18th Sunday after Pentecost (B)
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B)
October 8, 2006
Text: Mark 9:30-37
Once again in our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus confronts our humanly devised theology of glory with His own theology of the cross. Like the disciples, we want to know who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not an unnatural question. Who will have the greatest glory? Jesus’ answer is contrary to our human reason. In this case, Jesus does not answer our question directly, but His action speaks louder than words. “And he took a child and put him in the midst of them” and took the child in His arms (Mark 9:36; ESV). This is not what the disciples expected, and it is not what we expect either. It is more logical that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the great Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; or perhaps one of the Prophets, Moses or maybe Elijah. Even more likely, it would seem, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the blessed 12 apostles, the most likely candidates being Jesus’ inner-circle, Peter, James, and John. But amidst questions about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus picks up a little child and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (v. 37). Let not the imagery be lost on us. The children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom, and the one who receives such a child in Jesus’ Name receives not only the child, but also Jesus, and along with Jesus, the Father who sends Him. Once again, God is hidden in weakness, in this case, the weakness of a little child.
What is the meaning of this strange account, and how does it apply to us in the Church today? Dear friends, it is written, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise” (Matt. 21:16, citing Ps. 8:2). Children have a remarkable capacity for faith. Faith is trust. Unless parents give their children good reason not to trust them, children will naturally trust their parents. That is to say, children naturally have faith in their parents. From the very beginning of their lives, children have faith that their mother will take care of them. They do not intellectually reason, “Mother loves me, therefore she will feed me and clothe me and change my diaper and rock me to sleep and keep me safe from all harm.” They simply have faith that Mother will do these things. When a child grows a little and matures in intellectual capacity, the child expects that Mom and Dad know everything, and so whatever Mom and Dad say can be trusted. But over time, as that same child continues to mature into a pre-teen, and then a teenager, and then a young adult, that intellectual ability gets the best of the child. The child starts to become impressed with his own natural wisdom and knowledge. No longer are Mom and Dad so trustworthy as the child once thought. Faith in the self takes over where faith in the parents used to reign. Such is the case as children come of age. We can all speak from personal experience.
When children are young, they do not question what God tells them in His Word. They do not question whether God could really make the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in six literal days. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether God could really gather a sampling of all the creatures of the earth into Noah’s ark and cause an overwhelming flood to cover the earth’s entire surface. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether the children of Israel really passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They do not question whether all the miracles of the Bible are true. They do not question whether Jesus really died for our sins and rose again from the dead on the third day, nor do they question His coming to us today in Word and water and bread and wine. They are not concerned that they do not see Him. Children have the remarkable ability to believe what is unseen. They know that they worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven as Jesus Christ Himself is present with and for us in this place. Their reason does not get in the way of all this. God’s Word says it, so it must be.
Considered from this perspective, it is not so strange that Jesus says the children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom. They take Jesus at His Word when the rest of us don’t. The older we get, the wiser we get in our own eyes. And it is according to our great wisdom that the six-day creation and Noah’s ark and the Red Sea and the Resurrection and the Lord’s Body and Blood under bread and wine become absurd to us. The wisdom of God is foolishness to the wisdom of the world. It is foolishness to our logic and to our advanced scientific minds. Repent, and become as little children again, trusting the Word of your Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ His Son.
Yes, God would have us believe in Him as little children, without all the intellectual baggage that gets in the way in our adulthood. I’m not urging you to stop thinking or studying and exploring the universe God has given for our good. For children, the joy of discovery is new every day. No, I’m simply urging you to temper the wisdom and knowledge with which God blesses you with the Word of God. Give His Word the benefit of the doubt. If you cannot understand how all of the great miracles recorded in the Bible can be, “then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are” (Luther). When reason and the Word come into conflict, the Word must win every time. Reason must be subject to the Word and serve the Word, so that the Word is trusted and believed with simple, child-like faith; a faith that trusts God’s Word because it is God’s Word, a faith that trust’s God’s Word because it trusts God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture.
But it is important here to note the difference between faith that his child-like and faith that is childish. Childish faith picks and chooses what it wants to believe, and throws a tantrum when it doesn’t get what it wants. Child-like faith does not pick and choose, but believes what it is taught. If God says it in His Word, that is good enough for the child of God. Our Father knows everything. He is trustworthy in everything. If He says it, we believe it. When I was in college, I was accused by my professors and other students of having a simple, Sunday School faith. They did not mean this as a compliment. I was being ridiculed for blindly trusting whatever the Bible says. Dear friends, I pray that every one of you has a simple, Sunday School faith. I pray that every one of you trusts whatever God says in His Word, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, and even if you don’t like it. I pray that you trust it simply because He said it. Let the world ridicule us as they may. The wisdom of God is foolishness to them. But to us who believe, it is the power of God for our salvation.
And that is ultimately the point of our text. The children of God believe the Word even when it doesn’t make sense, and even when it offends their sensibilities. The children of God believe Jesus when He says, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise again” (Mark 9:31). They know that this is necessary. It is God’s plan, which seems like so much foolishness to the world, but is in truth the power of God. The Son of Man must suffer. He must die for the sins of the world so that the world may be released from sin. He must be killed by His own. He must die a humiliating death, the Innocent One surrounded by criminals. Against all human logic, He must accomplish our salvation by surrendering Himself to the enemy. But then after He is killed, He will rise again after three days. Death will not hold Him. The laws of fallen nature cannot keep His body in the tomb. Jesus breaks the laws of fallen nature in pieces and establishes His perfect Law, which will on the Last Day command all of us to come out of the grave, so that those who have believed in Him with a child-like trust will live with Him forever and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This is not rational. But it is true. And blessed are those who believe it in spite of themselves. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
October 8, 2006
Text: Mark 9:30-37
Once again in our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus confronts our humanly devised theology of glory with His own theology of the cross. Like the disciples, we want to know who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not an unnatural question. Who will have the greatest glory? Jesus’ answer is contrary to our human reason. In this case, Jesus does not answer our question directly, but His action speaks louder than words. “And he took a child and put him in the midst of them” and took the child in His arms (Mark 9:36; ESV). This is not what the disciples expected, and it is not what we expect either. It is more logical that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the great Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; or perhaps one of the Prophets, Moses or maybe Elijah. Even more likely, it would seem, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the blessed 12 apostles, the most likely candidates being Jesus’ inner-circle, Peter, James, and John. But amidst questions about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus picks up a little child and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (v. 37). Let not the imagery be lost on us. The children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom, and the one who receives such a child in Jesus’ Name receives not only the child, but also Jesus, and along with Jesus, the Father who sends Him. Once again, God is hidden in weakness, in this case, the weakness of a little child.
What is the meaning of this strange account, and how does it apply to us in the Church today? Dear friends, it is written, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise” (Matt. 21:16, citing Ps. 8:2). Children have a remarkable capacity for faith. Faith is trust. Unless parents give their children good reason not to trust them, children will naturally trust their parents. That is to say, children naturally have faith in their parents. From the very beginning of their lives, children have faith that their mother will take care of them. They do not intellectually reason, “Mother loves me, therefore she will feed me and clothe me and change my diaper and rock me to sleep and keep me safe from all harm.” They simply have faith that Mother will do these things. When a child grows a little and matures in intellectual capacity, the child expects that Mom and Dad know everything, and so whatever Mom and Dad say can be trusted. But over time, as that same child continues to mature into a pre-teen, and then a teenager, and then a young adult, that intellectual ability gets the best of the child. The child starts to become impressed with his own natural wisdom and knowledge. No longer are Mom and Dad so trustworthy as the child once thought. Faith in the self takes over where faith in the parents used to reign. Such is the case as children come of age. We can all speak from personal experience.
When children are young, they do not question what God tells them in His Word. They do not question whether God could really make the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in six literal days. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether God could really gather a sampling of all the creatures of the earth into Noah’s ark and cause an overwhelming flood to cover the earth’s entire surface. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether the children of Israel really passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They do not question whether all the miracles of the Bible are true. They do not question whether Jesus really died for our sins and rose again from the dead on the third day, nor do they question His coming to us today in Word and water and bread and wine. They are not concerned that they do not see Him. Children have the remarkable ability to believe what is unseen. They know that they worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven as Jesus Christ Himself is present with and for us in this place. Their reason does not get in the way of all this. God’s Word says it, so it must be.
Considered from this perspective, it is not so strange that Jesus says the children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom. They take Jesus at His Word when the rest of us don’t. The older we get, the wiser we get in our own eyes. And it is according to our great wisdom that the six-day creation and Noah’s ark and the Red Sea and the Resurrection and the Lord’s Body and Blood under bread and wine become absurd to us. The wisdom of God is foolishness to the wisdom of the world. It is foolishness to our logic and to our advanced scientific minds. Repent, and become as little children again, trusting the Word of your Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ His Son.
Yes, God would have us believe in Him as little children, without all the intellectual baggage that gets in the way in our adulthood. I’m not urging you to stop thinking or studying and exploring the universe God has given for our good. For children, the joy of discovery is new every day. No, I’m simply urging you to temper the wisdom and knowledge with which God blesses you with the Word of God. Give His Word the benefit of the doubt. If you cannot understand how all of the great miracles recorded in the Bible can be, “then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are” (Luther). When reason and the Word come into conflict, the Word must win every time. Reason must be subject to the Word and serve the Word, so that the Word is trusted and believed with simple, child-like faith; a faith that trusts God’s Word because it is God’s Word, a faith that trust’s God’s Word because it trusts God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture.
But it is important here to note the difference between faith that his child-like and faith that is childish. Childish faith picks and chooses what it wants to believe, and throws a tantrum when it doesn’t get what it wants. Child-like faith does not pick and choose, but believes what it is taught. If God says it in His Word, that is good enough for the child of God. Our Father knows everything. He is trustworthy in everything. If He says it, we believe it. When I was in college, I was accused by my professors and other students of having a simple, Sunday School faith. They did not mean this as a compliment. I was being ridiculed for blindly trusting whatever the Bible says. Dear friends, I pray that every one of you has a simple, Sunday School faith. I pray that every one of you trusts whatever God says in His Word, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, and even if you don’t like it. I pray that you trust it simply because He said it. Let the world ridicule us as they may. The wisdom of God is foolishness to them. But to us who believe, it is the power of God for our salvation.
And that is ultimately the point of our text. The children of God believe the Word even when it doesn’t make sense, and even when it offends their sensibilities. The children of God believe Jesus when He says, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise again” (Mark 9:31). They know that this is necessary. It is God’s plan, which seems like so much foolishness to the world, but is in truth the power of God. The Son of Man must suffer. He must die for the sins of the world so that the world may be released from sin. He must be killed by His own. He must die a humiliating death, the Innocent One surrounded by criminals. Against all human logic, He must accomplish our salvation by surrendering Himself to the enemy. But then after He is killed, He will rise again after three days. Death will not hold Him. The laws of fallen nature cannot keep His body in the tomb. Jesus breaks the laws of fallen nature in pieces and establishes His perfect Law, which will on the Last Day command all of us to come out of the grave, so that those who have believed in Him with a child-like trust will live with Him forever and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This is not rational. But it is true. And blessed are those who believe it in spite of themselves. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
posted by Pastor Krenz | 11:48 AM
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