Text: Luke 10:25-37

Have you ever acted as a good Samaritan to someone in need? Has something like that happened to you? A survey was taken some years ago to ask people why they gave to charity. The primary reply was a reference to today’s story of the good Samaritan. The impact of this parable of our Lord has been vast. Charitable organisations like Samaritan’s Purse have brought immense help to the poor and needy in many parts of our world.

A Bible study group was examining this life-changing parable to see whom they could identify with in this story. One member of the group felt he had to identify with the robbers because he was led to see how he’d robbed those near to him of his time and love. That night, he wrote a letter to his wife to seek her forgiveness. His letter had a deep impression on her. She responded. “Only the Holy Spirit could have revealed these things to you.”

Many of Jesus’ parables are like a symphony in four movements. The first movement seeks to capture the attention of His listeners, the second movement is a challenge by Jesus on how to live out our faith in daily life, while the third concerns the good news Jesus brings us, and the final movement brings the story to a climax pointing us to what Jesus is doing in our midst for us even now, as our Good Samaritan. His love for us reaches its climax o n the cross. He pours out His love on to two categories of sinners, both law-keepers and law-breakers. Each is as bad as the other.

Law-keepers believe they can keep the law without any divine assistance, while law-breakers believe they’re unworthy of the extraordinary love Jesus offers them. Jesus’ chief critics, the lawyers and Pharisees, didn’t see their keeping of the law as an expression of gratitude to God for the grace He so freely bestowed on them. The law had become for them instead the means by which law-breakers could be identified and condemned. The lawyer who approaches Jesus in today’s parable gives a mixed message. His lips express respect for Jesus; his heart, however, desires to trip Jesus up.

Instead of answering the lawyer’s question, Jesus replies to the lawyer’s question with another question. Jesus could have put the lawyer down by pointing out the question has a simple answer. No one can do anything to inherit something. Inheritance, by its nature, is a gift. Jesus chose instead to play the lawyer at his own game. To the lawyer’s credit, he quotes a known summary of the law that may have originated with Jesus Himself. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind” and “Love your neighbour as yourself”. The genius of his reply is that he places love for God before love of neighbour, even though “love of neighbour” comes first in the Old Testament.

The exchange continues with Jesus’ quick-witted response: “Do this and you will live”. Jesus’ response takes the wind out of the lawyer’s sails. He knows it’s impossible to do this perfectly. Instead of levelling with Jesus with an honest reply, like saying “That’s impossible!”, he seeks to justify himself with another curly question: “who is my neighbour?” He wants to know love’s boundaries. For the Jews, “neighbour” meant fellow-Jew. Jesus declines to tell him who his neighbour is; Jesus answers the unasked question, “To whom am I a neighbour?”

Jesus now shares a simple but subversive story with the lawyer and with us. For 17 miles, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho goes through desolate land, a haunt for robbers and hijackers. Jesus’ listeners can picture the horrific scene: a fellow Jew being mugged, robbed and dumped by the roadside, left unconscious. The first man to see him unconscious is a priest. Priests back then were members of the upper class and rode, rather than walked. We’re shocked by Jesus’ comment: “The priest passed by on the other side”. Why didn’t he stop? we protest. He’s perhaps scared he might be attacked too. More likely, though, the roadside victim could be a notorious sinner. If he helped him, he might defile himself and render himself unfit to lead worship in the House of God. He considers his liturgical duties more important than stopping to help. Besides, he’s probably going to preach about loving one’s fellow Jews.

Next, a Levite, a priest’s assistant, comes along. As a member of the lower class he would have been walking. As he approaches the victim, he looks ahead and sees that the priest didn’t stop to help. “Why then should I?” he probably thinks to himself. Jesus’ words, “He too passed by” still impact on our ears. This part of the parable is still so powerful, so contemporary and disturbing, we have to ask ourselves “When have I passed by someone I could have helped?” And then we need to pray, “God, have mercy on me and fill me with love for those who need my love.”

The third person who comes along helps the victim. A Samaritan helping is the last person Jesus’ listeners would have expected. They would rather have expected a Jewish layman to help, not a Samaritan. It would be like telling Jews in Israel today about a “good Arab” or telling Arabs about a “good Jew”. The Samaritan sees the terrible state the Jewish victim is in. So with a heart overflowing with compassion he stops and acts in love to the dying man. He binds up his wounds and then pours on oil and wine to stop the bandage from sticking, and to ensure that their healing properties reach his injuries. Without any aids, he lifts him onto his donkey and leads him to a Jewish inn in the middle of Jericho. In those days there were no rural inns. Inns were in the heart of a town. There he runs the risk of being criticised for his actions. But he not only provides for the victim’s immediate needs, he pays in advance for 24 days of care.

His use of oil and wine to begin the healing process reminds us of their use in Jewish worship. The true “priest” in this story is the Samaritan. By pouring out a thank-offering on the altar of the victim’s wounds, the Samaritan makes an acceptable sacrifice to God. His seven actions make up for the priest and Levite’s sins of omission. He freely and spontaneously shows unexpected love that far surpasses any known obligation. He goes the second mile, going far beyond the bare minimum. He forgets himself in his utterly other-centred approach to someone in desperate need.

Now there are two kinds of sinners in Jesus’ parable: first, the robbers who compound their robbery with violence, and second, the priest and Levite who are guilty of the sins of omission, of failing to do any good at all when they had the opportunity. Edmund Burke once said, “Evil triumphs because the good do nothing”. It’s easy to make up excuses for inaction, for failure to do good towards someone else. We need to pray, “Help me to act like the Samaritan rather than the priest”.

When Jesus now asks the lawyer, “Who acted as a neighbour?” the lawyer cannot say the word “the Samaritan!” He can only say, “the one who had mercy on the victim”. It’s not a question of “who is my neighbour?” BUT, “who am I going to be a neighbour to?” 

Our Lord’s words to the lawyer, “Go and do likewise” should have led him to ask Jesus, “What must I now do to be saved?” He needs to see himself as a helpless victim in need of Jesus as his Saviour. He needs conversion more than he needs more instruction. You see, before we can identify with the Samaritan, we must first of all identify with the wounded traveller. In pointing to the Good Samaritan, Jesus is pointing us to Himself. He is our Good Samaritan who sees us bruised, battered and wounded along life’s way. Through no merit of our own, but out of His inexhaustible compassion, Jesus comes to our aid. Through the picture of the Good Samaritan, Jesus gives us a portrait of Himself and what He can do for us.

As the Samaritan paid for the healing of the victim, so Jesus made the ultimate payment: the sacrifice of Himself, to save us. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to pay the price for our sins (1 John 4:10).” Jesus is the embodiment of mercy. He binds up our spiritual and emotional wounds, pouring the healing oil of His forgiveness and the wine of His love on us in Holy Communion. He entrusts us to the Inn of His Church, where He continues His ongoing care of us.

His Church, this church, is like a hospital. Here, through the medicine of His amazing grace, your wounded Healer cares for you, so you can care for whatever unexpected needy person might be ;your “neighbour” tomorrow, Thursday, or Saturday. Here, in His hospital, Jesus can transform the most unlikely men and women into Good Samaritans. To love your neighbour ”as yourself” means as ;the new other-centred self Jesus is making of you, gloriously other-focussed and continually grateful for His great love for you that never ends.

Now, as you go from the “Jerusalem” of this morning’s worship to the “Jericho” of your daily life, rediscover the joy of putting someone else’s needs ahead of your own. “Love overlooks the many faults and failures of others (1 Peter 4:8).”

Amen.

Text: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

In the latest census of the Australian population (2016), the question about people’s religious affiliation showed that those who identified as Christians declined again to just over 50% with the next highest response being “no religion” at over 30%.

It can be difficult as we live in a world that is growing more and more anti-Christian with many people wanting less Church involvement in state matters such as teaching Christian Studies in state schools.

So how should Christians react?

Do we just sit back and say – well there’s nothing we can do about it.

It’s tough to know what we should do.

But we need to be careful that we don’t take up a fight that really doesn’t belong to us.

Paul had a similar situation happening in Galatia. A group of people known as the Judaizers were infiltrating the Christian community. They were introducing ways that were against the Christian gospel.

You may recall Paul warning the Galatians – beware of anyone who comes preaching a gospel different to the one that I came to you with. But he didn’t tell them to take up arms against them.

He simply told them to be sure of what they believe and don’t be misled by anyone. Let God deal with what needs to be dealt with.

That’s what “anathema” means.

He encouraged them to live a godly life and let God fight the fights that need to be fought. He didn’t in any way say that the fight wasn’t important. But he encouraged them to not let anything distract them from what God has called them to do.

He said: Don’t be deceived – God is not mocked. But as for you: Don’t grow weary in doing what is right.

Let us work for the good of all, especially the family of faith. Let us support and encourage one another here in our congregation, our parish, and the wider church – the family of faith – because we are all in this mission together.

Let us always be focused on the cross of Christ – otherwise we will be distracted from what God asks us to do.

In last week’s Gospel reading we heard James and John get distracted by a fight they were not called to fight.

The Samaritans rejected Jesus and they wanted to rain down fire from heaven to destroy them.

But Jesus rejected that.

Today the disciples were distracted also. They went out as missionaries for God. When they returned they were ecstatic. But they were excited about the wrong thing.

They were distracted.

Lord – in your name even the demons submit to us.

But Jesus reminded them of what was important:

Don’t rejoice that the demons submit to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

When we watch the news on TV, or to read the newspaper, it can create a feeling of helplessness with all the crises of the world.

We are all involved in Christ’s mission of renewing the world, of bringing hatred and injustice to an end. Establishing God’s reign of love and peace. But in the face of the real problems of the world we often feel that our efforts are like a drop of water in the ocean.

Does what we do really make any difference?

In the struggle between the love of Christ and the powers of Satan, the battle between good and evil, are our efforts of any significance at all?

Does God see us as important factors in bringing about change in the world?

Of course he does.

Just as Jesus sent out the 72 into the world, Jesus left us with the Great Commission:

Go into all the world baptizing and teaching.

Jesus does however provide advice on how we are to go into the world as his people:

First, Jesus says that we are like Lambs in the midst of wolves: Jesus doesn’t hide the fact that the world is going to oppose our message.

For a long time Christianity was a dominant voice in the world, but that is not how Jesus originally saw it. In fact he said: The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We should never see the church as failing because it is struggling.

And we shouldn’t see the world as our opposition to fight against. Jesus calls it the harvest and we are called to reap. To go out into the world even though the world will not receive us.

We are called to be salt and light in the world. Changing the world by how we live our lives, not by fighting those with whom we disagree.

As Jesus says – they will know we are Christians by our love. (John 13:35)

Carry no purse

When Jesus sent out the 72 he told them not to take any provisions with them.

Why not?

Because God would provide them with all they needed.

How do we know what to take when it is God guiding the mission? Too often, we have an agenda of what needs to happen – but this may not be God’s agenda.

Too often we go out into the world and believe we know what needs to happen.

Jesus is saying – take nothing with you. Let God guide every step and every word and every action.

We don’t know what God is going to do so we take nothing and let God lead the way.

We don’t want to be like James and John demanding God rain down fire every time someone objects to us or criticizes us. Then we would have no mission. There would be no harvest to bring in; it would all be destroyed.

The mission is God’s. We are his workers. We are bringing in God’s harvest.

If we start to work with our agenda then we can interfere with how God is planning the harvest.

Farmers will adjust their harvest strategy according to how the season is. God too has a mission plan and asks us to let him guide our words and actions.

Dealing with rejection

Jesus then tells the disciples how to deal with rejection. It’s not by calling down fire from heaven. No, he says when you enter a town that doesn’t welcome you, go into the street and wipe the dust off your shoes.

In other words, don’t let that rejection weigh you down. Move on.

Don’t take the baggage with you and let the anger and thoughts of revenge distract you from the mission. Keep focus on the mission. Keep doing good, even to those who oppose you.

The Final Victory

Finally Jesus reminds us as to what it is all about.

When the disciples return to tell of their victorious mission work, Jesus is again worried about the distraction.

Too often we become focused on the successes. The success can become our motivation. The success can easily distract us and become our measurement of God’s plan. When churches find success and grow they can become focused only on the growth.

Jesus says to the disciples – don’t rejoice at your success. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven.

And so that becomes our motivation. Not success, but the desire to have others have their name written in heaven.

We can become disheartened at the result of our mission when the results don’t happen.

When we are rejected we can feel hurt. But remember what Jesus said, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting the one who sent you.

That is where the true hurt is, by God.

So, let us ask once again the Lord of the harvest to send us as labourers to his harvest

– to make us all faithful in our public witness to Jesus;

– to make each and every one of us faithful in bearing Christ’s name and witness to all.

It is in the honour of bearing his name that we rejoice and that our names are written in heaven.

Amen.

Text: Luke 9:51-62

A young mum and her daughter attended the first three nights of the congregation’s Christmas celebration. Normally the congregation hosted a week-long event of music, entertainment and fun that shares the good news of Jesus’ birth in new and vibrant ways. The local pastor sat down with her on the third night while her daughter played games with the other kids. He thanked her for bringing her family so regularly. She was appreciative of the opportunity to have some fun and she really liked the music… even the children’s Christmas pageant. The pastor invited her to the Christmas Eve worship, offering her the small brochure of the Christmas worship schedule.

She refused. “No thanks,” she said. “We like the fun things, but we are not religious.” The pastor persisted with a smile. She grinned back and said, “No offense, but most of this religious stuff seems to me to be a load of horse you-know-what!” She wasn’t aggressive. She just spoke her heart and then went back to the festivities with her daughter.

The gospel heading today was the “cost of following Jesus.” Was that the issue for this woman?

Or what about this man? He was a farmer and a good one at that. He was a morally and ethically sound person. He would give the shirt off his back and race ahead of you into a burning building to save your kids. He had never been part of a Christian church but wouldn’t begrudge your membership and participation. He wouldn’t belittle your worship or following of Jesus, but wouldn’t join in. He doesn’t see a need. He openly marvels at the hurtful and often foolish things churches and Christians do. He takes life as it comes and complains about life’s hardships a lot less than many of his neighbouring Lutheran farmers.

Know anyone like that?

We struggle just as much today with the issue of following Jesus as the people did when he walked this earth! And I could give you story after story of the confusion and ignorance and indifference that is reflected in people today – just like so many of the responses Jesus experienced during his earthly ministry.

Luke’s Gospel account is concerned about that reality, as it recalls the life and work of Jesus. For the young missionary church of the early centuries, it gave them insights for living in a very difficult and changing environment. No less for us today. God wants us, the continuing mission church in the 21^st Century, to learn from this account also.

Today’s sermon text is at the point in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem. He is going up to Jerusalem. He sends his messengers ahead of him – people who tell of his coming, people who prepare the way before him. They go to a Samaritan village and are not received. They are turned away. So James and John, two of the disciples, want to burn to cinders these negative, rejecting Samaritans for their unbelief. Not a particularly good response from them either. And Jesus doesn’t support their idea at all. In fact, he tells the two of them in no uncertain terms. So they just continue on their way elsewhere.

Some people come to Jesus and they offer to follow him, they want to be his disciples. At last some progress in mission it seems! But what does Jesus do? He basically sends them away! He throws up a big reality check in front of them. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” To yet another Jesus said: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

When people come and want to follow Jesus – he goes and sends them away! What is going on here?

We could understand it if, at this particular point, the disciples began to ask themselves whether following Jesus was anything like what they had expected or hoped it would be. Is it worth it, if he is so determined to go up to Jerusalem? Is it worth it if no one wants him, if he is just going to go on being rejected? Is it worth it if he is just going to turn prospective followers away?

Perhaps you can understand how they may have felt. Haven’t we been going on for years about mission in our church, and all that seems to be happening is that we are shrinking and getting older and greyer with each passing year? We are still hesitant at welcoming the stranger in our midst. We don’t seem to find it any easier to invite others to the faith. Sometimes we struggle to have a clear vision or understanding about what we are really supposed to be on about, as a Christian church in the community. And on top of that, we are living in a society that is becoming increasingly cynical about the church – more and more people openly state they have no faith, more and more people are turning to alternative faiths, and fewer people are regularly attending church.

What’s the point! This Christian stuff! Is it worth it?

And I am sure that you could add a few personal experiences to this. Many of us have probably had a few moments in life where we have wondered – what’s the point in believing, or trusting so much, or hanging in there so desperately when things just don’t ever seem to work out or get better, or change even a little bit for the good?

How many of you have sat at the bedside of loved ones and prayed and prayed for their recovery – and it has seemed to no avail?

Have you reasoned with a child – a teenager – to change their way of life, or to come back to church, and it hasn’t happened?

Have you prayed for a loved one to come to faith, maybe for years, without any apparent indication that your prayers are being answered?

Maybe you wanted some changes in your own life, some problem you wanted to overcome, some shameful sin you wanted to be rid of, some temptation you just did not want to experience any more. And just when you think you’ve made it, you find you’re back at square one again. You are still stuck with it, just like Paul’s thorn in the flesh that he never seemed to be able to get rid of.

So this Christian stuff, this mission stuff, is it worth it? Why not just leave people alone – let them believe what they want? Just let things be what they will be. Who cares?

But even that does not work for us, does it? Not when you have been touched yourself by the love and grace of Jesus. Something happens to you that you just cannot turn away from.

You’re still a Christian, aren’t you, despite everything you have struggled with in life? In fact sometimes those struggles make us even more convinced and committed than we were before. More than ever, we pray for and hope in and believe in and work for the mission of the church in our day and age and world.

What is it that makes it still worthwhile, and still gives us a heart for telling others, and wanting their lives touched by Jesus as well?

It can only be the One who goes to Jerusalem, and to the cross, and who goes with us still. For out of the Jerusalem experience of Jesus you come to the only faith and conviction that is possible – that this Jesus is not just one of the prophets, another one who was slain by the people of Jerusalem, but this Jesus is no less than the Son of God Himself, who has come to this sin-filled world to show us his love, his acceptance of us, his commitment to walk with us through this world and everything it can throw at us, to finally take us to be with him where he is. He will not let us go! God will not let us go. God will go through everything he has to go through to stay at our side, walk with us, carry us, comfort our hearts, save us and give us hope.

Jesus was God at work in this world, working solely for us fallen beings and our eternal future. If I don’t see that as true, then I deny all faith and belief in God and commit myself to nothing – which in reality means I will be led by every passing whim, as the saying goes, “if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything”. However, if I receive God’s revelation as true, that Jesus is God in the flesh, come down for me and my salvation, then I have no other place to go. My only hope is to follow him and be with him, because where God is – that is the only place that true hope can live.

And that is the only thing that can make the difference. The only thing that makes this Christian stuff worthwhile, the only thing that gives us a reason for mission, the only thing that gives us any reason to hang in there in suffering or rejection or failure or whatever. Because God came in the person of Jesus Christ to be with us – not to turn this world into some kind of paradise – but to be with us in this world, here and now, so that we could be with him in the world to come. And because of Jesus, God will not let anything take us away from him – not rejection or hatred or suffering or loss of family or friends or poverty or homelessness or even death. Nothing will be allowed to take us away from him. Nothing can separate us from Christ and his love!

So we can keep telling others the wonderful good news of how God has come to our rescue through Jesus. We can keep praying for our families, or our suffering loved ones, because God in Jesus is also there for them, and in doing so, we can help them to come to see that and believe it.

When you come to know God through Jesus, when he touches your heart and becomes your God – there is nowhere else you can go or be. And nothing will stop you being there with Him – not family or homelessness, or poverty, or rejection. Your priorities will change. Because God has come to you – in Jesus! Amen

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Text: Luke 8:26-39

“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul” is the marvellous manner in which St. John begins his third letter to one of his Christian congregations. This greeting is so apt, we could use it in the letters we ourselves send to others. We have sayings like “The only wealth is your health”, or “If you’re got your health, you’ve got nearly everything that’s worth having.”

From the Bible, we learn of God’s concern for our health and well-being. Our Creator loves our bodies and souls, and is honoured when we care for them. Martin Luther calls caring for our bodies a Christian work, so “that through its health and comfort we may be able to work to acquire and lay by funds with which to aid those who are in need.”

The Old Testament is more concerned with preventing sickness and disease than with healing disabilities and handicaps. Moses has been called the father of preventative medicine. The New Testament focuses more of healing than on health. In St. Mark’s Gospel, for example, Jesus devotes more time to healing the sick and the handicapped than He does to preaching and teaching. St. Mark sees our Lord’s healing miracles as the Gospel in action for our comfort and encouragement. These miracles point to Christ’s greatest act of healing – His dying on the cross – to heal us of sin, our greatest disease and handicap.

Our Lord Jesus is concerned about our total well-being and not just our physical ailments or handicaps. He treats both sickness and health as something spiritual with mental and physical consequences. Christ our great Physician assumes that no one possesses perfect health and no one is free from every handicap or physical limitation, since we all live in a spiritually polluted environment. He seeks to keep us healthy in body, mind and soul through our connectedness to Him. All physical healing is only partial and provisional in this life. Total healing comes only at the Last Day with the elimination of all evil and with the resurrection of the body.

By first forgiving the sins of the paralytic person let down through a hole in the roof, our Lord demonstrates that He’s concerned about more than physical good or ill health. His fantastic bestowal of forgiveness heals our consciences and frees us from the debilitating effects of guilt. His eagerness to free us from anxieties and cares of this world shows His deep interest in our emotional health and well-being. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you – you of little faith? (Matthew 6:25-30).”

Peace of heart and mind is His will for us. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid (John 14:27).”

As we look around us in today’s world, we see tortured minds and restless souls who are not at peace within, but who hurt inside. Our Lord invites those in mental or physical agony, those weighed down with heavier loads than they can carry, to come to Him for relief and release. “Come to Me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)” In Jesus’ time, there were many tortured souls, souls afflicted by unclean spirits, for whom our Lord showed a compassionate concern.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus and His twelve disciples cross the Lake of Galilee at great risk to their lives, during a terrible storm, in order to heal one demented outcast. Frequently, Jesus interrupts whatever He’s doing to help those in greatest need around Him. The great men and women of our world today are super-busy folk.  We get the impression that they have little time to spare for interruptions and the unexpected. Not so our Lord! On His way to Jerusalem to complete His mission of our salvation, Jesus stopped. He stopped in order to help and heal a blind beggar. “Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, He is calling you.’ (Mark 10:49).”

In the demon-possessed man in this story, we see the destructive and degrading power of evil. Evil is the perversion of something that’s good – in this case, the perversion of one of God’s good creations, created in His image. Evil perverts what’s good in a self-destructive and menacing manner. Since the Son of God has become one of us, the forces of evil have also tried to “incarnate” themselves in human beings. Even today, we see the terrible destruction of good lives by the demons of addiction. We see the devastation caused by addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, petrol-sniffing and so on. Our doctors and professional carers and counsellors are our Lord’s allies in helping people handle and overcome these addictions.

Pessimists might say: “You can’t change human nature.” But our Lord can, and has done so. The New Testament is rich with stories of people’s lives changed by our Lord Jesus. The tormented person in today’s text has been ejected from his home. His rejection by his family must have only added to his agony. The name he refers to himself as, “Legion”, a military term, suggests the terrible battle within himself, the battle between his heart and his soul.  He is known as “Legion” because he has been defeated by an army of destructive thoughts and harmful intentions.

The alien voice within the man asks “What do You want with me, Jesus?” He doesn’t want Jesus to disrupt the status quo. Sadly, we still see people who don’t want our Lord to upset their routines. There are folk locked in their addictions, trapped in the past, not letting our Lord liberate them and give them a brighter future. It’s cause for immense rejoicing when we see someone’s life totally transformed by Jesus. The Gospels picture how Jesus is surrounded with the feeblest of people – those paralysed, the handicapped and disabled, lepers and the lame – because they have no one else to turn to. Jesus has come to help the helpless. Our Lord helps those who cannot help themselves.

So much of His healing ministry occurs behind the scenes, as our Lord respects people’s need for privacy. Our divine Physician adopts a low profile to make it easier for the battered and the bruised, sufferers and invalids in His community to come to Him. The weaker a person’s faith, the easier Jesus makes it for the needy person to believe in Him. Jesus made it easier for all of us to believe in Him and His power to help us, by becoming one of us.

After Jesus healed this deranged individual, we learn that he sits at Jesus’ feet, being taught by our Lord, and is “in his right mind”. What a beautiful outcome! Our Lord’s healing of people has a greater purpose than simply the relief of suffering. He heals people so that their relationships with their families and friends can be restored. That’s why Jesus says to the healed man “Return home and tell how much God has done for you (v.19).”

Today’s Gospel has a message of hope for those for whom every day is a battle with depression, haunting anxieties, compulsive behaviours and fears of the future. What Jesus is doing in your life right now has everything to do with a better future for you. Never forget Romans 8:28 – “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”  Display this message prominently in your home as a constant reminder of God’s design for your life. Jesus responds to your prayers for your own health and for the better health of your loved ones according to His loving wisdom, with either relief, with the gift of courage and endurance, or by giving you renewed hope.

St. Paul learned that he was more effective for God with his handicap (his “thorn in the flesh”) than he was without it. The Greek Orthodox Church calls the handicapped “the holy ones”, because they remind all of us of our need for God and of our own limitations. Wisdom is to know your limitations and to live within them with the help of our Lord. His unconditional love for each of us is the greatest of miracles. It’s a further amazing miracle that so many people believe that Jesus can really make a difference in their lives, and help them in a way no one else can.

To believe in prayer is to believe in miracles. Martin Luther says “Faith is prayer and nothing but prayer.” We cannot be whole without prayer. Our Lord comes to us with His healing power in our worship. In Holy Communion, He continues His healing ministry among us. What’s why, after receiving Holy Communion, we thank God for “this healing gift”. “We must … regard this sacrament … as a pure, wholesome medicine which aids and is life-giving in both soul and body. For when the soul is healed the body has benefited also (The Large Catechism).” Thank the Lord for that!

One of our hymns says it well:

At evening when the sun had set,
the sick, O Lord, around You lay:
in what distress and pain they met,
but in what joy they went away!

Your touch has still its ancient power,
no word from You can fruitless fall:
meet with us in this evening hour
and in Your mercy heal us all!

Amen.

Pentecost 27
John 15:18 – 16:4

When I was 10 years old, at the start of Year five, a new boy moved to our school and was put in my class. I knew his name but had not met him or talked to him. The second week of school he confronted me on the playground. ‘I hate you,’ he said. ‘You are my enemy and you’d better watch your back.’

Well, to say the least I was taken aback and a little upset. And the strangest thing was that I’d never met him before or spoken with him. He knew nothing about me.

I went home and told my mum what had happened. She was certain that I must have insulted him somehow … said or did something. But there was nothing. ‘You have to ask him,’ she said. ‘Then you can apologise for whatever he thinks you did.’

‘So I asked him the next day if I had said or done something to make him upset.’

‘I just hate you,’ he said, ‘and I’m gonna get you.’ Then he walked off.

Apparently he was of the belief that he needed an enemy. Someone he could hate and blame all his problems on. And I was the one. There was no reason to it. And no way to convince him that I was not his enemy.

It was my first glimpse into real hatred. It is not rational and cannot be reasoned with.

Sadly, we have experienced all too many examples of hatred in recent months that many of us have found hard to fathom. In the recent US election campaign we found extreme elements on both sides convinced that the other was evil. My own family in the US is considering whether they should cancel Thanksgiving meal because of the animosity on both sides. And then there is the centuries old hatred spewing out of the Middle East in which both sides are convinced that there is one version of events, one version of history, and one side that is justified in hating the other. Many of those who have sought to mediate an end to hostilities have given up in frustration as neither side is willing to negotiate.

John in his Gospel, is much more interested in love than hatred. He talks of the love of the Father for the son, of the Son for the Father, and of the Father and the Son for those who believe in the Son. John speaks of the love that those who follow Jesus have for one another. And in the text immediately preceding today’s text we hear of the greatest love that anyone can have, for Jesus to lay down his life for others. And he tells his disciples that he has given them a new commandment, that they should love one another.

Jesus says all these things as part of his farewell speech to his disciples at the Last Supper. He said these things to prepare them and to comfort them.

But then the tone shifts dramatically. In today’s text we find a departure from this recurring theme of love in John’s Gospel. In today’s text we find Jesus warning his disciples that they will be hated, just as Jesus himself is hated. Jesus warns his disciples that a time is coming when people will hate them and seek to kill them. And they will do this simply because they bear the name of Jesus. ‘People hate me,’ Jesus said, ‘because they do not know the Father. And thus they also hate the Father, and will hate you.’

But why would Jesus be hated? After all, he proclaimed the love of God and the forgiveness of sins. He healed the sick. He stood up for the poor and oppressed. Why would anyone hate Jesus?

Jesus says that it was to fulfil the words of scripture, ‘They hated me without cause.’  He is referring to Psalm 69:4.

‘More in number than the hairs of my head

Are those who hate me without cause;

Many are those who would destroy me,

My enemies who accuse me falsely.

What I did not steal, must I now restore?’

And here we find a great truth about hatred. It is like the hatred I experienced from the boy in Year Five, or the hatred we often see behind those from different political camps or ethnic groups. In its truest and purest form, hate has no rational cause. We might seek some reason for it. We might be convinced that if only we could find the reason for the hatred we could bring it to an end. But true hate is beyond reason. That is the point of this Psalm of David that Jesus refers to. Hatred has no cause. It adheres to no reason.

We often use the word ‘hate’ loosely. We hate a certain movie or song. We hate days that are too cold or too hot. ‘I hate the weather,’ or ‘I hate it when the garbage collection is late’ we say casually. But when we encounter genuine hatred we find that it is something very different to dislike.

Those consumed by hatred have been so blinded by hate that they are willing to believe anything bad they hear about ‘the other’ and reject anything they hear that might seem positive.

That is the sad nature of hatred.

And no one experienced it more fully or unjustly than Jesus.

And on the eve of his arrest he reminds the disciples that as his followers they can expect the same hatred.

But it is not them. It is nothing personal. And it defies all reason. It is simply because they bear the name of Jesus, who also was hated without reason.

But why does Jesus tell his disciples this?

Again, just as was the case in his preceding words, when he talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit and about love, Jesus tells his disciples these things to bring them comfort.

Not exactly the words of comfort anyone would like to hear. People will hate you for no good reason and will seek to kill you. How does that bring comfort, we might wonder?

Jesus tells his disciples, and all of us who bear his name, that there will be those who will hate us simply for being followers of Jesus. But when this happens we are to remember that Jesus was hated too. We are to remember that that following Jesus will cost something.

And most importantly, we are to remember that we are not alone. Jesus has sent his Spirit to be with us. When we feel completely alone, hated for no reason, The Spirit is with us and will give us the strength and words to speak.

Jesus calls all who follow him to love each other, just as he has loved us. But he does not promise that everyone will love us. He goes out of his way, in fact, to warn us that we will at times experience quite the opposite, just for because we follow him.

But Jesus wants us to know that when this happens, it is a reminder that we are his. If we were not his and he did not love us, then we would not be hated for following him. And he wants us also to know that we are not alone. That he has sent his Spirit to stand with us and guide us and comfort us in such times.

But still, we ask, there must be some reason for such hatred. There must be some cause that can be addressed.

In fact, even though Jesus tells us that he (and by extension we) are hated without cause, he does provide an explanation. ‘They hate me,’ he says, ‘and they hate you because they do not know the Father. They do not know the one who sent me’ (verses 15:21 and 16:3).

And here is not only a clue as to the nature and cause of this hatred, but also an indication of how we might address it.

Hatred originates not in any reason or logic, but our of lack of knowledge. The first persecutors of the early followers of Jesus were the Jewish authorities. They thought they were doing a righteous service to God (16:20). But in fact, they do not know God.

One of these, you may recall, was a young hothead named Saul, from Tarsus. He stopped persecuting the followers of Jesus only when he himself met Jesus – when he learned to know who God truly was. In fact, he not only stopped persecuting Christians, but he changed his name to Paul and became one of the greatest advocates for the cause of Jesus.

So we will indeed encounter people who hate Jesus and hate those of us who follow him for no clear reason. They might see us as their enemy, even. But that does not make them our enemy. It does not mean that we, in turn, should hate them.

Because knowledge can bring an end to hatred. And a knowledge of Jesus, that is, knowing not just who Jesus is, but knowing Jesus a friend, dissolves all hatred.

So it when confronted by senseless hatred. Especially when it is directed at us simply for following Jesus, pray for that person or those people. Speak the words that the Spirit gives us to tell them who Jesus is. That is what Jesus asks us to do in this text.

They may not listen. But then again, neither did Saul of Tarsus, and neither did most of us – until we did. Until we ourselves came to know Jesus and his love, we too were caught up in a world of unreasoned hate.

But in Jesus, we have become bound up in his world of transforming love that overcomes all hatreds.

Amen.

Pastor Mark Worthing.

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

The verses we will focus on today is from John 12:44-46 – And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. ⁴⁵And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.⁴⁶ I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Have you ever noticed that politicians seem to repeat themselves?  They say the same thing over and over again. One well-known line is “let’s make it great again.” Whatever ‘it’ might be.  There is a perception that to form a good habit you need to repeat it for 21 days.[1] 21 days on that new diet, giving up alcohol or even coffee. Unfortunately, a recent study by the University of Chicago found that there is no magic number.[2] That 21 days of repetition is now much longer.

I don’t know about you, but when I read the gospel reading from John today, I shook my head.  I thought, haven’t we heard all this before?  What’s with all the repetition? Why is John going over the same stuff thing again and again? Isn’t there something new, fresh and exciting he could be telling us? However, what might seem unusual on first read is quite purposeful.  John is reminding us of God’s grace and mercy on repeat. Maybe he knows about the study from the University of Chicago.

The reading today opens with Jesus departing to an unknown location.  This doesn’t make sense until we look at the prior chapter (see verses 35-36) where Jesus tells the crowd that he will be here for a little while longer. In the last two verses of the previous chapter, Jesus uses “light” and “darkness” 8 times. Jesus is telling the crowd about his impending death which ultimately leads to God’s grace and mercy on repeat for us. When he will turn “darkness” into “light.”

Commentators divide today’s reading into two main areas.

• Verses 37-43, with focus on “blind unbelief,” and the question of “Who has believed?”[3],[4]
• And verses 44-50, which is about the “divine sending” with an “inescapable judgement.” [5],[6]

One commentator calls this chapter the “Epilogue of Jesus’ Ministry.”[7] It’s interesting to look at the meaning of the word “epilogue” which is the end that serves as the conclusion to what has happened.[8]  Appropriate really, given this is the last time Jesus speaks publicly before he hides himself away, before his persecution and death.

You may recall last week Pastor Mark focused on the blind man receiving sight (see John 9:1-12).  Where Jesus calls out:

• the “night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). The forecast of darkness.
• And we hear an “I am” statement of Jesus being the “light of the world” (John 9:5).

But the Pharisees and the people closest to the blind man didn’t see, nor did they believe. Jesus goes on to tell them that they remain blind, and in sin. The people remained bound by their lack of faith.  This is a similar message to the crowd in John’s gospel.  Despite Jesus performing not just a sign, not a few signs, but “so many signs, they did not believe in him” (v37).  They were stranded in their unbelief.

This makes me wonder, with so many signs repeated by Jesus, why didn’t they believe?  Why didn’t they get the message?  Well, John tells us.  It was to fulfil what the prophet Isaiah said. John retells Isaiah 53:1 by asking, “Who has believed our message…?” And the answer is, no one. Jesus is rejected by the crowd. A rejection that plays out over and over in John’s recount. And plays out in the world around us today.

Then John takes us to Isaiah 6:10, where we are reminded of people’s calloused hearts, dull ears and closed eyes. Where seeing and hearing, are linked with the act of believing and following God.[9]  This repetition is to remind the people that they have heard this before.  It is a familiar story.  It has been shared from generation to generation.  Repeated, over and over.  They should have remembered.  But they didn’t.

This is where John shifts things a little. After repeating a section of Isaiah 6:10, John shares that God “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts …”(v40). What? God hardened their hearts, and they couldn’t hear the good news that Jesus was sharing. That seems harsh, doesn’t it? I thought the whole point of Jesus being there was to bring the message to them. And now they can’t hear it. This doesn’t sound like our God.

Moving to verse 42, we are told that “at the same time MANY even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.” They did not believe because they were scared of what other people might think.  They valued the opinions of others and their position in the synagogue over professing their faith. They placed their value in human wealth over eternal glory.[10] Their nature of unbelief, sown by Adam and Eve, rooted deep within their hearts.[11] 

I don’t know about you, but this again seems familiar.  A repetition of what we’ve heard before in Exodus. We can recall Moses and Aaron begging Pharoah to let the Israelites go. We are reminded of how Pharoah hardened his heart. How God brought devastation. And we see it repeat, over and over until they are set free. Until God’s grace and mercy shines through.  We learn that placing value on worldly things, such as position, power, and image, as Pharoh did, ultimately leads to death.

So, is God in the business of hardening our hearts?  Of closing our ears so we won’t hear the good news of Jesus our saviour. The answer is a resounding no. As John reminds us in verse 43 “for [the crowd] loved human praise more than praise from God.” They loved earthly things which they freely chose over God. God allows and we freely choose. We succumb to the desires deep in our hearts. We desire the ‘more,’ which shines and makes us stand out. These things ultimately blacken our hearts and draw us away from God. Just like the people in today’s text, our free will condemns us to death.

And what is the response of God?  His response follows in verse 44-50.  Jesus was sent down to Earth as a divine sacrifice.[12] Jesus is sent as the sacrificial lamb and faces an “inescapable judgment.”[13] God places his mercy and grace on repeat.  Why? For you. For me. To set us free from the bondage of our sin. To shine a light on the path to eternal life.

Listen. You can hear Jesus cry out from today’s text:

• I have come for you.
• I have come to save you.
• I haven’t come to judge you.
• I have come to lead you to eternal life.
• I have come to be a lamp on your feet and a light on your path (see Psalm 119:105).

He cries out for us to see and hear. To listen to what he is saying. Yet we don’t listen, and we don’t see.

Today we have the benefit of knowing what happens in the story of Jesus Christ. John is foreshadowing what is to come. That the Messiah, the “suffering servant” is here. Taking our sinful nature upon himself and shouldering the pain of rejection to the cross. Where he nails it there.  Where it is no longer remembered and no longer a burden. It is in this moment we find hope in Jesus’ redemptive love.  Where God places his mercy and grace on repeat.

And how good is this hope?  That we know the truth. That amongst all the darkness in Gethsemane there is light. An eternal light. And everything points to God.

Yes, we repeatedly fail in life. Each week we come to church seeking forgiveness. Each week we are showered with the blood of Christ and washed clean. We say we won’t do it again.  Seconds later we walk out the door and mess it all up.  We head out into the world and fall to our sinful nature.  To the gossip, lies, or maybe something else. We try to justify it by saying ‘it was only a little white lie,’ or ‘no one was going use it.’ But we can’t justify it.  For in God’s sight, they are all equal.

Luther struggled with the same thing. Often, he spent hours confessing the smallest of sins. Some may say trivial, but not to Luther. He wanted to be sure that nothing separated him from God’s grace. On one occasion he received absolution and no sooner did he walk away and was overcome with the feeling of pride. He fell into sin. He failed.[14] And so Luther repeated the cry of forgiveness.  And God met him with grace and mercy, on repeat.

God knows how messy our lives are. He knows that we are broken, and we will fail. He knows we will reject him. And despite the rejection, ridicule and disbelief, he still reaches out the hand of grace to his creation. Our loving God is as close as our next breath. He has never left us. And when we turn away, he draws in closer. He says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20). God’s awesome grace and mercy, always on repeat.

Amen.

Let us pray. Lord God, our heavenly Father. Thank you for your repetitive grace and mercy.  May we be encouraged to extend grace and mercy to those around us.  Amen.

Garth Schultz.

References

Barclay, William. The Gospel of John : Chapters 8-21. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975.

Beasley-Murray, George R. John, Volume 36. Zondervan Academic, 2018.

Clavin, Whitney. “No Magic Number for Time It Takes to Form Habits.” California Institute of Technology, 17 April 2023. https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/no-magic-number-for-time-it-takes-to-form-habits.

Crossway Bibles. ESV: Study Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Ford, David F. The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021.

Solis-Moreira, Jocelyn. “How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit?” Scientific American, 24 January 2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-does-it-really-take-to-form-a-habit/.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. “Lutheran Theology of the Reformation | Teaching the Faith.” Lutheran Reformation, 2024. https://lutheranreformation.org/theology/.

University, Cambridge. “Epilogue.” Dictionary.cambridge.org, 2024. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/epilogue.

Worthing, Mark. Martin Luther: A Wild Boar in the Lord’s Vineyard. Northcote, Vic: Morning Star Publishing, 2017.

[1] Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, “How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit?,” Scientific American, 24 January 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-does-it-really-take-to-form-a-habit/.

[2] Whitney Clavin, “No Magic Number for Time It Takes to Form Habits,” California Institute of Technology, 17 April 2023, https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/no-magic-number-for-time-it-takes-to-form-habits.

[3] William Barclay, The Gospel of John: Chapters 8-21 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 131-133.

[4] David F. Ford, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 246.

[5] Barclay, The Gospel of John, 134-136

[6] Ford, The Gospel of John, 248.

[7] George R Beasley-Murray, John, Volume 36 (Zondervan Academic, 2018), 215.

[8] Cambridge University, “Epilogue,” Dictionary.cambridge.org, 2024, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/epilogue.

[9]  Ford, The Gospel of John, 248-250.

[10] Ford, The Gospel of John, 248.

[11] Barclay, The Gospel of John, 133.

[12] Barclay, The Gospel of John, 134-136.

[13] Ford, The Gospel of John, 248.

[14]Mark Worthing, Martin Luther: A Wild Boar in the Lord’s Vineyard (Northcote, Vic: Morning Star Publishing, 2017), 27.

Pentecost 21
John 9:13-41 ‘’

When I was in my final year of undergraduate studies at university I volunteered to read books onto audio cassettes for the blind. Because I was a religious studies student, I was assigned an unusual reading partner. A large African American man in his early thirties named Keith, though everyone called him ‘Bear’. Bear had a passion for reading the theological works of the 17^th century English Puritans. For some odd reason, almost none of these were on audio for the blind. So I would read from the treatises and commentaries of John Owen, Richard Baxter, Thomas Brooks and others that most people had never heard of. I would record hours or reading onto audio cassettes and then drop them off to Bear. He would listen to them, then arrange to meet up afterward to discuss them.

For a man born blind, Bear got around remarkably well. He would often take a taxi to our apartment, then find his own way up. Sometimes we would meet there. Other times we would head out to a nearby café.

Bear was very good at being blind. He was expert at pretending not to see and notice things. When a waitress at a café once asked him what it was like being a black man in largely white town he acted puzzled. ‘What is black?’ he asked, explaining that he could not see so had no conception of colour. He made the poor girl explain the entire concept of race to him, asking one question after another, curious to find out what this concept of ‘black’ meant and why it was important. In the end, the girl admitted that it probably really didn’t matter. He let the girl get back to her work. ‘I think she learned some things today,’ Bear observed. ‘I think that conversation could be a turning point for her. She is seeing things differently now.’

And so I learned that just because a person is blind, does not mean they cannot see. It does not mean they have little insight or understanding of what is going on around them. In fact, quite the opposite is often the case. Those who are blind or deaf often have very heightened senses in other areas and are able to pick up on many things that most of us simply do not notice.

The blind man in today’s story was like that. When I read of him, I think of my old friend Bear. Because the man was blind and sat most days collecting alms so he could survive, people underestimated him. The Pharisees certainly did. They soon found out just how much this man had been seeing and observing during his life of blindness.

In fact, the first thing we notice about the man born blind is that he trusts Jesus, even though he knows little about him apart from what he might have heard from the conversations of those passing by. When Jesus takes the rather unusual step of spitting on the ground and rubbing the mud and spittle into the man’s eyes, he does not protest. When Jesus asks him to make his way to the pool of Siloam and wash his eyes, he again does not protest, but obediently makes his way to the pool. Was that faith? Trust? Was it something in Jesus’ voice, or what he had heard about Jesus?

Whatever the reason, the man did what Jesus asked, without any explicit promise from Jesus that he would be healed if he did this. But healed he was. The blind man washed his eyes, and for the first time in his life, he saw. Things he had only ever imagined, colours and shapes, things in the distance – and people. He could see them all. In great excitement he returned to his friends.

He could hardly wait to show them that he could not see. But they are in disbelief. They think it is merely someone who looks like him, and he has to convince them it is him.

Then he is taken to the temple and the Pharisees, as was the custom when a miracle is being claimed. It needed to be officially verified.

The man patiently explained exactly what Jesus did. He would have been very much aware that the treatment with spittle, the making of clay and the ordering of him to walk more than he was allowed on the Sabbath were all serious Sabbath violations in the eyes of the Pharisees. But he explains it all as if there is no problem. Afterall, the main point is that he was blind and now he can see.

The Pharisees then want to know what the man has to say about the one who healed him. His answer is careful. ‘He is a prophet,’ he says.

The Pharisees were hoping the man would condemn Jesus as a sinner for working on the Sabbath. Frustrated, they try another tack. They bring in the man’s parents hoping to find he is not their son or that was not born blind. This would solve their problem. If the parents, perhaps out of fear, fail to clearly identify their son, or fail to affirm that he was born blind, then there is no miracle.

But the parents affirm that the man is their son and was born blind. Then they pass the matter back over to their son. He is of age, they insist. Ask him what happened.

The Pharisees call the man back in. He continues to play dumb – which they quite happily accept.

‘Why do you want to know all this again?’ he asks innocently. ‘Do you want to become Jesus’ disciples?’

They are offended and go off on a rant about the man and about them being the disciples of Moses. They point out that Moses they know, but they know nothing about this man Jesus.

They have said enough. The man stops pretending to be dumb as well as having been blind. He springs his trap and lets them have it.

‘Imagine that,’ he says, with sudden confidence. ‘The first person to open the eyes of a blind man in the history of the world, and you have no idea who is he or where he comes from.’

‘We know,’ they retort, ‘that God does not listen to sinners.’

‘But,’ says the man who was born blind, ‘if this man were not from God he could do nothing.’

And on this point he had them. This was their own theology thrown back at them. Only by the power of God could someone do such a deed. And they have just declared Jesus a sinner. So, completely out of arguments, and bested by a man born blind who they had not taken seriously, they did the only thing they could – they threw the man out of the temple.

And that’s when Jesus reappears in the story. For a miracle story about Jesus, the longest miracle story in the Gospels, Jesus has been missing since verse 7. Now, 28 verses later, after the man’s healing, his meeting with his friends, and his various interviews with the Pharisees in the temple, Jesus reappears in the story. But even though physically absent. Jesus has always been at the centre of this story. The debate with the Pharisess, like the previous chapters of John’s Gospel, have been all about the identity of Jesus.

Jesus heard that the Pharisees had thrown the man out to the temple and so he finds him.

And now Jesus brings out the real point of this story. Jesus asks the man if he believes in the Son of Man, which is a term used to refer the Messiah.

‘Tell me who he is,’ says the man, ‘and I will believe in him.’

Jesus says, ‘You have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you now.’

Jesus has chosen his words carefully. It is the first time the man has seen Jesus. Jesus was not present when he opened his eyes. But the man knew his voice. And now he has seen Jesus. And Jesus tells the man that it is the Messiah he has seen.

And here we see genuine spiritual sight. The man does not ask any questions. He does not require any further proof. He recognises Jesus not just as the Messiah but as God in flesh. He calls him Lord, confesses belief in him, and worships him.

Jesus commends the man for his spiritual sight, pointing out how much he truly sees even though he has been blind up until that day. Jesus contrasts this with those who claim to be able to see, but cannot see who Jesus is.

Some Pharisees, who likely followed the man who had been healed of blindness out of the temple, interrupt. ‘Surely,’ they ask Jesus, ‘You are not talking about us?’

And the fact that they ask this question indicated that they knew very well that Jesus was talking about them.

It would be better, Jesus told them, if you were indeed blind. But because you claim to be able to see, because you claim to know all about the Messiah from scripture, you have no excuse.

Genuine sight, the sight that matters, Jesus points out, is not about seeing shapes and colours and sunsets – as nice and beautiful as these are. It is about seeing God among us. It is spiritual sight that this story is ultimately about.

So the question for us is this: Do we see Jesus? Do we really see him? Do we see him for who he is? Do we God in flesh, who has come to live among us and to offer us light and life?

Amen.Pastor Mark Worthing.

The conversation between Jesus, the rich man, and the disciples regarding salvation or eternal life has a connection to the truth of Martin Luther’s words in his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

Therefore, whoever knows well how to distinguish the Gospel from the Law should give thanks to God and know that he is a real theologian (Luther LW Vol 26 p115.)

 What Luther is saying is that, one way or another we are all theologians, we all have views about ourselves, the world and God. These ideas come from various sources, including importantly the culture in which we live and our upbring, our parents or those closet to us. These form the basis of our deep assumptions about our relationship, or non-relationship, to whatever we identify as God. But what distinguishes true theology from fake theology is the knowledge it gives us of the difference between God’s Law and God’s Gospel. This ability consists in, what Luther calls, the right use of the Law and the Gospel.

God’s Law confronts us with God’s commands. It constantly reminded us just how far we are from knowing and loving God. It tells us that in fact we hate God, we would rather be free of God’s commands and be the judges of what is good and evil for ourselves, as is recorded in Chp 3 of the book of Genesis. How very post-modern is that!

The Gospel on the other hand is God’s Word of free forgiveness in Christ, the covering of our waywardness and hatred of God by God’s gift of Christ’s righteousness, whereby we are set free from being haters of God’s law to embracing his will for us; in this we express our thanks and love of God for His grace toward us in Christ by serving our neighbour. Our obedience to God expressing our thanks and love is our action toward our neighbour

In the scriptures from Genesis to the Gospel of St Mark read today, we see how the difference and unity between the Law and the Gospel has a very drastic effect if they are not understood or rejected.

In the garden of Eden man (Adam/Adamah means ‘earth’ from which God created man) Adam is put amid a flourishing garden planted with all manner of edible fruits which are there for his benefit and sustenance. There is however one important proviso or exception. He must not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says, if you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on that day, “you will surely die”. So, the fruit of this tree has fatal consequences if it is eaten. Thus, God’s command to avoid the fruit of this tree is a prohibition to safeguard and protect the Adam’s life. God’s command is life giving and life preserving. In this command God’s protective hand is stretched out over Adam. God will is obviously to protect what God has created from death, as separation and abandonment by God. God’s command therefore, concerning this tree, is a powerful promise of life and health for Adam in the garden before God.

The threat posed by the fruit of the tree, which man is forbidden to eat, is that God knows that once eaten, humans will have their eyes opened and they will have the knowledge of good and evil. For Adam this is the fatal threat that this tree poses. It promises the knowledge of good and evil. Once man has this knowledge God cannot stop the fatal consequences flowing from the decision to eat this fruit. But once the fatal step is taken Adam will become himself like God. He will possess in the knowledge of good and evil that which distinguishes the Creator from the creature. God’s act of creation consists in the establishment of that which is not God within the limits of creaturely being, creaturely being is created being. As distinct from God this limitation of the creature as created is what being a creature means, being part of the good creation that the Lord God makes and loves. God knows the creation in its earthly reality as created, limited, it is not divine, it has boundaries set by God and which God declares to be ‘good’ indeed ‘very good’.

In transgressing the commandment that is meant to save and secure the creaturely life of the creature, Adam becomes the possessor of divine knowledge; Adam become as the Bible puts it “like God knowing good and evil”. Adam wills to reject this limitation. He thus condemns himself to death, to become separated from God, ceasing to be the creature God created and becoming like God knowing good and evil and thus forever burdened with the guilt of his disobedience. Being burdened with a conscience, knowledge he should not have but which we all have.

But such knowledge, once attained, cannot become unknown. Man is burdened with it and it becomes the seed of his destruction as the creature God has made from the dust of the earth. For the creature makes the impossible attempt to be like God and therefore rejects the gracious life preserving truth of God’s command regarding the tree of knowledge. In seeking and achieving this knowledge Adam hates the limit of his creaturely being and life as the one whom God has created and wills to relate to in life preserving love. Adam insanely, instead seeks to be equal with God; man grasps the impossible possibility for a creature of being “like God”. Adam thus embraces his own death as a creature in his rejection of God’s good command to “not eat of the fruit tree of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Instead of allowing God to be God and rejoicing in the promised goodness of God’s commandment towards him that wills to preserve life; Adam and all his subsequent generations hurtle headlong to destruction in hatred of God’s commandment. For Adam then, God’s command is at one and the same time life giving and death dealing. It is both Gospel and Law. In turning now to the New Testament, we come to see how Jesus’ action enlightens this dark mystery of human life before God after Adam; his rejection of God’s life-giving commandment.

In the holy gospel reading, St Mark 10, we are presented with the difference between those who are obedient and those who are disobedient to the Law as understood by Jesus, who in Himself, for our sake fulfils all the law of God not for His own sake but for ours. He assumes Adam’s flesh from Mary His mother and puts himself in the place of sinful Adam. In this conversation with the rich man, He answers once and for all of Adams descendants who is in and who is out of the kingdom of Christ. It has two main sections: one dealing negatively with the disobedience of the rich man and the other positively dealing with the nature of the disciple’s obedience.

We shall begin by trying to see the difference by looking at the second section first: meaning of obedience of the disciples. They ask Jesus, “Who can be saved”, for they are “astounded” and “amazed” at Jesus saying that it “is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than that rich man should enter the kingdom of God”. When the rich man seeking eternal life says he has kept the commandments turns away from Jesus when confronted with the meaning of God’s commandments.

Contrary to the rich man who departs and goes away from Jesus. The saying of Peter in v.28., is not contradicted Jesus. That they indeed, the disciples, have left all and followed Jesus. They have done in fact what the rich man could not do. But to their amazement Jesus does not then say that therefore they inherit eternal life, as opposed to the rich man. But surely, we may think, Jesus is over emphasising the situation of human beings before God. Haven’t the disciples done precisely what the rich man was unable to do and in so doing, leaving all and following Jesus, haven’t they by doing this shown that entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven is after all not a human impossibility.

But Jesus words in v.27 puts an end to this illusion. For Jesus says, that even they, the disciples, the seemingly obedient ones, should enter the Kingdom of Heaven is an impossibility: for men. So, Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ urgent question, “Who can be saved” is effectively – ‘No one’ can, ‘Nobody can be saved’. The disciples, standing as they do witness the disobedience of the rich man, they are forced by Jesus words to see themselves as standing on a par with the rich man when it comes to reckoning up “Who can be saved”. They are forced to see that their only hope, as it is also the hope of the rich man, that with God, “all things are possible”, and therefore even their salvation as well is possible. For this possibility of God is standing before both the disciples and the rich man in the person of Jesus, who as God’s Son is identified in his flesh with the godforsakenness of the human condition. He is God’s possibility which excludes both the rich man as well as disciples from salvation in terms of what they have done or not done: for He is in Himself not simply the divine possibility of salvation He is its actuality, the One the only One who fulfils the Law by obedience to death before God and at the same time by doing this demonstrates His unswerving love of God His Father and so fulfilling for our sake the judgement of God on all sinners and in His resurrection being justified for our sake. 

Even though it is true of the rich man that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of as needle than that he should enter the Kingdom of Heaven, this is also true of the disciples: those who have done what the rich man seemingly could and would not do. From the point of view of their own ability the disciples too lack precisely the same thing as the rich man. This is the discovery they are forced to make when, according to the text, they exclaim, “Who then can be saved!” The judgment of Jesus on the rich man, the affirmation by Jesus of the one thing necessary applies no less to the disciples.

These words of Jesus compel the disciples to see the disobedient in an entirely new light. Jesus’ harsh words directed at the rich man and indirectly to them as well, who have left all and followed Him, that they indeed are included in Jesus saying, “With men it is impossible”. With these words Jesus binds the disciples in complete solidarity with the disobedient rich man. In Jesus encounter with the rich man and in the consequent discussion the disciples are confronted with the yawning abyss of their own disobedience, the impossibility of their salvation apart from the actuality God’s grace present for them in Jesus. The presence of God’s grace in Jesus at one and the same time excludes, judges, both the rich man AND the disciples in order that those who enter the kingdom, enter only because of the gift of grace present in Jesus. Who can be saved? Nobody can be saved, the affirmation of the one thing necessary for the rich man applies no less to the disciples.

What is it then that distinguishes the disciples of Jesus from the rich man, the disobedient. The difference does not consist in their obedience, what they have done in following Jesus as opposed to the rich man’s disobedience. What distinguishes the disciples from the rich man is not who and what they are but who and what Jesus will to be for them in His call of them. In their following Jesus, their being with Him, they testify to the possibility of grace, the fact that with God, “all things are possible” and that this includes their obedience as they remain attached to Jesus who is their righteousness by grace alone, by His call of them to be with Him. They remain disciples only in so far as they continue to acknowledge this mystery to be the basis of their existence. For the conversation between Jesus and the disciples ends with the cryptic saying, “many that are first shall be last, and the last first”.

But this gift of grace present in Jesus was there not only for the disciples it was there for the rich man as well. The gospel writer adds these critical words in the context of Jesus conversation with the rich man: “Jesus”, it says, “looked upon him and loved him”. When Jesus goes on to tell him what he lacks, the freedom from his riches, he does so in order that he, the rich man, may see that Jesus is there specifically for him. Jesus’ call of the rich man to follow him and forsake his riches shows us, as in Genesis, that the command of God is life preserving and grounded in God’s love. It is that rich man, may give up what he has chosen as giving his life meaning and value, his possessions and instead receive the gift of God’s grace as that which gives his life enduring meaning. Within the hard shell of the commandment that Jesus gives the rich man is the life preserving love of Christ which he chooses not to receive. Just as in the Garden in Genesis Adam rejected the life preserving loving commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by rejecting the creaturely limitation of his life and willing to be like God and be the judge of his own destiny.

But for who else is Jesus on the way to Gethsemane and Golgotha, none other than those who are enslaved by all that negates true human life. Jesus hard words to the rich man, the demand that he lays upon him and which causes him to turn away, this hard demand is in order that the rich man may be set free to allow himself to be loved by Jesus. This was and is purpose of the command of the law which the rich man could recite so well but did not know. The rich man can certainly reject what Jesus wills to be for him and he does so. But his actions cannot negate or overthrow the Kingdom of Christ, the fact, so poignantly stated by the gospel writer, that Jesus “looked upon him and loved him”, loved specifically him with his hard and rebellious heart.

For in Jesus God himself has taken to himself our godforsaken humanity as, condemned by the law, children of Adam, and has become the One, who as the risen crucified One promises to us the wonderful gift of His renewed transformed human life in His Word and Sacrament. Here by these means Jesus both accompanies and sustains us until our earthly journey ends in its fulfillment in Him: through death and resurrection.

Dr. Gordon Watson.