Pentecost 22 – 21 October 2018 - Year B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the 10^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 32 – 45

³² And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, ³³ saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

³⁵ And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, ^f“What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸ Jesus said to them, ⁱ“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” ³⁹ And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ⁴¹ And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. ⁴² And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,^4 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Today’s Gospel reading provides us with another narrative of confusion on the part of the disciples.  For once, it is not Peter who is sticking his foot in his mouth.  Instead it is Peter’s two fishing partners, James and John, the Sons of Zebedee.  These two brothers ask Jesus for the two seats of honour when Jesus comes into His glory.  “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  In the culture of that day, sitting didn’t just mean a physical posture, but it could also be used as a term of ruling.  So sitting near someone didn’t just mean that they were to be physically close to Jesus, but that they were to have a large share of the honour and authority that Jesus had.  We have brought a little bit of that culture into our own language when we refer to someone as a “right hand man.”  Basically James and John were asking to be number one and two in Jesus’ kingdom.

We can already see the error of this request in the way that James and John began the conversation: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  Jesus is the teacher – the master – the Lord – He is the Christ.  James and John should be ready to receive the service Jesus wants to give.  How can they ask Him to serve them according to their desires?  Shouldn’t they be ready to receive the gifts that He knows are best for them?

Our sinful human nature is very much at home in the politics of power.  The boss rules.  The leader commands.  As Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.”  Jesus totally understands how pagans rule.  There is no right and wrong.  There is only the accumulation and exercise of power.  This is our natural attitude when we come into this world.

Jesus had a totally different worldview.  He said, “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  The Son of God did not take on the flesh of man in order to become the big boss.  The Son of God took on human flesh in order to serve us humans.  That is the reason we call what we do in church a Divine Service.  We call it the Divine Service because it is the time and the place where God gives His divine service to us.  It is the place where we meet Him and He gives His gifts to us – the gifts earned by the service of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Friends in Christ.  God’s knowledge has no end.  It is infinite.  His wisdom is perfect in every way.  He knows what is best for us better than we do.  His way of serving us is holy and perfect.  There is much in His service to us that is beyond our understanding.

Never the less, in spite of the fact that God loves us more than we love ourselves – in spite of the fact that God knows what is best for us better than we do – in spite of God’s perfect wisdom, we join James and John.  We have the incredible arrogance to approach God and tell Him, “God, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  God already loves us and wants to serve us in the best possible way.  Who are we to tell God to do things our way instead of His way?

When Jesus heard the disciples’ request, He said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.”  The fact is that most people don’t know what these brothers were requesting.

The problem is with the word glory.  When we use the word glory in its earthly context, we generally mean the power and authority that Jesus meant when He spoke of the gentiles - “Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.”  James and John were probably thinking of this kind of glory.  They were operating on the principle that the Christ would rule over a renewed Israeli empire.  They wanted to be the top men in His government.

There is much more to Jesus’ glory than power and authority.  When John’s faith and understanding matured under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He would write, ^{[John 12:16]} “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”  What does the word glorified mean in that verse?  What does the word glorified mean when ^{[John 12:23]} Jesus answered them; “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”?  Jesus had a conversation with Peter after the resurrection in which He told Peter about his death and John explained it in this way: ^{[John 21:19]} “This he said to show by what kind of death [Peter] was to glorify God.  What does the word glorify mean there?

Jesus’ glory does not just refer to His power and authority.  It also refers to His victory on the cross.  When we look at the shame of the cross, we see the glory of our saviour as He wins salvation for us.  As Jesus was walking the road to Jerusalem with His disciples, He began to tell them what was to happen to him.  He was telling them how He would bring glory to God by earning salvation for us with His suffering, death, and resurrection.

Jesus had just been explaining the glory of the cross when James and John came to Him.  They said to Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  Since Jesus had just been talking about the glory of the cross, James and John were unwittingly asking to be crucified, one on Jesus’ right and the other on Jesus’ left.  No wonder Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.”  They demonstrated that they did not understand.

We are like James and John.  We think glory is all about power, authority, and control.  We want that kind of glory.  We want to be important.  We want honour.  We want to be number one.  We want to be the centre of attention.  We are greedy and self-centred.  Jesus tells us that the truly great are those who serve, but we are not interested in serving.  Jesus tells us that the leader should take up the vocation of slave, but we are not interested in being slaves.  We aren’t interested in doing things Jesus’ way.  We want our way.  We want what we want when we want it.  We want and we demand.  Jesus must tell us what He told James and John, “You do not know what you are asking.”

The disciples became indignant with James and John.  Their desire to have things their own way led to fighting among the disciples.  One of the quickest ways to divide a congregation is for the people in that congregation to tell God how they want Him to serve them – for them to say, “God, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”   As the Holy Spirit inspired James to write, ^{[James 4:1–3]} “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? ² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions”.  We expect God to supply our desires, our perceived wants. Friends Jesus knows our real needs that our lives may be enriched, may be blessed, may be complete in Him. Jesus has the virtue of His infinite knowledge and His perfect wisdom; Jesus has predestined our salvation and eternal life.

Fortunately for James and John, and you and me, Jesus does not have a problem with His role as servant and slave.  Even as Jesus set the standard for us He also kept that standard.  He continued to teach His disciples in spite of their stubbornness and He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Even though we don’t serve as we should – even though we don’t adopt the role of slave as Jesus commands, Jesus still became the perfect servant for us. ^{[Philippians 2:8]} “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.

In Jesus Christ we see the glory of victory in the agony of the cross. ^{[Hebrews 2:9]} “We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”.  

Jesus Christ confirmed that victory when He rose from the dead just as He had said.  In His resurrection, He certified His perfect service – His role as perfect slave in order to offer us perfect salvation.  He now offers us forgiveness when we do not offer ourselves as servants and slaves.  He offers us forgiveness for seeking our own glory, power, and pride.  He offers us the salvation that He earned with His glorious victory on the cross.

We, like James and John, want glory for ourselves.  We want popularity, fame, power, security, and all the other things that serve our own self-interest.  This is one more symptom of the sin that is around us and in us while we live in this world.

Jesus came for a different kind of glory.  He came to rescue us from this world of sin by submitting to death on a cross.  He has a special honour and glory because of the suffering of that death and He revealed that honour and glory with His resurrection from that death.  Now He offers salvation to us through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith for He has given His life as a ransom for many.  Amen

The grace and peace of our great triune God that is beyond all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 21 – 14 October 2018 – Year B

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 10^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 17 - 31
¹⁷And 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, Honour 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.”

Today’s Gospel tells us about a man who came to Jesus for advice.  He wanted something very good – eternal life.  He thought he knew how to get eternal life, but he wanted some assurance, some sign that he was on the right track.  From all outward appearances, this man seemed to be an example of righteous living, but something was still nagging at him. Something about eternal life still left him uneasy.  He wanted Jesus to tell him what was missing.

The problem already shows itself in the first verse of today’s Gospel.  This man came to Jesus and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  At first glance, this may seem like a valid question, but deeper study turns up a problem.  

This man’s obstacle lay in the words “I do”and the word “inherit.”  You do not inherit anything because of what you do. You inherit something because of what someone else did.  You inherit something because someone else included you in their will.  The heir of a will might be a child or a grandchild, a niece or nephew, or even animals.  The point is that the heirs really have no say in the inheritance.  The person who makes the will determines who inherits what.

The problem this man had was that he thought that if he followed to the letter God’s Law, He would be obliged to love him enough to put him in the heavenly will. This man felt he had done everything he was supposed to do, but he still felt uncertain.  He wanted Jesus to assure him either that he had already done enough ortell him what sort of task or behaviour he still needed to do to guarantee eternal life.  Like many people, this man thought that he just needed some special knowledge or that he needed to do some special task.  If he could just learn the secret, he could guarantee his place in eternity.

This is the seduction of all false religions.  False religions teach that good works will eventually lead a person to salvation.  They all try to answer the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Many of these religious systems espouse lives of great moral behaviour to answer this question, but they all fail to answer the next question.  What should I do when I fail to lead a righteous life?  What does a Jew do when he fails to keep the laws of Moses? What does a Moslem do when he fails to observe the Five Pillars of Islam?  What does the member of the secret society do when he can’t maintain that purity of life and conduct so essentially necessary for gaining admission into the celestial lodge above?  These religions that are so eager to give us control over our own destiny all fail to mention what happens when we failto produce the good works of salvation.

Since the man’s question was based on the law, Jesus gave an answer that was also based on the law.  Jesus began by saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” With these words, Jesus wants us to really think about what the word “good”really means.  In the true sense, “good”only applies to God.  God is the only source of our salvation.

After Jesus jolted this man into thinking about the true meaning of the word “good,” He went on to tell this man to examine his life in terms of the Commandments: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother.’”  These are the ethics the Holy Spirit brings.  It deals with loving your neighbour as you love yourself.

When we properly understand the full meaning of these commands, the proper response is to realise that we have broken them all.  When we understand that the Bible considers hatred to be a form of murder, we must admit that we are all murderers.  When we realise that even the smallest lustful thought about someone who is not our spouse amounts to adultery, we must admit that we are all adulterers.  The least bit of laziness makes us into thieves.  Even if all we do is listen to gossip, we are liars.  The number of ways that we can break these commands is limited only by our creativity.  As God Himself said, ^{[Genesis 8:21]}“The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”  

The man in today’s Gospel did not understand that.  For when he heard Jesus’ response,he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”  The context of this passage leads us to believe that this man truly believed these words.  Jesus had piled up a collection of commands that should have had this man begging for mercy.  Instead, this man actually thought he had kept these commands.

It is at this point in the conversation that Jesus pointed out the man’s true failure. [Jesus] 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.” With these words, Jesus revealed the man’s heart.  He did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  Instead, his fear, love, and trust were all based on his money and possessions.  In spite of all his good works, this young man had gold for a god.

Who or what do we fear, love, or trust above all things?  There are many false gods that want to rule in the heart.  Some of them are security, comfort, reputation, family, friends, popularity, greed, power, pleasure, lust, and pride.  These and many other concerns can take our eyes from Jesus Christ.  At one time or another, we all suffer from the rule of these false gods in our hearts. We – like the young ruler – do not always fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  We too are guilty of idolatry.

Our Gospel tells us that Jesus loved this man with Agape’ (selfless, unconditional) love.  Jesus told this man what he neededto hear, not what he wantedto hear.  This man needed to learn the hopelessness of his situation.  He needed to understand that he needed a saviour outside of himself. That is how Jesus showed His love to this man – even if it meant that the man would walk away sorrowful.

Jesus loves us the same way.  He sends the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin.  The Holy Spirit comes to us through the Word of God and shines the searing light of the law into our hearts.  He shows our true nature to us.  He takes us to the depths of pure terror as He shows us the future we have earned for ourselves.  He shows us the true hopelessness of our good works. Do we ever spend a day without some feeling of a guilty conscience?

It is at the lowest point that the Holy Spirit brings the soothing message of the Gospel into our lives.  When we realise that there is no hope for us in ourselves, the Holy Spirit shows us the hope that is in God.  He shows us how God entered history in the person of the man Christ Jesus.  He reveals Christ to us as the one who kept the law perfectly in our place.  Through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit takes us to the cross to show us how Jesus suffered and died to take our place as the targetof God’s wrath against sin.  The Holy Spirit informs us that Jesus did not remain buried in the tomb of death, but rose victorious over sin, death, and the power of the devil.  Finally, the Holy Spirit gives us the faith that trusts Jesus for salvation.

Through that faith we constantly receive the forgiveness of our sins, God declares us holy in his eyes, and we inherit eternal life.  We stop asking the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Instead, the Holy Spirit uses us to point to Jesus and declare “Look what God has done to give me eternal life.”

We will not know what happened to the man in today’s Gospel until we arrive in Heaven. The Bible does not tell us if he came back later or if he rejected the work of the Holy Spirit completely.

What we do know is that we – like him – have an empty place inside of us.  We hunger for the assurance that we have eternal life. If we try to find that assurance on our own, we will fail.  Only the Holy Spirit can fill that empty space inside of us.  Only the Holy Spirit can give us the faith that receives the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus earned for us on the cross.  He does this by convicting us of our sin with the Law and then comforting us with the good news of the Gospel.  In this way, the Holy Spirit makes us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

When the time comes for us to leave this life, we will inherit eternal life as members of the Church Triumphant in heaven.  There, in heaven, we shall leave our sins behind and live under Jesus in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 20 – 7 October 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 10^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 2–1:

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.”

Probably over the past ten years, this reading and those passages in the Bible linked to it, have caused extensive disharmony in our Christian and ‘free thinking’ democratic societies of the world. Here we have God’s Word fundamentally challenging the perceived freedom of individuals to make choices about their personal short or long term relationships. I guess the most obvious point is that the nature of marriage debate is not something new, today’s Gospel demonstrates that there was controversy about marriage back as far as the first century.  In this case, the Pharisees came to Jesus with a question about divorce.  Jesus responded with an answer that not only speaks to divorce, but also gives a definition of marriage that speaks to the debates concerning marriage in ‘free world’ countries today.

Now by this time in His ministry, the elite members of society have kept an eye on Jesus for a while, and they have decided that they really don’t like Him.  They have made it their business to embarrass Him in every way possible.  In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees come forward with a test that they hope will challenge Jesus and make Him look bad.  This is one of many tests that they present to Jesus and all of them fail to harm Jesus’ standing in the community.  As we just heard, Jesus turned the tables on the Pharisees and it is they who come away in embarrassment.

So thePharisees came up and in order to test him asked, ^{(Mark 10:2–3)}“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³[Jesus] answered them, “What did Moses command you?”Jesus basically told them to check God’s word.  This is good advice.  We should always check God’s Word in order to see what God says on any topic.  If God put the information in His Word, it would be wise to listen to what He said.

The Pharisees then referenced a section of Deuteronomy.  They said, ^{(Mark 10:4)}“Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”While the Pharisees have quoted Moses correctly in so far as they went, they left out a lot of the context that Moses included in the text.  The actual guideline for divorce begins with the words, ^{(Deuteronomy 24:1)}“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house.”Even this limited context shows that the man must find some indecency in the woman.  By quoting the passage out of context, the Pharisees give the impression that they can throw their wife out onto the street by simply publishing a certificate of divorce.  The context of the passage shows that the husband must show that his wife is guilty of some indecency before he can throw her out.  In other words, she must be guilty of a crime against the marriage.

Jesus elaborated further on the cause for this guideline about divorce.  Then He referred to the creation of marriage that we ourselves heard from today’s Old Testament reading.  Jesus said to them, ^{(Mark 10:5–9)}“Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶But 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, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Jesus was saying that because of the sinful nature that we have from birth, husbands and wives will sin against each other.  It is because of this sin that divorce happens.  So divorce is already evil.  The guidelines for divorce that Moses gave did not excuse people from the sin of divorce.  They were guidelines so that the evil of a divorce did not become something even worse.

Then Jesus turned to the beginning where God created marriage even before the fall into sin. Notice that Jesus quoted and affirmed the account of the creation of marriage as Moses recorded it in Genesis. In Genesis 1, we read: ^{(Genesis 1:27)“}So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”.Then in the more detailed review of creation in ^{(Genesis 2:24)}we read: ^“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”.Note that this account in Genesis says male and female.  The reference is to man in the singular, and wife, also in the singular.  There is one male, one female, one man, one wife. According to the Genesis account, marriage is the one flesh union of this one, male man and this one, female wife. It is this Genesis account of the creation of marriage that Jesus affirmed and upheld in the reading from today’s Gospel.

From this Genesis account, Jesus then taught the conclusion:^{(Mark 10:8–9)}“So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”Note that Jesus says that it is two who become one flesh, not three or more, but two. Note also that Jesus says that it is God who has made this union and therefore only God can separate it.  That means that if Adam and Eve had not sinned and died, they would still be married today.

From this reading and the parallel readings in the other Gospel accounts, it is very clear that Jesus teaches that marriage is the one flesh union of one and only one male and one and only one female.  Regardless of our personal opinions or beliefs, God’s Word is clear and concise in its demands. In God’s Word to us, His children, there can be no other God sanctioned co-habitation arrangement involving two or more people.  In addition we are left in no doubt that this is a union that only God can terminate and therefore remains in effect until death breaks the union.  In reality, the many claims that Jesus has nothing to say in the marriage debate demonstrates our culture’s breath-taking Biblical ignorance.

Jesus’ teaching concerning marriage presents us with some real challenges in our day and age. Most of us know people who have endured the pain of divorce.  Most of us know people who have had multiple sexual partners.  Most of know people who are dealing with same-sex attraction.  And when we remember that Jesus taught and said,^{(Matthew 5:28}) “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart,”we must realise that no one can live up to this marriage standard that Jesus established in today’s Gospel.  Once again, we must agree that ^{(Romans 3:23)}“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

So where can we go or what can we do for relief from the condemnation of this impossible standard? The fact of the matter is that there is nothing that we can do.  There is nowhere that we can go.  Once again, we see that we stand condemned before God.

However, although there is nothing we can do, there is something that God has already done.  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write ^{(Ephesians 1:4)}that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him”. We see the symbolism of this in the very way that God created Eve. ^{(Genesis 2:21–22)}“The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²²And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man”.God created a bride for Adam from a wound in his side.  Here, although Adam and Eve had not yet sinned, God was already providing an image that pointed forward to the manner in which He would provide a bride for His only begotten Son.  ^{(John 19:30 & 34)}After Jesus “bowed his head and gave up his spirit,one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water”.The Son of God took on human flesh and ^{(Philippians 2:8)}“humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.In this way, he earned forgiveness for all our sins including the sins we have committed against the estate of marriage.

Among the many errors that have slipped into the marriage debate is that the Bible somehow has a greater condemnation for sins against marriage.  So often, the people who struggle with sins related to marriage have come to believe that the Bible, or at least the church, considers these sins to have a greater damning power than all the other sins condemned by the Bible … that the sin against marriage might be the unforgiveable sin.  The response to that is good news!! The forgiveness that Jesus earned with His suffering and death on the cross is there for all sins.  The church is for people who struggle with their sins and repent of them and look to Jesus on the cross for forgiveness.  The church is not for people who are without sin for the Bible is clear^{.  (1 John 1:8–9)}“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

Christ has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven in order to prepare a place for His bride, the church.  On the Last Day, He will return and raise all the dead in both body and soul.  Those who believe in Him will join Him in the place He has prepared.  Among the people who will be there will be people who sinned against marriage and received the forgiveness that Jesus earned for them on the cross … people like King David who had an affair with the wife of the most loyal soldier in his army … people like Samson who had an affair with Delilah … people like King Solomon and the patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob, who had multiple wives … people like St. Augustine who lived on the wild side until the Holy Spirit brought him into the family of God.  The history of the church is full of people who sinned against marriage and received the forgiveness that Jesus earned for them.  Jesus said,^{(Mark 2:17)}“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”He calls on us to faithfully believe that His abundant grace will lead us to eternal salvation.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Pentecost 19 – 30 September 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 9 the Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 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.”  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. For the one who is not against us is for us.  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.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.  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.  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.  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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’  For everyone will be salted with fire. 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.”

Hell is far worse than anything we can experience in this world.  It is so terrifying that many people refuse to believe that it exists.  Even more people believe that it so distressing that we should not talk about it. Today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel account forces us to talk about hell because Jesus talked about hell.  He said,^{(Mark 9:43, 45, 47-48)}“It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.  It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.  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.’” Jesus described hell with terms such as unquenchable fire and undying worms.  He also said it was better to lose body parts than to enter hell with an intact body.

Jesus then spoke of one of the many reasons we deserve to go to hell.  He spoke about causing someone or something to sin.  Jesus said,^{(Mark 9:42–46)}“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.  If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out”.

The Greek behind the phrase causing someone to sinis from the word that gives English the wordscandalise.  Whoever scandalises one of these little ones who believe in me … If your hand scandalises you … If your foot scandalises you … If your eye scandalises you … throw it into the sea.  Cut it off. Gouge it out.  Do whatever it takes to get rid of the scandal.

A few years ago my daughter was informed by her specialist doctor that she had a growth on her thyroid glands.  The surgeon stated the obvious; ‘Your thyroid glands have to be removed.’  In other words, “It is better for her to live without thyroid glands than to keep them and die of cancer.”  Jesus said that the cause of scandal in our lives needs to come out just like cancerous glands.

Notice also that Jesus used the word if.  Although that word is only two letters long, it is very important.  Yes, the eyes see the scandal.  Yes, the feet take us to the scandal.  Yes, the hands participate in the scandal.  Never the less, are any of these body parts the root cause of the scandal? Jesus said that if they are, we should get rid of them.  But didany of these body parts participate in the actual decision process that led to the scandal?

Ultimately, none of these body parts had any choice.  It is the mind that interprets the information from the eye and distributes orders to the feet and the hands.  The eyes, the feet, and the hands have no choice.  It is the mind that is the true source of the scandal.  In the Gospel reading from a few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say, ^{(Mark 7:21–23})“From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” So it is our thoughts, feelings, desires, and so forth that are the true cause of scandal.  And, if Jesus is right about removing the cause of scandal from our lives … and He is … then it is our inner being that has to go.  That means that we must die.

It is at this point that I begin to wonder if Jesus hasn’t painted Himself into a corner.  He has said that in order to enter eternal life, we must remove everything that scandalises us, but at an earlier time in His ministry, He taught that main source of scandal is our inner being … our essence … the thing that makes me … me. Has Jesus really gotten us to the point that we must understand that God gives us eternal life by destroying the self? Has He really said that God gives us eternal life by putting us to death?

This is one of those marvellous paradoxes that God gives to us.  In order to avoid death, we must die.  It doesn’t sound right, does it?  That is the reason that God must do the work of rescuing us from sin and death. It is God who must put us to death in such a way that we live forever.

The earlier words of Jesus give us a hint at how this might work.  He said, ^{(Mark 9:42)}“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”While this is horrible, crushing law, there is also Gospel here if you know where to look.

Consider the teaching of the eminent reformer Dr Martin Luther in his Small Catechism: “What does such baptising with water indicate?  It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever”.

Do you believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?  Then you are one of those little ones who believes in Jesus.  Do you also have a sinful nature that constantly leads you into scandal?  Interestingly, Luther often talked about that sinful nature and he called it the Old Adam. His words tell us to remember our baptism every day.  Every day our baptism ties a stone around the neck of our old sinful nature and throws it into the deep waters of baptism.

Now, although people call us Christians, we don’t believe in something just because Luther or some other great theologian said so.  Martin Luther’s however was a committed exponent of God’s Word as written in the Holy Scriptures, and so encourages us to believe in things because we can find them in God’s Word … the Bible.  

Luther’s analogy of the ‘Old Adam’ can be found in the words that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to the Romans.  ^{(Romans 6:3–4)}“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”.

The Apostle Paul then went on to say,^{(Romans 6:5–11)} “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

These words teach us that our old self … what Luther called the Old Adam … was crucified with Jesus. The sinful corruption that was already part of us at conception along with all the sins that we actually committed were crucified with Jesus.  As Jesus hung on the cross, He took on all the guilt and the punishment of our sin. It all died with Him.

But Jesus did not stay dead.  He rose from the dead and when He rose, He left our sin and its guilt in the grave. Since His body no longer carries our sin, it is immortal.

Our Baptism joins us to Christ so that we died with Jesus.  But it also promises that we live with Him.  We are now ^{(Romans 6:11)}“dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”Yes, we must pass through death, but, on the Last day, Jesus shall raise us just as He rose.  ^{(1 Corinthians 15:52–53)}“The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality”.

It is utterly impossible for us to cut off the true cause of scandal in our lives.  Even if we killed ourselves, we would only accompany our scandal into the eternal punishment where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies.  Only God can deal with the scandal in our lives.  He has done this by sending His Son into the world to take up our human flesh and suffer the punishment of our scandal in Himself.  Only in this way can He put us to death in order to give us eternal life.

In the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are already ^{(Romans 6:11)}“dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”We already have eternal life in Jesus, but we cannot experience it to its fullest while we live in this world. ^{(1 Corinthians 13:12)}“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known”; and^{(1 Thessalonians 4:16–1 )}“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen