Mark 10:17–31 ¹⁷ And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” ²⁰ And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” ²¹ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

²³ And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴ And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” ²⁸ Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” ²⁹ Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus is on a mission.  He is setting out on a journey to Jerusalem where He, by His Own Words, will be betrayed and delivered into the hands of ruthless, evil men and killed.  Now, as He sets out on this journey, a rich, young ruler runs up to Him with an urgent question.

The rich, young ruler kneels before Jesus and asks a question that has been nagging him: “Good teacher, what must I do?  What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The successful ruler is setting out on a journey too, and he wants to be prepared.  He reverently asks Jesus a sincere question.  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Any rabbi, any teacher, could have answered this question.  And like any other rabbi would have, Jesus points this man to the Commandments—specifically, to the second table of the Law dealing with love towards your neighbor.  Interestingly, Jesus gives them out of order.  Jesus starts with the fifth through the tenth, “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud,” (9^th & 10^th commandments combined).  Then, Jesus goes back to the fourth commandment, “Honor your father and mother.”

Jesus doesn’t give the man anything new.  Jesus points the man to Moses, to the Commandments.  These Commandments had been around for 1500 years, and Jesus places them before the man once again.  But the question continues to burn in the man’s mind.  Something is still missing, “Jesus I’ve taken care of all of that stuff.  I have followed those commandments.  I have not killed or committed adultery or stolen or lied or coveted.  I have loved and honored my parents.  My integrity is intact, but something must still be missing.”

Notice v. 21, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him”.

Jesus sees a rich young man who has a clean conscience—there is nothing in his life for which he needs to repent.   Jesus sees this young man who has his whole life together and still seeks out Jesus to ask this important question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

Jesus loves this rich and powerful young man who has clean conscience but still lacks the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.  Something is missing; he knows something is missing, but what is it?  The ruler is even seeking for the answer in the right place; he is asking Jesus.

“You still lack one thing.”  Jesus commands, “Go, sell, give, and follow.”

Imagine this from the disciples’ perspective because this would be threatening to them.  For several chapters now, the disciples have repeatedly misunderstood Jesus.  They have argued about who is the greatest (Mk. 9:34).  They have hindered a man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name (Mk. 38).  They rebuked children from coming to Jesus (Mk. 10:13).  Now, this rich, powerful man kneels before Jesus.  He could be the model disciple.  He is not asking Jesus any dumb questions.  He is young.  He is rich—God must be pleased with him.  He is good looking (it is hard to be young and rich without being good looking).  He is morally upright.  In the disciples’ minds, if he joins their group, he will obviously be the greatest among them.

But at Jesus’ words, “You still lack one thing.  Go, sell, give, follow,” the man is ‘disheartened’ (lit. clouded over) by the saying.  He walks away sorrowful, grieved.  Just as Jesus was grieved in His spirit “even to death” (Mt. 26:38) in the Garden of Gethsemane.  This ruler’s face clouded over and his heart was grieved, because he had many possessions.

Jesus watches the man leave.  “How difficult,” He says, “How difficult it will be for those who have stuff to enter the reign of God!”  The word translated ‘wealth’ here just means “things, stuff, possessions,” the word can even refer to debt.

Jesus had looked at this young man with love, and now Jesus watches the clouded over, grieved man leave.  You can see Jesus kicking at the ground saying this solemnly, and the disciples are amazed and speechless.  Jesus broadens His statement, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the reign of God!”

Now, many different explanations have been offered with this whole camel-eye-of-a-needle parable that Jesus gives.  Some people have tried to say that Mark wrote this wrong, there is a word that is just one vowel different that refers to rope.  So Jesus really said, “It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle.”  Nope.

Others have said that the “eye of a needle” refers to a gate that was small, so you had to completely unload your camel of everything to get it to fit.  Nope.

Neither of those explanations really work.  What Jesus is saying here is literally impossible.  A camel will not fit through the eye of a needle.  And that is easier than to enter the reign of God.  The impossible is easier than entering the reign of God

Even though the disciples have not been understanding Jesus from the middle of Mk. 9 all the way into Mk. 10, they finally start to get it now.  They come to the right conclusion with this eye of a needle stuff.  “Who can be saved?”

In the eyes of a 1^st century Jew, this rich young ruler had everything going for him.  In that culture, his wealth proved that God was pleased with him.  He was respectful.  He lived a virtuous, moral life.  He was striving to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself.  Nothing more could be done.  “Who can be saved?”

So why did Jesus point this young man to works of the law?  Jesus did not ask other followers to sell all their possessions. Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy; he had a brand new tomb (Jn. 19:38), 1%er.  Nicodemus provided enough spices for a royal burial (Jn. 19:39) 1%er.  Plenty of rich people had faith in Jesus, but Jesus didn’t make them sell everything.  Why make an additional requirement for this man?  Why add an additional hurdle for him?  Why would Jesus require something extra for eternal life, especially something He knew this man wouldn’t do?  “Who can be saved?”

It is not what you do or do not do that allows you to inherit the reign of God.  And it isn’t what you have that keeps you from inheriting the reign of God; it is who or what you have as your ruler.

You see this rich, young ruler was ruled by the things he had—power, wealth, stuff.  He prefers hold on to his things for another 30, 40, 50 years.  But not matter what, this rich, young ruler will give up everything he has.  Eventually, he will die and leave everything behind.

And Jesus had been hinting at this all along.  Jesus gave a hint when He responded to the ruler’s address to Him as “Good Teacher.”  Jesus responded, “No one is good except God alone.”

The young man wanted to earn a status of being good, but “No one is good except God alone.”  This rich young ruler wanted to know, “What must I do?” and he wouldn’t accept help.  He wanted a checklist—not charity.  He wanted his own merits—not mercy.  He wanted a guide—not grace.  He wanted law—not love.

And he left.  He left, and Jesus didn’t stop him.

Jesus did what would most help this man—Jesus continued and set out on His journey.  I’m sure He thought about the rich young ruler as He journeyed to Jerusalem.  He was delivered into the hands of evil men; He was killed.  Jesus, the Good Teacher, shoved a camel through the eye of the needle.  He did something even more difficult.  Jesus shoved the whole world, and you, through the holes in His hands and feet.  He made the impossible possible.

Jesus brought God’s reign.  You are not limited to what you can do.  Jesus reigns now and forever, and He wants to give you His inheritance.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Mark 10:2–16 ² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

¹³ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Some things just never change.  When people look at the state of marriages in our society, many will wring their hands and say, “This is terrible.  If only we could go back 20, 40, 80, or 100 years to when marriage was honored.”  You know what?—it wouldn’t help.  Sorry, folks, despising marriage is nothing new.

Marriage was in just as bad a position in Jesus’ day as it is in our day.  The Pharisees ask, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”   Is it lawful?  Even the question shows a mindset, a desire, to meet the minimum requirements.  Is it lawful?  When that is your view of things, even the bare minimum is done grudgingly.  Is it lawful?  They might as well have asked, “How much can we get away with?”

The Pharisees had two schools of thought on divorce.  On the one hand you had Pharisees (Shammai) who taught that adultery was the only legitimate cause for divorce.  The far more popular view among the Pharisees (Hillel) was divorce for many reasons—a spoiled meal or, simply, if the husband found another woman fairer than his wife.  One Jewish historian wrote in his autobiography, “I divorced my wife, not liking her behavior” (Josephus Life 426).

“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”  Ins’t it interesting that even the Pharisees, with all their rules and additions to God’s law, even they wanted to get away with doing the bare minimum.  More laws and rules do not make you more pious and righteous.

Jesus asks, “What did Moses teach about divorce?”

Now, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  You need to understand what where the Pharisees go to answer Jesus’ question—they go to Dt. 24:1-4.  The passage does talk about writing a certificate of divorce, but the focus of the passage deals with remarrying your first husband if you get a divorce from a second husband—it is an abomination before Yahweh.  The Pharisees, these experts in Scripture, twist a passage to fit what they want.  People still do that today.

The Pharisees use Dt. 24 to answer Jesus’ question; now, see where Jesus goes to talk about marriage.  Jesus gets away from the, Is it lawful? away from the, What is the minimum required?  These questions reveal a hardness of heart—a cardio-sclerosis—which desires to dumb down the holiness of God to something attainable.  As though reluctantly sloughing off and doing just enough to get by will make a marriage work.  Cardio-sclerosis indeed.

Jesus goes to the beginning, to the Divine intention for marriage.  Marriage is rooted in creation, rooted in the beginning of life.

From the beginning of creation, Jesus says God had an intention for man and woman.  God created the universe to house life; He created the plants and animals to sustain life; He created man and woman and marriage to propagate life.

God defines marriage.  No ballot initiative has the authority to define (or ‘redefine’ marriage); it cannot be done.  No human institution has that authority.  Marriage is defined by God, “God made them male and female.”

As He created, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a suitable helper for him” (Gen. 2:18).  God put Adam into a deep sleep then took out one of his ribs.  From that rib, God formed and crafted Eve.

Marriage was God’s idea—not Adam’s.  God created a woman—not a buddy or a chum or a pal.  God created a single woman to be Adam’s wife; He didn’t create not a herd of women for Adam to choose.  God created marriage to be a relationship between one man and one woman working together to subdue and dominate the world (Gen. 1:27-28).

God opened Adam’s flesh and removed part of Adam, but God’s intent was for that piece of Adam to be united with Adam once again as one flesh.  God brought Eve to Adam, and Adam responded, “This at last (how long had Adam been alive?) is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  God created precisely what Adam needed and desired.  God brought Eve to Adam and Adam to Eve.

In marriage, God joins man and woman together.

Husbands, God brought your wife to you, and your wife is God’s gift to you.  Wives, God brought your husband to you, and your husband is God’s gift to you.  Live that way.

Jesus teaches “The two become one flesh.”  God’s intention for marriage is that one man and one woman equals one flesh.  One plus one equals one.  When you take one away from that, what are you left with?

“The two become one flesh” by way of what happens in the marriage bed (1 Cor. 6:16), and “the two become one flesh” by the natural results, the fruit, of what happens in the marriage bed—children.  Children of a husband and wife are the ‘one flesh’ fruit marriage.  You cannot separate what God has joined together.

Oneness is God’s wonderful way to build husband and wife up, but husbands and wives can also use this oneness to tear each other down.  If there ever was a legitimate reason for divorce, the Fall into sin was it.  How can you remain one with someone who is brought death to you and to creation?  Now, both Adam and Eve share the blame for the Fall.  Yet, their marriage survived.  Marriage survived the Fall.

The Pharisees want to know what is lawful.  Jesus doesn’t deal with the lawful;  Jesus doesn’t work within the set of minimum requirements.  Jesus talks about God’s intent—what God has joined together better not be separated by anyone.  God’s intent for marriage is never divorce.

Several other passages of Scripture (1 Cor. 6:12-7:40) teach that there are Biblical grounds for divorce—adultery, an unequally yoked situation where the unbeliever abandons the believer (which includes abuse).  Divorce is always caused by sin.  One spouse may be ‘innocent’ by our standards, but divorce is always caused by sin. Divorce is always a result of something that needs to be repented and confessed.

Know that God truly does forgive—even divorce—through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Those of you who look down on people who have been divorced, knock it off.  God forgives.  Even if you are guilty of adultery or were abusive, Jesus took that sin and buried it in the tomb where it remains condemned and killed forever.

And God knew what He was doing when He inspired Mark to write about Jesus receiving the children immediately after this encounter with the Pharisees with their question, Is it lawful?

The fruit of ‘one flesh’ unions—the fruit of marriage—children, the ones of whom Jesus says (Mk. 9:37), “When you receive one of these little children you receive Me and when you receive Me you receive not Me but God the Father Who sent Me.”  The disciples are hindering them.  They allow the unbelieving Pharisees to come to Jesus with their questions about what is lawful, but hinder these children who come simply to receive blessings from Jesus.

Many denominations do the same thing by denying baptism to infants.  But if you only look at others as falling short of God’s standard, you are just as concerned with the minimum requirements as the Pharisees.  The Pharisees are not alone despising marriage; the disciples are not alone when it comes to hindering children from coming to Jesus.

As your pastor who loves you, it kills me to say this, but you people, whom I love, are guilty too.  Some of you by the way you speak of your relationship reveal that you want to get by doing the minimum in your marriage.  Stop despising God’s gift to you.

Some of you hinder children and tear apart marriages by getting upset with the parents who do not “properly” control their kids here in church.  You Pharisee, you hypocrite.  There are enough ways that Satan is attacking children and marriage.

Serve those parents; help them.  Instead of complaining about the kids who run in church and scream during the service, instead of dragging your spouse down with you while they listen to you complain on the drive home, help and serve where it is needed.  Encourage parents; thank them for bringing their kids to church.  Offer to help; don’t give condescending advice.

When you hinder the children, Jesus is indignant, enraged.  He receives and blesses those who are not concerned about meeting the minimal requirements of the lawful, and He receives you.  He receives you precisely because He suffered the unlawful for you.

He has made you, the church, His bride.  He has made you one flesh as He gives you His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink.  Receive from Him, as a child from a parent, everything you need for life.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds and marriages and homes forever and ever in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Mark 9:38–50 ³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ For the one who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever causes the downfall one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

One theologian says that preaching is, “Doing the text to the hearers.”  Who’s first?  We’ll get to the lopping, plucking, and cutting stuff, and don’t worry; I’ll keep the hatchet and hacksaw up here.

This is not an easy passage.  Jesus says several things that are hard to understand in this text—the instructions for self-mutilation are not the only difficulty.

Context, context, context.  When you get confused about a Scripture passage, remember to consider the context.  If you were simply reading the Gospel of Mark, you would certainly remember the context in which this is placed.

Today’s text picks up from last week’s where Jesus speaks to the disciples about His coming death and resurrection.  He plainly says, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”  Then, the disciples argue about which of them is the greatest.  Jesus takes a child—the obvious least and lowest among them—and teaches the Twelve that discipleship is a life of service to the lowest of the low.  God wants you to serve Him by serving your neighbor.  Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him Who sent Me.”

Today’s text begins with one of the three “inner circle” disciples, John—“the disciple whom Jesus loved”—saying, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”  Isn’t that interesting?  An unidentified exorcist is doing the work of God, he is casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but he “isn’t following us disciples.”  As though the disciples are people to follow, or as though Jesus said, “Follow us, and we will make you fishers of men.”

The disciples may have stopped arguing amongst themselves who is the greatest, but they think they must at least be greater than others who are not with them.  Just after Jesus has called them to be servants to the least among them, they are thinking egotistically that they have a corner on the Jesus market.  Jesus begins teaching the disciples to get over their pride and realize that disciples of Christ Jesus are called to a life of service.  With His first swing of the axe to chop down the tree of pride Jesus says, “Do not stop him.  The one who is not against us is for us.”

You know what, my fellow Lutherans, disciples of Christ, do we not often think just as John and the disciples thought that we have a monopoly on Jesus?  Jesus would say to us today, “Do not stop the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or Roman Catholic who does a mighty work in My name for they will not be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.”

Jesus gives a simple picture of what service looks like.  Jesus says that real service isn’t what brings the television cameras out, rather, “Whoever gives you, disciples, a cup of cold water to drink because you belong to Christ will not lose his reward.”  A cup of water is nothing.  In Jesus’ day, giving someone a cup of water is what you do to prove you are not a jerk.  But here are the Twelve demanding this unknown exorcist stop serving his neighbor.  The disciples should have offered this man their assistance—even something as small as a cup of water.

We also hold back from assisting and serving our brother and sister in Christ.  Worse than that, we hinder others’ service because of our own pride and jealousy.  We disagree with other believers (and that is ok), but they are as equally part of the Body of Christ as we are.  Jesus has called us into His Church—the Body of Christ—not into a sect.

Jesus continues to pull the disciples and us down from our soap boxes saying.  “Whoever causes the downfall one of these little ones who believe in Me, it would be better for him if a great millstone [the kind that took a donkey to move] were hung around his neck and have been cast into the sea.”

Jesus gives a perilous warning about destroying the faith of any brother or sister, no matter how insignificant we think they are.  It would be better to be in the state of sinking down into the sea with nothing to slow your descent.

Jesus really starts swinging in an effort to chop down the pride of the disciples and us.  Jesus speaks of self-mutilation.  This is the same Jesus Who was born in a livestock stall and laid in a feeding trough.  This is the same Jesus Who healed the sick, blind, deaf, and lame.  This is the same Jesus Who described in Scripture, “a bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench” (Mt. 12:20).

Jesus’ words here are direct and plain.  But we rationalize and assume that Jesus is simply speaking metaphorically.  We use our reason and logic to get away from Jesus’ desperate call to cut off the sin in our lives.  We think, “Even if I cut off my hand and foot and pluck out my eye, I would still be sinful.  I would have to cut off all my limbs and simply be a torso holding up a head with no eyes or ears or tongue.  But even then I would still have my mind and that will still think sinful thoughts.  I would still have an evil heart.  Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Out of the heart comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.’  If I took Jesus literally, I would have to cut off my head and pluck out my heart.”

And that is precisely the point; that is the conclusion Jesus wants you to reach.

Cut it all off.  You do not have to get a second opinion.  Jesus does not allow for tolerance of sin.  You do not adjust to evil, you do not reform evil, and you do not allow evil to remain.  Evil must be cut off like a limb with gangrene.

Yet we still rationalize.  We excuse our sins and others’ sins.  Sure we aren’t perfect, but does that really justify calling for amputations and plucking?  Yes.

Maybe we fall short of God’s standard, but does that really mean that we deserve to be sent to an eternal hell “where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”?  Yes, it does; it most certainly does.

And we get a little upset with Jesus for speaking to us this way.  How dare even He speak to us this way?  Jesus can because He knows the severity of your sins because He made them His own (2 Cor. 5:21).

Thank God that the One speaking these terrible words is the very One Who was Himself mutilated, not for His sins, but for our sins.  He cut off all of your sin by mutilating His Own hands, His Own feet.  Jesus is the One who cast your sins into the depths of the sea.  He gives you not just a cup of water, but living water springing up to eternal life.

God connects you to Jesus’ mutilation and death in baptism (Ro. 6:3-7).  To us, baptism looks like a fairly mundane thing—just a little ‘cup of cold water’ in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But in God’s opinion of things, baptism has lopped off your sinful limbs and kills your sinful mind and heart.  In God’s opinion of things, you have been drowned in the sea.

But Jesus isn’t done saying difficult things; “Everyone will be salted with fire.”  Wait, didn’t Jesus come to keep us from the fire?  What is this, “Everyone will be salted with fire,” business in v. 49?

Fire purifies.  In Jesus’ day salt had three main uses: preserving, cleansing, and flavoring. In Lev. 2:13, God had required worshippers to offer their grain sacrifices, which were burned, with salt.  What is unsettling here is that Jesus is saying worshippers are the ones who are salted and fired.  Fire purifies; salt preserves.

Yes, Jesus delivers you from the eternal, unquenchable hellfire, but He does not deliver you from all fire.  Sobering, isn’t it?  Jesus knocks the pride of His Twelve disciples and our pride down even further.

Then, in v. 50, Jesus says what might be the most mundane thing He says in this text.  Even though it is mundane, it is still difficult.  “Salt is good.”  In Mt. 5:13, Jesus calls His disciples the salt of the earth.  Salt is good.  Salt makes a bland baked potato tasty; it can make a dry roast palatable.  We put salt on corn, cucumbers, and even sometimes on watermelon.  Salt is good.

Jesus says, “If salt loses its salt-ness [not just salty taste] it is no good for anything.”  The salt used in Israel during Jesus’ day was not the pure sodium chloride we have today, so this is something that would happen often.  If salt loses its salt-ness it is no good but to be cast into the depths of the sea, lopped off, plucked out, thrown into the eternal fire with the undying worm.

Salt can be a food connoisseur’s best friend, but salt where it is unwanted is offensive.  Believer, there are times where you will offend others.  You will be salt where someone wanted sugar.  Lovingly offend; serve others with your offense.  And you might get burned in the process.  Yet, if the salt loses its salt-ness, what good is it?

God loves His world, and He has made you, disciple, the salt of the earth.  God wants this earth salted.

Receive His grace; live in His grace, but do not expect a ‘happily ever after’ in this life.  The story-book ending is yours, but you await the revelation of it.  Amen.

May the peace of God guard you mind, body, and soul until the resurrection of your body.  Amen.

Mark 9:30–37 ³⁰ They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, ³¹ for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” ³² But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

³³ And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The disciples have a problem on their hands—a real problem.

The disciples have left everything to follow Jesus, and things have been going well.  They are the Twelve followers of Jesus—a Man who can do things.  He is casting out demons right and left.  He is healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, and cleansing the lepers.  He is making the lame to leap, the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak.  He is raising the dead.  He can still the wind and waves and walk on water.  He can provide food for the multitudes.  He is challenging the religious establishment, bucking tradition, and teaching hidden truths.

Jesus is doing all of these things and gaining notoriety.  He is becoming extremely popular, and people thronged about Him.  In fact, He is so famous that He can’t keep Himself hidden—even when He tries (Mk. 6:31-34; 7:33-36).  The crowds are so impressed with this Jesus that they conclude, “He does all things well” (Mk. 7:37).

But the disciples still have a problem.  Their problem is that Jesus is saying strange, very strange things.  Well, really, it is one strange thing, but He keeps saying it.  Jesus is saying that He is going to die (Mk. 8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34).

This is a problem for the disciples because, how will they serve a dead Savior?

Plans need to be made; this great movement must continue.  If Jesus says that He is going to die, preparations need to occur to make sure there is leadership for what comes after.  Who will lead?  Who will direct the ministry once Jesus is gone?  Who is the greatest among them?

Jesus is focused on His impending martyrdom; the disciples are distracted with their rank and position.  Jesus is speaking of being killed; the disciples are jockeying to be the student who becomes the teacher.

Jesus has continually been preaching, “The reign of God is at hand” (Mk. 1:15); what the disciples are missing is that the reign of God will come through defeat.  Jesus will ascend the throne and conquer on the cross.

The disciples do not understand; they are ignorant.  And who would have understood when Jesus speaks about His death?  No one.

The problem is that the disciples hide their ignorance.  They hide it deep and are afraid even to speak about it.

Many times in the past the disciples did not understand things, but they brought their ignorance to Jesus.  The disciples didn’t understand parables, so Jesus would explain them (Mk. 4:10; 7:17).  The disciples didn’t understand about the feeding of the 5000, so Jesus feeds a multitude of 4000.

But this time the disciples keep their ignorance to themselves.  They are afraid even to ask.  As one commentator says, “They understand enough to be afraid to ask to understand more” (E. Best).  “They understand enough to be afraid to ask to understand more.”

As they travel with Jesus to Capernaum, they have what they think is a secret discussion.  When Jesus asks the disciples about their quiet quarrel, they keep silent like guilty schoolboys.

But Jesus knew.  He knew what they had been discussing.  Jesus knew their ignorance and fear about His death.  Jesus had said (Mk. 4:22), ²² Nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.

The disciples have a problem: how do you serve a dead Savior?  Jesus sheds a little light on the subject and teaches them more about following Him.  He teaches what it is to be a disciple of Jesus, “If anyone would be first, he must be, of all, last and, of all, servant.”

Jesus speaks of descending; the disciples’ minds are fixated upon ascending.  Jesus speaks of service; the disciples argue about their own personal greatness.

How often is it that your discussions about ‘spiritual things’ become an opportunity to reveal to others how great you are?

You hear it, and you do it.  You begin to discuss the Scriptures, and you want to make sure you get your view, your opinion, in so others can know how well acquainted with the Bible you are.

You want to have a Bible study that goes deeper, a study that is more practical, because those other studies just teach about sin and grace—and you’ve heard enough about that.

You talk about church attendance and you make sure others know that you haven’t missed a service in months, and the last time you did, you listened to a preacher on the radio.

You boldly write your name on the sign-up sheet at a time when others will be sure to see that you are doing your part.

You have been such a good, faithful volunteer doing everything that is required of you.  If only others would serve, even half as much, as you have served.

If there is a way to find glory or recognition or just to have one person take a little notice what you have done by way of ‘Christian service,’ you find it.  What a great lot of glory seekers, we all are.

What does Jesus do?  He takes a child.  Why a child?  The disciples are arguing about who is the greatest, and there would be no argument that this child is definitely the least among them.

Rabbis during Jesus’ time instructed parents to treat their children like heifers, increase their burden daily until they are able to contribute.  Parents were not obligated by law to feed their children after age six (Chethub.).  Children can’t work and are just another mouth to feed.

One commentator says, “Children occupied an interesting place in the first century household. They represented the future—they would carry on the family name, provide for their aging parents, and produce the next generation. But in the present, they were a liability” (A. Allen).

Jesus takes this liability, this child, the obvious least and lowest in the group, and Jesus embraces him.  Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him Who sent Me.”

Jesus, in the midst of His disputing disciples welcomes and receives the least among the whole group, a liability, a child.

The disciples have a problem, how will they serve a dead Savior?  They did their best; they tried to continue the mission.  But their focus was off.  This Savior did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom (Mk. 10:45).

Jesus came to serve the lowest of the low.  He came to serve tax collectors and sinners.  He came to serve prostitutes, gluttons, drunkards, lepers, and even children.  Jesus came to serve those who were liabilities and could not do anything for themselves.  He came, even, to serve you.

Believer, disciple of Christ, you have a problem.  And your problem is similar to the disciples’ problem.  The disciples had to learn how to serve a Savior Who was literally dying to serve them.  You have to learn, how to serve a God Who insists on serving you.  What can you do when God rejects even your righteous deeds because are tainted with sin?  What service can you offer to God when He has become your Suffering Servant?

Jesus says to serve your neighbor.  Serve the least among you.  When you welcome the least, you welcome Jesus.  When you welcome the least, you welcome Jesus, and you really welcome the God the Father.

Disciple, how do you serve a God Who insists on serving you?  You serve others.  And you will botch your service.  You will brag about it and try to out-serve others.  You will compete asking, “How low can you go?”

But it is not really you doing the service.  God is working through you.  God is the One doing the ministering and, through you, providing for the least of the least—even when your motives are wrong.

You serve a Savior Who truly became last of all and servant of all.  Jesus’ glory didn’t come until His service was rendered.  Jesus’ cross came before His glory.   The same is true for you.  Jesus has given you a cross to bear, service to render.  Amen.

May the peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit guard you—mind, body, and spirit—until eternity.  Amen.

Colossians 1:11–14 ¹¹ May you be empowered in all power, according to the strength of His glory, toward all endurance and patience with joy ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the rule of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Who are we, and why are we here?  As we sit here on our 25th anniversary, I think it’s important and even imperative for us to ask, “Who are we?  Who are we at Christ the King Free Lutheran in East Grand Forks?  Why are we here; what is our purpose?”

Many passages could do this as well, but these four verses from Colossians very succinctly and very powerfully help us understand who we are and why we are here.

Who are we?

It is very easy to define who we are not.  Little to no thought is needed to say, “No, we are not like them.  No, we disagree with those people.  We deny that doctrine.  No, no, no, we aren’t that type of ‘Lutheran.’”

It’s not as easy to define who we are.  We have solid tools (the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; Luther’s Small Catechism; and the Augsburg Confession) which identify what we believe.  And what we believe goes a long way when trying to define who we are.

What does Scripture say we are?  Starting in the middle of v. 12, Scripture says you are qualified.  Notice you are qualified not because of something you have done or some choice you have made.  You are qualified by God the Father.  How could anyone dare say that they are qualified before God unless God has done the qualifying Himself?

As we have looked back on our past, we heard of God’s powerful work in and through this congregation; we remember how God has richly provided for us.  In everything, God has caused growth and blessed us.  And, yet, it would be foolish to say that we have been a ‘model congregation.’  We would be fools to say that we are the epitome of what a congregation should look like because that just isn’t the case.

We have failed.  We are all sinful; we are all sinners.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  We hurt our neighbor, we hurt our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we hurt our witness to others.  For all of that, you and I need forgiveness.

Thank God He is in the forgiveness business.

You were by nature unqualified.  But God has qualified you; He has made you worthy.  If the God Who is holy, holy, holy has made you qualified, who is anyone to say that you are unworthy or unqualified?

God has qualified you for a share, for a portion, in the inheritance of the saints in light.  The inheritance that the saints receive, there is a share in it for you because God has qualified you.  He washed away your sins.  In baptism, God buried you with Christ and raised you up with Christ (Ro. 6:3-7).

God saved you in your baptism.  He connected you with Christ; He rescued you.  You, sinful sinner that you are, were under the authority of darkness—you were in a hostile kingdom.  But Christ came bringing the rule and reign of God with Him.  He purchased you, He redeemed you, and transferred you to His rule.  In Christ you have the forgiveness of sins.  In Christ, you are forgiven, redeemed, naturalized into Christ’s kingdom; you are rescued, sainted, and qualified.

That is who we are.

Why are we here?

Even though we are now under the rule and reign of Christ, there are more people to be qualified by God the Father.  There are more people to be rescued from the authority of darkness and transferred into the rule of the only-begotten Son of God.

Christ your King uses you to work as He grows His kingdom.  You are His tools used to qualify others.

God doesn’t need your works.  Apart from your works, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has qualified you, rescued you, transferred you, and given you redemption the forgiveness of your sins.  God gives you all these things and leaves you here to work for the benefit of others.

God doesn’t need your works, but your neighbor does.

God has set you free.  You are free, then.  You are free to forgive others because you have been forgiven.  You are free to love others because you are loved by God.  You are free to serve your neighbor because Jesus Christ has served you.  You are free to provide for your neighbor because God has provided for you a share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

God is empowering you; He is empowering you with His power to do those things.  You are here so God can provide for, serve, love, and forgive your neighbor.

You fail—yes, you fail.  We all fail to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We fail to love our neighbor as ourselves.

But when you fail, there certainly isn’t a problem with your qualification—God qualified you.  You simply struggle with understanding the totality of God’s forgiveness.  Believer, in God’s eyes, you have never sinned—ever.  Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29).  If Jesus has taken away the sins of the world, that means Jesus has taken away your sins too.  Don’t try to steal your sins back from Jesus.

And even when you commit the same sin you were confessing just two seconds ago, receive again the fresh, infinite forgiveness of God.  His mercies never come to an end.

Who are we?  We are Christ the King Free Lutheran—sinners who have been forgiven, redeemed, rescued, transferred, and qualified.  Why are we here?  To be those who are qualified by God, to be Christ the King Free Lutheran, the body of Christ purchased and forgiven, empowered with the strength of God’s glory, enduring and patient.  Amen.

May the peace of God guard you—mind, body, and soul—unto the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.  Amen.

Mark 7:31–37 ³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In the name of Jesus, amen.

Bill Nye the “Science Guy” might wish I didn’t start the sermon this way, but I hope you remember Gen. 1 where God creates the world.  Each day God creates something new: Day 1 – light; Day 2 – atmosphere/heavens; Day 3 – land, sea, plants; Day 4 – sun, moon, stars; Day 5 –  fish and birds; Day 6 – animals and humans.

At the end of every day whatever God created is described as being what? (Good).

Finally, when everything was finished on the sixth day, God steps back and looks at everything He created and how is it described?  (Very good).

How did God create all of those things?  (He spoke, and they came to exist).

God did not take things that already existed and shape them with His hands.  God simply spoke and things that did not exist came to be.

The second half of our Gospel text v. 31-37 is very similar.  Jesus, God in the flesh, speaks and the impossible happens, things are created.

The crowd brings a deaf, mute man to Jesus.  What does Jesus do to heal this man?  Well, a couple of things.  He puts His fingers into the deaf man’s ears.  He spits.  He uses His spit-riddled fingers to touch the mute tongue.  Only after doing all these things, does Jesus speak.  Jesus speaks to deaf ears and a tongue that is literally tied commanding them to open.  They obey.

What happens here is a fulfillment of our Old Testament text from Is 35:5–6 ⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; ⁶ then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

Jesus is restoring creation.  God created the world and it was very good, but sin caused the world to fall.  Jesus came to redeem all of creation—that includes you.  With just a Word from Jesus, parts of creation which had fallen, a man’s deaf ears and flawed tongue, are restored.

When Jesus’ ministry is summarized by Mark (1:15), you read that Jesus preaches “The reign of God is at hand.”  Jesus’ work is to bring that the rule and the reign of God as He ministers.  As Jesus makes the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame leap like a deer, the mute sing for joy, all of this shows that in Jesus, creation is being restored.  Jesus is re-creating.

When you confess the Apostle’s Creed, you finish with, “I believe in… the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting,” or in the Nicene Creed you finish with, “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  Think about Gen. 1 and how God created the heavens and the earth and each day they were described as good, good, good, good, good, and very good.

Scripture closes by teaching that God will make all things new (Rev. 21:5).  God’s work is to fully restore creation to the way that He intended it to be.  Scripture teaches that your body will be raised from the dead and you will enjoy the eternal bliss of the new creation.  You will be in the presence of God for eternity.  Won’t that be great?

The man in this text got to experience a taste of that as Jesus poked at him, put His divine spit on his tongue, and spoke to him in a region called Decapolis about 2000 years ago.

Do this for me please:  put your fingers in your ears for a couple of seconds, just so you take them out before the end of the sermon.  Stick out your tongue and touch it.  God created those ears and that tongue and all that exists, and He likes them.  And God is still interested in your ears and your tongues.  So, Jesus redeemed them.

Eph. 2:4–6, ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Notice, God made you alive together with Christ.  God raised you up with Christ.  God seated you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  “When you were dead in your trespasses,” God made, raised, seated (all aorist tense verbs)  Don’t spiritualize it.  Don’t make it symbolic.  Listen to it again and let it sink in:

Eph. 2:4–6, ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved [you], ⁵ even when [you] were dead in [your] trespasses, made [you] alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised [you] up with Him and seated [you] with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In this text, the crowd gets caught up in the fact that Jesus can make a deaf and mute man hear and speak.  The crowd says, “Jesus has done all things well.”  Again, this is Gen. 1 creation language.  But Jesus is doing things that are greater than the crowd realizes.  Today, that man’s ears are deaf; that man’s tongue is mute because his ears, tongue, and the rest of him is dust.

Jesus is doing more than making the deaf hear and mute speak.  Jesus is re-creating.  Jesus came to save you and all of creation.  He has washed away your sins in your baptism when He buried your sins in His death and defeated them in His resurrection.

Creation began in Gen. 1 with God creating light.  Jesus still creates light.  In Mt. 5:14-16, Jesus says you are the light of the world.  I have heard this taught as though your good works are lamps that you light and place on a stand.  That is wrong.  Jesus says that you are the light of the world.  A lamp cannot light itself; a lamp cannot get itself either under a basket or up on a lampstand.  But God can and does.

God speaks into your darkness and there is light.  God doesn’t light you to put you under a basket, but to put you on a stand.  God puts you on a stand so that people are drawn to the light that God has given you.  As the people see the light that God has given, they give glory not to you but to God.

God has created life in you and placed you in whatever vocation you are to be a witness.  “And God saw that it was good.”  As you obey your parents, teachers, bosses, and superiors, you are God’s hands and feet at work in creation.  “And God saw that it was good.”  As you do your chores, go to school and work, and interact with your family and neighbors, you are a witness to the glories of God.  “And God saw that it was good.”

A church father once wrote, “Remember that you might be the only Bible anyone reads.”  That is true.  But don’t think that you have to be a perfect person either.  You won’t be.  You fail now and you will always fail.  Don’t get overly upset with yourself.

Remember what the crowd said about Jesus, “He does all things well.”  They were right in thinking that—more right than they realized.

Jesus does all things well, and that means—you do too.

Gal. 3:27 ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

It is easy to get upset with yourself.  It is easy to see the ways where you have not been a good witness.  It is easy to see how God would be upset with you because, frankly, what you do all too often does not turn out to be very good.  Satan wants to discourage you and remind you of the ways you fail.

Remember what Ro. 8:28 says, ²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  God uses even your failures.  Christ does all things well, and you are in Christ.  Christ still does all things well.

Heb. 13:21 says that the God of peace ²¹ equip[s] you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory forever and ever.

God will do the work in you that is pleasing in His sight.  Because Jesus Christ, the Word of God Who caused all things to come into being (Jn. 1:3) is in you.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Our sermon text this morning continues a discussion between Jesus and a group of scribes and Pharisees who came from Jerusalem.  The scribes and Pharisees were accusing Jesus and His disciples of breaking the “tradition of the elders” about being clean—His disciples weren’t eating with properly-washed hands.  Jesus blasted the scribes and Pharisees for being hypocrites who are focused on externals but whose hearts are far, far from God.

Mark 7:14–23 ¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” ¹⁷ And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Look at that list again (v. 21-22)—evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  Maybe you haven’t physically murdered anyone.  And maybe you haven’t committed sexual immorality or adultery.  Those other sins listed—evil thoughts, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander—maybe, you haven’t done those either, at least not too often.  But you get the close of that list where you find—pride and foolishness—you find that Jesus puts you into the absolutely guilty, without-a-reasonable-doubt category.

Also, remember that Jesus said (Mt. 5:21-22), “If you are angry with your brother” you are guilty of murder.  He says (Mt. 5:27-28), “If you look at a woman with a lustful intent, you have already committed adultery with her.”

The worst thing about all this is that all these sins and evil are not ‘out there’ somewhere.  They don’t just come and stick to you.  Worse, they originate from within, out of your heart.  Evil doesn’t find you and defile you.  Rather, you are defiled by what comes out of your heart, not by what you put into your stomach.

You have reached your full potential of being and doing good by yourself, and Jesus says that you have fallen short.  Your heart is far, far from the holy God.

In a book titled The Hammer of God, which I will call a theological novel, the author Bo Giertz follows what happens in the Swedish Lutheran church over a period of about 100 years.  At one point in the book, a member of a congregation tries to explain to his old pastor how he knows he is saved.  He says, “I have given Jesus my heart.”

The old pastor responds,

Jesus, in our text, says it is not anything that you put into yourself that makes you unclean (lit. ‘common’).  He makes a distinction between being sinful and being a sinner.  Both are true of you, but there is a difference.

Jesus (and the rest of Scripture) describes you as being sinful with all those wretched, evil things coming out of you.  When you only think of being sinful, you could come to the conclusion that if you could just get to the point where you do fewer sins—with God’s help, of course—you would make God’s job easier, and He could just remove all of the sin that is filling you.  Maybe then what is left would be good and pure.  That is wrong.

Your problem is not the sin that is “out there.”  The problem is you.

You are a person who is sinful—full of sin—but you are also a sinner.  Sin is part of who you are.  You are a sinner.  Every part of you is soiled with sin.  Your thoughts, words, deeds, and emotions reveal that you are a sinner; it is who and what you are.

The scribes and Pharisees were concerned with foods that entered a person’s mouth that would make them defiled (lit. common), and they made their traditions so binding that they, in effect, worshiped their traditions rather than their Redeemer.

The foods and animals that God had declared unclean in the Old Testament didn’t have anything wrong with them or else Jesus could not have declared all foods clean.

Nothing that goes into you defiles you.  As unhealthy as it is, not even smoking cigarettes makes you a sinner.  Nothing you put into your body makes you evil.  Your body will expel it into the toilet, the latrine, (Yes, Jesus actually uses ‘potty language’ here).

What goes through your stomach and into the toilet does not make you a sinner.  Rather what comes out of your heart defiles you.  The true excrement is from your heart.

The prodigal son revealed what was in his heart.  He had a lust for money, murder, wicked desires, pride, and foolishness.  As he wasted away his inheritance living high on the hog, he was headed down a road that lead him to a life in the pig sty.  Yet, his father looked and waited for his return.  The son had prepared to make things right with his father.  He had a plan.  But the father doesn’t want to be repaid—the son won’t be able to repay him anyway.  The father fully forgives and completely restores his son.

The father doesn’t have a long talk with his formerly lost son about how what he did was wrong, and “it better not happen again.”  The father gives a feast.

It was not the long walk home that changed the prodigal son’s heart; it was the welcome he received when he got there.

The same is true for you.  God isn’t concerned with your resolve to “do better next time.”  God doesn’t want you to rely on what you do because everything you do comes from your heart and will be filled with pride and foolishness.

See Satan wants you to focus on your repentance, to focus on the new life you make for yourself, to focus on your efforts to do better next time for God.  When that is your focus, you will get frustrated.  Satan knows that the more frustrated you are with your sin and your relationship with God, the less you will talk to others about, and maybe, just maybe, you will abandon God altogether.

Don’t focus on your repentance or your commitment to God.  You don’t have anything to offer Him.  You have a defiled heart filled with evil.

But God does have something to offer you in Christ.  Your Creator is a merciful and gracious God.  He sent Jesus to redeem you.  He sustains you with His Word and sacraments to continually give you His grace.

Scripture gets it right, go figure.  From our Psalm today Ps 119:132 ¹³² Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is Your way.

Or as David prayed, Ps 51:10 ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God.  He doesn’t pray, “Make my heart do what you want it to do so that I don’t have to come back here and confess again.”  No He calls upon God to create something where there is nothing.

In Php. 3:9 Paul prays that He would be found in Christ ⁹ not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but [a righteousness] that comes through faith in Christ.

God is never happy with sin, but the good news is that He never grows tired of pouring out His forgiveness through His Word.

Remember that God works through His Word.  When Jesus would speak to deaf ears and command them to hear, they would obey.  The effort and resolve of the individual didn’t matter because they couldn’t hear Jesus anyway.  Luther said it well, “God’s works are His words; He speaks and it is done: because the speaking and the doing of God are the same.”

When you hear God in our Old Testament text (Dt. 4:1-2; 6-9) saying, “Keep [my commandments] and do them,” remember: His Word accomplishes what it commands.

Jesus says again today, “Hear Me, and understand.  This is My body broken for you; this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

He welcomes you again to His altar today to give you a feast and to give you a fresh start.  Amen.

May the peace of Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you until eternity.  Amen.

Mark 7:1–13 ¹ Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

⁷ in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Everyone makes their own rules for certain situations.  A point comes, and each one of us crosses it at one time or another, when we think that the rules and regulations we have set up make us somehow better than others.

This text, as it is written by Mark, gets us upset at these self-righteous Pharisees and inquiring scribes from Jerusalem.  We look at the overview of their washings, and we hear their accusations, and we are so glad that we aren’t like them.  Who would want to be aligned with that pompous, self-righteous religious establishment?

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees devoted their attention to three areas: dietary rules, Sabbath laws, and circumcision.  God in the Old Testament had given His people instructions about those things, and the Pharisees added to them.  But still, the Pharisees wouldn’t have said that the main theme of the Old Testament was to follow rules.  They would not have insisted that God’s promise resulted in these dietary rules, Sabbath laws, and circumcision.  God’s promise was to send the blessing promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through Israel.  The creed of Israel was still Dt. 6:4–5 ⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might….”

The Pharisees focused on dietary rules, Sabbath laws, and circumcision to create visible signs which distinguished themselves and those Jews who followed them from people who did not follow those rules and instructions.  They were the super-pious.  They were the “in-crowd” with God.

People are still labeled today.  You see a Volkswagen van plastered with bumper-stickers and people with long hair riding in it—you know that you have found hippies.  You see a man in the grocery store dressed in a suit and tie buying an apple and sandwich from the deli—you know that you have found a businessman.  You see someone get off a motorcycle with leather chaps, a bandana, a long beard, and tattoos all over his neck—you know to walk on the other side of the street.

We label others.  But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing especially if we allow ourselves to realize that our labels might be wrong.

So the Pharisees created all these rules and regulations about washings.  The Pharisees took the dietary laws of from Exodus and Leviticus that were meant for the priests, and they made all sorts of extra rules which people could follow to prove that they were obeying the guidelines that God had given.

These washings proved who was in and who was out.  These customs marked and labeled them.

It is interesting to see how Jesus speaks about the distinctions they made both in this text and next week’s text which will continue Jesus’ teaching resulting from this confrontation.

Mark 6 closed by saying, Mk. 6:54–56 ⁵⁴ And when [Jesus and the disciples] got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized [Jesus] ⁵⁵ and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Jesus is frantically bringing the rule and reign of God (Mk. 1:14-15).  He is doing exactly what the Old Testament lesson (and many other OT texts too) said would happen: “the deaf hear, the eyes of the blind see, and the meek obtain fresh joy in the Lord; and the poor among mankind exalt in the Holy One of Israel” (Is. 29:18-19).

Jesus is doing these signs and miracles, and the scribes and Pharisees are concerned that the disciples are eating with hands that have not been ritually cleansed.  Because that’s important.

Jesus says, “You know, Isaiah did a great job describing You about 700 years ago.  You are a bunch of hypocrites.  You honor God with your lips and your heart is far, far from God.”

Then Jesus cites a specific example.  God had commanded, “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”  There was a man-made rule which allowed you to take your property which you could use to help your parents, but instead of helping your parents, you devoted that property to God but you could still use it.  You were able to use religion and devotion to God to get out of obeying a commandment that God had given.

Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy.  Look at how hypocritical those silly scribes and Pharisees were.  Aren’t you glad that you aren’t like them?  Aren’t you glad that you have faith and know what God really wants?

You are just as guilty of hypocrisy as they were.

There is a self-righteous Pharisee in every one of you that doesn’t want to die.  You want to be seen as the super-religious and super-pious.  You find all sorts of ways to distinguish yourselves from other not-so-great believers.

You fill your iPod with sermons and Christian music.  You wear your Jesus t-shirts.  You get up earlier in the morning than all your friends to do your devotions.  You repost every, “I-love-Jesus-but-only-1-out-of-10-people-will-repost-this” picture that you see on Facebook.  “You don’t smoke, and you don’t chew, and you don’t go with girls who do.”

You notice that others have a faith that isn’t as mature as yours, and you remember with a chuckle when you used to be like them; but now you have grown up.  Now you have your faith-life together.

You don’t get overly concerned about issues like doctrine; you just “love Jesus.”  Jesus even speaks about doctrines being bad here right?  “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

You do all of those things, and you still look for ways to distinguish your faith from the faith of others.  You search for ways to find a sense of superiority over others.  I know all those things are true about you because, they are true about me and Scripture teaches that they are true about every sinful human being.

You and I want to make ourselves right with God.  You and I have a messiah complex.  We need to quit it!  Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could be in God’s clique.

We get so caught up in making ourselves look righteous and pious that we lose all joy in life.

The commandments of men—our commandments and traditions—become as doctrine to us.  They lead to frustration and despair and, finally, death.

But there is doctrine which gives life.  God’s doctrine, the pure doctrine of Scripture teaches this:

Only one member of the human race was perfectly righteous, and He was the most inclusive, tolerant member of the human race.  This perfectly righteous human ate and walked and associated with the lowest of the low, sinners, prostitutes, thieves, and murderers.  The most pleasing human in God’s sight became a servant of all (Php. 2:5-8).  He suffered, died, and rose again for you and your sins.  He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father with all rule and authority.  He uses that authority to truly forgive sins, not by making you do your penance and meeting Him half-way by some work.  He forgives your sins and they are gone forever.

You and I, we have our messiah complex.  We want to make ourselves right with God.  The only human Who was ever free of a messiah complex was the Messiah Himself—your Savior, Jesus Christ.

And Jesus still lets His disciples eat with defiled hands.  His undefiled hands were pierced so that you could become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).  He endured a death by torture so that all your pious actions become small potatoes.  He died an immoral death so that you could be freed from being bound to morality.

He, not you, makes you right in His sight, not so that you can be looked at as some banner of virtue, but so that when you are reviled because of the good deeds that He gives you to do, you turn the other cheek and press on being content with God’s blessing.  Amen.

May the peace of God guard your mind, body, and soul in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

There are not many things we do for six weeks.  For six weeks now, we have been looking at Jesus’ Feeding of the 5000 (men plus women and children) and teaching that crowd “the following day.”  We are considering Jesus’ final words about it means that this Jesus is the Bread of Life.

John 6:51-69—I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through Jesus Christ, the Living Bread that came down from heaven.  Amen.

Lives are filled with choices.  Some choices have long-lasting consequences, and some, let’s just face it, are mundane.  Maybe some people sweat about whether to use Head & Shoulders to take care of their dry scalp or to use Herbal Essences so that they can feel like they are in a rain forest every morning.  Hopefully no one will wring their hands solicitously about what to do for supper tonight—whether to go out for an expensive meal or stay at home and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

But some tears might be shed about where to go to school?  Or what career to pursue?  Where to invest and when to start spending those investments?  Whom to marry?  Whether or not to have kids?  When to have kids, and how many kids to have?  Where to live?  To buy or to rent?  When to refinance?

We consider these to be “bigger” decisions which have more apparent and long-lasting consequences. Our lives are filled with decisions, and often the decisions that we make effect all aspects of our life.

I made a very difficult decision just this past Tuesday, and I have to live with the consequences of that decision, and those consequences still make upset me a little.

My wife and I went on a date to an ice cream shop in Minneapolis called Sebastian Joe’s where they serve dozens of homemade flavors of ice cream.  One of my absolute, all-time favorite flavors of ice cream is Chocolate Coyote from Sebastian Joe’s—chocolate ice cream laced with cayenne pepper and cinnamon.  Cold, chocolaty ice cream that burns in your mouth is a wonderful experience.  But Sebastian Joe’s also makes another kind of ice cream called “Pavarotti”: banana, caramel, and chocolate chip goodness that I wonder if it has been blessed by God Himself.

The problem is they do not make every flavor every day.  When Sarah and I were there Tuesday, they could special make Chocolate Coyote in a bowl, but then I couldn’t get Pavarotti.  So, I had to make a choice.  I chose Pavarotti.  To this day, and even this minute, I am regretting my decision.  As difficult as it is, I have to press on; I will have to live with the consequences which will probably stick with me until I get back to Sebastian Joe’s and get my Chocolate Coyote.

Our lives are filled with choices, some important and some not.  But it’s very important both in the Gospel text and Old Testament text, that we do not see the either “decision” of Joshua or of the people or of Peter as being decisions that they made.  Neither Joshua, nor the people of Israel, nor Peter “choose” to believe, fear, or trust in God.

In the Old Testament text (Jos. 24:1-2a, 14-18), Joshua calls the people to himself and recounts the history of Israel.  In the verses that get omitted (v. 2b-13), Joshua tells how God brought Abraham out of a foreign, pagan land where his fathers were serving false gods.  God took Abraham away from those people and gave him offspring.  God led Abraham through the land of Canaan.  Joshua  remembers God’s faithfulness to Isaac and Jacob and God’s continued faithfulness bringing His children to Egypt.

God continued to be faithful to the Israelites even while they were in Egypt under slavery.  God faithfully brought them out of the land of slavery and delivered them from the Egyptians.  God faithfully brought them into the Promised Land which was inhabited by pagan nations.  God gave them the Promised Land giving them victory after victory over all of these idolatrous nations and people who were stronger than they were.   God gave them a land “on which [they] had not labored” and “towns that [they] had not built.”  God caused His people to dwell there.  God gave them “the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that [they] did not plant” (Jos. 24:13).

Even though the Israelites did not remain faithful to God, He remained faithful to them.  Even though the Israelites did not serve God, God served the people.  God served them and delivered them and gave them things that they did not deserve.

Joshua reminded these people of all that God had done for them in the past.  Then Joshua gives the call, “Now therefore fear Yahweh and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness.  But if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve.”  Joshua boldly states that he and his house will serve Yahweh, and the people say the same.

In our Gospel text, Jesus asks a question.  “Do you want to go away as well?”  Unfortunately, we miss some of the nuance behind Jesus’ question.  It is absolutely clear that Jesus expects the disciples to answer His question with a “No.”  It could be translated, “You don’t want to go away as well, right?”  Peter speaks for the disciples.  He says (Jn. 6:68-69), “Where else could we go?  You are the One Who has the words of eternal life.  You alone are the Holy One of God.”

We think, “Wow, look at these great confessions; look at how strong Joshua and the people and Peter are as they say that they will follow God.  I wish I had that strength and conviction.”  But, if we get caught up in looking at Joshua and the people and Peter, we completely miss the point.

Notice, Joshua’s call is not to choose either Yahweh or the pagan gods.  Joshua’s little sermon calls the people to continue relying upon Yahweh Who has been faithful to them.  Joshua says, “Everything you have has been given to you by Yahweh, but if you really want, you can serve other gods.”  The people are free to abandon Yahweh and not serve and fear Him.  Joshua opens a catalog of false gods that the people can serve if they abandon the God of their Fathers, Yahweh, the Great I Am.  But those gods are no gods at all.  Joshua makes it clear right after our text ends that the decision is not between Yahweh and other gods, the people cannot chose Yahweh.  He says in Jos. 24:19, “You are not able to serve Yahweh, for He is a holy God.  He is a jealous God.”

Jesus says the same in our text.  “The spirit gives life; the flash is no help at all.  No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”  Jesus also says in Jn. 15:16,  “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you…”

Scripture is clear.  You do not come to God; you do not chose God; you cannot believe.  Believer, the God that you serve doesn’t like you because you are likable.  He loves you because He is love.  Your God doesn’t want you to serve Him; rather, your God wants to serve you.   Your God condescends to you to serve and save you.

You have been saved because of what God has done in Christ.  God reconciled you while you were still a sinner when Christ died for you.  When was Christ crucified?  It was a real historical event 2,000 years ago, but in God’s economy of time Christ, the pure, spotless Lamb of God, was crucified since “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20).  And God chose you in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).  Salvation comes not by your choice but by God’s choice.

That is the Gospel.  God has saved you.  No good deed you have done, no religious service you have offered, no decision you have made has made you right with God.   God saved you when you were His enemy, and He sustains you.  He sustains you even when you falter.  If God forgive you in Christ while you were still a sinner and His enemy, He is not going to suddenly kick you out of the camp because your faith isn’t so strong or so great.

Jesus says that He wants to serve you; He wants to give you eternal life.  He is the Living Bread that came down from heaven.  Eat His Bread and live forever.  Feed on His flesh and drink His blood and have eternal life (Jn. 6:53-56).  Jesus’ flesh is true food; His blood is true drink.  Whoever feeds on Jesus’ flesh and drinks Jesus’ blood abides in Jesus, and Jesus abides in him.  As the living Father sent Jesus, and as Jesus lives because of the Father, so also whoever feeds on Jesus will live because of Jesus.

Don’t worry about seeking for God; God has sought you, and He found you.  You were dead when He found you, but that doesn’t matter to Jesus Who is the Resurrection and the Life (Jn. 11:25).   Jesus will continue to sustain you; He will continue to lead you and give you His life.  When you feed on His food, you don’t have to worry about anything else, because His food will sustain you.  When you have His protection, you are safe from any danger in this world.  God will even keep you safe from yourself.

Scripture changes the question.  The question is not do you chose the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or some false god?  Scripture changes the question, God has already done everything to save you, where else would you prefer to go?  The answer or nowhere.  All other bridges have been burned.

Serve the God Who has served you.  Serve the God Who will continue to serve you through the rest of your life and even through your death.  Serve God who serves you even as your corpse rots on this earth until He raises you from the dead so that He can continue to serve you throughout all eternity at His eternal feast.  Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Living Bread from heaven.  Amen.

Mark 6:45–56 ⁴⁵ Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷ And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, ⁵⁰ for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, ⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. ⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him ⁵⁵ and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Just six weeks ago, our Gospel lesson (Mk. 4:35-41) was very similar to this.  The similarities include: crossing the lake late at night, a strong storm with strong wind, Jesus calms the storm, and the disciples are left in fear and amazement.  But today’s text also has many differences with Mk. 4:35-41.

In today’s text, the disciples are alone in the boat; Jesus isn’t in the stern sleeping while lying on a cushion.  In today’s text, Jesus is very much awake.  Jesus is the Divine, Powerful Master of the storm Who is walking on the water as though it were a hardwood floor.

In Mk. 4:35-41,  the disciples ask, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”  But in today’s text, the disciples are not just questioning Who Jesus is.  They are “unable to understand” Who Jesus is.  Jesus can walk on water like hardened concrete, but the disciples’ hearts are harder than concrete.  Their hearts are so hard because they are unable to understand about the loaves of bread that Jesus had used to feed the 5000 men (plus women & children) Mk. 6:38-44.  Even though the disciples were repeatedly returning to Jesus to get more bread to set before the banquet guests, they did not understand about the loaves of bread.

Jesus reveals more and more clearly that He is God, but the disciples more and more are unable to cope with the fact that He is God.  After Jesus gets into the boat with the disciples, Mark comments that the disciples were “utterly astounded” (lit. standing outside themselves).  Their hearts become harder than stale bread.

Jesus instructs the disciples to go ahead of Him to the other side of the lake while He dismisses the crowd.  So Jesus deliberately creates this separation between Himself and the disciples.  He releases the crowd and climbs up a mountain to pray.  Evening turns to night, and the boat carrying the disciples is now out in the middle of the lake.  Alone on the mountain, Jesus sees them; He sees that the wind is against them.  He also sees that they are literally ‘being tortured’ by the wind and are unable to make headway.

“About the fourth watch of the night,” 3-6 AM, Jesus decides to take a stroll down the mountain, across the beach, onto the water, and out into the middle of the lake.  “He meant/intended to pass by the disciples.”

I think that is one of the oddest phrases in the Bible, “Jesus meant to pass by them.”  What in the world does this mean?  One commentary spends 16 pages discussing what could possibly be meant by this phrase.  A good understanding is to view this as God revealing Himself.  The language here is similar to Ex. 33:19-34:8 where God allows His goodness to “pass before” Moses, and similar to 1 Ki. 19:11-13 when God passed by Elijah not in the strong wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in the still, small voice.

This “passing by” is what God had done in the past to reveal Himself to people.  Jesus apparently wanted to reveal Himself to the disciples.  And in several Old Testament passages, God is depicted as the Master of the Waters by walking upon them (Job 9:8; Ps. 77:19).  Is 43:16 describes¹⁶ [Yahweh], Who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.

Outwardly, when people looked at Jesus, they saw a normal man Who smiled, talked, ate, drank, walked, rested, slept, and did all the things an ordinary man would.  Yet, Jesus did things that clearly revealed that He was much more than an ordinary man.  The disciples see that again.

Imagine how the disciples experienced this; think about the day they are having.  They are back in their boat, their normal workplace, after a failed retreat.  Rather than getting a retreat with their Teacher, they are forced to be waiters for the feasting of the 5000—a crowd of (possibly) 15,000 people.  Instead of camping for the night, Jesus now tells them to cross the lake—for the second time that day.  When they finally get to the middle of the lake, a wind comes up and keeps them from being able to cross.  They are being tortured by the wind (they aren’t afraid here, only stalled out and frustrated).  It is somewhere between 3-6 AM.

Then, they look up and see a Person walking on the water as though it were any normal road.  Their reaction, which is probably a ‘normal’ reaction, was to think that they saw a ghost, a phantasm.  You can hear them hollering, “I can’t believe my eyes.”  “You see that too?”  “Can it be real?  It is moving against the wind.”  “Do you see that?”  “Yes.  Let’s get out of here.”  They cry out in fear and are terrified.

So, Jesus is revealing Himself to the disciples, that He is God, Lord of the Storm, Master over the Sea, yet the disciples are terrified, crying out, and not benefiting from the revelation.  Yet, Jesus graciously tells them, “Take heart; I am He.  Do not be afraid.”

The storm stops.  You would expect that the disciples would then breathe a sigh of relief.  You would expect a nice, happy ending to this text where everyone has a good laugh; they reach the other side and go out for a breakfast of carmel rolls.  Instead, the disciples are outside of their minds.  They have some sort of out of body experience.  They just don’t “understand about the bread, but their hearts were hardened.”

Scripture clearly teaches Who God is.  He is the All-knowing, All-powerful, All-wise, and All-loving Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.  Yet, you doubt and become fearful and hardened against Him.  You know it is sinful, but when you hear about 70 people getting shot and 12 of them killed while they are enjoying a movie, you doubt that God is All-knowing, All-powerful, All-wise, and All-loving.  If God were All-knowing, All-powerful, All-wise, and All-loving, why doesn’t He stop evil things from happening?

Too often, you want God to prove Himself to you.  You want Him to prove that He is Who He says He is, and you dictate how God needs to prove it.  That is the height of idolatry.

God doesn’t need to prove Himself to you.  God does not necessarily deliver you from all your troubles in exactly the way you think He should.  God doesn’t necessarily make everything perfect right now so you can “live happily ever after.”

Christians, we are too casual today.  We tend to think God is our Heavenly Friend.  We think He is the Santa Claus in the sky with a naughty or nice list and that He answers prayers according to that list.  But God is so much more awesome, majestic, and powerful than that.  Too quickly, we forget that He is also the God Who commands the waves and the seas.  We forget that He is allowed to do things that we don’t understand.

In Is. 45:5–7 God says ⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God; … I am the Lord, and there is no other. ⁷ I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, Who does all these things.

God doesn’t need to prove Himself to you.  God has already proved Himself the All-knowing, All-powerful, All-wise, and All-loving Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.  He proved it in a way that looks like absolute weakness and foolishness.  God proved Himself on the cross.  God showed His love for you on the cross.  He descended to earth and revealed His wisdom and love and power by delivering you from sin, death, and the devil.  And still, you want God to reveal Himself in a new and different way?  Knock it off.  Don’t tell God how to do His job.

As Jesus passes by the disciples to reveal Who He is, they do not understand and become terrified, and yet Jesus speaks graciously to them, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”

Even when you don’t understand, even when you’re terrified, even when you doubt Who God is, He continues to be gracious to you and be patient with you.  He reveals Himself to you in ways that are much more quiet that are much more mundane, maybe, than you would prefer.  He reveals Himself to you through the preaching of the Word and through His Sacraments.

Though you do not understand and though you harden your heart, He continues to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and righteousness.  Amen

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto eternity.  Amen.