Text: Luke 26-39
As Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a man from the town who had demons in him. For a long time this man had gone without clothes and would not stay at home, but spent his time in the burial caves. When he saw Jesus, he gave a loud cry, threw himself down at his feet, and shouted, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me? I beg you, don’t punish me!” He said this because Jesus had ordered the evil spirit to go out of him (verses 27-29a)

Two 6 year olds struggled with the problem of the existence of the devil.
One boy said, “Oh, there isn’t any devil.”
The other, rather upset, said, “What do you mean, there isn’t any devil? It talks about him all the way through the Bible!”
The first replied, “Oh that’s not true, you know. It’s just like Santa Claus, it’s only dad.”

How do you picture Satan? When you think of the devil, do you think of him with horns, a goatee beard, a devilish grin, a pointed tail and a pitch fork? I think that the devil would be quite happy being portrayed like this. He would be easy to pick out in a crowd and so easy to avoid. There would be no chance of the devil sneaking up and catching us unprepared. We would be able to see him coming a mile away.

The Bible doesn’t picture Satan as being like this at all? Someone once wrote, “If I were an artist illustrating the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil, I would draw Satan as a very pleasant-looking person … so nice that it would be difficult to tell which was Satan and which was Jesus in the picture”. This person is saying that the devil comes in disguise. When he tempts, he does it in such a way that you don’t even know you’re being tempted.

But hey, wait a minute! We are living in the 21^st century. All this talk about the devil and demons was all right for the people back then in Jesus time and even people in 15^th & 16^th centuries, but we have come along way since those times. We joke about the devil, but we don’t take him seriously. Besides what was once called demon-possession in Jesus’ time can be explained by modern medicine. We know that epilepsy was thought to be a form of demon possession and many other sicknesses as the result of sin and the influence of Satan.

Probably the most famous depiction of demon possession is the movie The Exorcist. I have heard that it is based on an actual case, but the amazing part is the amount of effort required to beat the devil. He is powerful. Satan is a cunning enemy. He is not some cute cartoon figure, but he real and dangerous. The Bible urges us to take him seriously.

Jesus takes Satan seriously. In fact, he sees his whole ministry as a conflict with Satan. He teaches about the power of Satan. He saw his death as the supreme battle with the evil one. Jesus isn’t just a child of his age and is repeating what he had learnt from others. He speaks definitely and personally about the power of Satan and continually warns others about this power. If Jesus takes him seriously then I think we should also.

Today’s Gospel reading tells us of one of the occasions when Jesus confronted Satan. It was a very scary situation. Jesus and the disciples had just sailed across Lake Galilee and had put ashore, when suddenly a naked wild man came rushing toward them screaming and yelling. He lived liked an animal in the nearby burial caves in the cemetery. We are told demons had taken over his life. He became uncontrollable and dangerous. The townspeople rugby tackled the man and chained his arms and feet, but the wild man had super human strength and snapped the chains. He cried out in loud, often inhuman voices, cutting himself with stones as he gave out wild screams.

It seems the townspeople and the wild man had come to some sort of understanding. The wild man would live outside of the town in the burial caves, so when the man was tormented by demons and he became wild and uncontrollable he would not harm anyone else. Everyone knew that the place where Jesus had landed was, by common consent, a no-man’s land.

As the wild man rushed downhill from the tombs, eyes crazed, screaming at the top of his lungs, it must have been a frightening sight for the disciples. Perhaps they considered jumping back into the boat or jumping on the man as a group, hoping their combined strength would contain him. The demons recognised Jesus. They were afraid; they knew that Jesus’ had the power to send them back to where they came from. Jesus demonstrates his power by simply asking, “What is your name?” The demons were in control of the wild man but Jesus was in control of them. He commands them to come out of the man and enter a nearby herd of pigs.

When the local people from the town come out to see what was going on they were shocked at what they saw. This once wild man was “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (Luke 5:35).

There is much that can be said about this text, but there is one clear message – even though Satan is powerful; the power of Jesus is even stronger. In fact, Luke has placed this event in amongst other demonstrations of Jesus’ power. Immediately before this story, we find Jesus commanding the wind and waves to be quiet. Jesus need only speak the word and a great calm fell on the lake (Luke 8:22-25). Jesus was more powerful than the destructive forces of nature.

Then immediately after the expulsion of Satan from the wild man, Luke tells us that Jesus has the power to heal. He restores to health a woman who had been ill for 12 years. She had examined by an untold number of doctors but they were unable to heal her; but Jesus did. He did what had been humanly impossible. He has the power to control disease, viruses, bacteria, bleeding, epilepsy, leprosy, and cancer. He has the power to heal the incurable.

In fact, he has the power to raise the dead. He went to the home of a twelve-year-old girl who had died. No one could do anything for her now except to mourn the passing of this young life. They had been powerless in the face of death. They could not stop it taking this girl’s life. They even made fun of Jesus when he said she was only sleeping. Dead was dead, as far they were concerned. They underestimated the power of Jesus. He took the child by the hand and to everyone’s amazement, he brought her back to life. Jesus could even command the dead to rise. He was more powerful than death itself.

I’m especially glad that Jesus has all power and authority when it comes to Satan. I’m especially glad simply because Satan is far more powerful than we are.

Satan blinds us. St Paul says, “The god of this age (the devil) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 2:4 NIV). We might have heard the same message from the Bible over and over, but Satan blinds us to what God is trying to say to us. We close our ears; we interpret what is said in our own way, we refuse to apply what God is saying to our own lives.

Satan wants to control us,
to possess us,
to tempt us to do what is against God’s plan for our lives,
to lead us astray by telling us that wrong is right, that the truth is a lie, that God does not love us, to influence us, to hinder us from doing what we know God wants us to do.
Satan loves bitterness, hatred, violence, arguments; he loves dividing people and especially dividing families and the church.
He can enter the hearts of people and cause so much harm. Drunkenness, drug abuse, greed, road rage, vulgar language, racial prejudice, abusiveness, despair, sexual promiscuity; I’m sure you get the picture.

The power of Satan is nothing to mess around with. Séances, ouija boards, witchcraft, the occult, are dangerous. Using these is an invitation to Satan to take control.

Having said all this you might be beginning to wonder whether we have any chance against such a formidable foe. We all know how easy it is for us to succumb to his temptations. When we think everything is going okay, bingo we suddenly realise that Satan has been leading us along by the nose. Sometimes we aren’t even aware that he is having such a powerful influence in our lives. So how can we stand up against something so powerful?

The answer is simple – we can’t! Not by ourselves anyway. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t try to resist Satan and his temptations and not give in to his attempts to lead us astray. James says, “So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you” (4:7). We need a power that is far greater than any power we have in ourselves. We need the power of Christ on our side if we are going to resist the devil.

Satan wants to draw us away from God’s kingdom into his own dark realm. Daily he tempts us; he tries to draw us away from God. He tempts us so that we fall under God’s condemnation and be sent to hell.

But Jesus has broken Satan’s power. Remember I said before that the whole life of Jesus is an attack against the domination of the devil and the climax of the battle occurred on the cross of Calvary. On the cross, Jesus broke the stranglehold that Satan can have over.
He has won for us forgiveness for all the times we give into Satan.
He has redeemed us – that means he has bought us back from sin and Satan with the price of his own blood.
He has reclaimed us as his own and made us his dear children.
He has made us new, given us a fresh start, and given us his Holy Spirit to help us resist Satan’s power.
Satan may tempt us and we will give in, we deserve God’s punishment, but through his death and resurrection, through the water of baptism we belong to God; we are forgiven and free. We are called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and likewise resist the devil. Paul says, “Let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armour God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil’s tricks. … And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm (worth reading all of Ephesians 6:10-17).

Our story from Luke’s Gospel concluded, “The man went through the town, telling what Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39). Just as Jesus commissioned the once wild man to “Go back home and tell what God has done for you”, he has also commanded us to share the good news of freedom from Satan’s power to anyone who would listen. Jesus wants every person in this nation, in the whole world to say with Paul, “God rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col 1:13 CEV).

© Pastor Vince Gerhardy

“Can you believe the size of this thing?” you say to the person next to you.
The courtyard you’restanding in nearly swallows you; a vast rectangular space that measures nearly 180 metres east to west and about 185 metres north to south. You gaze in awe at the buildings towering around you, seemingly larger than life itself, built with massive stones, some measuring 11 x 5½ x 3½ metres.
Some are made from white marble, others are covered with gold, reflecting the sunlight in dazzling splendour. It is Herod’s Temple, one of the most impressive man-made structures of the ancient world. As Jesus comes out of the Temple, you hear one of His disciples say to Him, "Look, Teacher, what great stones and what great buildings!" You hear Jesus respond with an answer you did not expect: “Do you see these magnificent buildings? Not one stone in this place will remain on another, they will surely be thrown down.”
Later, Peter, James, John and Andrew, sitting on the Mount of Olives across from this grand building, ask Jesus privately: “Tell us—when will these things happen and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be fulfilled?” The disciples thought that the destruction of the temple would be the event that ushered in the end times; when Jesus would save God’s people
Israel. However Jesus didn’t tell them when. He simply describes some of the events that were going to happen, with the destruction of the Temple being one of those, along with wars, earthquakes and famines. Jesus said that these things are merely the birth pains. In other words, the time is not yet. The contractions are here but the birth is still in the future, when the Son of God
will come with his final victory, judging the living and the dead.
The destruction of the Temple would happen for two reasons. First, Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and His visit to the Temple has failed to find the response of repentance and faith among the Jewish leaders and people that God required. Here was the Saviour He promised but they had thrown God’s gift back in His face. They refused to accept Him as the promised Saviour and in doing so the people as a whole had turned against God and His prophets again. The destruction of their prized temple as part of the devastation wrought on the city of Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70 AD was therefore part of God’s judgement on the nation. But the destruction of the Temple would happen for a second reason. Now, with the coming of Jesus, the Temple is redundant. It is useless for it is no longer the place of God’s presence. It therefore has ceased to serve the original purpose God established for it: the meeting place between God and His people where He would graciously be present to bestow His blessing and favour upon them. The Most Holy Place, the place of God’s presence is now in His Son, where the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. The Temple is out and the Son of Man is in.
At the centre of the Temple was the sanctuary, which was elevated and was reached by 12 steps, and divided into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Only the priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place was where God resided. He demanded that His presence be contained in a room that ordinary priests and people could not enter. This room was blocked off by
a thick curtain, about a hand thickness, that prevented people from entering and defiling God’s holiness and therefore bringing themselves under God’s just sentence of death. Only the High Priest was consecrated to enter the Most Holy Place, and on only one day a year—the Day of Atonement, when he made payment for the sins of all Israel with the blood of an animal sacrifice.
Jesus is both our High Priest who has entered into the heavens, but also the sacrifice. He made payment for the sins of the whole world with His very own holy and precious blood. When Jesus died the Temple curtain was torn in two, showing us that access to God is now by the death of Christ who has fulfilled the former sacrificial system. There is no barrier between God and people
through faith in Jesus.
God rendered the Temple useless because now His presence is not in a building but in the Person of Christ. When the disciple exclaims in our text: "Look, Teacher, what great stones and what great
buildings!" he is addressing an even greater, more precious stone, Christ the cornerstone, where the fullness of God dwells, a temple that could not be destroyed. “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” Jesus says of Himself. And He meant it. When that Temple was crucified and buried, it was not destroyed. It rose on the third day and still stands.
And here we see God’s great theme of reversal, where things are upside down and back-to-front according to the thinking of the world. What is attractive to the world, what is grandiose and awesome, magnificent and spectacular, is not God’s chosen means of operating. For Jesus, our High Priest, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, humbling Himself and becoming obedient to His Father’s will by dying on a cross.
Where the world evaluates the success of its leaders according to their wealth, their army and weaponry, their media campaigns and opinion poll ratings, God chooses weakness to be the most powerful rule this world will ever see. In God’s theme of reversal, the most glorious home was no skyscraper or elaborate architecture, but a feed box in a stinking stable which held the Christ child.
The world reveres the powerful and popular but in God’s great theme of reversal the most powerful reign this world will ever see is the reign of Christ from the throne of His Cross. For in being abandoned to death, Jesus overcame death for you. He paid the wages of your sin to rescue you from the dominion of Satan. How glorious is the Cross, yet not in the way the world looks for glory.
The Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing:
When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, & quot;You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! Come down from the cross, if You are the Son of God!& quot;
But to us who are being saved, the message of the cross is the power of God.
“Look! What great stones and what great buildings!” is the cry of the world which sees power and might and success and security in the impressive, in the big and strong, in the materially rich and spectacularly entertaining. The disciple’s words could be anyone’s from today’s world. The world loves buildings like the Temple, but in God’s great theme of reversal, He is well pleased with the little church with the leaky roof and cracked windows, because wherever the word of God and sacraments are, Christ is truly present, and He indeed pronounces all those who receive them to be truly righteous in His sight.
And in such a place God’s heart is for those who are not esteemed according to what the world’s values.
Yet gathered around the Most Holy Place, Jesus the Christ, are repentant sinners, frail, failing, in need of God’s mercy, those who need healing or who have lost their jobs, those whose families are falling apart, those who have anxiety disorders and those who are on the brink of despair under the weight of their sins.
But such as these God has chosen to belong to Him in whom He makes His power perfect. Such as these are frowned upon by the world, but in God’s great theme of reversal, these are the holy ones who have overcome the world in Christ. These are the ones to whom is given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. These are the ones to whom will be awarded the crown of righteousness. In the eyes of the world the modest church buildings hosting dwindling numbers of mostly senior people are ridiculous, a sign of failure. Church is only for the weak. And they are right! For we are weak, yet in our weakness the power of Christ is made perfect in us. We gather around Christ, the Most Holy Place, as He washes us sinners clean and joins us to Him in Holy Baptism. Through the Word and as He serves you His body and blood, Jesus meets you to do what is humanly impossible: free you from sin, bless you and grant salvation. This is true power, splendour and grandeur.
As you hear the words of the world: “Teacher, Look! What great stones and what great buildings!” hear Jesus’ reply: “Do you see these magnificent buildings? Not one stone in this place will remain on another, they will surely be thrown down.” This has been fulfilled for you. So when we hear of
wars, storms, strife and disaster, hear Jesus words today: Do not be alarmed. It is necessary for these things to happen, but it will not yet be the end. For nation will be raised against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pains.”
Jesus is coming again and He is coming for you so that you may see the Most Holy Place, the fullness of the glory of God, face to face. So take heart, stand firm to the end whatever your burden today…for in the words of the Apostle Paul: “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
The time is not yet. Jesus is still coming. May we all pray: “Come Lord Jesus, into our world that tears itself apart. Come anew into our lives and rule our hearts with your word each day, giving us courage and peace as we long for your return.” And as we do long for His return, know that He has ascended to the right hand of the Father where He prays for you. Know that He will lead you through every trial and tribulation and suffering and even death and to bring you safely home to your heavenly Father’s waiting arms! Brothers and sisters, trust in Christ and in Christ alone, for the Temple stones have been thrown down and in Christ the way to heaven has been opened for us.
Amen.

The Text: Mark 10:21-22

There was a miserly man who made good money all of his life but hoarded it. He wouldn’t spend a cent of it. He kept his wife to a strict budget so she could only buy the barest of essentials at the supermarket and just enough to pay for the electricity and council rates. He wouldn’t even keep his money in a bank because he didn’t want to pay the bank fees. He kept his money hidden away in a box behind some loose bricks in the fireplace.

As it turns out, the man suffered a heart attack and was dying. He called his wife and told her about the money. She was ecstatic until he told her to put it by the upstairs bedroom window so he could grab it as he went by on his way to heaven.

Despite his miserly way, his wife loved him very much and decided to comply with his last request. He died about two hours later. Three days after the funeral, she happened to be in the upstairs bedroom doing some cleaning when she remembered the box. It was still there. So was the money. She clutched the box, shook her head and in her grief said, “Oh, George, George, George. I knew I should have put it down by the cellar door.”

How many of you have ever fantasized about being filthy rich or independently wealthy? So wealthy that you didn’t have to plan to make the payment of the bills coincide with payday?

Have you ever said something like, “If I had half the money that some of the top sports players or models have, the first thing I would do would be to pay off everything I owe, buy a house, retire, travel, and give lots away to my children and set them up for life?”

Wouldn’t you like to have unlimited resources not just for yourself but also to have the ability to help make other people’s lives better? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to dish out millions of dollars to build a hostel for the homeless, or to make a difference in the lives of those people in some overseas village where people are so poor and lack the essentials to sustain life – maybe providing fresh water, electricity, schools, health clinics, and an orphanage? There’s a certain joy in being able to help others.

Today’s gospel reading tells us about a man who didn’t just wish he was rich but he was already a wealthy man. It’s worth noting what people thought of those who were wealthy in Jesus’ time. It was assumed people became rich because God had especially blessed them. It was also thought that if anyone was going to heaven it was the wealthy person because their riches were proof that God favoured them. It must have seemed rather strange that a rich man – a man so obviously blessed by God – should ask, “What must I do to receive eternal life?”

Jesus at first responds with the conventional answer that any rabbi would have given: obey all the commandments. Of course, obeying all the commandments would be no small order, and yet surprisingly, this young man says that he has done just that from the days of his youth. Then, in the words of the gospel writer, Jesus looked straight at him with love and said, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” (Mark 10:21,22)

Those words must have hit the rich man full force in the face. Go, sell, give, come, follow. Those five small words must have been like five powerful blows from the gloves of a champion boxer. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam! Go, sell, give, come, follow. “Go, sell all of your assets, give the money to the poor, and come and follow me. Do this and you will have riches in heaven.”

I don’t know how you find these words but to me they are some of the most difficult and confronting that Jesus ever spoke. Not so difficult to understand but impossible for mere human beings to carry out. Put yourself in that rich man’s shoes. What a situation for the rich man to be put in – to choose Jesus or to choose what he had inherited from his father, his comfortable lifestyle, his properties and bank accounts, the way of life that he had grown up with and now enjoyed. It’s easy to say that he should have immediately given it all up and followed Jesus, but how easy would we find it if we were in his situation?

When Jesus says, Go, sell, give, come, follow he is speaking to all of us regardless of how wealthy we are. As he did to the wealthy young man in our text, Jesus is exposing the false gods – the idols – that we worship. He is calling us to repentant of our idolatry, and by faith in him receive his forgiveness for our sin. And he calls us to a life of faith in him.

Make no bones about it, this young man was confronted with a tough choice – humanly speaking, an impossible choice. We are told, “When the man heard this, gloom spread over his face, and he went away sad, because he was very rich.” (Mark 10:22) Other translations, like the Revised Standard Version, say that “his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful.” This young man comes to Jesus filled with hope and goes away sad.

Can you visualise the expression on the man’s face?

We’ve seen gloom come over people’s faces before. A student comes up to the teacher eagerly awaiting the results of their exam. The teacher says, “I’m sorry, you didn’t do that well. You got an F.” What happens to the student? Their countenance falls.

You are looking at the car you would really love to have and ask the salesman, “How much?”

“You are in luck. That one’s on sale. We have slashed $10,000 off the price.”

Your face brightens. Is it possible you can afford this dream car?

The salesman happily says, “You can get that little baby for a mere $75,000”.

Your face drops.

I can imagine that if Jesus was here today, and we asked him the same question, and he gave the same answer as he gave the man in the story, more than likely our faces would also drop. This is tough thing to ask of any one. These are the toughest five words. Go, sell, give, come, follow.

Jesus goes on and says, “My children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” (Mark 10:25). People have tried to explain what Jesus meant here.

Some say the word camel in Greek is very similar to the word for “rope” and so Jesus is saying how difficult it is to thread a rope through the eye of a needle.

Others refer to a small door in the walls of Jerusalem. It was so small that it was impossible for a fully loaded camel to go through.

But why not let the imagery stand as it is. Jesus is trying to get across the idea of something that is impossible. The camel was the largest animal found in Palestine; the eye of a needle the smallest opening. A rich person has about as much chance of entering the Kingdom of God as a camel has of passing through the eye a needle.

And it is at this point that we find out how the disciples felt about all of this. We hear that they were “shocked” and “completely amazed and asked one another, “Who, then, can be saved?” You can see that everyone is absolutely flabbergasted at Jesus command to go, sell, give, come and follow. They are shocked, even appalled. And who can blame them?

You see, Jesus is laying it on pretty thick that discipleship means having faith in Jesus and being totally committed to following his ways – loving as he loves, forgiving as he forgives and serving as he serves. Jesus is warning that it is Satan’s delight to use the things we possess and our work and our leisure activities to possess us and so distract us from following Jesus. We might not think of ourselves as rich but we are indeed rich compared to the vast majority in the world. We don’t have to be millionaires for our work, our sport, our hobbies, and even our families to stand between us and our loyalty to God.

A widow once bought a parrot called Chirpy from the local pet store to keep her company. She returned to the store the next day with this complaint, “The parrot you sold me yesterday hasn’t said a word.”

“Does he have a mirror in his cage?” the store keeper asked. “Parrots love mirrors. They see their reflection and start a conversation.” The woman bought a mirror and left.

The next day she returned; the bird still wasn’t talking. “How about a ladder? Parrots love ladders. A happy parrot is a talkative parrot.” The woman bought a ladder and left.

But the next day, she was back again with the same complaint. “Does your parrot have a swing? No? Well, that’s the problem. Once he starts swinging, he’ll talk up a storm.” The woman reluctantly bought a swing and left.

When she walked into the store the next day, her countenance had changed. “The parrot died,” she said. The man at the pet shop was shocked.

“I’m so sorry. Tell me, did he ever say anything?” he asked.

“Yes, right before he died,” the woman replied. “In a weak voice, he asked me, ‘Don’t they sell any food at that pet store?’”

Chirpy had everything that a parrot could want to make him happy, everything except the most important thing of all. Without that one important thing Chirpy was doomed.

We too can have everything – good income, success at work, school or on the sports field, honour, money, fame and happy families – and don’t get me wrong Jesus isn’t saying that any of these things are bad in themselves. However, if having these things means we endanger our relationship with Jesus and therefore our hope of eternal life, then we are better off without them. Chirpy’s cage was full of all the gadgets that a parrot could want, but he ended up dead. That’s like what Jesus is saying today. We can be rich in a worldly sense but miss out on what makes us truly rich – life with Jesus.

As the disciples were listening to Jesus, their countenance dropped. They, and we, know that we humans let all kinds of things get between us and our walking with Jesus. All of us are constantly in danger of filling our hearts with everything else except Jesus. We admit that we find it impossible to keep the First or any of the Commandments. Luther explains: ‘We should fear, love and trust in God above all things’. There isn’t one person here who has done just that. For us to get to heaven by our own efforts would be like trying to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle – an impossibility.

Jesus looked at his disciples straight in the eye and answered their question of “who can be saved then?” saying, “This is impossible for a humans, but not for God; everything is possible for God.”

God loves us! He sent his Son to die for us, to forgive us for failing to ‘go, sell, give, come, follow,’ and for putting other things first before Jesus. He calls us to repentance. As his new people with new priorities and a new love in our hearts he challenges us to go, sell, give, come, and follow. He forgives us for all of our misplaced priorities. He forgives us for the idols we cling to. He welcomes us into his kingdom saying, “All those who live and believe in me have eternal life.” Amen.

The Text: Job 2:10

 

Job was an exceptional man.  He was extremely loyal to God.  In chapter one of Job we are told that “he was blameless and upright, who respected God and refused to do evil”, his children liked to party and every morning after one of their parties, he got up early and offered a sacrifice in case “they had sinned or silently cursed God”, and that God himself has nothing but accolades to shower on Job.  God says: “No one on earth is like him—he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (1:8).

Job was a wealthy man. He was “the richest man in the East” (1:3) with thousands upon thousands of sheep, camels, cattle and donkeys as well as a large number of servants.  God had indeed richly blessed Job. 

We also know that Job was blessed with seven sons and three daughters, a number which seems to indicate that this was the perfect family, a sign of God’s pleasure. He was a good father and had taught his children about God.  He wasn’t wasteful and was very generous and hospitable to those who visited him.

Job enjoyed a good life.  God’s protection rested on his family and everything he owned.  Everything he did prospered with God’s help.  Job’s wealth continued to grow and grow.  He was enjoying life, everything was just right, life couldn’t be sweeter, when bam, out of the blue, his life is turned upside down.

Raiders from the south stole all his stock and killed his servants. A storm destroyed the house where his children were having one of their parties and all ten were killed. The normally healthy Job broke out in terrible painful running sores.  He now sits on a heap of ashes, the only place where he could express his grief after losing so much.  Job is sitting alone—perhaps because he has been excluded from the community, who presume his wickedness for all of this to have happened. 

In one day, Job has gone from riches to rags. From the story, we know that it was Satan that had inflicted all of this on Job, the most God-fearing and loyal man that one could find, while it seems that God has allowed this to happen.

We might well ask, “What had Job done to deserve all this?”  “Why have so many disasters happened to a man who was so good?” 

These are good questions that people are still asking today. We hear of the untimely death of a child and we ask, “What had that child done to deserve that?”  Why should that happen to someone so young when there are so many other evil people who get away scot free?”

Jesus was confronted with the same problem (Luke 13:1-5). Some of those following Jesus referred to disasters that were headlines in the news. One tragedy happened at the temple. There were some pious and honourable folk offering sacrifices at the temple and yet they came to a cruel end.  Pontius Pilate had them killed right there in the temple as they worshipped. 

And then there was the collapse of the tower at Siloam.  Eighteen people were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were killed.  We are no strangers to that kind of thing. Like a surfer who has surfed on the same beach a thousand times, one day finds himself in the same spot as a hungry shark. 

It’s reasonable to ask, “Why do these bad things happen for no obvious reason?”  If we could say that they happened because bad people were getting what they deserved, then the problem would be solved and that would be end of it.  But we can’t.  We know that good people, people like Job, suffered.  We are horrified and can find no logical explanation why a defenceless child should die at the hands of a parent. 

Neither bad health nor the present drought have come as a result of some terrible sin.  Neither can we say that because we are church-going and committed Christians, we will never experience any hardship.

The question that arises in our minds now is this – we can’t explain why bad things happen to us so then how do we cope with tragedies when they do occur?  How did Job cope with the disasters that happened in his life?  We hear:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:20-21).

Job has two responses to all this bad news. 

First, as can be expected, Job is grief stricken.  He has lost so much so quickly.  In record time, the once rich man has become a pauper.  He has lost his most precious possessions of all—his children, all ten of them at once.  No wonder his grief is so intense.

Job’s second response is one of faith.  While his wife and his friends tell him to give up on God, he doesn’t focus on his grief but states clearly that God is Lord of all things.  He gives freely and generously and he is able to take it all away again.   We are told, “In all that happened, Job never once said anything against God” (2:10).  Job grieves but he doesn’t lose confidence in God’s justice and love.

At times our response to events in life aren’t Job-like at all.  The events and the grief are overwhelming and we blurt out, “It’s not fair!  I don’t deserve any of this!  Why won’t God do something and change things?”  We question God’s idea of what is fair and just.

Philip Yancey tells the story in his book, Disappointment with God, about a friend and faithful Christian named Douglas who went through a series of terrible events. First, his wife developed breast cancer.  Then one night, he and his family were involved in a head-on crash with a drunk driver.  His wife and daughter were injured in the smash.  Douglas received a severe head injury that caused sudden and debilitating headaches that kept him from working a full day and enjoying his passion for reading.  More than anything, it affected his ability to care for his wife.  None of this made any human sense.  If anyone had a right to be angry at God, Douglas did.

Yancey thought Douglas would be the perfect person to interview about being disappointed with God. So he began, “Could you tell me about your own disappointment?”

To Yancey’s great surprise, Douglas said, “To tell you the truth, Philip, I didn’t feel any disappointment with God…. The reason is this. I learned, first through my wife’s illness and then especially through the accident, not to confuse God with life.”

He continued, “I’m no stoic.  I am as upset about what happened to me as anyone could be.  I feel free to curse the unfairness of life and to vent all my grief and anger.  But I believe God feels the same way about that accident—grieved and angry.  I don’t blame him for what happened.”

He goes on to point out that we believe that God is fair and so assume that life also ought to be fair.  The fairness of life was disrupted when sin came into the world.  Sin invaded the peace and harmony of our world and our bodies.  All kinds of things come out of the blue that seem completely unfair but they have nothing to say about God loving us any less or that he doesn’t feel the pain as any parent feels the pain of their child.

It’s not God who is unfair—he is as loving and as just as he has always been.  It is life that is unfair—our world and our lives have been affected by the disastrous consequences of evil. 

The question that faces us is this: can we continue to love and trust God—in pain, in sickness, in grief and in any bad times? 

Can we love God in spite of what life brings? 

What will our reaction be when something hits us that really rocks us?  It strikes us so deeply that our love and trust in God is shaken.  We don’t have the human resources to hang on to God and to keep on trusting.  We don’t have the trust that Job had that firmly believes that God’s loves us more than ever.

When tragedy strikes, when we don’t understand, when we think it is unfair and we do end up blaming God, thank goodness God keeps hanging on to us.  Even when our trust is low and our doubts are overwhelming us, God keeps on loving and keeps on holding on to us and supporting us and helping us through that crisis.

The reason why God doesn’t give us specific answers to all our questions is something we have to grapple with even though we would dearly love to know the answers to the questions that we have about the tragedies and crises in our lives.  Maybe the answers are too complex for us to understand. 

The answer we do understand though is the one he gives us in his Son.  He gave his body and spilled his blood for us on the Cross.  He is God’s love for us.  He is present for us right here with his mercy and compassion through his word, and in his body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion.  He will always be with us through times of hardship and tragedy.  This is the way he responds to our questions—not with answers that make the world simpler, not with slick, neat answers to the question “why”, but he answers with his love, and with his life, given for us.  Amen.

The Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.            

Let’s join in a word of prayer:

O God our Loving Father, we live in your presence, we share in our fellowship, and we look to your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to discover wisdom.    By your Holy Spirit, guide our time together that we may engage with your message for us, and discover some small measure of your plan for our lives, and our worshipping community.  Gracious heavenly Father, hear our prayer for the sake of our risen Lord, Christ Jesus, Amen.

Jesus speaks to us with words that appear to the world around us as a contradiction.   “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   But, as people of faith, we recognize this as the work of the Holy Spirit in us to care for one another with humility toward God and each other.

Some years ago St. Paul School of Theology in the United States was seeking a new president. Over one hundred candidates applied for the position. The search committee narrowed the list to five eminently qualified persons. Then somebody came up with a brilliant idea: “let’s send a person to the institutions where each of the five finalists is currently employed, and let’s interview the janitor at each place, asking him what he thinks of the man seeking to be our president.”

This was done and a janitor gave such a glowing appraisal of one of the candidates that he was selected President of St. Paul’s School of Theology.

Somebody on that search committee understood that those who live close to Christ become so secure in his love that they no longer relate to other people according to rank or power or money or prestige. They treat janitors and governors with equal dignity. They regard everyone as a VIP.

Children seem to do this intuitively; as adult Christians, we need to re-learn it,  most often over and over again.

And Paul prays for us today in the reading, ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.’ 

Paul reminds us in Galatians that we can be  wise and humble by letting God’s Holy Spirit cultivate his fruit in us.   Paul writes, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. … Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.’ 

At one point, Jesus even confronted the conceit, and jealousy simmering among the apostles.  After they settled in Capernaum for a time, Jesus ‘asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.’  It is clear that the apostles are ashamed of their discussion.

Now, before we think poorly of the disciples for their banter, we need to expand our view of chapter 9 of Mark.  Jesus went up to the mount of transfiguration with Peter, James and John.  Why Jesus chose these three to reveal his greatness in that special way, we are not told.  It  could have been that they were ready to receive that kind of revelation, or it could have been that they needed to receive it.  In any case, it appears that this set these three apart from the other apostles.

And while they were up on the mountain, the other apostles and disciples are in the valley trying to drive out a violent evil spirit driving a young man  into convulsions.  But the disciples could not help the young man.   So, we see an atmosphere of competition and insecurity among the disciples.

And so, Jesus spoke gently to the Twelve that “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and be the servant of all.” 

I smile when I read what Jesus did to demonstrate his message for the Apostles and to us.  ‘He took a little child and had him stand among them. ‘Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”’

Coming out of isolation, we still can’t even shake hands.  It is OK to want contact with other people.  To shake hands, feel an arm around our shoulder,  and even receive a gentle hug.  Jesus took a small child in his arms.  I must admit that a strong memory rose up for me when I read this passage over the past week.  One that hadn’t even entered my mind for such a long time, and I have never shared. 

I can remember that after I first heard this passage as a child in Sunday School, I would sometimes cuddle in my blanket at night and fall asleep thinking about being held in the arms of Jesus.  That was such a comfort on a cold night. I didn’t even think about what was going on with the apostles.

Even during the recent isolation to combat the pandemic, I have been privileged to witness all the comforting attitudes and actions that display God’s presence in our lives. United by our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who makes life, and fellowship, and family possible.  Displays of comfort during difficult times that make us feel as secure as that child being held in the arms of Jesus.

It’s kind of like the story of a tribe of aborigines who were living next to a very swift and dangerous river. The current was so strong that if somebody happened to fall in or stumbled into it, they could be swept away downstream. 

One day the tribe was attacked by a hostile group of settlers. They found themselves with their backs against the river. They were outnumbered and their only chance for escape was to cross the rushing river.

They huddled together and those who were strong picked up the weak and put them on their shoulders. With the weak on their backs, those who were strong waded out into the river.  To their surprise they discovered that the weight on their shoulders from carrying the least of their brothers and sisters, helped them to keep their footing and to make it safely across the river.

Paul shares with us, that ‘Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.’  Whether we are dancing together in the good times or carrying each other through the hard times.

One thing that comes out clearly during this difficult time, is that even in all our faults and frailties, we are still united in the love of Jesus.  And Jesus never abandons us, even when we feel all alone in our homes. Or that we are coming up short in our care for one another.

May the grace and peace of our Triune God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   AMEN.

Rev. David Thompson.