Sent Out to Save Where He "Failed"

Pentecost 8

July 19, 2015

Mark 6:7-13

Sent Out to Save Where He "Failed"

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus sent out the Twelve to save souls from sin and death, just after He had failed to do so Himself. He had just been rejected in His own hometown. It must have been humiliating to be pushed away by the people who grew up with Him and should have known Him.

And this is the time He chose to send out the Twelve to save souls?

From our point of view, there would been much better times to send them out:

after feeding the 5,000, for example, just after He had performed a powerful miracle. Or perhaps after He had walked on water.

But Jesus chose a moment when there could be no mistake about what save souls:

not His power, but His Word.

This helps to explain His instructions to those men going out two by two.

Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.

(Mark 6:8-9)

Don't take anything extra for the trip, Jesus said. Learn to depend on Me for everything that you need.

And so the disciples by God's grace listened and they went out with His Word. And when they returned, they had learned to rely simply on His Word. They healed the sick and cast out demons. And by God's Word souls were saved.

Today we have this same promise from Christ. He gives us all that we need for life. Try and think of something you have that He didn't give you.

And of all His gifts, His greatest treasure to you is His Word.

Just like Jesus after His humiliation in Nazareth, we often hear His Word most clearly after we have been brought low with grief or pain. We give thanks for the good days, but often it is the bad times that we are most aware of Christ's promise to forgive us and be near us.

If Jesus had sent out the Twelve right away after feeding the 5,000 or walking on water, what do you think the Twelve would have talked about most? Crosses and suffering? Or glory and food and miracles that defied the laws of nature?

Thanks be to Jesus that He used His own lowliness and humiliation to teach us that even where He seemed to fail, He still gives us His simple Word that breaks and kills our own hardest souls and leaves us with souls filled with joy and gladness.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

Of All the People in the Whole World . . .

Pentecost 7

July 12, 2015

Mark 6:1-6

Of All the People in the Whole World . . .

☩

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. They had known Him their whole lives. He was a good son. He obeyed Mary and Joseph. He was a good man, respected and favored by those who knew Him. Luke tells us exactly that after the twelve-year old Jesus came home with Joseph and Mary:

Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:51-52)

Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. But they did the opposite: they were offended by Him and rejected Him. Why?

Because they only looked at the outside. They only looked at the things they could count and record and observe. He was a carpenter. He was from an ordinary family, perhaps even a poor lowly family. (His cousin was John the Forerunner, but he was far away and probably in jail by this time. And if people did know about John, they perhaps viewed him as a troublemaker.)

And this is all the mattered to them. They observed His wise words and said that He was wise. They acknowledged this. But that didn't matter. Just what was on the outside.

We look back and are offended by their collective rejection of Jesus. But consider that Jesus knew them all by name. He grew up with them and cared for them. Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. But they plugged their ears instead.

And Jesus, who is truly and fully a man, is astonished at their unbelief.

We share His astonishment when those who should know Jesus best, plug up their ears. We know many who have grown up going to church and praying with their parents at home, who now abandon what Christ has given them.

And then there are the young people who walk away from Christ and His body and blood.

And then there is us, who all too often doubt Jesus and His promises. In our lives we all too often focus on the outward appearance of things. Astonishing, after all the gifts that Jesus gives us.

So where does this leave us? Well, He doesn't. It's almost funny how Mark concludes this incident by saying that Jesus didn't do any miracles there. But He did.

He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. (Mark 6:5)

All our doubt. All our unbelief. All our trust in what we can see. Jesus has compassion on us and remains with us. Where does He leave us? He leaves us with His Word.

He refused to do lots of miracles there, because His hometown crowd would have missed the point. They would have trusted in the power that they could see, and still refuse to trust Christ at His Word. So He refused to do miracles there (but in His mercy still healed some).

Of all the people in the whole world, the Nazarenes should have listened to Jesus and ignored what they could see, because they grew up with Him.

We grew up with Jesus, too. And like the Nazarenes, we are often ignore what He says to us and fixate only on what we can see. It is only by His grace through the Gospel Sacraments that we don't drive Him away. It is only by His grace that we are drawn again and again to receive His Word. Of all the people in the whole world, we are truly blessed.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

Redeeming Words Rebuke Our Reason

Pentecost 6

July 5, 2015

Mark 5:21-43

Redeeming Words Rebuke Our Reason

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It's not hard to understand Jairus' urgent advice to Jesus:

Mark 5:23

My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.

His daughter was near death and Jairus had heard that Jesus healed people. And since Jairus had never heard of Jesus raising the dead, he really wanted Jesus to get to her sickbed before it became a deathbed. Jairus was in a hurry.

Now you might run the red light at Kimberly and Elmore at 80 miles an hour if Jesus was in your back seat and your kid was at Trinity near death. But if Jesus suddenly asked you to stop the car so that He could talk to an old lady, you might be bewildered. And as the chat with the old lady dragged on, you might become frantic.

On His way with Jairus, Jesus did stop and talked to an old lady. This is the middle chunk of the incident that our reading earlier left out.

Mark 5:24-35

And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” While He was still speaking,, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”

And so goes the rest of the story. Jairus and the old woman desperately needed help, both for 12-year old problems. One for her 12 years of chronic bleeding; the other for his 12-year old daughter. Which one was more important? Which one was more important to Jesus?

They both were! Jesus takes His time with both of them.

In His compassion He allows Jairus to give Him advice on how to heal his daughter.

In His compassion He allows the woman to go on and tell Him the whole truth: 12 years of disappointment and loneliness and poverty. It probably took her a while to tell Him the whole story.

And what do you know? The very thing that Jairus was terrified of, happened. They took too much time and his daughter died. Why did He stop? Why did He take so much time? Why didn't Jesus treat this life-and-death situation seriously? Isn't my little girl more important than that old lady? Why didn't I leave earlier to find Jesus? Oh, why and what if?!

What did Jesus say to Jairus?

Mark 5:36

Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.

And Jesus went to the house and quietly got Jairus' daughter up from death to life.

Pay close to attention to what Jesus never said to Jairus both when they began their journey and then resumed it. He never promised Jairus that He would save his daughter. He simply said, "Only believe." Believe what?

And the answer is Himself, Christ Himself. Believe and trust Jesus Christ is the answer to suffering and death.

By God's grace the old woman believed. She had faith in Him and she lived, not just without bleeding, oh wonderful joy!, but with the Word of Christ.

By God's grace Jairus believed and witnessed a profound victory on that day, not just without his daughter, oh wonderful joy!, but with the Word of Christ.

Dear friends, some of our dearly beloved are dying today. Jesus may come and restore health to them, but He probably won't. But His promise comfort us in death and in life. He can raise a dead body to life more easily than a parent can roust a sleepy child from bed. He's that good. He's that powerful. He's that caring.

Even when our reason says that Jesus isn't any of those things, good, powerful, caring, His words redeem us every day. Honestly, our opinion of Jesus isn't important. Rather, we listen to our Redeemer and marvel at what He says and what He does. He says He cares for the lowly, and He listens to the lowly, and He heals the lowly in body and soul. The old woman and Jairus' daughter are so lowly we don't even know their names. But Jesus does. And He knows yours, too.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

This preaching of Christ is indebted to the wisdom of Prof. Deutschlander's commentary on the Gospel of Mark. 
Please listen to his thoughts here: http://welswwd.weebly.com/deutschlander-seminars.html

Christ's Word Keeps You through the Storm

Pentecost 5

June 28, 2015

Mark 4:35-41

Christ's Word Keeps You through the Storm

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Storms come in many ways. For Jesus and His disciples back then, it was wet, windy, and deadly. For Jesus and His disciples today, it is a Supreme Court decision.

You've now heard what those five little gods decided. And since we all sin as much we can get away with, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is now celebrated as legal by the dominant culture. Actors whose work you may enjoy are exploding the internet with rainbows. Down the road the Unitarian Church—which isn't really a church—had their rainbow rally on Friday. All of this isn't surprising.

But worst of it is that some weak Christians will be tempted and bullied into silence. Other weak Christians will even be tempted to lie and say that Jesus would want this and is happy about this. These silent and weak ones aren't malicious; they just want to stay on good terms with their family, friends, and neighbors.

This decision will aid many souls on their way down to hell. When the state says that sin is legal, many will use this as an excuse to sin even more. They will go against their conscience to go along and get along. And they will perish. Forever.

Marriage and life are not politics; they should never be up for debate. But the Devil, the world, and our flesh have dragged marriage and life into the gutter of politics, subject to the whims of the childish mob. The Devil is delighted when enduring truths from Christ are debated, undermined, and then destroyed.

But the truth is the truth. Life begins at conception in the womb. Marriage is for a woman and a man, promised and faithful to each other for life. This is not opinion. This is not interpretation. It is true always because Jesus has spoken life and marriage into being and they will always be just that until Jesus speaks to Time and tells it to stop.

And this ever-true Speaking is what gets us through this stormy life. Jesus calmed the wind and waves in an instant with His word, but it didn't immediately calm the souls of His disciples. Later His Word would bring them peace, but it didn't right away.

And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

(Mark 4:39-41)

"They became very much afraid." What does this mean? They were scared to be in the presence of God. Whom do wind and sea obey? God. And they were standing next to Him.

When Peter probably told Mark this story, I'm guessing that he admitted how foolish he and the other disciples were to be afraid. But not of the wind and the waves. Creation is scary. It often tries kill you. Especially if you're in a boat.

No, Peter probably looked back and was amazed that he could have doubted Jesus' promise that they would be fishers of men. And that they could have asked Jesus if He cared about them. He does, always, and always keeps His promises.

What does Jesus promise you? Forgiveness through His words in Baptism, Absolution (the spoken word of forgiveness), and Communion. Jesus promised:

“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

(John 6:35-40)

He also promises you that you will suffer for His name. He promises this.

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

(Mark 8:34-38)

When you disagree with the mob on marriage and life, you know that there will be consequences. (By the way, when your Facebook friend posts foolish praise for wickedness and sin, generally I wouldn't fire back. Just file it away. You'll get a chance to thoughtfully respond in person. And when that chance comes, don't remain silent because you don't want to lose your friend or family. Speak the truth in love. Trust in the Holy Spirit.) And we might wonder, "Why is Jesus leading us into this storm? Why does He then tell us to rock the boat on purpose?! Why does He tell us to speak the truth in love to our loved ones who will be disappointed or even angry with us for speaking Christ to them?

Because He loves us and has mercy on us. He has given us Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And we are drowned by His Law that shows us how silent and afraid we are and pulled back to life every day by His promise to always be with us and wash away our sin. And so we join in St. Paul's confession of Christ during stormy times and personal struggle:

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

(Romans 8:12-18)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

The All-Forgiving Christ and the Unforgivable Sin

Pentecost 3

June 14, 2015

Mark 3:29

The All-Forgiving Christ and the Unforgivable Sin

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Reading through the whole Bible is an excellent use of a believer's time. But when you read the Bible, you will find strange and troubling truths. Today is one of those challenging truths, spoken by Christ and recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

(Matthew 12:31-32)

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.

(Mark 3:29)

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

(Luke 12:10)

Blasphemy is to speak as though you are God. We do this every day. We think, speak, and act as though we are God. This is our Adam's original sin, to speak as though you are God. This blasphemy is against Christ and His Father, yet this is exactly the sin and blasphemy He came to cleanse. He became this blasphemy for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and nailed it, nailed Himself, to the cross for this blasphemy. And He forgives us thoroughly.

So why does Jesus make a distinction between blasphemy against Himself and His Father and blasphemy against His Spirit? Why will every sin and blasphemy against Jesus Christ be forgiven? And why will those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never be forgiven?

Let's start with the second question. The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven because He is the One who sends forgiveness to sinners through the holy Christian Church and brings us into the communion of saints. Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit are willfully and maliciously rejecting the Gospel itself.

The true Christian faith is not a feeling. It is grounded in historic events and delivered by actual events in your life: Baptism, Absolution, and Communion. These are the ways in which the Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness to sinners.

To put this into a small context, imagine a little kid who absolutely refuses to receive eyedrops for pink eye. If the kid successfully screams and thrashes and kicks, they might eventually get away from the medicine. But their pink eye with stay with them.

The point is that if someone willfully rejects the heavenly medicine that forgives their sinful disease, they will remain in sin and death and be destroyed. If someone refuses the Gospel, they are unforgivable, because the Gospel is forgiveness.

Two important notes about this unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

First of all, Christians cannot point the finger to accuse anyone of this sin. Christ will judge these sinners according to His perfect knowledge. We cannot see what Jesus sees, so we do not accuse anyone of having committed this sin. With the Baptism, Absolution, and Communion that the Holy Spirit delivers, there is always hope for even the most stubborn sinner―of whom I am the worst. In the same breath, we do warn ourselves and others if they are stubborn to repent and turn to Christ's cross.

Secondly, if you're worried that you've done something so awful or so big or so often that it is unforgivable, do not be afraid! It is forgiven on the cross. Someone who has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit does not and will never care about sin or forgivness or the Holy Spirit. To worry about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a clear sign that you are fighting the good fight of faith.

And looking about at those who were sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”

(Mark 3:34-35)

To borrow Jesus' lovely way of saying it, only His mothers and brothers and sisters listen to His words and wrestle with these hard truths. His will for us is to receive His promises and forgiveness. And we do receive them and this leads us to confident confession of Christ as the One who sends His Holy Spirit to save us.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. I tell you, whoever acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.

(Luke 12:6-8)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

The Savior Sabbaths Sinners

Pentecost 2

June 7, 2015

Mark 2:27

The Savior Sabbaths Sinners

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning God created rest.

By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. (Genesis 2:2-3)

God didn't rest because He was tired. He finished His work by giving us the gift of rest, because we get tired. By setting aside a special day every week, God has answered your prayer before you prayed it.

The prayer I'm talking about is your request that you have made in the past to have more time, "If only there was another day this week!" Consider this. Instead of thinking that God never gives you an extra day to the seven-day week, consider how God has already given you a special day of rest added to the six-day week.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)

Sadly just as we abuse the good of work during the week, we spoil even His gift of rest. We make the Sabbath, the day of rest, about ourselves. We do this in two ways. We either compete to be better "resters" than others or we spend our rest devoted only to pleasing our whims.

The best comic strip every created is and always will be Calvin and Hobbes. He's a little boy who thinks deep thoughts and then acts like boor. His stuffed tiger Hobbes often acts as his foil. And during the summer, Calvin is often in great anxiety about having enough fun. By worrying about how every day is closer to the start of school, fun becomes work to be squeezed out of every moment. How silly and how true of us!

In the same way we can turn the gift of rest into work by enjoying it as tradition, but never more than ritual. This slide into routine aided and abetted by a failure to ponder what you receive in God's house. You assume you know and so you never say it. This routine behavior that resides in our houses should be as troubling as a child who never asks their parents questions or a parent who never says their kids, "I love you."

Fight the good fight by warding off the easy painless temptation of treating Sunday morning like a chore by doing the good work of listening to Jesus tell you every day, "You're a wretched lazy sinner who rests when you should work and works when you should rest. Therefore I died for you and I forgive you. I love you for My own sake."

The flip side of treating the Sabbath, God's day of rest, as work, is to fling ourselves headlong into the pursuit of pleasure. Sunday rolls around and most heads are asleep or on a boat or swinging a club or down in a garden. Anywhere but in God's house. And it's never enough. It's always the pursuit of pleasure. You have to get out of bed sometime, you have to get off the boat sometime, golf is waste of time, and the weeds always win. You could use all your time having fun, and you'd never have for keeps.

Lest you get a big head, you daydream during church and think about what you're going to be doing later today. For all of us, let us repent and trust the Gospel, trust Christ, who finished the work of salvation and then rested in His grave on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is rest from our Lord to His people. The people who love this world always waste their time while working and resting. But God's people enjoy this special day of rest as time to be refreshed and fed through our ears and mouths with Christ Himself. He sabbaths us, He rests us by having us in His presence. This is how rest was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

Why We Fear Our Holy, Holy, Holy God

Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2015

Isaiah 6:5

Why We Fear Our Holy, Holy, Holy God

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah was a faithful believer. He was sent by the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—to preach doom and hope to the people of Israel. And Isaiah was afraid in the presence of the holy, holy, holy God.

Woe is me for I am ruined

because I am a man of unclean lips

and live among a people of unclean lips,

and because my eyes have seen the King,

the Lord of Hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)

Ruin and woe because he was unclean and was surrounded by filth. No more than a snowman can exist on the surface of the sun can any sinful dirty man exist before the good and holy God.

As you thoughtfully repeat your Catechism every day (and if you don't, start tomorrow), you say, "We should fear and love God." We're big on love. But we don't know what to say about fearing God. What does it mean to fear God?

We're big on showing the happy face of God to our children: a happy Jesus letting the kids come to Him according to the Scriptures. But would a painting of a terrified Isaiah in the presence of God make it into our teaching material for kids? I don't know. It's in the Scriptures. Why do we hide Isaiah's fear of God? Some might say we must think of the children. We don't want to scare them. Perhaps. But perhaps we must consider that it's us, the adults, who are most afraid of being confronted with our holy and fearful God, who melts snowmen and men.

Our flesh refuses to think about God's anger at sinners. Not our sins, but us, as individual sinners who prove it with sin after sin after sin. Who wants to think about that? No one, of course!

We don't want to let God be God. In order to avoid the fear of God we "try to excuse God from everything that might cause us to fear Him" (Gerhard Forde, On Being a Theologian of the Cross, Eerdmans, page 40). And so the cute little baby Jesus is everyone's favorite Jesus. The resurrected Jesus is second. But no one wants to see Jesus hanging, beaten, and bloody from a cross. Look at what our holy God did to Jesus; look at God on the cross who suffered for your sin.

But in this cross—Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection—is grace. Grace for you. And in His gracious cross, you don't have to worry about having the right kind of fear or enough fear of God.

Unbelievers are afraid of many things, but never of the true triune God. On the other hand, like Isaiah, believers fear God's wrath and they stand comforted by God's act of mercy, which is why we love Him. And in His gracious cross, you don't have to worry about having the right kind of love or enough love of God.

Why do we fear our holy God? Because He is fearsome!

Why do we love our holy God? Because He loved us first, and died for us first, and rose for us first.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!