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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the end of last week’s Gospel Reading (Mark 9:30-37), Jesus told His disciples that whoever receives one small child in His Name receives Jesus, and not so much Jesus as the Father Who sent Jesus. Then, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, St. John reported to Jesus that the disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’s Name, and, like Joshua did with Eldad and Medad in today’s Old Testament Reading (Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29), the disciples tried to hinder the so‑called “unknown exorcist”, for he was not following them, but, at that point, Jesus said the one not against them was for them (confer Luke 9:50). And then, Jesus contrasted someone’s giving them even just a cup of water to drink in support of them and so keeping his or her reward, to someone’s causing them to sin (or fall from faith) and so suffering something worse than death. And, as Jesus went on to explain, such causes of sin (or falling from faith) should, as possible, be separated from the Church on earth or from the individual believer. That way, those in the Church avoid hell, where one’s worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, instead passing through the fiery judgment to enter life, having had salt in themselves and being at peace with one another. Today’s Gospel Reading contains a great deal of teaching, some of it quite difficult, that we could spend much time expounding, but we can also, in effect, skim the cream from the top and be blessed by that.
Although Jesus later says that the one who is not with Him is against Him, that the one who does not gather with Him scatters (Matthew 12:30; confer Luke 11:23), like the disciples we can easily miss the ways that people apparently outside the Church nevertheless contribute to the work of the Church, whether in dramatic ways, such as casting out demons in Jesus’s Name, or in less‑dramatic ways, such as giving a cup of water to someone because he or she belongs to Christ. And, we may be reluctant to recognize or to address what causes people, including ourselves, to sin (or fall from faith)—things that come from outside the Church, from inside the Church, and from within ourselves. Like trying to make salty again salt that has lost its saltiness, on our own, ultimately we are as powerless to avoid what causes people, including ourselves to sin (or fall from faith) as we are powerless to do anything about both the original sin that we inherit and the actual sins of thoughts, words, and deeds that that original sin leads us to commit.
We deserve more than having a great millstone hung around our neck and being thrown into the sea: we deserve to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire, where one’s worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (confer Isaiah 66:24). As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (James 5:1-20), the coming of the Lord is at hand, the Judge is standing at the door! By threats of great millstones and other such warnings, God calls us to turn in sorrow from our sin, and, by the Good News of Jesus’s death on the cross for us, God invites us to trust Him to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. So, in today’s Entrance Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 501), we called on the Holy Spirit to draw near, to appear in our hearts, to kindle them by bestowing His holy flame, and to let it freely burn, until worldly passions turn to dust and ashes in its consuming heat. Thanks be to God that we rise from such dust and ashes to life! For, when we, enabled by God, so repent of our sin, then He forgives our sin. God forgives our sin of failing to recognize all contributions to the work of the Church, and our sin of failing to recognize and address all the causes of sin. God forgives all of our sin, whatever our sin might be.
To be sure, today’s Gospel Reading in a number of ways at least alludes to that Good News of Jesus’s death on the cross for us: by referring to one’s “reward” (not something we earn but something freely given to us), by referring to our believing in Jesus (no matter our age), and by referring to our entering life (whether crippled, lame, or with one eye). Today’s Gospel Reading may not be as explicit in that Good News as other Gospel Readings, but we hear and know that Good News from other passages and as they are repeated in the words of the historic Christian liturgy and hymnody. For example, today’s Hymn of the Day (LSB 505) invokes our Triune God—God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit—to cleanse us from our sins, grant us life forever, uphold our faith most holy, and let us trust Him solely, with humble hearts and lowly. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, we receive the forgiveness of sins, the “reward” of entering eternal life.
And, though again not as specifically as in other Gospel Readings, today’s Gospel Reading also brings to our minds the ways that God creates that faith, forgives our sins, and otherwise gives us life and salvation. To create faith in those of any age who are brought to Him, God uses perhaps less than a cup of water and the Word in Holy Baptism in His Triune Name. In that same Triune Name, God forgives those individuals who to their pastors privately confess their sins, especially those sins that particularly trouble them, as those pastors then pronounce the powerful words of Holy Absolution. And, through God’s Word connected with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar, God gives the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Especially Jesus’s riddle-like sayings about salt in the Gospel Reading can remind us both of Holy Baptism, which at times has used salt as part of the Baptismal Rite (for example, AE 53:97), and of the Lord’s Supper, by salt’s connection to meals in general and sacrifices in particular, even a meal the Lord and His disciples shared (Acts 1:4; Marcus, ad loc Mark 9:50, 693).
Through God’s Word in all of its forms, God not only creates faith, forgives sins, and gives us life and salvation, but He also gets us through this life. Again, our Hymn of the Day repeatedly directs us to each person of the Triune God to keep us from the evil one, with all true Christians running our heavenly race, and shunning the devil’s wiles and cunning. To be sure, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark reports, Jesus distinguishes between those such as the scribes who spoke evil of Jesus when He cast out demons (Mark 3:22-30) and the “unknown exorcist” in today’s Gospel Reading, whom Jesus said would not be able to speak evil of Him soon after doing mighty work in His Name. In a sense, their respective attitudes towards exorcisms seem to reflect whether they are outside or inside of God’s Kingdom (Marcus, ad loc Mark 9:38-40, 687), as perhaps in our time people’s attitudes towards Holy Baptism, which at times has included exorcisms, might also reflect whether they are outside or inside of God’s Kingdom. For, not everyone is a true Christian. Not everyone who says to Jesus “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven; on the Day of Judgment, even some of those who will claim to have prophesied in His Name and cast out demons in His Name and done many mighty works in His Name will hear Jesus say to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21-23; confer Matthew 25:11-12).
Not so for us, who have been blessed by sort of skimming the cream from the top of today’s Gospel Reading: hearing its call to turn in sorrow from our sin, trusting in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and receiving His forgiveness from His Word in all of its forms. We can be sure that we will enter life—whether crippled, lame, or with one eye. Although we certainly hold that such “disabilities” will be more than healed in our resurrected and glorified bodies, St. Paul seems to call “foolish” one’s asking with what kind of body the dead are raised (1 Corinthians 15:35‑36). Even the Divinely‑inspired apostle seems to struggle for words to describe the contrast between the two bodies, the ones we have now and the ones we will have when we are resurrected, but we can end up where he does, giving thanks to God, Who gives us the ultimate victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +