Sermon Title: Christ Redeems All: Divine Love Embraces Everyone.
Occasion: 7th Sunday before Easter, February 15, 2026.
Bible Readings: Jonah 4: 1-11 | Psalm 107: 1-20 | Epistle 1 Tim. 2: 1-7 | Gospel Mark 2: 13-17.
Original Language Reflections (For deeper study, refer to the Table of Hebrew and Greek Terms in Section V of the sermon).
Website: www.reverendbvr.com
“The gospel does not tell us that God loves people who deserve mercy. It reveals a God whose mercy creates a new kind of deserving. Jonah stands outside Nineveh angry, not because God was unjust, but because God was generous. Psalm 107 reminds us that when people cry out from distress, God does not calculate worthiness, God sends healing. Paul insists that Christ gave himself as a ransom for all, not a select few. And Jesus, embodying this mercy, does not wait for sinners to change before sharing a table with them. He eats with them so that change may begin. Divine love is not weakened by its wideness rather, it is precisely this wide mercy that has the power to redeem, restore, and make us whole.”
Theological Thesis:
All the appointed readings speak with one voice: the living God is irreversibly committed to the redemption of all people. From Jonah’s struggle with God’s mercy, through Israel’s testimony of rescue and healing, to the apostolic insistence that Christ gave himself “as a ransom for all”, and finally to Jesus eating with sinners, the Scriptures reveal a God whose justice is not narrow, whose holiness is not exclusionary, and whose love refuses to be tribal.
This is not a vague universalism nor a cheap grace. It is costly, deliberate, covenantal mercy, a mercy that confronts human resistance, heals deep distress, and calls the redeemed to become witnesses of the same expansive love.
God’s Mercy That Offends the Religious Heart (Jonah 4:1-11)
Jonah’s anger is startling: “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1). The Hebrew word is stronger, ḥārâ lô means it burned within him. Why? Because God forgave Nineveh.
Jonah confesses orthodox theology perfectly: “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (4:2).
Yet this truth enrages him when it is extended to others. The prophet becomes a mirror for religious communities who love grace in theory but resist it in practice. God’s final question: “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh?” (4:11), This leaves the book deliberately unresolved, forcing every reader to answer.
Exegetical Significance: God’s compassion (raḥamîm, womb-like mercy) is not conditioned by ethnic, moral, or political boundaries. Divine mercy exposes the smallness of human mercy.
2. Redemption That Heals the Wounded (Psalm 107:1-20)
Psalm 107 is Israel’s testimony service. Four groups cry out; four times God delivers. The refrain grounds everything: “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (v.1).
The psalmist declares: “He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction” (v.20).
The Hebrew dābār (word) is not information but active power. God’s speech does what it says. Redemption here is not abstract forgiveness alone; it is rescue from chaos, illness, despair, and self-destruction.
Exegetical Significance: Salvation is holistic. God redeems bodies, minds, communities, and futures.
3. The Universal Scope of God’s Saving Will (1 Timothy 2:1-7)
Paul urges prayer “for everyone”, including rulers. Why?
“This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (vv.3–4).
The Greek pantas anthrōpous means all without distinction, not all without transformation. Redemption is universally offered, not mechanically imposed.
At the center stands Christ: “who gave himself as a ransom for all” (v.6).
Antilytron (ransom) evokes liberation from bondage. The cross is God’s decisive act for the world, not a private religious solution.
Exegetical Significance: The church’s prayer life must never be narrower than God’s saving will.
4. Jesus at the Table of Mercy (Mark 2:13-17)
Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, a collaborator, exploiter, sinner, and then eats in his house. Table fellowship in the ancient world meant belonging before reform.
When criticized, Jesus answers: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (v.17).
The metaphor is diagnostic, not dismissive. Humanity’s problem is not moral weakness but spiritual illness, and Christ is the healer.
Exegetical Significance: Grace precedes repentance. Belonging opens the door to transformation.
5. Grace That Trains Us (Titus 2:11-15)
The evening epistle completes the picture: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all” (v.11).
Grace (charis) is not passive tolerance; it educates (paideuousa) us into a new way of life. Redemption includes moral renewal without moralism.
6. God Who Shakes and Restores (Amos 9:5-12)
Amos proclaims judgment, yet ends with hope: God will raise David’s fallen booth “so that all nations…may seek the LORD” (v.12). Justice and mercy converge. God dismantles oppression to make room for inclusive restoration.
II. The Collect as Theological Key
The Collect confesses our resistance: “forgive us when we are slow to rejoice in the redemption of others.” It echoes Jonah’s struggle, Paul’s vision, Jesus’ table, and the psalmist’s healing. And Its prayer: “teach us to lift all people in prayer”, flows directly from God’s will for all to be saved. The Collect does not soften doctrine; it re-forms the heart of the worshiper.
III. Contemporary Word
In a fractured world of polarized politics, religious exclusion, social shaming, This text confronts us gently but firmly: God’s love is wider than our comfort zones. The question is not whether God loves “them,” but whether we will allow God’s love to reshape our instincts, our prayers, our tables, and our communities. Faithful living begins not with better judgment but with deeper trust in the mercy that healed us first.
IV. Original Concluding Prayer
Merciful God,
whose love is broader than our fear and whose grace outruns our boundaries, loosen our clenched hearts. Where we have envied your mercy, forgive us; where we have hoarded grace, free us. Teach us to pray with your generosity, to welcome with your patience, and to love with the costly compassion revealed in Jesus Christ, Who ate with sinners, healed the broken, and gave himself for the life of the world. Make us living witnesses of your redeeming love, until all creation sings of your steadfast mercy. Amen.
V. Key Texts & Original Language Notes (For Sermon / Academic Use)
| S.No | Passage | Verse | Original Word | Language | Literal Meaning | Theological Emphasis |
| 1 | Jonah 4:2 | “Gracious…merciful” | רַחוּם (raḥûm) | Hebrew | Womb-like compassion | God’s mercy as generative love |
| 2 | Psalm 107:20 | “Word” | דָּבָר (dābār) | Hebrew | Active, effective speech | God’s word heals and delivers |
| 3 | 1 Tim 2:4 | “All people” | πάντας ἀνθρώπους | Greek | All without distinction | Universal saving will |
| 4 | 1 Tim 2:6 | “Ransom” | ἀντίλυτρον (antilytron) | Greek | Price for liberation | Costly redemption |
| 5 | Mark 2:17 | “Physician” | ἰατρός (iatros) | Greek | Healer | Sin as illness, grace as cure |
| 6 | Titus 2:11 | “Grace appeared” | ἐπεφάνη (epephanē) | Greek | Manifested, shone forth | Incarnation as saving revelation |
| 7 | Amos 9:12 | “All nations” | גּוֹיִם (goyim) | Hebrew | Peoples beyond Israel | Inclusive restoration |
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Bibliography:
- Brueggemann, Walter, and William H. Bellinger Jr. Psalms. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
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- Jeremias, Jörg. The Book of Amos. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998.
- Johnson, Luke Timothy. The First and Second Letters to Timothy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
- Marcus, Joel. Mark 1–8. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
- Marshall, I. Howard. The Pastoral Epistles. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999.
- Towner, Philip H. The Letters to Timothy and Titus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.
- Trible, Phyllis. “The Book of Jonah.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible. Vol. 7. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.
- Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.