. That’s what makes you great in the Kingdom of God.
Soon, you get to join St. Bartholomew, where affliction, persecution, and strife are no more. Soon, battling the forces of darkness from within and without will be ended. It’ll be just a glorious Kingdom, fit for a saint–but that is not now.
And so, like St. Bartholomew, we meet Jesus at His table. Today, our Lord serves you with the same medicine of immortality that Bartholomew received. For whatever you may suffer in this life, what can deprive you of the gifts that our Lord has given you? Believe what St. Bartholomew believed; hang on to it for dear life. For that doctrine of our Lord is your life, the death and resurrection of Jesus is your life, and the holy Sacrament is your life. Amen.
