Happy Reformation Sunday! (For those who celebrate…)

Why is this such a fitting passage for Reformation Sunday? I’m so glad you asked! 

When a church such as ours celebrates specific church holidays like Reformation, the worry is we will celebrate the day over the text. Ideally, they connect and we can celebrate the day as well as honor the text. This passage fits in extremely well with Reformation.

As Luther battled with the church of his day, the Roman Catholic Church, what made a person righteous was at the center of this debate. The church believed that it was the church that made you good, or possibly the purchase of an indulgence, but Martin, captive to the word, knew that Jesus is the central figure to justification. 

Jesus’ audience doesn’t want to think of themselves as slaves (ironically that was a part of their history) probably because they’d prefer to rely on themselves instead of someone else. There is a certain level of confidence (and maybe arrogance) in focusing on ourselves rather than someone else. To admit a lack or deficiency is something we seldom seek out, but this is at the core of the Christian message.

We are imperfect people, all of us (give the epistle reading for Sunday a look) and the only way we achieve perfection is through Christ. If we could save ourselves, we wouldn’t need a savior. But, because of God’s loved revealed in Christ, we are set free from our bondage to sin and find ourselves in God’s house forever.

I always worry that our pride and self reliance as Americans will live in conflict of this identity, that we are broken and imperfect, in need of a savior. And maybe that is why we celebrate and remember what Martin helped us rediscover all those years ago. That we need grace, because we aren’t perfect. We are saved by grace through faith.