Hope at the cemetery by Pastor Zarling

Hope at the cemetery

John 11:32-44 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. 34He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept.

36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39“Take away the stone,” he said. Martha, the dead man's sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone.

Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.”

He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face (Isaiah 25:8). Amen.

They were very good friends. Jesus liked to hang out with Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Since Jesus didn’t have a place of his own (Matthew 8:20), he liked to stay with friends. The home of Lazarus and his two sisters was in Bethany. It was a small suburb only two miles outside of Jerusalem. So, instead of spending money on a motel when he visited Jerusalem to preach and teach, Jesus liked to stay at the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. It was kind of alike a bed and breakfast … but better.

Lazarus and Mary liked to tease Martha about the time Jesus had gently scolded her the last time he visited them. Jesus taught them that since he was the one thing needful – more needed than food and drink.

Some time has passed. Jesus has not seen his friends for a while. The last time Jesus was in Jerusalem, his Jewish opponents became so irate with Jesus they attempted to stone him (John 10:22-39). So, Jesus left the area and went across the Jordan River to where John had been baptizing. Jesus stayed away from the city. The city and country people came out to him.

That’s when Jesus receives word that his good friend Lazarus was sick (John 11:3). But then Jesus does something odd. He stays put for two days. He finally told his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea” (John 11:7). But his disciples are concerned that Jesus’ enemies haven’t gotten over their animosity. They are probably carrying a stone in their pocket just case Jesus shows up again (John 11:8).

Jesus has made up his mind. He’s going to Bethany. He tells them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11). The disciples naturally conclude that if he’s fallen asleep than he’ll get better (John 11:12). They didn’t understand that Jesus was equating sleep with death. That’s because they thought of death as final. The Son of God views death as nothing more than sleep.

When Jesus gets to Bethany, Martha runs out to meet him on the road. She says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). There is no anger in her voice. No bitterness. With a calm confidence born from faith, she states a fact. If Jesus would have come to visit his friend, he could have healed Lazarus from his illness.

Martha continues, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (John 11:22). Martha’s words again verbalize her faith. She doesn’t know exactly what Jesus has planned, but when the Son of God shows up at your house, you trust something miraculous and marvelous can happen.

Jesus gives her a glimpse of what is going to happen when he says, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Jesus is giving Martha a glimpse into the grave. Martha again verbalizes her faith in Jesus, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day” (John 11:24). She is rightly thinking of the resurrection of the dead from all cemeteries on the Last Day.

Jesus is talking about the resurrection of the dead from the Bethany cemetery on that day! Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish” (John 11:25-26).

Mary then comes to Jesus. She says the same thing as her sister, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). There is still no blame in her tone. But there is more hurt. She had really hoped that Jesus would come in time to heal his good friend. When Jesus sees her weeping, he starts weeping, too (John 11:35).

The Son of God is not some stoic divinity without emotions. He is both a God of compassion and a human with emotions. There is no tougher or stronger Man than Jesus … and yet he cries in the cemetery of his dear friend, Lazarus. Jesus sees the effects that sin and death have brought upon his beloved creation. He feels the effects of sorrow on these two sisters at the loss of their brother. He feels the effects of sadness at the death of his good friend.

Mary and Martha take Jesus to the tomb in the Bethany cemetery. The tomb is a cave with a stone rolled in front of it. Jesus declares, “Take away the stone.” Martha objects, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.” Jesus replies, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone (John 11:39-41).

After Jesus offers a prayer to his heavenly Father, he shouts in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43)! Lazarus has no choice. The dead man comes out.

The crowd is amazed. They’ve seen Jesus heal lots of people. They’ve heard two stories about a little girl and a young man that Jesus raised from the dead. But this is pretty miraculous! Marvelous! The sisters run to hug their once-dead, but now very-alive brother. Their tears of sadness have turned to tears of joy.

Jesus waits his turn. Then he hugs his good friend. Now it’s Jesus’ turn to tease Lazarus. He reminds him, “You’ve been dead for four days. You stink! You need a bath!” Their tears of sorrow have turned to tears of laughter. There is hope in the Bethany cemetery.

All of us face death. It can be the death of a child, or a spouse, or a parent, or a friend. We will eventually all have to face our own death.

We can figure that since Jesus is our Friend, he should be able to heal us. Cure our kid’s cancer. Improve our dad’s dementia. Heal our spouse’s heart issues. Treat grandma’s stroke symptoms.

If Jesus comes here, our loved ones won’t get sick and die. Except when we try to pray Mary and Marth’s words, they are often spoken with hurt and anger, bitterness and blame.

Death exists in God’s once immortal human race as a punishment for human evil and rebellion. It is not nice or natural. What was once spoken as a curse on Adam and Eve; what has been spoken over countless cemetery committals; will also be stated as a matter of fact upon your

death. “For dust you are and dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). Death is the clearest expression of God’s hatred over our sins.

We often try to blame God when someone dies. But it is death who is the enemy. Death takes our loved ones away from us and leaves us a hole. And whether it happens suddenly or slowly, to a grandparent, spouse, sibling or child, it really doesn’t matter, does it? The pain is great. The brokenness is absolute. The hurting is unbearable.

What God has joined together, death has torn asunder.

We’re not much help for those grieving. We leave them alone, so they grieve too long. Or we can force them to get over their grief too quickly. We say things like “I’m sorry” because we don’t know what else to say. Or “Call me if you need anything” knowing they won’t call. We bring over a casserole and hope that will be enough.

Only God stands tall and bright in the dark valley of death. God was there when death intruded upon his perfect creation. Immediately after the fall into sin – as funerals and cemeteries would soon be filling the world with prolonged sadness – God brought immediate hope with the promise of the Savior and Serpent-crusher (Genesis 3:15). In the Bethany cemetery, Jesus wipes away tears as he stands near the tomb of his dear friend, Lazarus, and speaks. And Jesus wipes away tears upon the hill of death as he tells the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Though we don’t understand God’s divine will for our lives, we trust that when he allows illness, suffering, and even death, it is for our eternal benefit. It’s according to his overall plan. It’s part of his divine will for his good friends. We don’t know exactly what God has planned, but when the Son of God shows up in our lives, we trust that something miraculous and marvelous can happen.

Jesus is our Friend. He’s a Friend who is a Man of Sorrows and familiar with our pain (Isaiah 53:3). The only reason he would put himself through pain, suffering, punishment, and death … is you. He endured all this to sin you a home in heaven. Now he allows you to undergo pain, suffering, persecution, and death so you can enjoy your home in heaven with him.

God promises that through Jesus, “He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face (Isaiah 25:8). He promises that you and your Christian loved ones are sinners now, but one day – through faith in your crucified and risen Savior – you will be made saints. You will be given a white robe to wear. A palm branch to hold. A golden crown for your head. One day you will sit on a throne in glory and judgment.

Jesus lets suffering, illness, persecution, and death happen. What kind of Friend is that?! The kind of Friend who loves us so much he promises an end to suffering, eternal healing of all our illnesses, justice for our persecution, and life after death. Only a Friend like Jesus turns death into a sleep – a sleep that he will awaken us from on the Last Day. That’s an awesome Friend!

A Friend who turns tears of sadness into tears of joy. Who can even turn sorrow into laughter.

A Friend who says to death on that Last Day, “Loose him. Loose her. Let them go.”

That is what gives us hope in the hospital, in the hospice home, in the funeral home, and at the cemetery. Amen.

On that day it will be said, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he saved us! This is the Lord! We waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” (Isaiah 25:9). Amen.

I will mobilize everything against them by Pastor Zarling

I will mobilize everything against them

Daniel 3:16-28 Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “We have no need to answer you about this matter. 17Since our God, whom we serve, does exist, he is able to save us from the blazing fiery furnace. So, he may save us from your hand, Your Majesty. 18But if he does not, you should know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you set up.”

19Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed against Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego. He said to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was usually heated. 20He ordered some men, who were soldiers from his army, to bind Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego in order to throw them into the blazing fiery furnace. 21So these men were bound in their coats, their pants, their turbans, and their other clothing, and they were thrown into the middle of the blazing fiery furnace. 22Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was extremely hot, those men who carried Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego were killed by the intense heat of the fire. 23But these three men, Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego, who had been tied up, fell into the blazing fiery furnace.

24Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and immediately stood up. He said to his advisors, “Didn't we throw three men, who had been tied up, into the middle of the fire?” They answered the king, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” 25He said, “Look! I see four men, who are untied and walking around in the middle of the fire, unharmed. What is more, the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the blazing fiery furnace. He said, “Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!” Then Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego came out from the middle of the furnace. 27The satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the royal advisors gathered together and looked at these men. The fire had no power over their bodies. Not a hair on their head was singed, their robes were not damaged, and the smell of fire had not stuck to them. 28Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego, who sent his angel and saved his servants, who trusted in God and ignored the king's command. They gave up their bodies and did not pay homage or worship any god except their God.”

Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Amen. (Revelation 14:17)

“Do you recant?”

That was the question posed to Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms. The diet was an imperial assembly at the city of Worms, Germany. The diet (or meeting) was convened by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

Luther was asked to retract or stand by his books, pamphlets, and other writings. Luther stood up before the king, court, and council and concluded with these now famous words: “Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

You may have heard Luther’s words before. Perhaps you haven’t heard the emperor’s words in response: “A single friar who goes counter to all Christianity for a thousand years must be wrong. I have decided to mobilize everything against Luther: my kingdoms and dominions, my friends, my body, my blood, and my soul.”

“Will you bow down and worship the statue I made” (Daniel 3:15)?

That was the question posed to Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The king had built a 90-foot golden statue and demanded that everyone bow down and worship it. Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego stood out by standing up in the crowd. King Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage. He demanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than normal. Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace (Daniel 3:19-20). It was as if the Babylonian king was mobilizing everything against these three men.

“See how many charges your people are bringing against you. Aren’t you going to answer anything” (Mark 15:4)?

That was the question posed to Jesus by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Jesus remained silent before the Jewish religious leaders. He wouldn’t answer Pilate’s questions. He wouldn’t perform miracles before King Herod.

Pilate sent Jesus over to Herod. Pilate and Herod hated each other, but they cooperated in Jesus’ trial. The Pharisees and Sadducees were bitter enemies, but they agreed on one thing – Jesus had to die. All the religious and political leaders were mobilizing everything against Jesus.

King David prophecies in his Messianic psalm: “The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers join together against the Lord and against his Anointed One” (Psalm 2:2). I mighty humbly add “the kings of the earth join together against the Lord and against his Anointed One … and against the Lord’s anointed ones.” That’s you and me who have been anointed by the Spirit’s baptismal waters. The one thing that the governments of the world can agree on is their hatred of Christ and Christ’s followers.

“Why are you so unloving?”

This is the question posed to you anytime you speak the truth into our culture. It can be the truth about marriage, sexuality, the unborn, the elderly, and so on. However and wherever you preach God’s truth, you will be labeled as unloving. Your social media account may be canceled, your business badgered, and your freedoms removed. The old evil foe of the devil, the world and its culture, the kings and governments of the world will mobilize everything against you.

The three men in Babylon, Luther in Worms, and Jesus in Jerusalem were all bold witnesses in the face of persecution. What about you? What do you do? How do you respond in the face of these enemies of the gospel mobilizing everything against you?

Let’s be honest. We often retreat from our boldness. We do not fight the good fight. We run away from God’s mighty fortress. Before the devil can mute us, we mute ourselves. We soften the hard edges of God’s Word to make it more palatable to sinners. We acquiesce to the culture. We imagine that if we remain quiet the world will ignore us. We pretend that if we keep our head down and our mouth shut, things will eventually get better on their own.

Admit it. We’re afraid. We’re afraid to be singled out. Afraid to be excluded. Afraid to be called names. Afraid we’ll have to find new friends. Afraid we’ll feel uncomfortable at family gatherings. Afraid we won’t be liked.

But if the Church wants to be liked … we have already lost! Jesus promises, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

Satan hates you. The world hates you. Our culture hates you. The government hates you. Scripture makes that clear. And there’s nothing you can do to change it. So just accept it.

So, admit your fear. Acknowledge your meekness. Repent of your quietness. Confess your muteness.

Look to Jesus. He had a quiet strength to compensate for your weakness. He was bold before Pilate to cover your meekness. He remained purposefully quiet before the Jewish religious leaders to make amends for your timid quietness. He resisted the command to perform like a circus clown for King Herod’s amusement for the times we don’t resist the ridiculous decrees of our government.

Jesus also went to the cross to pay for your fear, meekness, weakness, quietness, and muteness. Everything Jesus did during his ministry, dying on the cross, rising from the grave, ascending into heaven, and now ruling all things at God’s right hand was for you. This should give you boldness, strength, and courage for your witness.

This gave Luther boldness. He didn’t know how his bold speech for God’s Word would turn out. Still, many years after the Diet of Worms, Luther told a friend about his appearance before the emperor, "I was fearless, I was afraid of nothing; God can make one so desperately bold.”

This gave the three men boldness. They didn’t know how their bold stance for the true God would turn out. But they boldly confessed, “Since our God, whom we serve, does exist, he is able to save us from the blazing fiery furnace. So, he may save us from your hand, Your Majesty. But if he does not, you should know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you set up” (Daniel 3:17, 18).

Jesus did know how it would turn out. He boldly and purposefully went to the cross. He allowed Satan to conspire with the Jews and Romans to put him to death. In this way, the Victim became the Victor. The One cursed to be crucified brought blessing upon humanity. The One who appeared as a criminal was crowned the King of kings. Christ’s death meant Satan’s defeat.

We don’t know how everything will turn out in this lifetime when the world, the culture, and the government mobilize everything against us. But that shouldn’t make us afraid. Because of Jesus we know how everything will turn out in the next life.

So be bold. Be courageous. Stand out by standing up and speaking up.

So now, what are you going to do? In your boldness, you stand outside the abortion clinic and pray. You go to the school board meeting to speak out on their woke policies. You refuse to go along with your company’s DEI initiatives. You and your spouse protest the sexually graphic children’s books introduced into your library. You stand with your daughters when they decline to play sports with a boy in girl’s clothing on the opposing team. You promote your local, state, and presidential candidates because you know that politics is nothing more than the application of God’s spiritual kingdom truths into God’s earthly kingdom activities.

Whew! You’re busy!

Besides, if we don't do it, we leave it to our kids and grandkids to do it.

Satan, the world, the culture, and the government will mobilize everything against you!

So what? What can they do to you?

They can take away your stuff. So what? All your stuff will eventually be burned up on the Last Day anyhow. All you need is the “everlasting gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people” (Revelation 14:6).

They can remove your freedoms. So what? You have already been set free from sin, death, and hell. All your other freedoms are skibidi. (If you don’t know what that means, ask a teenager.)

They can take away your food … or your house … or your family. So what? Jesus has promised you a seat at his eternal wedding feast. He has promised you a mansion in heaven. He has promised that you will see your Christian loved ones around God’s heavenly throne.

They can take away your life. So what? Then you get to live with Jesus. Christ died and rose from death for you. He now lives eternally. So, when you die, you can rise to live with him eternally.

This means those who hate you can mobilize whatever they want against you. They can’t do anything to you. Not really. They can’t make you recant. They can’t make you bow down and worship. They can’t make you speak or perform. They can’t make you afraid by calling you names or threatening your business or removing your freedoms. They can’t do anything to you. God has made sure of that.

So, be bold! Be courageous! Fight the good fight! Put on the gospel armor. Remain close to God’s mighty fortress. Speak the one little word of the name of Jesus to make Satan shudder and the demons cower. Be a powerful witness to the truth before kings, courts, and councils. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words at the right time.

Speak like Luther. Stand like Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego. Live and die for Jesus who lived and died and rose for you. Amen.

Worship him who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water. (Revelation 14:17) Amen.

“What do you want me to do for you?” by Pastor Zarling

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Mark 10:32-45 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them. The disciples were amazed, and the others who followed were afraid. He took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. 33“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. 34They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask.” 36He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.” 38But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?” 39“We can,” they replied.

Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with. 40But to sit at my right or at my left is not for me to give; rather, these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41When the ten heard this, they were angry with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Timothy 1:2). Amen.

The family looked at about 50 houses before they found the right one for their family. It was perfect. … A perfect dump.

The garage door couldn’t open. Every room in the house needed to be gutted. Because the house was in foreclosure, the previous owner took everything he could. He removed the doorknobs, the hardwood flooring in the dining room, the air conditioning unit, and the panel fencing in the yard. He even used a chainsaw to cut down and removed the previously permanent gazebo.

That house is our house. A decade ago, many of you came over and helped us fix up our house. You looked around and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

That was awesome! That was much appreciated! That is Christian love and service!

Instead of you asking the pastor or his wife, “What do you want me to do for you,” imagine that it is the Lord Jesus asking you, “What do you want me to do for you?”

In back-to-back episodes in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus asks this question. And he gets two very different responses. Jesus had just told his disciples for the third time about his Passion – how he is going to have to suffer at the hands of Gentile Roman soldiers and Jewish religious leaders. James and John respond by saying to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask” (Mark 10:35).

A few verses later, we hear blind Bartimaeus calling out to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47)!

Jesus answers all three men with the same question, “What do you want me to do for you” (Mark 10:36)?

First, on the way to Jerusalem, the so-called Sons of Thunder – James and John – tell Jesus they want something from him. He responds, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). They want seats of honor on Jesus’ left and right. They desire key positions in the new earthly administration when Jesus takes up residence in Jerusalem reigning from David’s throne.

And why not? They were among the first of the disciples, after all. They left their father’s fishing business and followed Jesus for three years. They deserved this. They earned it. They are in the inner circle of three disciples of James, John, and Peter. They go with Jesus on special assignments like the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the Mount of Transfiguration. So, James and John put in their claim for the top spots … before Peter can open his big mouth.

Our Lord says in essence that he can’t grant this request for those places are reserved “for those for whom they have been prepared” (Mark 10:40). Jesus is teaching that these places of honor are given by grace, not earned by merit or work.

Later, on their way to Jericho, Jesus encounters the blind beggar Bartimaeus. He cries out to Jesus to have mercy on him. Our Lord stops as Bartimaeus is brought to him. Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you” (Mark 10:51)? The blind man asks to see again. Our Lord replies, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus on the road (Mark 10:52).

Jesus asks the same question of the two groups of men. One desire is granted. The other is not.

If Jesus was asking you, “What do you want me to do for you” what would be your response? This is a very real question. Every day God puts this question before us. We don’t hear his voice, but the question is there. How do you respond with your answers, your prayers, and how you live your life?

Be aware that your sinful nature is alive and well. It will always look out for number one. It believes the world revolves around you. It believes the world is here to serve you. It even believes that God is here to serve you.

You want peace, prosperity, and plenty. You want glory, grandeur, and greatness. You want health, healing, and a home.

Now, you’re not like James and John asking to be enthroned on Jesus’ left and right. But you would at least like a seat at the head table.

You give God your time, your worship, your prayers, your offerings. You expect him to give you health, money, success, and ease. You expect him to remove pain, suffering, poverty, and death.

Notice what we have done. We expect the Lord to serve us … instead of us serving our Lord.

So, what made the request of Bartimaeus different than the request of James and John?

The brothers in their fullness wanted more. The blind man in his emptiness sought mercy.

The brothers wanted independence. Bartimaeus admitted to his dependence.

The brothers want to follow Jesus to get something from him. Bartimaeus begins following Jesus because he has already received something from him.

It’s good to come to God asking for healing, to ask for success in your business, to ask for leadership skills at home, at work, at school, and at church. It’s good and right to desire to do more, be better, be healthier. It’s wrong when we feel we’re owed these things. When they are

our reward for faithful service. When we feel we deserve an easier life, fewer hospital visits, less hassles, and more income – all because we’re Jesus’ disciples.

Jesus told the brothers that they didn’t know what they were asking for. The ones who were on Jesus’ left and right when he came into glory in Jerusalem were not James and John. Nor were they Andrew and Peter. But two nameless thieves crucified on Jesus’ left and right.

Jesus challenges the brothers. “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with” (Mark 10:38).

“We can,” they said, having no idea what they were saying or what Jesus was talking about (Mark 10:39). Jesus’ cup and his baptism are his death, where he drinks the poisoned cup of sin and death – the cup of God’s wrath poured out against sinful humanity. It is where Jesus is baptized into death for us, washed with our sin, drowned in the flood of God’s wrath. His death on a cross is a cup and a baptism - his alone to drink and be baptized with.

“You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with” (Mark 10:39). Jesus’ disciples will have a share in Christ’s suffering and death. He drinks the cup of wrath so that they - and you - may drink Christ’s cup of forgiveness. He drinks the accursed cup on the cross of death so that you might drink the cup of blessing at the Sacrament that offers life. With the cup and the bread of his Supper, Jesus gives you a share in his death and life, in his suffering and sacrifice. And in his glory.

So also, with baptism. Jesus is baptized into our death so that we might be baptized into his death. His baptism puts him on a cross where he dies for our sins. Your Baptism joins you with Jesus into his death and life so that you may live in him now by faith and in the age to come by the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus comes as a suffering Servant to serve. Jesus left the glories of heaven to be born in humility and laid in a manger. He endured hellish temptations by looking the devil in the eye for forty days in the desert. He was betrayed by Judas to the Jewish chief priests. He was flogged and crucified by the Gentile Roman soldiers. He was mocked, spat on, and killed. On the third day he rose again (Mark 10:33-34). This is how Jesus fulfilled these words: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus served and saved us for all our sins of failing to serve him and those around us.

You – Jesus’ followers, his baptized believers – you share Jesus’ cup as you lay down your life for Jesus and those whom Jesus loves. Greatness in Christ’s kingdom is not about power, but about sacrifice. “Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all” (Mark 10:44). That’s how the kingdom of God looks in this world. Humble, self-giving servants of the Servant of all.

The way of this world is to struggle for glory and power, and when you get it, to use it for your own advantage. But that’s not the way it is in Christ’s kingdom. The way of greatness in God’s kingdom is the path of service. To serve others in love.

Perhaps you can ask Jesus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Here are some ideas.

Are you a parent? Serve Jesus and your children by being a selfless servant in your home. Serve your spouse and children with loving acts of service, even though they don’t always deserve it.

Are you a student? Serve Jesus and your teachers with attention and respect, even if they are boring at times.

Are you an employer? Serve Jesus and your employees with a deserving wage and a listening ear.

Are you an employee? Serve Jesus and your employer with honest, faithful work and respect for your boss.

Are you a member of Water of Life or have children at WLS and Shoreland? Serve Jesus and your pastors and teachers by thanking God for those whom he has called to serve you with Word and Sacraments.

And so it goes. Servanthood equals greatness in God’s kingdom.

Serving Jesus and serving in Jesus’ name often means suffering for Jesus’ sake. We want to follow Jesus by carrying our cross. We want to be counted worthy of suffering in Jesus’ name. We want to be placed before kings and authorities to give our testimony before they throw us in prison for our Christianity.

Every morning the Lord asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?” We may not have the opportunity to help the pastor fix his dumpy house. We may simply want to be healthy again. Or the economy to be better. Or less tension in our culture. These are good and godly things to give in your answers. But in addition to those petitions, let your answers also include this:

“Make me like you Jesus. You served me. Make me your servant.”

“Make me like St. Paul. Make me weak so I may serve the weak.”

“Make me like the apostles – even James and John later in their ministry. Make me a humble example of perseverance during persecution.”

“Make me like blind Bartimaeus. Make me a grateful beggar for your mercy.” Amen.

No matter what your vocation in life, remember it’s all about service. “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Amen.

Submit to One Another Out of Reverence for Christ by Pastor Klusmeyer

Submit to One Another Out of Reverence for Christ

In Ephesians chapter 5 the Lord commands us to be imitators of God as his dearly loved children. In the rest of chapters 5 and 6 the Apostle Paul gives us some very specific applications of what it means to be imitators of God. This morning, we are going to focus specifically on the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. In 5:21 Paul tells us that part of walking in the love of Christ is submitting to one another. This is not a command that our sinful natures want to hear. Our sinful natures hate the idea of submitting. We love to be selfish. Our natural inclination is not to put the needs of others first, but instead to look to our own wants and desires first. We do not want to submit to others; we want others to submit to us.

One of the important things to remember as we consider this section of Scripture is that the Apostle Paul is sharing with us God’s ideal plan for Christian marriage and Christian life in general. We are never going to achieve this ideal this side of heaven. We are sinners who live in a fallen world. Husbands are going to fail in their duty to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and wives will fail to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. We all daily fail to submit and serve one another in love. It is only by the death of our perfect selfless Savior that we have been forgiven of all of these sins. It is because we have been born again through the waters of baptism that we strive each day to live in submission to each other.

Think of how Jesus summarized God’s law: love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Christian love means that we are going to put the needs of others before our own needs and live a life of service. Paul illustrates this love by offering specific advice on how husbands, wives, parents, and children are to love and submit to one another. The general principle of submitting to one another applies to all people. No matter our vocation or life situation we are called to selflessly serve one another in love. A Christian marriage gives us a beautiful picture of how the selfless love of Christ is to be reflected in our lives. Because there is so much in this section of Ephesians we are going to work through these verses together this morning. I invite you to follow along in Ephesians chapter 5 as we learn what it means to submit to one another in love.

5:22Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

Paul begins by giving God’s expectations for wives. Our modern world does not like to hear the word submit, especially when it deals with the relationship between men and women. The world demands perfect equality and equity between the sexes. Paul reminds us that God created humanity in a particular way. God created Adam first and then Eve. God assigned the role of headship to man and the role of helper to woman. God intended this to be a perfect and harmonious relationship with each member complementing the other. However, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, they destroyed God’s perfect creation and brought sin, death, and pain into the world. The harmonious relationship between men and women was also ruined. Women seek to usurp the role of headship that God has given to men, and men seek to dominate and rule over women. God says to Eve in Genesis 3:16, “Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you.”

5:23For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he himself is the Savior. 5:24Moreover, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

In these verses, Paul says that the relationship between a husband and wife is like the relationship between Christ and the church. Wives are to submit to their husbands in all things just like the church submits to the rule and authority of Christ. The church is willing to submit to Christ’s rule because it knows that Christ will always do what is best for the church. Christ’s rule is not burdensome or abusive, but instead is a rule of perfect selfless love. This is the expectation that Paul has for husbands: they are to love their wives the same way Christ loved the church. They are to carry out their role of headship always putting the needs of their wives first and serving in selfless love.

As members of the church of Christ, we know that we do not always submit to the will of Christ. We daily sin and break God’s commands. We selfishly seek to fulfill our own wants and desires. In the same way, husbands and wives do not follow God’s plan for marriage. Wives do not submit to their husbands when they are exercising their authority in a godly way, and husbands do not selflessly put the needs of their wives first.

God clearly does not want wives to submit to their husbands when they are doing things contrary to his will. Nor does God want husbands to use their authority in an abusive or domineering manner.

5:25Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

After commanding wives to submit to their husbands Paul then commands husbands to love their wives in the same way that Christ loved the church. Husbands are to show complete and total sacrificial love to their wives. Paul emphasizes that a godly husband will make decisions for his household that always put the needs of his wife first. He is to live selflessly and is willing to sacrifice everything for his wife including his own life. Husbands, we know that we have not lived up to this standard. We have not loved our wives selflessly. We are often selfish and put our own needs and desires first. We do not exercise our authority in the way that Christ does for his church which always puts the needs of others first. We have failed to be imitators of Christ.

5:26to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word. 5:27He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless.

In these verses, Paul beautifully reminds us of the selfless love our Savior has shown to us. By nature, we are dirty and filthy sinners. There is nothing in our natures that is pleasing to our God. But Christ in his great mercy lowered himself and took on our humanity. He lived a life of perfect, selfless love that always put the needs of others first. He did this most fully when he offered his holy perfect life as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this to make us holy. Through the water of baptism, we are connected to the death and resurrection of our Savior. Notice in verse twenty-seven that all the work is done by Christ. We could do nothing to make ourselves presentable to him. Instead, he washed and cleansed us so that we could be free of any stain or wrinkle of sin. The death of Jesus Christ has made us holy and blameless. The death of Jesus has fully paid for all the times that we have not submitted to others in Christ. The death of Jesus has cleansed us of all the times we have failed to live as husbands and wives according to the will of God. We are forgiven of all our sins and stand before our Savior as his radiant and holy bride.

5:28In the same way, husbands have an obligation to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 5:29To be sure, no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 5:30because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. 5:31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.” 5:32This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 5:33In any case, each one of you also is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband.

In these final verses, Paul reminds us that when a man and woman are united in marriage, they become one flesh. Because of this, a husband should love his wife because she is part of his body. This sounds self-serving but it is not. This echoes God’s command that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Paul is making the comparison between a head and a body. A head would not deliberately harm its own body because that would be harming itself. In the same way, a husband should selflessly love his wife because she is part of his body.

Finally, Paul tells us this is a great mystery because the proper relationship between husband and wife is only revealed in God’s Word. It is only because we have been born again that we can live our lives in accordance with God’s plan. As Christians, we seek to be imitators of God. We see the amazing and selfless love of our Savior and so we seek to submit to one another in Christ. Wives submit to their husbands, husbands love their wives with the selfless love of our Savior, and we all strive to love one another with the love of our Savior. Each day we struggle to live as God commands and each day we take comfort in the amazing love of our Savior who has washed us and made us holy through his blood. Amen.

Those who are with us are more than … by Pastor Zarling

Those who are with us are more than …

2 Kings 6:8-17 Now when the king of Aram was waging war against Israel, he would make plans with his officials, saying, “My camp will be at such and such a place.” 9But the man of God would send a message to the king of Israel, saying, “Be careful when you pass this place because the Arameans are going down there.” 10So the king of Israel would send scouts to the place that the man of God had pointed out. So the man of God warned him, and he was kept safe—and not just once or twice.11The king of Aram was enraged because of this. He summoned his officials and said to them, “Won't you tell me who of us is for the king of Israel?” 12One of his officials said, “No, my lord the king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of Israel the words which you speak in your bedroom.” 13Then he said, “Go and see where he is. Then I'll send men and capture him.” He was told, “Dothan is where he is.” 14So he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They came at night and surrounded the city.

15When the man of God's servant got up early and went out, there were soldiers, horses, and chariots surrounding the city. So his attendant said to Elisha, “Oh no, my lord! What will we do?” 16He answered, “Don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, open his eyes so that he can see.” Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire, all around Elisha.

Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. Amen (Revelation 12:20).

The spy was sharing all the king’s pillow-talk!

At least, that’s what King Ben-Hadad II of Aram thought. The king of Aram kept trying to set up ambushes to trap the Israelite army. He was telling his Aramean officers, “I’ll set up my camp in such and such a place” (2 Kings 6:8). But then the Israelite king would receive a message to avoid such and such a place.

The King of Aram was ticked! He gathered all his Aramean officers together and challenged them, “Which one of you is a spy for the King of Israel?!” One of Aramean officers bravely announced, “There’s no spy, O King. It’s Elisha the prophet, who tells the king of Israel what you say in your bedroom” (2 Kings 6:12).

When the King of Aram learned that Elisha was giving away his secrets, he told his officers, “Go, find out where he is so I can send men to capture him” (2 Kings 6:13). The king was told that Elisha was in the little town of Dothan. So, the King of Aram sent his army of horses and chariots to surround the city during the night.

The Aramean officers were talking with each other as played cards by torchlight. They spoke in low voices. One said, “This is a little overkill, don’t you think?” “Yeah,” another replied, “A whole army to arrest one little prophet?” Another said, “This is going to be over fast!”

How right they were! This was going to be over fast! But they were the ones who were outmanned! That’s because their fight was not against the Lord’s prophet, but with the Lord himself!

The next morning as the sun came up, the servant of Elisha opened the curtains on the windows of the prophet’s house. He rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he saw. He ran to get binoculars. He still couldn’t believe what he saw. He ran to get Elisha. The servant cried out, “Look at that sea of spears and the countless chariots! What will we do” (2 Kings 6:15)?

Elisha calmly replied, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so that he can see” (2 Kings 6:17). The Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw that the hills were ablaze! The whole countryside was filled with fiery horses, pulling fiery chariots, driven by fiery angels.

“Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). How awesome of a statement is that?!

We can so easily be like Elisha’s servant. We see the events and situations of life with our eyes, and everything looks overwhelming. We’re afraid! Elisha’s servant saw all those Aramean horses and chariots and he thought the worst.

We have an unseen enemy with seemingly unlimited power. Satan is a seven-headed dragon. He has his demonic allies. St. John describes the titanic war between the hosts of heaven and the hosts of hell: “There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).

The Lord kicked Satan out of heaven. God called upon St. Michael and his fellow angels to be his enforcers. The devil became a trespasser on God’s property, and the holy angels were the military force who made sure he left.

The great news for us is that St. Michael and his angelic army are more powerful than Satan and his angelic allies. The bad news for us is that that spiritual war in the heavenly realms has been brought to earth. “[The dragon] was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. … Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:9, 12).

Satan is ticked! He is filled with furious rage against God. He knows he has a limited time before Judgment Day ends all his wicked activity forever. So, he is busy – attacking ferociously like a dragon. We see Satan attacking us in our nation in so many ways.

We might see this battle as we focus on the upcoming elections. But we so often get caught up in discussions of right vs. left or Republican vs. Democrat or conservative vs. liberal. Those labels are so silly. A better way to view everything and discuss everything is based on what is godly vs. demonic. What is God’s will and what is Satan’s will. What glorifies Christ’s kingdom and what elevates Satan’s kingdom.

We so often wrongly believe that things like politics, government, entertainment, culture, athletics, etc. – are all neutral. But there is no neutral ground in this world. Christ is the King of kings (Revelation 17:14). Satan is the ruler of this world (John 14:30). Everything is claimed by Satan and then counter-claimed by Christ and then counter-counter-claimed by Satan. That’s why St. Paul observes, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Every battle we Christians fight in this world is ultimately a spiritual battle.

Satan snickers as citizens segregate themselves into various groups based on their skin color or economic status or political affiliation. Satan screams with delight when the Bible is banned in public schools, but pornography is put on the library shelves. Satan snorts with glee as Christians attack each other instead of uniting forces against his demonic doctrines.

Satan may have been kicked out of heaven, but he is alive and well here on earth, in our nation, in our homes, always pursuing the offspring of Christ’s Church. Satan’s end game – whether it is a full-frontal attack, or slight irritations, or appearing as an angel of light – is the same. His single, solitary goal is to distract the citizens of this world from Jesus Christ and the salvation he won on the cross and out of the grave.

Satan is a furious dragon who works to steal you and your children away from the Good Shepherd. He wants to devour you like a lion consuming his prey. His ploys may send a shiver down your back to terrify you or send a tingle up your leg to seduce you.

We have an unseen enemy with seemingly unlimited power. So, we can become terrified like Elisha’s servant. … But don’t forget. Even in the darkest moments, God’s people have an unseen army with God’s definitely unlimited power behind them. God is never surprised. His will will be done. We pray that God opens our eyes. So that we can see that those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

Who are those who are with us? God has promised that St. Michael and his angelic army are fighting for us in the spiritual realms. We are in a war. There is a spiritual fight for every soul. As Christians, we are in the middle, caught between heaven and hell here on earth. But that’s why this festival of St. Michael and All Angels is so important. It reminds us that Satan and his demons have been conquered – not with gold or silver, or moneybags or knapsacks, not with guns or tanks or even flaming swords. “[The angels] conquered [the dragon] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:20).

Satan has fallen. He has been struck down by a lamb on a stick – Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God on a cross. Dragons should easily defeat lambs, but not when the Lamb is the Son of God! The wounds of the Lamb mortally wounded the dragon.

The ancient serpent hung from Eden’s tree and set a trap for Adam and Eve. All of humanity has fallen into that trap. To release humanity from Satan’s trap, the Son of God became flesh to set a trap of his own. Entering the dragon’s domain and seeking to plunder his lair, the Son of God made himself bait. The old evil foe saw the Son of God made man and coveted Christ more than any other trophy he had won. Lucifer wanted to throw Christ down from heaven’s throne and regain his angelic place in heaven. So, Satan stirred the Romans’ bloodlust. He deceived the Jewish priests with power. He seduced the people with mob justice. He sought the death of the Lamb.

Satan took the bait. The Lamb was sacrificed. The Son of God was crucified and in one short day, in a matter of hours, all that the dragon had worked millennia for, came crashing down around him. Satan became the loser! Jesus, the murder victim, was the Victor! The head of the ancient serpent was crushed (Genesis 3:15)! All dominion, power, and authority was wrenched out of Satan’s hands and put into the nail-scarred hands of the Christ (1 Corinthians 15:24)! In one moment, as Christ breathed his last, the gates of Hades were slammed shut and the gates of heaven were thrown wide open! In a split second, Satan fell like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:17).

The war is over. But Satan is not going away without a fight. He and his demons are still battling. They are going to tempt, tease, and torment you. They will try to lead you to despair, doubt, and depression.

Jesus has given you mighty allies for these battles – his angelic army. The Old Testament often calls God “Yahweh Saboat” – “The Lord of Armies” (1 Samuel 1:11). God designed the powerful and wise angels to serve his Christians on the spiritual killing fields versus the Enemy who is rugged and relentless.

My mom used to collect angels. They were often friendly, feminine angels or little chubby-cheeked cherubs. That’s not the way the Bible describes real angels. You don’t really want to be “touched by an angel” like the 90s TV series or walk around with an angel on “Highway to Heaven” like the 80s series. Angels are fearsome warriors They are combat veterans.

The angels are fiery six-winged seraphim. They are battle-tested two-winged cherubim. They are fiery chariots and horses. They are our guardian angels who will guard us in all our ways so that our foot will not strike against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).

The angels protected God’s people by shutting the mouths of lions, walking in a fiery furnace, slaying 185,000 of God’s enemies, and busting God’s apostles out of prison. They minister to God’s people as they did to Jesus in the wilderness and Gethsemane. St. Michael, the archangel – God’s five-star general – commands his angel army. Ten thousand times ten thousand angels will protect God’s people, fight the last great battle against the forces of Satan, and gather God’s saints and take them to heaven.

We cannot always see the danger or the Dragon or the demons lurking around us. We cannot always see the protection the angels provide us. Let us pray that the Lord opens our eyes to see and believe in the innumerable angels Christ has sent to serve and protect us.

Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Amen.

Jesus assures us, “Nothing will ever harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven” (John 10:19-20).

Content to Serve by Pastor Klusmeyer

Content to Serve

How many of you remember Ernie von Schledorn and his famous tagline, “Who do you know wants to buy a car?” What is the purpose of every car commercial on television? They want to convince you that you should not be satisfied with the car you have. Our society is consumed with a compulsive need to never be satisfied. We are bombarded with ads telling us to always look for the next best thing. And it is not necessarily wrong to want good things. Maybe you do need that new car, but there is a danger that we may be lured into the trap of never being satisfied with what God has given us. In our scripture lesson, we heard how Miriam and Aaron were not content with the blessings God had given them. Their story serves as a warning for us on how seriously God views not being content with the blessings he has given us. God has blessed all of us in numerous ways and desires that we be content to serve him and others with the gifts he has given to us.

Our scripture lesson takes place shortly after Israel had left Mt. Sinai and was traveling in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. The children of Israel had grumbled against God several times during this journey and Moses had shown his servant’s heart by interceding for them. God spoke with Moses face to face and allowed him to see the form of the Lord. Miriam and Aaron envied the unique relationship Moses had with God, and they began to grumble against Moses. Miriam and Aaron were not satisfied with the blessings that God had given them. Miriam was a prophetess among the women of Israel and Aaron had been appointed as the high priest who made intercession for the people before God. But this was not enough for them. They were consumed with envy and selfishly wanted the gifts and abilities that God had given to Moses.

Miriam and Aaron failed to see that what they considered a greater gift was a burden that Moses had to bear. Ironically, Moses would have gladly shared his gift with Miriam and Aaron if they had asked. In the previous chapter of Numbers, Moses had asked for help in leading the nation of Israel. God had answered his request by selecting 70 elders to help with administration. In that same account, one of Moses’s aides wanted to safeguard his position of authority, but Moses wished that others could share in his special relationship with the Lord. But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” Moses could have jealously guarded his position, but instead, he served his people with humility as their servant. Miriam and Aaron were filled only with thoughts for themselves and were following their own selfish ambition. God’s anger was swift and severe at Miriam and Aaron for their lack of contentment. He treated this as a serious offense against him and struck Miriam with leprosy. God dealt with Miriam more harshly than Aaron because she was the one who began the attack against Moses. God also views our lack of contentment as a sin.

How often do we disregard and forget the numerous blessings that God has given us because we see that our neighbor has a different blessing from God? This sin is so common in our society that we even have clichés to describe it, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” and “keeping up with the Jones.” We can be so quick to look at our neighbor’s life and think that what they have is better than what we have. We can be envious of their material blessings, but often we can also find ourselves envying the talents and abilities that God has given them. This discontentment with our gifts can quickly lead us to other sins like coveting and envy. Like Miriam and Aaron, we forget the unique and bountiful blessings that God has given us. God has blessed us all with amazing and unique gifts. But in our sinful way of thinking it may seem like God has blessed others with “better” gifts either physically, materially, or spiritually. But the truth is our good and gracious God in his wisdom has blessed us with the gifts that he knows are best for us.

The Apostle Paul deals with this same issue in his first letter to the Corinthians. Some in that congregation felt that since they had not received the same gifts as others, they were not as worthy or blessed by God. Paul reminds them and us that God has richly blessed every one of us with the gifts he feels are best suited for us. God has chosen for us the gifts that he feels we can best use to build up the body of Christ. We can be content with these gifts knowing that God has richly blessed each of us in a way that can best serve him. The different gifts that God has given us do not make us better or worse, or more or less blessed than our neighbors. God has given to us each exactly what gifts we need to serve him best. Paul writes, “Now the body is not made

up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”

Moses gives us an example of how we can be content to serve with the gifts we have been given. Moses was able to have a heart of selfless love because he knew and believed the promises of God. He had his faith and hope in the promised Messiah. He knew God’s gracious love because he had seen it in his own life. We have plenty of examples where Moses sinned and was forgiven by God, and he mirrored God’s love as he dealt with his brother and sister.

As this section of scripture reminds us Moses was a humble man. He did not seek to be a prophet of the Lord but was called by God to that position. He did not boast of his unique calling but instead served his people in love. Moses repeatedly demonstrated his heart of love by interceding for the children of Israel when they sinned. He shows that love by immediately interceding for his siblings who were facing the wrath of God. When Aaron asks for forgiveness, Moses would have been justified in telling Aaron no. Aaron and Miriam had challenged him as God’s representative. This is what the wisdom of the world would have told him to do. Instead, he immediately forgives his brother and sister and asks God to cure Miriam of her leprosy.

Moses shows us by his actions how we are to forgive those who have sinned against us. We will be wronged by others in this life. Like Moses, the world would tell us that we are in no obligation to forgive those people. But as Christians, we know how often we have sinned against God. God does not hold any of those sins against us. All our sins, including our sins of discontentment, have been forgiven through the death of Jesus on the cross. That amazing love and grace is what motivates us to forgive others.

We have experienced God’s love and grace in our lives so we can have true contentment. God has already blessed all of us with the greatest gift ever. He sent his one and only Son to be the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins. Christ lived as a perfect servant. He is the king of the universe and yet he lowered himself to live and suffer as one of us. He took all our sins upon himself and suffered and died for us. He did this because he loved us and wanted us to have eternal life with him in heaven. God has shown such love and grace to us that we cannot help but reflect that love in our lives. We serve God in contentment not because we must, but because we love him and want to show our thankfulness to him. This is what Christians do, we do what pleases God and use our talents and abilities to his glory.

The world constantly screams at us to never be content. We are told that coveting and envy are virtues to drive us to succeed. But God gives us a very different command. As redeemed children of God, we are no longer to conform to the pattern of the world. He wants us to be satisfied with the gifts he has given us. This doesn’t mean that we can’t ask God to bless us, but we should avoid the temptation to be consumed with a need to desire gifts and abilities that we don’t have. We can be content to live peaceful and quiet lives because we have already been given the greatest treasure of all, redemption, and eternal life through the blood of Jesus Christ. We can joyfully and faithfully serve our God and be content with the gifts he has given us. Amen.

Choose Your Side by Pastor Klusmeyer

Choose Your Side

In our Old Testament lesson, the Prophet Elijah asks the people of Israel to choose their side. For many years they had been wavering between two opinions. They had been trying to serve both God and the false gods of the neighboring nations. God was angry with the people for worshiping these false gods, including the false god Baal. As a demonstration of his mighty power, God had Elijah prophesy that the land would receive no rain for 3 ½ years. This was a powerful demonstration that Baal had no power since he was worshiped as the god of storms. God sends Elijah to confront the prophets of Baal and call the people to repentance. Will they continue to follow the false god Baal, or will they return to the worship of the true God? The people need to choose their side. Elijah asks, “How long will you stagger around on two crutches? If the LORD is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him.”

God demands our complete and total obedience. His law is clear. God says, “Fear the LORD your God, serve him, and swear by his name. Do not go after other gods from among the gods of the peoples around you. If you do, the LORD your God will be a jealous God in your midst, and the anger of the LORD your God will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the earth.” The children of Israel had forgotten this command from the Lord. They forgot the disasters God had brought on their ancestors when they wandered away from the Lord and served other gods. The people wanted to have it both ways. They wanted to worship the God who had brought them out of Egypt, but they also wanted to worship the gods of the peoples around them. They wanted to fit in. And so instead of choosing a side they staggered around on two crutches and wavered between two opinions.

How often are we guilty of the same thing? Now, we don’t blatantly worship false gods, but we do break the First Commandment in other ways. Jesus tells us that the First Commandment means, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” We don’t do this very well. We come to church on Sunday, but on Monday we go to work and hide our faith so that others won’t think that we are weird or strange. We approve of things the world says are good, but we know go against God’s Word because we don’t want to face ridicule and persecution. We praise God one moment and the next we are uttering profanity and crude humor. We greet our brothers and sisters in Christ warmly as they are sitting in the pew next to us, but then gossip and ridicule them later. The list could go on and on as we stagger around on two crutches. We don’t choose a side. We want it both ways. We want to be good and faithful Christians, but we also want to hold on to our pet sins.

This is the constant spiritual battle that we fight each and every day of our lives. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Satan is waging a constant war for our souls. We see how he did this in the Old Testament by using wicked leaders like King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to lead the people to worship false gods instead of the one true God. Satan continues to use the forces of this world and our own sinful natures to lead us away from the truth and down the path of temptation. It can often seem like we are surrounded by enemies on all sides. The forces of evil look powerful and invincible and the faithful church seems like it is few in number.

Elijah shows us how to have courage in the face of these seemingly overwhelming odds. On Mt. Caramel it was Elijah versus the 450 prophets of Baal. Yet Elijah was not discouraged. He knew that he had God on his side and that “all things are possible for the one who believes.” This is why Elijah was not afraid to do things that seemed like he was giving the prophets of Baal an advantage. He wanted the people to see once and for all that only God was the true God. So, he proposed a demonstration. Each side would prepare an ox for a burnt offering and would call on their god to consume that offering with fire. Elijah let them choose which one of the bulls they wanted to use, and he let the prophets of Baal call out to their false god all day long. Elijah knew that Baal would not answer because he wasn’t real. He wanted to show the people just how foolish their worship of this non-existent god was, so he began mocking the prophets of Baal. “When noon came, Elijah mocked them: ‘Shout louder! He is a god, isn’t he? He may be deep in thought or busy or on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will wake up!’”

Elijah let the prophets of Baal continue their raving and shouting until evening, but no fire came from Baal. Finally, Elijah had enough. He told the people to draw near. He then rebuilt the altar of the Lord that was on the mountain using twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. He prepared the ox and then did something that must have seemed strange to everyone there. He ordered that a trench be dug around the altar and that jars of water be poured on the altar so that the trench was filled with water. He did this so that there could be no thought that he had used trickery or deception to start a fire. Only an act of God could burn that saturated wood.

Then Elijah prayed to the Lord. He didn’t ask God to send fire from heaven. He simply asked the Lord to answer his prayer and show the people that he alone is God. The Lord responded in a spectacular fashion, he sent fire from heaven that not only burned up the ox and the wood, but it also even burned up the stones and the water in the trench. There could be absolutely no doubt in the minds of the people. Baal had not answered, but God had. The people responded, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!”

The spiritual battles that we face each day are not as vivid as the battle Elijah fought on Mt. Caramel, but they are just as real. As we face temptation in our lives, as we look at the chaos in the world we may be tempted to wonder where God is. Where is the fire from heaven that will destroy our enemies? Dear friends, we have a far greater wonder than God sending fire from heaven. God sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to earth to destroy the work of the devil. Our enemies have all been defeated. On the cross, Christ crushed the head of the Serpent and freed us from the power of Satan. When just rose victorious from the grave he shattered the gates of death and hell and gave to us the certainty of eternal life with our Lord.

Satan can no longer accuse us of the times that we have wavered in our commitment to the Lord because we have been washed clean by the blood of Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life in our place. There was never a time he wavered in his commitment to God. When Satan tempted him in the wilderness Christ remained steadfast. When he was tempted in the Garden of Gethsemane our Savior stayed faithful to God’s purpose. On the cross, Christ endured the temptation of the mockers he tempted him to save himself. Jesus always put God first in his life. He kept the First Commandment and all the rest of God’s law perfectly in our place so that he could offer his perfect life as a sacrifice to make complete payment for our sins.

This is the certain victory that we have as followers of Christ. We do not need to fear the attacks of the world and Satan. We do not need to fear persecution or hatred from the world, because we know that the power of the world has been broken by the death of Christ. We can take our stand as witnesses of our Savior because we know the eternal victory that is ours. We fight our battle each day against the temptations of our sinful nature knowing that when we fall into temptation, we are still secure in our salvation. Satan’s flaming arrows of doubt and accusation have no power over us. We stand firm on the rock of our Savior knowing that nothing can snatch us from the protective hand of our God who is our refuge and our fortress. This is the encouragement that Paul gives us in Romans 8, “What then will we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies! Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Just as it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“Ephphatha!” – “Be opened!” by Pastor Zarling

“Ephphatha!” – “Be opened!”

Mark 7:31–37 31Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

32They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. 33Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) 35Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. 36Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. 37They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

With God's own retribution, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged. (Isaiah 35:4, 5). Amen.

Jesus is nearby! Daniel, Joseph, and Benjamin excitedly find their friend, Heresh. The last time Jesus was in the area, he healed two crazy men of their demon possession (Matthew 8:28-34).

Daniel signs the name “Jesus” to Heresh. Heresh has been deaf from birth. His parents named him after his physical disability – “Heresh” – which is the Hebrew word for “deaf.” Heresh’s deafness also created a speech impediment.

Heresh doesn’t quite understand what the big deal is about going to see this Jesus. Obviously, he hasn’t heard about any of Jesus’ healing miracles. For his entire life, he hasn’t heard anything. But being deaf and mute, he has nothing else to do. So, he joins his friends. On the way through the Decapolis, the friends take turns signing to Heresh about all the healing that Jesus has been doing in their region and how Jesus is the promised Son of God.

The four friends find Jesus. It’s easy to figure out where Jesus is in the city. A huge crowd is surrounding him. It seems like everyone in the Decapolis is there bringing to Jesus their lame, blind, and crippled (Matthew 15:30). And Jesus is healing all of them.

Daniel, Joseph, Benjamin, and Heresh wait patiently in line to approach Jesus. Finally, when it’s their turn, Joseph pleads with Jesus, “My friend, Heresh, was born deaf. He can speak a little, but only the three of us can really understand him. You’ve healed so many today. Will you lay hands on Heresh to heal him, too?”

Jesus immediately takes Heresh away from the crowds to avoid all the commotion. Heresh can focus Jesus and Jesus can focus on Heresh.

Since Heresh can’t hear, Jesus does some visual actions to convey what he is about to do. He puts his fingers into Heresh’s ears as if to say, “I’m going to fix what’s wrong with your ears.” He spits and touches Heresh’s tongue. “I’m going to fix that, as well.”

Heresh wonders why Jesus is using spittle. But, he thinks, that if his mom could use her spittle to wash his childhood face when it became dirty, then surely the spittle of the Son of God can fix his tied tongue.

Jesus looks up to heaven to communicate from where this blessing is coming. He prays: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).

Then Jesus sighs. Jesus is moved with emotion as he deals with the damage that sin has done to one of his children.

Now Jesus is ready to commence with the healing. To open Heresh’s closed ears, Jesus speaks a word – a funny-sounding word, “Ephphatha.” It may sound strange to our ears, but it is a powerful word – precisely because the Great Physician proclaims it. “Ephphatha.” It’s an Aramaic word, which is the language that Jesus speaks. “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And when the Son of God speaks, things happen.

The same fingers that formed man out of clay now reform Heresh’s inner ear canal. The same divine power that opened the floodgates to fill the oceans at creation, now opens Heresh’s ears to hear the flooding of sounds both strange and wonderful at the same time. For the first time, he can hear sounds … words … music! He is released from his prison of silence.

Heresh’s name, which means “deaf” doesn’t fit any more. He can hear for the first time in his life! Tears of joy stream down his face.

He starts praising God. And now he is even more amazed! He hears his own voice! His tongue is set free and he speaks … clearly. No learning how to enunciate. No speech impediment. He can hear and speak clearly. When Jesus heals someone, there is full restoration. He never does things half-way. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “With God's own retribution, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged” (Isaiah 35:5-6).

Daniel, Joseph, and Benjamin can hear Heresh’s voice calling to them. For the first time! They find their friend and they are hugging and laughing and crying and praising God. They tell everyone they see about Jesus, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” (Mark 7:37)!

At one time or another, all of us are going to have to endure some kind of ailments. It could be knee or back surgery, arthritis or migraines, cataracts or root canals, stroke or heart attack, cancer or dementia. We trust that God has the power to heal us completely. He may do that miraculously or through modern medicine. Or God may heal us partially as we continue to endure the ailment. Or God may not heal us at all, so we learn patience and so others learn from us about perseverance.

However God chooses to deal with us, we trust that he is caring for us individually. He is aware of all things, yet he gives each of us tender, individual care, just as Jesus did with this deaf and mute man. Jesus sighs when he sees what sin and Satan has inflicted upon us. He gives the specific healing that we need at that specific time. Whether we are completely healed, or we still struggle physically, Jesus always deals with us in grace.

St. Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn in the flesh. God allowed the thorn to remain in Paul’s flesh. When God allows our thorn to remain in our flesh, we need to be reminded of the words God spoke to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

We don’t know if it is Jesus’ will to heal us physically. Thankfully, we know that it is Jesus’ divine will to heal us of our spiritual ailments.

What are those spiritual ailments? Sadly, they are ones that are often self-imposed. We tune out God’s voice so we can live in sin with our boyfriend or girlfriend. We turn a deaf ear to God’s peace so we can walk in the door in the afternoon ready for a family fight. We close our ears to God’s love so our hearts are filled with resentment and revenge.

We turn a blind eye to the beauty of God’s creation so we may complain about whatever piddly annoyance aggravates us. We fail to see God’s overarching will for our lives so we are consumed

with worry and doubt. We are so nearsighted looking only at the trinkets of this world that we miss out on the treasures of the world to come.

We shut up our mouths, so we do not give God the glory he deserves because of our lack of worship. We close our lips, so we do not avail ourselves of God’s almighty power because of our lack of prayer. We are afraid to speak God’s truths to our children, so we don’t share our saving faith with them.

We don’t read our Bibles. We skip worship. We don’t pray with our children. We have no clue what the voice of our Savior really sounds like. We have no idea what God’s holy will for our lives really looks like. We live for ourselves and let the Savior just walk on by.

We have become comfortable with our deafness. We have become complacent in our blindness. Like Jesus warned: We have eyes but fail to see. We have ears but fail to hear (Mark 8:18).

Thank the Lord that this is why Jesus came. Satan has ruined what God made perfect. Sin has twisted the beauty of the human body. Jesus came to fix what Satan has broken. He came to heal what humanity has hurt. He came to save sinners from the damnation they deserve.

“He has done all things well,” the people said when Jesus healed the deaf and mute man. Jesus has done all things well, but the supreme thing he has done well is to rescue, redeem, and reclaim a world of lost, blind, deaf, and dying sinners.

Jesus does the fixing at the cross. All the damage that Satan caused – disease and disability and death – Jesus reverses it. All the people not living right and enjoying their sin – Jesus saves them from it. All the spiritual blindness and deafness that we allow in our daily lives – Jesus heals us from it.

We humans are out of step with God. We disobey God’s will and rebel against our Creator. And everything is messed up – our bodies, our lives, even our souls. You are here today because you know you aren’t perfect. You realize that you need a perfect Savior. You need the Great Physician to heal your physical deficiencies and your spiritual diseases.

And that’s who Jesus is.

Jesus is the perfect Son of God who came down from heaven to be our Savior. He took on our flesh. He came face to face with Satan. He came to put finger to ear and spittle to tongue with the effects of our sin. He lived the perfect life of always having an open ear to the voice of his Father and an open mouth to praise his Lord. Jesus gave that perfection to us. His holiness covers our sinfulness, heals our blind eyes, opens our deaf ears, loosens our mute tongues, and softens our hard hearts.

Jesus went to the cross to finish the job of fixing us. With the scourge marks in his back and the crown of thorns pounded into his skull and the nails in his hands and feet – Jesus saved us. That’s why the sign language for Jesus is no longer five letters. The universal sign language for Jesus is touching the tip of the middle finger into the palm of the other hand and doing the same in reverse. The sign for Jesus is the nails through his palms on the cross.

On the cross, Jesus bore the sins of our selfishness, our laziness, our lack of worship, our disobedience to his holy will, etc. He was the innocent who bore the penalty for the guilty. Jesus became our Substitute and our Savior. He spoke his own “Ephphatha” at his tomb and opened the grave so he could walk out.

Our physical ailments may continue to plague us and even kill us. But our spiritual ailments have been covered, forgiven, and eternally healed through faith in the Great Physician of body and soul.

Ephphatha. Jesus has slammed shut the doors of hell and opened wide the gates of heaven.

Ephaphatha. Jesus will open your grave on the Last Day.

Ephaphatha. Jesus has opened your heart to him through Baptism and his holy Word. Now you can believe. Now you can hear. Now you can speak. Your ears have been opened to hear the voice of the Lord. Your tongue has been loosened to praise your Savior for what he has done for you. Your heart has been healed. Your soul has been saved.

But my once broken but now healed brothers and sisters in Christ, the best is yet to come. Because of Jesus you will soon see the glories of heaven. You will hear the praise of the angels. You will sing the song of the saints.

Ephphatha. Amen.

He who has an ear, let him hear (Mark 4:23). Amen.

Rotten on the Inside by Pastor Klusmeyer

Rotten on the Inside

A few years ago, I was cutting down a large oak tree near my parent's house. From the outside, this tree looked perfectly healthy. I went through my normal cutting procedure: I made my notch on the side I wanted the tree to fall. However, as I started making my cut to drop the tree in a controlled fashion the tree suddenly and unexpectedly began to topple. What I didn’t know when I started cutting this tree was that even though it looked healthy on the outside, it was rotten on the inside. We know how true this can be in our lives. Things can look good and wonderful from the outside, but they are rotten on the inside. Appearances can be deceiving. Think of examples where from the outside it seems that someone is living an upright and virtuous life, but in reality, they’re concealing a host of sins: a police officer who’s convicted of falsifying evidence or a pastor who’s caught embezzling from the church.

When we hear about situations like this we are greatly offended. We instinctively dislike people who claim to be one thing but are really something else. This is one of the reasons that we dislike the Pharisees so much. They appeared to be pure and holy from the outside, but they were rotten on the inside. The Pharisees serve as a powerful warning of how easy it is for Christians to become inwardly focused. Instead of completely relying on Christ, we foolishly think we can add to our salvation. We quickly forget that all our good works are tainted by sin. We can do nothing to contribute to our salvation. We must be reminded daily that we are not good people; we are sinners. And it is only because of our God’s great love and mercy that we have been washed and purified in the blood of our Savior.

Our Gospel lesson begins with some of the scribes and Pharisees making the journey to Galilee to confront Jesus. As they were watching his disciples, the Pharisees noticed that the disciples were not washing their hands before eating. Now to a modern reader washing your hands seems like something perfectly good and reasonable. It’s good to wash your hands before eating to remove germs and dirt. But this isn’t the kind of hand washing that Pharisees were obsessed with. In the laws that God had given to Israel through Moses, he had declared that many things could make a person ceremonially unclean. Over the centuries the religious leaders of Israel had added to God’s law. They thought that keeping God’s law was good, but if they could keep all these additional requirements that would be even better. They foolishly thought that slavish obedience to these manmade traditions could earn them salvation and they harshly judged anyone who failed to live up to their standards of purity and holiness.

Jesus knew the hearts of the Pharisees. He understood that even though they looked pure and clean on the outside they were rotten on the inside. They did not believe they needed God to get into heaven because they could earn salvation on their own. They were skilled at following the outward requirements of God’s law, but their hearts were not in it. They kept God’s law to show how they were better than others and purer than everyone else. This is why Jesus says, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.” Jesus further explains to the crowd the error of the Pharisees. They did not understand that the purpose of God’s law is to show us our sins, not give us a blueprint for earning heaven. The law exposes the evil inside of us and reminds us how filthy our sins make us in the eyes of God. Jesus said, “What comes out of a man, that is what makes a man unclean. In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

As Christians, we understand this. We know our sins and our desperate need for a Savior. However, we also know that Satan is constantly seeking to undermine the message of the Gospel. It is very easy for us to fall into the same trap as the Pharisees. We like to think that we are better than we are. We don’t like facing the hard truth that we are by nature rotten on the inside. As we compare ourselves to the list of sins that Jesus talks about, we realize that we are guilty. We have failed to keep God’s law perfectly. And yet what do we so often do? We make excuses to try and justify ourselves. We blame others for the sins that we have committed. Or we draw comparisons between ourselves and others. We are willing to admit that we are a little rotten, but others

are far worse. We foolishly think that God will compare us with others instead of judging us for our own sins. This makes a mockery of how serious all sins including our sins are in the eyes of God.

Or maybe we have the opposite problem. Our sins are always on our minds. We carry around our guilt and shame every day. We want God to see how very sorry we are because we think that this will make God love us more. We think that carrying our burden of guilt will somehow make up for the evil that we have done. Or when we manage to keep from sinning, we want God to see what a good job we have done. But what are these things? They are simply other forms of works of righteousness. When we carry around that burden of guilt, we are making a mockery of the cross. We are saying that Jesus didn’t do everything on the cross and that we need to do something extra to ensure our forgiveness. This is the same trap the Pharisees fell into.

Dear friends, we can do absolutely nothing to add to our salvation because even our best good works are tainted by sin. We can do nothing to make ourselves clean. But this is the amazing message of the Gospel. We do not need to make ourselves clean because we have been washed and purified through the waters of baptism. Through baptism, we are connected to the death and resurrection of Christ. On the cross, our perfect and holy Savior took all our sin and guilt on himself. He offered his perfect life as a sacrifice to make full and complete payment for all our sins. We have been washed and purified by the blood of the Lamb. Through the waters of baptism, we have been made a new creation that is no longer rotten on the inside, but pure and holy. This amazing gift of forgiveness is ours by faith, not by works.

The Apostle Paul illustrates this great truth in Romans 3 where he writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

We have been declared not guilty in the eyes of God. We have been washed and purified by the blood of Christ. We no longer need to carry around a burden of guilt and shame because every sin we have ever or will ever commit has been paid for by the death of Christ. We don’t need to fear the wrath of God because Christ was punished in our place. We have been freed from the burdens of God’s law. We do not need to keep God’s law to be saved which is why Paul says, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

If we have been freed from the requirements of the law, why do we still talk about the 10 Commandments? Why does Jesus still encourage us to do good works and live according to God’s holy law? We do this because this is what our God desires. We have been reborn through the waters of baptism to live in service to our God. We are grateful for the many blessings that he has given us and so we want to live according to his will. God’s law serves as a guide for our lives. We see and know his will and desire to live according to it. We do good works because they are good and pleasing to our Father in heaven. We love our neighbor, and we flee from impurity because this is what we have been called to do. Our identity is in Christ Jesus, so we no longer conform to the patterns of this world, but instead live as God has called us to live.

From the outside, the Pharisees looked good, but they we rotten on the inside. By nature, we too are rotten on the inside. But through faith in Christ, we have been reborn. We are no longer unclean, but clean. We have not cleaned ourselves, but instead, we have been made clean by the blood of Christ. We don’t need to worry about doing good works or carrying around a burden of guilt for our sins because our salvation was won on the cross of Christ. We have been freed to live our lives in service to God in thankfulness for all that he has done for us.

Walking or Remaining? by Pastor Zarling

Walking or Remaining?

John 6:51-69 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. 55For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. 56The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

59He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60When they heard it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble in your faith? 62What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray him. 65He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.” 66After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore. 67So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

“Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). Amen.

The teenager was a little aloof. He kept people at arm’s length – especially after the fire.

The teen’s neighbor was shooting off fireworks on the Fourth of July, when one of the fireworks landed on the roof of the teen’s house. The house caught on fire and became unlivable.

Thankfully, insurance allowed the family to buy a different home in a different town. But the teen – who already had difficulty making friends – now lost all his childhood friends, his neighborhood, and his church in the move.

The pastor in his new church invited the teen to become involved in their church youth group. Things went well for a while. The teen was beginning to connect with other teens and was making new friends. Until the youth group had a bonfire. The teen became agitated. None of the other youth knew what the problem was. Even though they tried to help, nothing worked. From that moment, the teen and his family little by little pulled away from the youth group and the church and began walking away from Jesus.

Sadly, this is nothing new. There are many Christians who are on the fringe and can easily walk away. Perhaps you know someone who has walked away from Christ and his church. Or maybe you are that person who had walked away for a while … but by God’s grace he has

brought you back to walking with Jesus. Or perhaps you could walk away in the future when something or someone offends you.

You may have noticed that worship attendance in churches is down. Since 2020 faithful church members became less faithful in their worship attendance. Less faithful attendees became even less faithful. Those on the fringe disappeared. The walked away from Christ and his church. They are gone.

Jesus knows this walking away will happen. It happened to him. After Jesus fed the five thousand, the people wanted more bread from Jesus. So, Jesus used this desire for bread to teach how he is the Bread of Life. Anyone who eats of him will live eternally. Jesus taught, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).

The people understood that Jesus was not really teaching cannibalism when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Jesus taught, “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:54-56). The people knew that eating Jesus as the Bread of Life equated to believing in him.

Flesh and blood go together. This is a way of describing the whole human being. Jesus is referring to accepting his human person as the person of the Messiah. With all this talk of being the Bread of Life, eating his flesh and drinking his blood to receive eternal life, Jesus is making a claim on people’s lives as their Lord.

And that’s where they had their problem. Many of these people are part of Jesus’ larger group of disciples. These disciples were willing to go to school and be students of their rabbi. But they stopped following Jesus when he claimed to be more than a rabbi and be their Lord.

John writes, “When they heard it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it’” (John 6:60)? This teaching was offensive to them. Like your teenagers with their geometry, they grumbled, “This is too hard!”

Like a teacher who can see everything going on in his classroom, Jesus can see his students grumbling with each other in the Capernaum synagogue. Jesus asks them, “Does this cause you to stumble in your faith” (John 6:61)? The Greek for “stumble” is our English word “scandal.” This teaching tripped them up. They stumbled over it. They were trapped by it. This teaching of Jesus as the crucified Christ and also the Lord of life is the dividing line for all humanity. We either believe it or reject it. Follow or walk away. Let Jesus be Lord or make ourselves little lords.

People still walk away from Jesus. People can be upset about the style of worship, the time of worship, and even the temperature of worship. In 20 years as pastor in Racine, I’ve had as many conversations about certain doctrines of the Bible as I’ve had about the thermostat.

Sadly, there is always something that we sinners will find to become upset with in the church, the pastor, or the people. We use that something as an excuse to grumble, become offended, and

walk away from Christ and his church. Whatever it is, we feel that others aren’t listening to us. We desire to be little lords.

Satan will use any excuse to tempt us to walk away as soon as our church is not scratching the itch we feel.

The itch we feel ultimately is that we don’t want to accept Jesus as Lord. We can become upset with him when we are enduring an illness or struggling in this economy or grieving a family member’s death or really anything else where we feel like Jesus should be listening to us. We can also become offended by one of Jesus’ hard teachings like the roles of men and women or the doctrine of fellowship or the necessity of forgiving even our enemies. We grumble and walk away because we want to be little lords. We don’t want to accept Jesus as Lord. Because as Lord, he is going to make a claim on our lives.

Jesus knows his larger group of disciples are grumbling as he concludes this discourse on the Bread of Life. He finishes his sermon with this point: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe” (John 6:63-64). John comments, “Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray him” (John 6:64).

John adds, “After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore” (John 6:66). Jesus knows many of his disciples will stop believing and walk away from him. He knows Judas will betray him. So, what does Jesus do? Well, I’ll tell you what he does not do. He doesn’t soften his message. He doesn’t make his teachings less hard. He doesn’t give the people what they want to hear. He gives them what they need to hear. He doesn’t feed their sinful nature’s sweet tooth. He wishes to feed their spiritual soul with the Bread of Life.

Jesus keeps preaching. He keeps teaching. This is where we see our Savior’s love. He knows many of these disciples will walk away … but he keeps preaching. He knows Judas will betray him … but he keeps calling him to repentance for the whole next year.

Jesus knows many of us will become offended, upset, on the fringe at some time in our lives. There will be some excuse we will use to walk away from Christ and his church. What does Jesus do to keep you here and connected to him? Here is Jesus’ great love for you. Jesus keeps doing the same thing he did to bring you here and bring you to faith. He keeps feeding you the Bread of Life.

The Bread of Life you hear and believe in the Scripture readings, sermon, and hymns.

The Water of Life you received and remember in your Baptism.

The flesh and blood of Jesus for you to eat and to drink in the Sacrament of the Altar for forgiveness now and eternal life later.

Jesus descended from heaven to earth to be laid in a manger. He walked and taught during his ministry. He was raised up on the cross and laid in the tomb. He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He did all this so those who believe in him can rise from the dead and ascend to be with him in eternal life.

Jesus challenged the remaining twelve disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you” (John 6:67)? Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

I pray that you respond to Jesus by remaining with him. Where else are you going to go? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.

Respond like the Old Testament Israelites did to Joshua’s challenge. Joshua asked the Israelites at Shechem, “Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household—we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)! The people responded, “We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God” (Joshua 24:18)!

Dads, you are the head of the household. You take the lead and, Lord willing, your children will follow. You cannot lead only by talking. You must also lead by doing. Present a good example. Let your children see you casting away the idols of the world and serving the Lord in all faithfulness. Joshua was the leader, hoping that Israel would follow his lead.

Mothers, you are following your husband with your children. Allow him to lead. Nurture your children in their faith. They see dad leading. They see you trusting his leadership. They are going with you following where their father is going.

I pray all of you respond and remain with the Lord. Even if you must stand in a small group, that’s OK. You are standing in good company with Joshua, the Israelites, and the Twelve.

There will be times we will end up on the fringe. Or times when other Christian we know are on the fringe. We are all in danger of being offended and walking away from Christ and his church. The devil will tempt us with the false gods of our culture and the sugary sweet tastes of our world. Like God’s Old Testament disciples of the Israelites and Jesus’ New Testament disciples of the Twelve, you have a choice to make. Will you be offended, grumble, and walk away to be your own little lords? Or will you continue to follow Jesus as Lord and remain? Amen.

“But as for me and my household—we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)! Amen.