Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

The pagans of old understood that all worship requires sacrifice. Worship must be costly, or else it is not true worship. And so they willingly sacrificed their grain and wine, their sheep and oxen, and even their own children upon the altars of their demon gods. If anything good can be said about the abomination of human sacrifice, it is that at least the pagans understood the cost of worship and were prepared to make whatever sacrifice was required. They served their idols willingly and completely, no matter the cost.

Today our enlightened world knows better than to bow down and offer sacrifices to carved images. We consider ourselves so much more enlightened than the ancient pagans. And yet, the evils of idolatry and human sacrifice are just as rampant among us now. The old gods hide behind new names and new disguises, but they are still the same bloodthirsty demons who demand worship and sacrifice. In the days of old, the pagans knew what they served. But no longer. Today, people believe themselves to be free, and this is the worst form of slavery. There are no atheists. Everyone serves somebody or something. Everyone has a master. Everyone worships a god, and worship requires sacrifice.

In our Gospel text Jesus gives us the name of one of the greatest of all false gods: Mammon. Mammon is an Aramaic word that refers to the root of all evil: not money itself, but the love of money. Mammon is a cruel god who demands great sacrifice, but his followers are devoted and willing to pay anything. The old song “The Cat’s in the Cradle” tells the sad story of a man who sacrifices his relationship with his son in order to pursue the promise of wealth. Mammon promises many things: comfort, security, and prestige, power; and many people devote their entire lives to pursuing it, but Mammon never delivers. Those who chase after wealth can never have enough. Though they dedicate every waking hour to the service of Mammon, it always demands more and more sacrifice. Husbands and wives will pay strangers to raise their kids so that they can pursue their careers. But to what end? Many people slave away for 60 years in order to build a nest egg, and then die within three years of retirement. Mammon will demand your time, your energy, your children, whether born or unborn, your marriage, and your soul. And what will it give in return? Empty promises, but it cannot deliver. At the hour of death, in the time of greatest need, Mammon will abandon its worshippers, leaving them with nothing.

Many Christians, who claim to serve God, are in fact devotees of Mammon. This is nothing new to our times. The Israelites of old were ever claiming to worship God while also engaging in the cultic worship of the surrounding pagan nations. Why? Because of what their idols promised: rain, crops, cattle, fertility, prosperity—in other words, mammon. But they often did this in the name of God. When Aaron created the golden calf he said, “Here is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Ex 32:4). The Israelites thought to double-dip, so to speak, hoping to receive all the benefits of worshiping God along with what the idols of the surrounding culture could offer. And the same is true today. How many people claim to be followers of Christ and yet all their time, energy, and resources is devoted to the pagan pursuit of Mammon.

But Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24). And where our text says “serve” the word is better translated “slave.” No one can slave for two masters. Everyone is a slave. That much is certain. Everyone has a master. Everyone worships, and worship demands sacrifice.

The Bible speaks of the burdens that an idol forces its worshippers to carry. Perhaps you recall the story of the Philistine god, Dagon, whose priests had to prop him up each morning, since he could not stand on his own. Isaiah writes, “Bell bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts” (Is 46:1). Idols are heavy, burdensome loads laid on men’s shoulders, while they themselves are not able to lift a finger to move them (Mt 23:4). Idols demand more and more, while never delivering what they promise.

But our Lord Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me…and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Mt 11:28–29). The burden of Jesus is unlike the burdens of every false god men might choose to serve. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,” Jesus says, “and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you…for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:25–26, 28).

The pagans of old were partly right. They knew that peace with God could only be purchased through sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. But they were wrong to think that it was their blood, or the blood of their sons and daughters, that was required. Only the blood of God’s only Son could provide the necessary sacrifice. Unlike the idols who demand more and more, piling their burdens upon us, our Lord Jesus gives that which our guilt demands, offering Himself as the spotless sacrifice. Jesus did not come for us to slave for Him, but to be our slave, to be the sacrifice, and to remove the heavy burden of our sins.

We cannot serve both God and idols precisely because these two forms of worship are utterly incompatible. Christianity is the opposite of every other religion. It is the true religion in which God, for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, in order to suffer and die upon the cross, to serve us His subjects, to remove the heavy yoke of our sins, and to raise us up to the Father in heaven.

Christian worship is fundamentally different than all other forms of worship, because our worship consists in being served by our God. The great sacrifice of our worship is the one Christ makes for us, His Divine Service to us. Mammon sucks the life from its worshippers, abandoning them without hope in their hour of death. But our Lord Jesus pours out His own life for His chosen people, suffering the pangs of death in our stead. Idols are unable to deliver anything they promise, but God has never yet broken a single one of His promises.

You cannot serve both God and Mammon, but why would you want to? Everything you need in this life and the next, God has already provided on account of the sacrificial death of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.