The Reformation Revelation Angel Points us to Jesus - Revelation 14:6-7

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

I was a delegate to the LCMS National Convention in 2010. Three-time incumbent, Rev. Jerry Keischnick, was defeated by Rev. Matthew Harrison on the first ballot. Now, before anyone gets concerned that this is a story about politics, please bear with me - it’s not, I assure you. I don’t remember the total number counts; the vote wasn’t a landslide, but it was more than just a few points between them. 

I remember a couple of things happening as the numbers came up on the screens to the left and right of the stage. There was almost simultaneously a gasp of shock from those who voted for the incumbent and a victory shout and clapping by those who voted for the challenger. In an instant, Rev. Keischnick’s face showed surprise and then reality as his brain registered that he had lost the election. It was a strange moment because he was also the chairman of the convention. Not only had he just been defeated, but now he had to graciously accept his defeat, acknowledge his opponent’s victory in as churchmanly of a way as possible, and continue through the remainder of the convention as a lame-duck chairman. He took a moment to gather himself and then congratulated President-Elect Harrison and invited him to the dais to say a few words. 

I’ve always wondered what hurt him more that day - that he had lost, or that people - fifty percent of the delegates are pastors - were literally cheering and whistling that he had lost and didn’t seem to care that his heart was breaking in front of them. 

As Harrison began walking to the front from the very rear of the convention hall, at first there was applause. Some, I’m sure, was from people merely being polite, but others were applauding as if it was Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I use that metaphor deliberately and intentionally with all the misunderstood Messianic weight it carried 2000 years ago and on that July afternoon in Houston. The camera found him walking down the aisle and you could then see him on the screens. He was motioning with his hands, not as a victor, but in a “stop, sit down, settle down, that’s enough” sort of way. As people saw this, they began to quiet down, and there was almost silence as he arrived at the stage. 

For a moment, as he stood behind the podium, that silence was held. If you’ve not met President Harrison before, he’s about my size - not quite as big around, but his mustache is much more awesome than mine, much closer to Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot. He’s an imposing figure. Then, he began to speak.

“Congratulations,” he said. “You have continued the perfect tradition of electing a sinner as president of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.” He spoke for just a few minutes and offered a few comments, thanked President Keischnick for his years of service, his wife for her support, and the Convention for its trust in electing him to the office.

And then he said this - and this is the somewhat belated point of this story - “To all of you, regardless of whom you voted for, or what you think of President Keischnick or me, or our ideas, or what we discuss in the remainder of this convention, please remember this: this is still, and always will be Christ’s church.”

This Reformation Sunday, if you remember nothing else, that is what I want you to remember: “this, this is still and always will be Christ’s Church.”

It’s easy enough to think otherwise.  We live in a world that focuses on the horizontal. Our culture, our society thinks of things in terms of “yours and mine,” or “ours and yours.” This was my work, this is your responsibility, she took my parking spot, he copied your homework, they can’t park in our lot, y’all can’t stop us. Our sinful nature is encouraged by anything that elevates the self. We do it at work, at school, at home, at the ballpark, in the gym. We even do it in the church.

Think about how we talk about brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes it’s funny. Years ago, the church I served went from 2 Sunday services to one. At the 8am service, Grandma Schmidtke sat in a particular pew. At the 10:30 service, the pew was taken by Mr. and Mrs. Luther. When we merged into one service, they literally raced to see who would get to the church first and claim that pew with a purse or a Bible. It’s my pew, not yours. Now, that was somewhat in fun, but what about when it’s not fun but deadly serious. “Well, that might be your opinion, but we’re going to do this anyway.” Sides are taken; co-conspirators and opposition lists are drawn, former friends become enemies and former enemies become friends, all for the sake of expediency. I started with the story of President Harrison’s election. Hate to tell you this, but politics in the church can be a dirty business and that one, in particular, was rough. Blogs, websites, even internet commercials and advertisements told their side of the story and flung mud at the other. And, remember, half of the delegates were pastors. Pastors as politicians is the worst kind of mixing church and state. Funny - men who are called to point people to Jesus as the means of salvation were instead pointing to their candidate, their cause, sometimes even themselves as knowing the truth that would, presumably, set the Synod free.

The church does not belong to a Synodical president, or a parish pastor, or a congregation or a group within a congregation. The Church – and here, I mean Capitol C Church, as in the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth – the Church is Christ’s. It is never mine or yours or theirs as if we own it, control it, direct it, or even die for it. That honor belongs to Jesus and to Jesus alone, who loved the Church so much that He was willing to take the greedy, self-centered harlot as His own bride, to die for Her, to redeem Her, to wash Her, to cleanse Her with His blood, and make the Church His own bride bestowed with His name: Christ’s church; the Christian Church.  

The answer is not in the horizontal. Lord, have mercy for when we seek answers among us! Instead, look vertically, heavenward, to the eternal Gospel that St. John saw in this morning’s First Reading. This is the message of the Scriptures, the heilsgeschichte, the plan of salvation for the world in Christ Jesus. From the first promise in the Garden of Eden for a seed of Adam and Eve that would be a head-crushing, satan-stomping savior, through the life and ministry and the death and resurrection of Jesus that John himself had witnessed, this message is for all people, languages, and nations under heaven on earth.

At the time John saw and wrote the Revelation, the church was experiencing great suffering and persecution. John, himself, had been exiled to the island of Patmos, cut off from the congregations, the Church, and the people whom he so loved. The other disciples had all been martyred. He was the last of the Twelve. If John heard anything from the mainland, he would have heard about a church in defeat, being ground down and wiped out by the wrath of the Roman Empire as Christians were martyred for their faith. It would have been easy to think that following Jesus was a losing cause and a waste of life, both now and into eternity. 

So, the Holy Spirit lets John see the angel flying past, carrying the Gospel. It’s as if the angel is saying, “No matter what you see or hear, John, the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, His paying for the sins of the very world that wishes to destroy Him and His people, His rescuing His people both now and into eternity – the Gospel cannot be stopped. It will continue being sent.”

And, so there was no doubt, the angel does speak. “Fear God and give Him glory,” he said, “because the hour of his judgements have come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

The angel speaking to St. John does so with the authority of God Himself. Remember, John is still on the island. Yet, the promises of God, when given, even though they will not be fulfilled for some time, they are spoken as if they have already happened. God’s future promises are already yes and now in Christ. The judgement has come – it was poured out on Jesus at the cross. That was His hour and that was His glory. The church – God’s church, Christ’s church, the Spirit’s church – the church of the Triune God, it endures in heaven and on earth, from sea to sea.

At the time of the Reformation, the church on earth had lost sight of that, misplacing Christ’s church with the church of man. Grace was replaced with works; faith was replaced with effort; the Scripture was replaced with ecclesial decrees. Luther and the Reformation returned the focus to Christ, grace, faith, and Scripture. It was Christ’s church, after all. We follow in the footsteps of Luther and the other Reformers who, themselves, stood on the shoulders of those who came before them. We do not worship Martin Luther, or the other early Lutheran fathers, but we thank God for them, using them to again allow the bright light of the Gospel to shine forth into the world.

There’s a saying, “Ecclesia semper reformanda.” “The Church always needs reforming.” Some see this as an excuse for radical change and shift in theological ideology and practice. Not at all. It’s the reminder that we, the Church, must always be re-formed into the likeness of Christ. It’s our baptismal identity, after all. It’s His church. This, this is still, and always will be, Christ’s church, remember.

 

 

The Blind Leads the Blind to Follow Jesus - Mark 10:46-52

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

Many of us grew up learning various prayers. The Lord’s Prayer, of course, we learned early on by sitting in our parents’ laps at home and in church, hearing the words repeated day after day, week after week. “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest,” we learned at the dinner table.” “We can’t eat until you fold your hands and pray,” was sometimes a battle of wills, but sooner or later, hunger won out and we prayed, even if somewhat begrudgingly. At bed-time, we taught our kids the prayers we learned from our parents. Some are old poems like “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Others were hymns: “Now the light has gone away…”, “Abide with Me,” “or even a version of the 23^rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd/ I shall not want/He makes me down to lie; In pastures green/He leadeth me/the quiet waters by.” Even now, I still say those at times.

One of the oldest prayers of the church is called The Kyrie: Lord, have mercy. We pray it almost every Sunday in one form or another, sometimes spoken, sometimes sung, sometimes more than once. Kyrie means simply, Lord, and it is half of the prayer. The other half, the “have mercy” portion, comes from the word Eleison. Kyrie, eleison – Lord, have mercy. It’s the prayer of the faithful, uttered when we cannot see what is ahead, when we’re not even sure what to pray for, when the words won’t come and thoughts get jammed up, when we cannot begin to know what is in store for us. It’s a prayer uttered in the blindness of the moment, if you will, yet it is also prayed with clarity of sight because in that moment, in that Kyrie, eleison – Lord, have mercy moment – all we can see is our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Arnold Kunz – you have heard me refer to him often – once wrote, “Life narrows down. And when life gets hard and narrow, there in the middle stands Jesus.” In the light of this morning’s Gospel lesson, I might edit that slightly: When life gets hard, and narrow, and dark – so dark that you cannot see what is immediately or distantly ahead of you, let alone what is there until the ending – there is Jesus.

That is what faith is, isn’t it? The Bible defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Although we cannot see, we know, believe, trust, and rely that God, in Christ Jesus invites us to come to Him with His promise to hear us and, in His perfect wisdom and will, to answer.

And, when life is dark and narrow and hard and so heavy that you don’t even know what to pray, we are given this simple prayer, Eleison: “Have mercy.”

Bartimaeus was blind. His eyes did not work – why, for how long, we don’t know. WE do know his eyes have failed him; presumably so have family as he is reduced to begging for survival. That’s all we know about him, that and his father’s name is Timaeus. Oddly specific, don’t you think? He’s just a beggar, and a blind one at that. I wonder how many other beggars, blind or seeing, were in Jericho on the Jerusalem road at that time. But Mark names him, camped out on his spot, on his little patch of ground, hoping for a few pennies so he can buy some food and live to beg another day.

Bartimaeus’ story is one of contrast.  In front of him is a great crowd, all tagging along after Jesus. Among the crowd are the Twelve, the disciples.  Our lectionary does us a disservice, yet again. Last week and the Sunday previous, we had the exchange between Jesus and the rich young man split in two, completely losing the narrative flow of the story. This week, we jump over an awkward exchange that happens between the rich young man and the narrative of Bartimaeus, probably right outside Jericho’s walls.

Two of the disciples, James and John, are identified as brothers, as the Sons of Zebedee. When Jesus called the brothers to discipleship, back in Mark 3, He identified them as Boanerges, Sons of Thunder. As they journeyed along, the brothers were having a whispered conversation, creating just enough of a stir that Jesus turns and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” The Thunder boys were caught in their foolishness but, to their credit, they at least had the fortitude to speak up. This was their moment! They could see their reward; they had visions of greatness and grandeur; they had a sight on future glory. Teacher, they said, we want places of honor, on your left and right, when you enter your kingdom. Bold, arrogant request. They wanted to gather up the glory, honor and prestige for themselves. Sons of Thunder, indeed.

But this was not so of this Son of Timaeus. He doesn’t want power or glory. He has no vision at all, let alone visions of grandeur. He only asks for mercy. Notice, James and John call Him “Teacher;” Bartimaeus calls Him by name, Jesus. More than that, Bartimaeus identifies Jesus as the Son of David. He is using promise language, Messianic language, faith language, trusting that this One whom he can’t see but knows is capable of mercy beyond a few coins for today’s meal. Though blind, he sees Jesus more clearly than James and John. His prayer, not a thunderous, foolishly bold request for power but a cry of despair from the darkness. Υἱὲ Δαυείδ, ἐλέησόν με – Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Nothing will get in his way so that Jesus can see him, Bartimaeus, for who he is. The crowds rebuke him – after all, he is just a beggar, remember, a deformed piece of detritus like so much trash in the ditch, human refuse to be ignored. Bartimaeus can’t see, but he can hear what they are doing to him and his voice works just fine. He stands up so his voice will project, and cries out again, even louder this time, Son of David, have mercy on me! His cloak, possibly his only earthly possession, is cast aside so nothing gets in the way of his being seen by Jesus. James and John want more; Bartimaeus leaves behind everything and anything that inhibits and encumbers his way to Jesus.

Jesus stops on the road. In my mind, I see him stepping to the side of the road where Bartimaeus blindly turns his head, trying to locate Jesus by sound. The noisy crowd grows quiet, in curiosity and in anticipation of what Jesus will do with this…this…human garbage. I see Jesus step in front of Bartimaeus, perhaps reaching out with his hand, toughing Bartimaeus’ arm, his shoulder, and Bartimaeus reacting suddenly to human touch. Jesus’ gentle voice finally breaks the silence.  “What do you want me to do to you?”

At first glance, that seems like an absolutely foolish question. After all, what else could a blind man want but his sight? A deaf man would want hearing; a mute man, speech; a leper, wholeness; a lame man, the ability to walk. So, yes, there is that – his eyes don’t work; he wants to be able to see the city, the people, the dangers and the beauty that is all around him. But this is more than just a request for 20/20 vision. His request runs even deeper – that he be allowed to see Jesus fully for who He is, not merely a divine vending machine who can dole out power and authority, but as the very Messiah, the Son of David, who has come to save, rescue and redeem a spiritually blind, deaf, and mute world.

Remember – all this takes place on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. In Mark’s Gospel, “road” always has the connation, the reminder, that Jesus’ road is the journey of faithfulness to the cross. He is never just taking a stroll; he is going to His sacrificial death for the world’s sin. The disciples have watched the journey but they still don’t see Jesus for who He is or the journey for what it is. The Sons of Thunder see, but they are blind. This blind man, the son of Timaeus, he sees Jesus for who He is. Timaeus means “honor.” Bartimaeus means “Son of honor.” Literally, the blind man Bartimaeus has the honor of showing the blind James and John what they are to be seeing.

It was the prayer of the faithful, spoken when one can’t see what is ahead. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy.” What else can Jesus do but hear and answer? In His mercy, in His great love, He restores Bartimaeus’ sight. Mark says he recovered his sight. It’s a passive verb – the idea is more like his sight was restored. By God’s grace, through faith in the unseen Jesus, Son of David, Bartimaeus was able to see. He responds the way that only disciples can – he follows Jesus on the way. On the way…that’s cross language. The Son of Honor follows Jesus to the true seat of honor: to the cross.  

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus does exactly that: He has mercy on Bartimaeus, and James and John, and the Twelve, and the crowd outside Jericho, and you and me. He came into the world to save sinners. He came into the world to show mercy.  Mercy is not getting what we deserve. It involves kindness and compassion; loving the unlovable. In His mercy, Jesus takes our spiritual blindness, and deafness, and muteness, and all other spiritual disease that leads to eternal death, and He takes it into Himself, dying the death we deserve. Jesus has mercy on sinners. In His passion and at the cross, He prayed His eleison, pleading for His father’s, His mercy, only to be denied. Ali, Ali, lamma sabacthani?  My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? This, so that we do not get what we deserve: eternal separation from God.

In His death and resurrection, grace upon grace was bestowed up us. If mercy is not getting what we deserve, grace is getting what we don’t deserve. We are given Christ’s holiness, His forgiveness, His righteousness, we are made right with God by His grace through faith in that blessed death of Jesus, Son of God, Son of David, the Messiah, the Christ.

What do we want when we pray? For His mercy. When we are blinded by life’s circumstances, when our own crosses seem ready to overwhelm, when life is dark, and hard, and narrow, we pray, “Lord, have mercy.” When we can’t see what is in store, that Jesus – who has walked the valley of the shadow - guides, leads, and directs us. It’s the way of the cross, following Jesus through this life. 

There is a wonderful prayer in our hymnal – it’s on page 311, Collect #193. It’s an extended Kyrie, if you will.

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

You Can't Get into Heaven on the Back of a Camel! Mark 7:23-31

Grace to you and peace from God our father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning's gospel lesson seems to have a whole series of strange statements spoken by Jesus as well as some apparent contradictions. He begins by saying how it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.

What's that all about? Some people will say that this is some kind of a strange archaeological, architectural design of the city walls of Jerusalem, a small doorway that's designed to keep the camel cavalry out of the city, preventing soldiers riding on the back of camels from riding into the city. For a camel to get through this supposed camel gate, it would have to get down on its knees to crawl through this small doorway. A single defender on the inside, stationed at that doorway, would be able to keep anybody out of the city. Camels can’t crawl. There is no such history anywhere of such a thing. Someone is trying to make sense of Jesus’ words.

It’s much easier than that. Jesus is actually speaking in a type of hyperbole, exaggeration to make a point. You know, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a billion times He does this sort of thing.  So, when He says, “It's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man into heaven,” he’s saying the only way a camel will get through the eye of a needle is for it to be destroyed, to be taken apart, to be chopped into itty bitty pieces. To be passed through the eye of a needle, and if that were to happen, it wouldn't be much of a camel. Now would it? And if that were to happen, dash. If you were to chop up a camel into itty bitty pieces to pass through a needle dash, it would be impossible for it to be put back together into any form, shape, or semblance of a camel.

And that's the point. It can't happen. If you were to try to do that, you would destroy the very thing you're trying to do. You can't pass a camel through the eye of a needle without destroying it’s very camel-ness.

Remember, this is the continuation of last week's gospel reading, where the rich young man came to Jesus with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  In the conversation, Jesus challenges the man to keep all of the second table of the law. The young man replies, “All of these I've been doing since childbirth.” I’ve got it covered, Jesus.  So Jesus turns the tables, or rather The Table, the Table of the Law, on him. Jesus turns from the 2^nd Table of the Law, which deals with the relationship with your neighbor, the horizontal relationships, and turns the man back to the 1^st Table of the law, which has to do with the relationship with God, the vertical. The rich young man thought he had it all figured out, but when Jesus turns the Table, the answer to “What must I do?” becomes apparent from Mark’s note: “He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” He was more content with his God being his wealth and, presumably, the fame and good status and goodwill of the community in which he lived rather than his relationship with God.

So when Jesus continues with his teaching about how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter into the Kingdom of God, there is a bit of concern on the part of the disciples when they hear this. In that day and age, it was understood that to be very wealthy is to be very blessed, indeed, by God. Wealth was a measure of how they saw one's relationship with God. The more blessings you have, the more blessed by God you are. And the inverse was also held as true. If you did not have material blessings, therefore you must have done something to displease God and you are not blessed by God. In a sense, we still have some of this idea today. If you know anybody who speaks of karma, that's the basic idea behind that teaching. If you do good, good things happen; If you do bad, bad things happen. And the reverse, that is also true: if bad things happen, you must have done something bad period. If good things happen, you must have done something good. And so for Jesus to say it's going to be difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom, well, that's a mind-blowing teaching for the disciples and for others who are listening to Jesus.

Wealth in and of itself is not a bad thing. Money, like any other earthly blessing, is completely neutral. It is a gift of God. How it is used determines whether it is a blessing for good or a blessing for evil. Do you use financial blessings to help your neighbor or do you do it solely for your own benefit? Do you use it in compassion for the least and weakest, or only help others in a similar plane as you? The same is true of health or intelligence or ability, or any other talent that we might have. While these are gifts of God, the question is how are they used, are they understood as gifts, are they received in gratitude? If it is received in thanksgiving, in gratitude to God, for the welfare and well-being of our neighbor, then it's a gift used well. It is being used as an instrument of God for those around us. \

But when those gifts become the in-all, end-all, all-and-all in and of themselves, where the gift becomes the thing that is revered and honored and loved and respected more than anything else, that becomes a person’s god. This is true whether it's one's bank account, or ability, or a relationship, or a job title, or a position, or any kind of authority that they hold – frankly, anything that gets in the way of God and one's relationship with God becomes a God in and of itself. That's what Jesus means when he says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. In fact, you can substitute any other First Article, daily bread gift that has taken the place of God and substitute it for the adjective “rich,” – it’s easier for a camel than a [blank] person – and you have the exact same thing, period.

And that's why the disciples were floored. How is it possible then for anyone to be saved? Look at it through their eyes. They've given up everything in order to follow Jesus. They've surrendered their first article blessings, leaving their homes, their families, their vocational careers, everything in order to follow Jesus. Surely, they should have some kind of status, some kind of inherit, inside track because of this…right, Jesus? In the light of this teaching, they perceive that this idea is wrong. No, not just wrong: it's impossible for someone to enter the Kingdom of heaven on their own. Their question is honest. What about us? Are we going to inherit the Kingdom? Will Re will we receive the eternal reward, or are we going to be on the outside looking in just like this rich young man that we just saw leave here. Sad and disappointed.

Jesus says, “With man it's impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” If one is trying to earn his or her way into heaven, or, to use the language of the rich young man, to be so bold as to argue, “I’ve done all these things…this makes me worthy,” it's impossible.

Remember, I said it’s possible to get a camel to get through the eye of a needle, but to do so you must actually destroy it’s camel-ness. For us to get riches right, we need to be destroyed –spiritually destroyed. We need to die, to drop dead to our riches, our things, our stuff. It’s called repentance, repenting of all the idols and idolatries that want us to maintain a death grip on them. esus, the One who is speaking these things, came from the riches of heaven to the poverty of our life. He became poor for our sakes. He became our Sin. He died our death. He gave up father and mother and sister and brother and lands and houses. He was tempted by Satan that all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and riches could be his for one little act of worship. He refused. Instead, He chose the way of the least, the way of poverty and weakness and loss. You cannot squeeze through the eye of the needle; but Jesus, in His poverty and weakness, can. He brings you to the eye of the grave, His grave, and strips you of everything that would get in the way. In exchange, He clothes you in Himself, in His righteousness, in His holiness.

Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, heaven: All of these are gifts given by God by grace through faith. It's nothing that we earn. It's nothing that we attain. It's nothing that we were able to produce in and of ourselves. All of these things are ours only by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus.

I said a moment ago that first article gifts are blessings of God. That's true. What the rich young man forgot is what Jesus had taught elsewhere, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” The rich young man was anything but poor in spirit. He wanted to argue his worthiness on the basis of his self-worthiness. Someone who is poor in spirit recognizes that they have no riches in and of themselves. They realize that they are spiritually bankrupt, spiritually destitute, totally relying on God in his grace through the merits of Jesus Christ. The poor in Spirit realizes that they have nothing to offer to God except the blood of Christ, which is paid for them. The poor in spirit recognizes that Jesus Christ paid the full atonement price of their sins with his own precious blood, of greater worth than silver or gold.

When we see treasure in Christ Jesus, and not in our material possessions; when our First Article gifts are tools given by God to help our neighbor and the Kingdom of God and not merely means to more stuff; when we surrender our self, our own camel-ness, it becomes easy to enter into the Kingdom.

Earlier, I said there is no such thing as a camel-gate in the city wall of Jersualem. That’s true. But there is a hole in the wall of heaven. It’s shaped exactly like a cross.  You enter heaven through Jesus Christ and Him alone.  Amen.

Baptismal Inheritance - Mark 10:17-22

 

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

Jesus is teaching confirmation class today. It’s a review of the second table of the Law which speaks to our relationship with our neighbor. Don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, slander, or fraud anyone and honor your parents. These are the specific examples of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The young man who speaks to Jesus says he’s kept all of these since childhood. We might nod along with that assessment. After all, at face value, we’re pretty good at keeping the commandments, too. Murder – nope. Haven’t even been in a fist fight. Stealing? Well, there was an unfortunate incident involving some Christmas cards at church when I was a kid, but that was an accident – they were on the same table as “free – take one” items. Adultery? You won’t find any scarlet letter on my shirt, thank you very much. Fraud? Never! Why, I did a little project for a lady who wanted twelve boxes. I gave her a baker’s dozen, just in case one broke. Honor my parents? I call my mom weekly…well, maybe every other week.

That’s my list. You have your list, don’t you? You can go down the list of commandments, checking them off, one after the other. We’ve been doing these things since we were kids. We’re certainly not like those other people we see on the news…

That was the young man’s logic who ran up to Jesus. Unlike the scribes, pharisees, and teachers of the Law who were intent on tripping up Jesus and catching Him in a snafu of legality, he asked a sincere question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life? I’ve done all these things. What am I missing?” From his perspective, he feels justified – self-justified to be sure, but still, worthy of receiving this inheritance of heaven. I’ve done this all, Jesus: thumbs up, right?

He’s expecting an attaboy, a blessed assurance that he’s on the right track. Then Jesus turns the tables. Well, the Table, really, from the Second Table of the Law to the First. The Second Table has to do with our relationship with our neighbors; this is the horizontal realm. But the First Table has to do with our relationship with God; this is the vertical realm.

Jesus does this subversively. Elsewhere, He teaches the summary of the first three commandments as, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” A god is anything you fear, love and trust. Jesus, who is able to see into this man’s heart, knows that man’s god – lower case g – is his wealth. Jesus loves the man – He doesn’t want to see the young man perish into eternity by chasing after a false god. Subversively, Jesus teaches the man something about who his god really is. He calls the man to repentance, to stop worshipping the false god of his wealth and love the Lord your God instead. “Go, sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” It’s as if Jesus is asking, “Where does your fear, love and trust rest? Is it in me, or in your wealth?” The man’s actions serve as the sad conclusion: “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

When you ask a law question – what must I do? – Jesus gives a law answer – here you go. Do this. And the law, in the face of our failures and our shortcomings, always accuses. It accuses doubly so when Jesus strips away any aspect of the Law that we think we can hide from. Love God? Of course I do. No, Jesus says, do you love God more than anything else, fearing and trusting Him above all things. The rich young man realized his god was his wealth, by extension, maybe also his prestige in the community, his reputation, his own name, but his god was not the God who stood in front of him. What must I do? Fear, love and trust God, the true God, not the bank account, more than anything and anyone else. Get rid of anything and everything else that vies for that number one spot. In fact, stop thinking of it as one-of-many; God is one of one. Nothing else comes close.

In reality, if we take that same approach and go back and look at the second table, we realize we’re not as perfect as we first thought. Maybe that struck the young man, also, as he walked away. True, I haven’t taken another man’s life, but I’ve wished ill on someone else, even calling them hurtful, harmful names. Jesus teaches that is just as guilty as physical murder. Even if you never touch the woman who is not your wife or the man who is not your husband, if you even have lustful thoughts in your mind and heart, Jesus says you deserve the Scarlet Letter A of adultery. Even if you never take a penny that does not belong to you, but if you fail to help your neighbor protect and preserve that which is his or hers, you are complicit in stealing. The law always accuses; the law never lets up.

And so the Old Adam tries even harder. It’s part of our selfish, sinful egocentric nature. “What must I do?” Surely, there is something? It’s a loaded question, one we must be very careful of asking. The Old Adam and Old Eve is incredibly selfish and arrogant. We’re number one! Even Bob the Builder taught out kids – we can do it, yes we can! We set ourselves out to be god, or at least, equal to Him. What can I do? Let me tell you…  

Careful…It’s one thing to ask your spouse or your parent, what can I do to make you happy. It’s a whole ‘nother thing if we think we can approach God with our grocery list of good deeds, as if we can somehow negotiate our way into God’s good graces. We’re quick to make our suggestions: I gotta go to church, I gotta give my offering, I gotta be a better parent, I gotta be a better student, I gotta be better in my Bible reading, I gotta pray more, I gotta…” Have you noticed that list always grows? There’s never an end. There’s always something else we think we gotta do:  I gotta watch my mouth, I gotta keep my eyes from wandering, I gotta stop whispering…” The list never ends; the list is never accomplished; the list is never perfected. The list tells the tale.

What must I do? Repent. Repent of the ways we disobey the commandments, both in letter and in spirit. Eternal life is not yours to earn. It’s God’s to give. You know what God wants from you? Your sins. That’s all. When you fear, love and trust Him, you surrender all of your sins to Him. Only He can take them from you. He doesn’t want your perfection, or your best of intentions. He wants your sins. That’s what He sent Jesus for, to be your Savior. Jesus came to trade His perfection for your imperfection. Don’t put Jesus out of a job! He came to take your sins from you. Instead of trying to do better, and then when you fail try even harder – as if you could somehow attain perfection that way – instead, confess your sins. Surrender them all to Jesus: all of the I gottas, the I wouldas, the I couldas, the, shouldas turn them all over to Jesus and trust that His once-for-all death on the cross pays for your sins. You do nothing; Jesu does it all. You have nothing to negotiate with, so out of His great love for you, Jesus speaks for you with His Father in heaven. Jesus says, “My life for his; My life for hers.” The answer to “What must I do to inherit eternal life” is this: I must do nothing, for Jesus has done it all at the cross. At the cross, in His dying breath, Jesus declares: There is nothing left for you to do. “It is finished.”

I started this sermon by saying that the man’s question was an honest one. While it may have been an honest one, it was a misguided question. Go back to the question with me one more time: “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” What must I do to inherit? Answer: you do nothing to inherit anything. Inheritance is something that is given by the head/s of the household to those who in the family. You don’t earn inheritance by something you do. Inheritance is a gift. You don’t buy it, you don’t negotiate for it.

Last Sunday, I watched a baby receive her inheritance. She had nothing to bring, nothing to give, nothing to offer. If she could have asked, “What must I do – what can I do?”, the answer would have been “nothing.” In fact, she couldn’t even come to the font by herself. Her mom and dad brought her. And in the washing of water and the proclamation of the words of the Lord, she received her eternal inheritance.

Inheritance is yours by nature of who you are: a son or daughter. Inheritance is yours by nature of whose you are: a son or daughter of the giver. Inheritance implies family. Inheritance is yours be birthright. When you are born into a family, the inheritance is already yours. But, the inheritance isn’t delivered, usually, until someone dies.

This is what God has done for you in Christ Jesus. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Your inheritance, your eternal inheritance, is delivered to you through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Last Sunday, that little baby received her eternal inheritance because God, rich in mercy, delivered it to her through the death of His Son, Jesus. You do nothing to inherit it, but you receive it by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Who is your God? Easy. He introduced Himself to you in your Baptism with His Triune name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The sign of the cross was placed on your heart and your forehead in token of being redeemed by Jesus. Through the washing of water and Word, you are made His beloved sons and daughters. So there is no doubt in your mind of your adoption into the family of God through Christ, you are given Jesus’ name. You are called “Christian,” which means “Little Christ.” It’s not something you negotiated with God.

What must I do to inherit eternal life? Nothing. It is yours, by grace through faith. God has declares it; you simply respond in faith: Yes, Lord, I believe.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.