Let the Little Children Come to Me! (Mark 10:13-16)

August 28, 2011

 

Dear friends in Christ.

At some point between the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s a preacher named Clare Herbert Woolston, took the words of our lesson today and wrote a hymn about it.  Though this particular hymn is not in our hymnal, I would be willing to bet that each and every one of you know it by heart, or at least the refrain, by heart, for the hymn that Mr. Woolston wrote is the well known children’s song, Jesus Loves the Little Children.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I can still remember learning this song when I was in Sunday school.  Though I was only about 5 years old, I still remember the impact that this song had on me, because it assured me that even though I was just a child, I was precious to Jesus.  I was precious to him and he loved me just like he loved all the children of the world.  Even though my parents had taught me that very truth, modeled it for me in their love for me, and brought me to Jesus through baptism, home devotions, Sunday school, and Sunday morning worship, this song revealed the truth in a whole new light.  It assured me that Jesus loved me, and that he wanted me, a child of maybe 5 years old, to come to him.

Now, I don’t know if these words ever affected you in the same way that they affected me, but even if they didn’t these words reveal a very beautiful truth.  These words assure us that each and every child, no matter what age they might be, no matter what nationality they might hail from, no matter if they are a boy or a girl; each and every child is precious to Jesus and Jesus wants all the little children to come to him.  This, in fact, is the very truth that Jesus was teaching to his disciples in our lesson today.  So, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to Mark 10:13-16 and we will hear Jesus himself inviting the little children to come to him. 

Now, as you are turning to Mark 10, let me set the stage for you.  Jesus was in the last six months of his earthly ministry, and he, and his disciples, were traveling on their way to Jerusalem.  As they went, Jesus was traveling through towns and villages one last time on his way to give his life.  Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and as our lesson opens, Jesus’ disciples seem to be trying to give Jesus some space from the crowds that were following him.  Take a look at what Mark tells us, beginning with verse 13: “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13–16, NIV84)

In four short verses Jesus makes it clear that he wants the little children to come to him because they are precious to him.  He wants the little children to come to him because he loves them.  He wants the little children to come to him because they are part of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven belongs to them just as it belongs to us.  In fact, if you take a close look at these verses you see just how important the children are to Jesus through the emotion conveyed by Mark.  Take a look again at verse 13, and listen for the emotion:  “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. Rebuke is not a word that we use too often outside of the Scriptures, but if you’ve ever been rebuked, you know what the disciples were doing.  We don’t know how it started but people were bringing their children to Jesus to have him bless them.  But it wasn’t just one or two, the people kept coming and coming and coming and the disciples must have gotten fed up with it and they rebuked the people for coming.  In other words they spoke harshly to the people with a warning tone, even a threatening tone in their voice.  The whole purpose of their words was to keep the people from coming to Jesus.

Verse 14: ‘When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.” Jesus was angry.  Jesus was out raged.  You could go so far as to say that he was beside himself with rage.  To put it in human terms, Jesus simply could not believe that his disciples were doing such a stupid and hurtful thing to these parents who, in faith, had brought their children to see Jesus, so Jesus said to them: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Unfortunately the NIV’s translation doesn’t capture the full sense of what Jesus is saying.  The KJV captures it better when it says, “Suffer the little children…”  But that still doesn’t convey the full rage in Jesus’ words because we just don’t have a single word in English that conveys what Jesus is saying.  For, with one word in Greek Jesus is essentially saying to his disciples, “Back off!  Get out of the way of these children coming to me.” And then he adds, do not hinder them.  Essentially Jesus is telling his disciples to completely stop what they are doing, get out of the way so that the children can come to him, and never, ever hinder children from coming to him, because these children are precious to Jesus.  To this Jesus adds verse 15: “I tell you the truth,” Now to make his point Jesus begins speaking with his divine authority as the Son of God, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 

So important are these little children to Jesus, so badly does he want them to come to him that he will not tolerate anyone standing in their way.  So important are they that he tells us that the only way for us to attain salvation is to have the faith of a child—a simple faith that simply trusts that Jesus is our Savior because Jesus says so.  In 3 short verses, Jesus made it abundantly clear just how precious these children are to Jesus, and then verse 16 tells us, “[Jesus] took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”  He didn’t merely place his hands on them as the parents brought them to him.  He took them in his arms.  He hugged them close to him.  He probably put his hand on their head and messed up their hair.  He may even have tossed them up in the air as Father’s like to do with their kids.  He may even have let them run to him and jump on him and tackle him before he gathered them in his arms and hugged them tight.  This is what Jesus was doing as our lesson closes, he was actively showing just how precious these children were to him.  He was showing it in his actions as he held them to him, and he was showing it in his words, as he spoke blessings upon them. 

Well, Jesus is saying the same thing to you and me today!  He is calling on us to let the little children come to him!  But how do we do that?  How do we step back and get out of the way was we bring our little children to him?  Well, the answer to that is simple!  We take every opportunity we have to teach our children about Jesus.  We bring our children to Sunday school when they are ready and we show them just how important sitting at Jesus’ feet is by attending Bible Study ourselves.  We bring our children to Sunday school and then show them just how important God’s Word is by bringing them sit next to us in worship as we worship our Savior together.  We show them how important God’s Word is by bringing them to Confirmation class when they are ready and still bringing them to Sunday school and worship so that they can continue to grow in God’s Word.  We do this by bringing our children to worship with us, even when they are in high school and by laying the foundation of how important worship is; even more important than that job that wants them to work during the worship hour.  We do this by being the parents and laying down the simple fact that worship is where we are on Sunday morning, as one of my high school friends told me, “I can stay up as late as I want on Saturday night, but the later I stay up, the earlier my parents will wake me up for church on Sunday morning.”

This is how we bring our children to Jesus whether they are but babies carried on the arm, grade-schoolers, high-schoolers, college age, or even adults.  We bring them by teaching them and modeling just how important it is to gather in worship regularly.  Though we may not have always succeeded in this regard, our Savior forgives us.  Though we may have acted like the disciples and hindered our own children from coming to the Lord, it is the Lord who forgives us.  Though we may have had our own children stray down paths that we hoped they would never walk, our Savior is still looking out for them.  He is the one who is still working in their lives to call them back to himself, because they too are precious to him.  He loves them and wants them to come back to him and live in his full and free salvation.  Our job is to continue living our faith, modeling the activity of coming to our Savior, encouraging them, and each other, and constantly praying for our children.

For just as our children are precious to us, they are precious to Jesus our Savior; as that classic children’s song tells us; “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red, brown, yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Focus Your Faith on Christ (Matthew 14:22-33)

August 21, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

If you’ve ever taken a picture, then you know just how important focus is.  Whether you use a high-end camera with all the attachable lenses, a simple digital camera, or even a one-time use camera that can be purchased at just about any drug store, you know that if you do not pay attention to the subjects upon which you are focusing, your picture won’t come out clearly.  Instead it may turn out fuzzy, grainy, with streaks, or maybe even as something that resembles, but is not completely unlike, a Picasso painting.  Well the same is true for our faith.  When our faith is not focused on Jesus Christ our Savior, we find that our faith is fuzzy, grainy, and streaky, but when we are focused on Jesus, the object and provider of our faith, we easily find the courage to deal with all the distractions, hardships, and frustrations that life brings our way. In fact, as we focus our attention on the next window in our Stained Glass Window Series, we see a very familiar picture.  We see the miracle of Jesus walking on the water.  Yet, if we take a step back, so to speak, and examine the events that took place on either side of Jesus walking on the water, we see a number of other miracles that are designed to help us focus our attention and our faith on Christ. 

In fact, as we take a look at our lesson today, let me remind you of some of those events.  Just before the events of our lesson in Matthew 14, Jesus had feed about 5,000 men with two small fish, which were somewhere between the size of sardines and small perch, and five loaves of bread that were not much bigger than dinner rolls.  Jesus had taken the bread and the fish, given thanks for it and then began dividing it among the 5,000 + people who were there.  Though this miracle was designed to help the people focus their faith on Jesus as their Savior, their focus was blurry for they saw Jesus as some sort of bread king who would provide them with everything they ever wanted if they could just force him to be their king.  Thus, Matthew records for us in chapter 14 beginning with verse 22: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”(Matthew 14:22–27, NIV84)

Rather than allow his disciples to catch the frenzy of the crowd and encourage Jesus to become a bread king for the people, Jesus instructed his disciples to get into the boat and head back across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  He did this because he knew that they would be safer on the lake, dealing with the storm, than they would with the crowd having their faith blurred by false ideas.  He also did this so that he could dismiss the crowd and send them away, so that he could spend time with his Father in prayer.  For the truth is, this temptation by the crowd to become a king without suffering was no different than satan’s temptation to Jesus to bow down and worship him to inherit the kingdoms without suffering.  Yet, Jesus defeated these temptations and went off by himself to be with his Father in prayer.  He went off to pray to his Father, possibly for strength for himself, very likely for the people whose focus was blurred so that through the Word their faith would be sharpened and they would learn to focus their faith on Jesus, and very likely for his disciples as they were out on the Sea of Galilee struggling against the wind and the waves of a storm that was buffeting their boat.

Now, if this were a TV show, this is where the commercial would be.  We would see a picture of the disciples struggling against the wind and the waves, the screen would fade to black, and the commercial would begin.  Well, this morning, our commercial focuses on the Sea of Galilee.  If you don’t know that much about the Sea of Galilee, I’m here to tell you a little bit about it.  The Sea of Galilee was actually a small lake, located in the northern part of Israel, which was actually about 700 feet below sea level.  It was roughly 13 miles long at the longest point and about 7 miles wide at the widest point.  It was a lake that was surrounded by high hills on either side, so when the wind started blowing over the hills, violent storms could come up without warning, which is what had happened to the disciples.  Though the water was undoubtedly calm when they started off, one of those very storms came up, and the disciples began struggling to keep the boat from capsizing.  Even though they were experienced fishermen who knew well those very waters, they found themselves struggling with the storm for hours.  Though they had left shore in the evening, probably while it was still light, by the time Jesus approached them, walking on the water, it was somewhere between 3 and 6 in the morning.  They had probably been on the water for something like 9 hours battling the wind and the waves, and they had only made it about 1/3 of the way across the lake.  They were tired from the stress of fighting the storm.  They were exhausted from battling the wind and the waves.  So when they saw Jesus, walking to them on the lake, their minds gave way to alarm, alarm gave way to superstition, and they cried out in fear.

Now, as we sit here this morning, it could be easy for us to think poorly of the disciples for letting their fears get the best of them, but how often doesn’t the same thing happen to us?  How often don’t we allow our fears to get the better of us and blur our focus on Jesus Christ our Savior?  If we are honest with ourselves, I think we’d all have to admit that it happens more often that we like?  In fact, how often hasn’t it happened that you’ve scarred yourself silly while walking down a dark hallway, in a dark room, or down a dark street?  How often haven’t you scarred yourself by almost superstitiously thinking that someone or something is going to jump out and get you?  How often haven’t we given way to fear and lost focus on our Savior, if just for an instant, when we see the darkening sky, the flashes of lightning, the peals of thunder, and hear the tornado sirens calling for us to take immediate shelter.  How often haven’t we lost our focus on Christ as we’ve been distracted by the waves of bills and other financial responsibilities crashing all around us?  How often don’t other fears take hold, strip us of our courage, and change the focus of our faith away from Christ our Savior?  How often don’t we find ourselves unable to relax as financial worries overtake us?  How often don’t we find it difficult to sleep as worries about job security, or worries about things we’ve said, our countless other fears take hold, bring fear to the forefront and move our focus from our Savior to ourselves?  How often doesn’t the guilt of things we’ve done or things we’ve left undone weigh heavy on our hearts until our eyes are no longer focused on our Savior, but are bowed down to the earth beneath?  How often don’t our fears even cause us to doubt the Lord’s forgiveness or even his gift of eternal life?

If we are honest with ourselves, then we must admit that too often our fears get the better of us.  Too often our fears cause us to lose focus on the source of our strength and our Salvation.  Too often our fears lead us to doubt, despair, and even depression over the state of our forgiveness.  But that is when our Lord Jesus calls to us and says, “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  This is when we hear the voice of our Savior, calling to us, and helping us to refocus our faith in him.  We hear our Savior reassuring us that we are his and there is nothing that can snatch us out of his hand.  We hear him assuring us that all our sins have been completely washed away.  We hear him calling to us in the midst of our hardships and struggles and fears, helping us to readjust the focus of our faith so that it points to him, rather than all those other things.

This is exactly what Jesus’ words did for his disciples, for when he called out to them and told them, “Take courage! It is I.  Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27, NIV84)  For as soon as Jesus spoke these words, Peter’s faith was refocused, as Matthew tells us in verse 28: “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”(Matthew 14:28–31, NIV84)

When Peter stepped out of that boat, he was focused on his Lord.  He had no fear and he had no doubts.  He knew the water would hold him up, because Jesus allowed him to walk to walk to him on the water.  While he focused on Christ, he was able to walk on the stormy seas and the waves didn’t crash over him or threaten to knock him off his feet.  But when he took his eyes off his Savior and focused on the waves, they threatened to wash over him and sink him, and he began doubting that Jesus would protect him.  When he allowed the distractions of the wind and the waves to become his focus and lost focus on his Savior.  That was when he started to sink.  His fears and his doubts got the better of him and he began to sing.  But in the very next moment his focus cleared, he was fixed on his Savior, and he immediately called for Jesus’ help.

Well, just like Peter began to sink when he lost focus on Christ, so also we begin to sink when we take our eyes off of our Savior.  When we take our eyes off our Savior and are distracted by the world around us, troubles and hardships loom over us like ten-foot high waves, which threaten to crash down upon us.  We are hit by wave after wave of trouble, hardship and grief, which spin us around and we too start to sink and must cry out with Peter, “Lord save me!”  That is when our Lord reaches out his hand and catches us.  He pulls us back to him, re-focuses our faith on him, and helps us to fight the distractions around us!  We are able to deal with troubles and hardships that come, because they are not able to wash over us or knock us off our feet.  We are able walk a straight path through life. 

So dear friends, my prayer for you today is that the focus of your faith has been made that much sharper today.  I pray that in the same way photographers will carefully dial the focus on their cameras to get the best pictures, so also through Jesus’ word and his miracles your faith has been made that much sharper as your faith and your trust reside in the your Savior who has freed you from your sins and given you the gift of eternal life.  Though the Lord has never promised that it everything would work out perfectly when we are focused on him, when our focus is on our Savior, our walk is a straight path through troubles and hardships.  Continue to focus your faith on Christ so that your faith life does not resemble something like one of Picasso’s paintings, but rather clearly resembles and reflects your Savior, Jesus.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Let the Religious Read Carefully (Luke 10:25-37)

August 14, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Freddie Fender was going to fix his car himself.  He was tired of paying the high repair bills.  But Freddie did not read the instructions carefully, and after he was done with the job, it cost him twice as much to get it fixed right after he had fixed it himself.  Hilda Homemaker was a do-it-yourselfer too.  She was going to make a cake from scratch.  But baking was not her forte and she did not read the recipe carefully, so she left out some of the most important ingredients.  Thus, her cake fell flat in the pan and what was supposed to be an angel food cake, looked more like white brownies instead.  Harvey Handyman picked up a set of plans from the lumber company.  He was going to build himself the bookcase that he had always wanted.  But Harvey only looked at the pictures, didn’t even bother reading the instructions, and started sawing.  Though Harvey did manage to build his bookshelf, when it was finished it looked more like a rocking chair with shelves, rather than a the bookcase he had always wanted.

Though I realize that Freddy, Hilda, and Harvey may seem a bit comical to us, especially since most of us have had similar experiences in our lives, today these three fictional characters are teaching us an important lesson about being Christians.  And that lesson is simple, as Christians, it is very important for each and every one of us to read carefully the instructions of God’s word, learn them, take them to heart, and follow them carefully, because if we should try to be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to our Christian faith, not only will it lead to a spiritual mess; it could ultimately lead to the spiritual disaster of eternal damnation.  This is why Jesus is teaching us in our lesson today just how important it is for us to read carefully.

Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson in Luke 10:25-37.  As you are opening to Luke 10, let me tell you a little bit about the do-it-yourself expert that comes to Jesus in our lesson.  He was an expert in the law; a religious do-it-yourselfer.  He knew a lot about his Old Testament Bible and he though he knew the way to heaven.  In fact, he felt that he was building his way there by himself through his own efforts at keeping God’s Law in his life.  So, when he asked Jesus for directions of how to achieve eternal life, he really wasn’t asking to find out the answer, he was asking to test Jesus and show Jesus that he, the expert, was already such a great guy who was already building his way to heaven that he didn’t actually need Jesus help.  Take a look at what Luke tells us, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25–29, NIV84)

Interestingly, there are still a lot of do-it-yourselfers who are just like this expert in the law.  They do not read carefully or understand what the Lord has to say in his Word, so what they wind up making is more like devil’s food than angel’s food.  They buy their Bible because it has God’s plan for salvation, but then they do not read it carefully or they only look at the pictures.  They go through a lot of religious motions, but when they are done, they have nothing that will stand before the Judgment of the Lord, and they end up paying a lot more than they would have had to.  Some religious do-it-yourselfers even stay away from church because they feel that their plan is already better than any plan that God can give them.  Though they may sometimes come to church to hear what God has to say, after they spend their hour in God’s house they go back home and keep on building according to their own plans anyway. 

Now, I know exactly what you are doing.  You are mentally going through our membership roster and thinking that so and so is exactly like this.  Or you are thinking how you wish that this person or that person was here to hear what Pastor is saying today.  Though I admit that it would be nice to have those specific people here to hear this message from the Lord as he calls us to read word carefully, understand it, believe it, and follow it, what is most important is that we who are hear carefully read and understand what Jesus is saying to us today.  For the application he gives us is simple.  He wants us to read his Word carefully.  He wants us to study his Word regularly.  He wants us to grow in our faith so that we understand that we are sinners who are saved by grace.  He wants us to understand that we are saved only by the Lord’s plan of salvation and not by any plan of salvation that we may have come up with on our own.  He wants us to read carefully so that we are always seeking to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, and strength, and mind; so that we are always seeking to live our faith by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

This is what Jesus wanted for the do-it-yourselfer, expert in the Law, and in his love, Jesus was patient with him as he asked the expert to take a closer look at the law he knew so well and read it more carefully.  First Jesus asked the expert what he knew about the law and how he read it.  The expert gave a beautiful summary of the exact heart of God’s law and the purpose of the Christian life when he said in verse 27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”  However, Jesus longed to help him read more carefully and understand more thoroughly.  So Jesus told this man the parable of the Good Samaritan, which Luke records for us beginning with verse 30: “Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30–37, NIV84)

With this beautiful parable Jesus explained what a life of faith is all about.  It is not about obeying the law point by point to build a ladder to heaven.  It isn’t about seeking to follow a path to eternal life that comes from our own imagination.  Rather, it is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation that the Lord Jesus recorded for us in his word and allowing these words to grow in our hearts.  It is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation so that our faith in Jesus continues to grow and to permeate every part of our lives.  Then when God’s Word so permeates our lives we will naturally begin to put our faith into action as we live and serve the Lord by loving our neighbor.

Though this parable makes it clear that our neighbors are really anyone who is need of our help; anyone and everyone we come into contact with in our lives, it is very seldom that our neighbors are the ones who are beaten and lying beside the highway.  Yet it is interesting how so many religious do-it-yourselfers react to their neighbors like the Priest and the Levite did in Jesus’ parable.  Though they go out of their way to be kind and do good when someone is watching, so often, it seems, that behind closed doors, they neglect their own spouse when he or she is hurting.  They neglect the needs of their children and their family, crossing on the other side of the street, because they simply cannot be bothered to get involved with such domestic situations.  Though they are ready to champion all sorts of causes to send food, clothing, or medical supplies to the starving children of countries ravaged by famine, countries destroyed by hurricanes and earthquakes, even countries ravaged by incurable diseases, their own personal lives are filled with sins that keep them from seeing the needs of those around them or even helping those in need and serving them out of love for the Lord.

But what about us?  How often don’t we act in the exact same way as the religious do-it-yourselfers that I’ve been describing?  How often haven’t we walked on the other side of the living room rather than take time to interact with our spouse or our children when they have been hurting?  How often haven’t we ignored the obvious cries for help from our next door neighbor or our best friends when they obviously needed a sympathetic ear to listen or simply a shoulder to cry on?  How often haven’t we closed our eyes or pretended not to see someone who needed our help in one way or another?  Too often we have acted just like the Priest and the Levite in Jesus’ Parable, which is why he shares this parable with us.  For the purpose of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is not so that we are motivated to be nicer to each other, but it is instead to cause us to read more carefully and understand that we cannot possibly keep God’s Law on our own.  We cannot possibly keep all of God’s commands perfectly as he demands, because we are constantly stumbling and breaking them all.  Even if we should have a good day and keep most of them, as the Bible tells us, as soon as we break even one of God’s commands we are guilty of breaking them all.  Then, in that moment, all of our own do-it-yourself plans for salvation come crumbling down before us and we are left with no hope of salvation but one.

It is in that moment that the Lord our God lifts our heads up and asks us to read carefully the simple instructions of Salvation, “God so loved the World that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV84)  These are the simple instructions that our God laid out for our salvation.  Though we cannot possibly keep God’s law, Jesus did it for us.  Jesus loved us so much that he freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.  Jesus loved us so much that even when we were his enemies he died to make us his friends.  Now, it is through that love of Jesus that faith grows in our hearts.  It is through that love of Jesus that we seek to live our lives out of love for the Lord.  It is because we have been saved by faith that we can now seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind.  It is because the love of Jesus our Savior now lives in our hearts that we seek to live our lives loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  It is because of that love of Jesus that we now seek to read carefully God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For you see, it is only when Jesus love for us permeates our hearts and our lives that we live like the Samaritan did, showing love in our actions.  It is only when the love of Jesus permeates our hearts and our lives that we show love for our husbands, our wives, our children, and our families. 

This is the purpose of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is not a story to teach us how to live a Christian life.  Rather it is a story asking us to take a closer look at God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For when we read His word carefully, we find the story of our inability to keep his commands.  We face the facts that the wages of sin is death.  Yet we are confronted by the unimaginable grace that the gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.  Now, moved by that love, we seek to show our love for the Lord our God by living in love for your neighbor.  Though there are religious do-it-yourselfers who understand Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as a “how to” manual of a Christian life, because we have carefully read it, we understand what it truly is.  It is a parable to show us how we cannot earn eternal life in our own way.  Rather we must rely on the Lord our God and his salvation.  Then, moved by the grace of our Savior we will naturally live our lives in love, serving the Lord our God, even as we show our love for him in how we love our neighbor. 

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Behold the Savior of the World! (Mark 1:4-11)

August 7, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

When you think of John the Baptist, how do you think of him?  Do you think of him as an impressive figure?  Or do you think of him as just a regular kind of guy?  Do you think of him as a rugged outdoors sort of fellow?  Or do you think of him as a man who’s been softened by city living?  Well, when I think of John the Baptist, I think of him as a man who would do well living out West in cattle country.  Though he never kept sheep or goats, though he never drove cattle, he was a hard man who had a hard life.  He was a hard man who lived out in the wilderness eating locust and wild honey.  He was a hard man who wore clothes made out of camel’s hair with a leather belt wrapped around his waist.  But even though John was a hard man, he was also a privileged man.  For he is the only man, besides Jesus, whose coming was prophesied in the pages of Scripture.  He was the man who was chosen by God to be the forerunner of his Son.  He was the one who was fortunate enough to proclaim the message:  Behold the Savior of the world! 

Behold the Savior of the world!  This was the very message that John proclaimed as he pointed the people to their Savior.  As the Bible tells us, “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:4–8, NIV84)

In essence, John’s mission was simply to point people to the Savior of the world, and this is what he did.  For there, in the desert on the other side of the Jordan River, John preached a message of harsh law.  He did not shy away from condemning sins, rather, he proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  He did not falter when people made excuses for the wrongs they had done, instead, he applied the full weight of God’s Holy Law and crushed that sinner to pieces.  Not even when the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day came to investigate him did he back down.  For he went head to head with them condemning their sinfulness and their failure to see it.  Because of this, John’s fame spread and people from all over the region of Judea and Jerusalem came out to hear him.  Confessing their sins, they were baptized in the Jordan, assured of the forgiveness of sins, and pointed to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

This is the same message we need to hear as well.  For even we Christians need to be reminded that our sins separate us from our God.  We need to be reminded that our sins are just like those round bails that we see on farm places throughout the countryside.  Though they may start out small as farmers begin to make their pass through the field, by the time that bail is ejected it has grown so enormous that no one could never hope to lift it.  It has grown so huge that if it rolled on top of you for any reason it would kill you.  The same is true for our sins.  Though they might start out as a few small sins of anger, jealousy, frustration, or even greed, they can grow larger and larger.  Before we know it, that small sin of anger has grown into a grudge you hold against another person.  That small sin of jealousy has lead to hatred.  That small sin of frustration has led to exasperation.  That small sin of greed has led to a desire for more and more, and before we know it, our sins have grown so huge and have wrapped so tightly around us that we are unable to move.  They have grown so enormous that we are crushed under their weight and can do nothing to be rid of them ourselves.

But that’s when John’s message of comfort comes to us as he points us to Jesus, the Savior of the world.  Take a look at what he has to tell us in verses 7 and 8, “7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7–8, NIV84). 

With these beautiful words, John points us to our Savior and the forgiveness he offers.  With these words we are reminded how Jesus was baptized by John on the day he began his public ministry so many years ago, which was the very reason that Jesus came to the earth!  He came to be the Savior of the world, just as had been proclaiming ever since he started preaching.   Mark tells us: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9–11, NIV84)

Though it doesn’t tell us in this Gospel, we learn from Matthew that when Jesus came to John to be baptized, John didn’t understand why.  Rather, John tried to deter Jesus by telling him that he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus.  But Jesus simply told him, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”  For the thing was, by being baptized, Jesus was showing his connection to sinners.  Though he himself was sinless, he was identifying himself with sinners by giving himself to the work of bearing our sins.  As Luther points out: Jesus was here rightly beginning to be the Christ, the Anointed One, and “was inaugurated into his entire Messianic office as our Prophet, Priest, and King.”  For through the voice of the Father from heaven and the Holy Spirit lighting on Jesus in the form of a dove, all three persons of the Trinity were proclaiming that this Jesus was the Savior of the world. 

Thus, the one true God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit revealed that they were launching the culmination of the plan of salvation through Jesus our Savior.  The long period of expectation and preparation was now over.  The most momentous days the world would ever know, the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, culminating in his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension were now beginning.  Satan’s power and dominion were doomed, because the world’s redemption was at hand.  This, in a nutshell, not only was John calling on us to behold the Savior of the world, but the Holy Trinity was proclaiming the very same thing on the day that Jesus was baptized.  The Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were there calling on each and every onlooker as well as you and me to behold the fact that Jesus was the Promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.

What greater assurance could the Baptism of Jesus give us than the assurance that he is the Lord, our Savior!  For today, as we have heard the voice of the Father proclaiming that Jesus is indeed his Son whom he loves and with whom he is well pleased, we have been assured that Jesus truly is our Savior.  As we have witnessed the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove, we have witnessed the fulfillment of the promise that we would recognize the Christ by the decent of the Spirit upon him.  In short, as we have beheld the Lord Jesus, our Savior today, we have been assured that he is our only true Savior who has forgiven all our sins.

How incredible it is to know that as we behold our Savior today, we behold the very Son of God who freed us from the crushing weight of our sins.  Even though we were completely immobilized by the bails of our sins, Jesus came with the John Deer tractor of his grace and lifted those sins from us.  He loaded those sins onto the flat bed trailer of his forgiveness and hauled them away, never to be seen again.   Though we may have been trapped in the sins of anger and grudges, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped by the sins of jealousy and hatred, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped by the sins of frustration and exasperation, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped in the sins of greed and an unholy desire for more and more stuff, our Savior has freed us from them.  Now since we have been freed from our own sins by our Savior Jesus Christ, how can we not follow his example and forgive our fellow Christians from the heart when they do us wrong?  How can we not remember that when we were baptized, each and every one of us was buried with Christ and rose again with him as new creations?  How can we not remember that when our Savior went to the cross, he went, carrying the weight of the sins of the world?  How can we not make the most of every opportunity to gather together as Christians in worship of the Lord our Savior?

Now that we have beheld the Lord our Savior, let us seek to live our lives in service to him.  Let us dedicate our lives to him so that we continue growing in his Word as we read and study the Bible both at home and in Bible Studies during the year.  Let us make the most of every opportunity we have been given to gather to worship the Lord our God and grow in our faith as we encourage our brothers and sisters in their faith.  Let us grow in our baptismal grace, fulfilling the promise that we all made on the day of our confirmation that we would face even death rather than forsake the Lord God our Savior.  Though we don’t know exactly what Jesus looked like while here on earth, today we have all beheld Jesus as the Lord our God and the Savior of the World.  We saw John point him out to us, we heard the Holy Trinity proclaim him, and we have been reminded of how he has freed us from our sins.  This is Jesus, our Savior, who was baptized at the beginning of his public ministry so that he might take on the all important work of redeeming us from our sins and winning us back to the Lord.  Behold him, he is your Savior.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN