WWJD? [Trinity 13; St. Luke 10:23-37]

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Jesus speaks to us today, saying,

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”

Today I’m going to start off with a question, not to be insulting, because I ask it of myself as well. That is, what are you doing to make St. Luke better? What are you doing to help St. Luke? Now, to be sure, just having the building here is a giant step. It is a visible sign of gathering that shouts, “This is where the Lord communes” to the entire community.

Yet, what we encounter in these questions is the biggest impediment to the Christian faith for anyone and everyone. That is, our own perceived goodness. We must admit the wrong and pay the high cost of doing so. We may be doing our best, but is it the best in the right direction? We may be busy about church, but are we busy about the Church’s business? We must be honest and transparent and then take steps to change the wrong behavior.

We don’t do this because it is self-defeating. It is agonizing having to admit you are wrong because then your whole aura of “proven-authority” and “trustworthy leadership” is thrown out the window. If you are wrong even once, it is used to smear your reputation into the ground. We have been made to be afraid of the liberty to fail, by current culture, for fear of being proven wrong.

Now, there is a trick to this and it works personally as well. Aesop tells us of a parched crow who comes upon water at the bottom of a jar. He cannot reach it with his beak and tipping the jar over doesn’t work. So, he starts piling pebbles into the jar. As the pebbles fill the jar the water rises to the top and he is able to drink. Little by little does the trick.

However, we have our man from Jerusalem. He is bold. He knows the danger that faces him in his quest on the road to Jericho, yet he risks it anyway. He is a man on a mission. For whatever reason, he has his orders to go down this road, so like it or not he must go. Yet as we see, his zeal, his defense, and his self-sufficiency are not enough to weather the storm.

Turn back! Don’t go that way! If only this guy would have listened to his friends or his wife who probably told him, “The old Jericho road?! Are you crazy?!” If only someone had told him that there was another way, what I mean is, if only I had been there.

Or at least, that’s what we see. What we hear is a different story. What God is telling us here is that this man is supposed to go down that road, he is supposed to be waylaid, and he is supposed to be ignored all the while lying half-dead in the way. It is ordained by God that this should happen.

Repent. We only have one road to walk down not many, that is the road of life, but just because we will fall and fail does not mean that should dictate a fatal view of our own actions. When we come to the realization that we are not in charge, that good and bad things happen to us and they’re all good for us, and that we don’t save the church or the world, then we begin to make progress.

Luther says that even if he knew the world was ending tomorrow, he would still plant a tree today. Human action is never futile, if done in faith. Apathy and despair is not in the Christian vocabulary because Christ has ordered all things for our good. ALL things. Even this man’s tragic encounter with the robbers, the priest, and the Levite.

Not very motivational, but the Church, we all sitting here baptized and believing, are the half dead man. The reason this is is because so many of the words Jesus uses in this pericope describe the Church.

In verse 30, Jesus replies or “takes up” the argument of self-justification and proves it wrong. Jesus is the man Who takes up the Church and acts in it and the Church uses the same word responding with, “We have taken up your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.”(Ps. 48:9) Meaning, of course, that we have taken up Jesus and placed Him on the cross.

The Church has “gone down” from her Lord. She has been brought from the heaven of Jerusalem and set down on the earth away from safety and set towards the world of corruption in Jericho, where she encounters unbelievers and robbers in the world, desiring her doom.

And she finds no rest in earthly princes. Her own men abandon her and leave her. The priest and the Levite, though they came from her, walk a way that is opposed to the Church or “on the other side” of what the Church is given. In this life and because of betrayal, she receives wounds, or trauma. This then becomes one of the marks of the Church, that she is traumatized according to the world.

She appears to be that fallen, tragic figure that lays on the side of the road of life. Beset by schisms and internal strife, fallen among the sin and corruption of the robbers where she is left as an example to others. Yet, we have ceased to talk about the Church and begun to speak of Christ, for it is He that is “…the Lamb looking as if he were slain.” (Rev. 5:6)

Where Christ is, there is His Church. Has He stepped down from heaven, so does she. Has He fallen among robbers and hypocrites, so does she. Is He betrayed, scourged and does He suffer, so does she. Is He left on the cross as an example of what not to do in this world, so is she. Jesus treads the death-filled road to Jericho before us yet, in His so doing creates salvation.

For now there are other words in the Gospel that point to the resurrected work of Christ for His Church. The Samaritan’s journeying is just as purposeful as the robbers and the priest and Levite. But, where the others go towards tragedy, the Samaritan journeys, expecting to find the half-dead man. Jesus steps down from heaven expecting to find believers on their death-beds in sin.

But this trauma is cared for, twice over! Not only does our Good Samaritan bind up our wounds in mercy, but He drops us off at the nearest church to continue the process. This healing and salvation has been paid for. This care and concern had a price and a bill that has been covered completely, by our Good Samaritan on the cross.

Now that Christ has become our Good Samaritan, raised from the trauma and death inflicted upon Him in our place, we are mercy-filled and show mercy. Instead of worrying about ego and what everyone will think of you, you head fearlessly out on the road to Jericho, because Jericho is also in need of the mercy of Christ Crucified. Regardless of whether or not you get there, the road to Jericho is also in need of mercy.

Where you are now is where you’re supposed to be. Though it is difficult and though you may make the wrong decisions, you are cared for and your trauma will be taken away. For Jesus will have mercy and not sacrifice as He promised, not as you succeed or fail. Even if it means God needs to be the sacrifice to create such a world. Which He is.

The pattern this all gives us, then, is facing the importance of Word and Sacrament. Here is the greatest change a church can make anywhere she finds herself: to not only receive the Sacrament (think oil and wine) as often as possible, but to bring that exact thing to those suffering in their own sin. What we have been doing wrong is trying to better people’s lives. What we need to do is bind up their wounds with the Lord’s Supper.

We are not immune to the trauma caused by sin and death, though we may think so. We are also constantly put in a half-dead state by our own sins and no matter how good we think we are, we are in need of the same forgiveness and mercy necessary to everyone else. This is why it is easier to get into heaven if you are a prostitute or a tax collector. You already know you’re not getting in on your own goodness.

Thus the Church Christ gives us and places us in, is in the business of caring for the fatally wounded. Jesus only gives us weapons to bind up and heal, not to tear down or destroy. The real power of the Church is exposing sin and raising to new life; pointing out the damage and giving the means to undo it, in Word and Sacrament.

Jesus has not only traveled the road to Jericho, but has reached the destination taking on the suffering, sin, and death of the whole world. In His second coming, He will undo the old, sin-filled ways and remake them into new ways filled with His sinless glory, leading us down these paths forever.

Search Scripture [Trinity 12; St. Mark 7:31-37]

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God is speaking to you today, saying:

“And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”

So first we will allegorize this miracle because we think we are not deaf and dumb. But that we hear just fine. We will say that we are waiting for Jesus to open figurative doors in our lives, so that we can walk through them and say we’re blessed. We will also say that we must work on the “closings” in our lives by finding out why they’re closed, opening them ourselves, and giving thanks and praise, just like the Pharisee last week.

With that false thinking out of the way, we will instead ponder what an enfleshed God is doing literally opening this man’s ears and tongue and what that has to do with our ears and tongue. Remember, God does not change. If He is opening the ears and tongue of one man, He is opening the ears and tongues of many to hear and speak the forgiveness of sins.

What causes them to be closed in the first place? There are two answers. The first is Original Sin, meaning everyone without exception, comes out of their mother not hearing and not speaking and not just physically. We are born spiritually dead in our sin as well. All of our faculties are closed towards God and must be forced open. This is why we baptize infants.

The second answer takes a bit more personal responsibility, because our own sinfulness destroys faith and undoes what Christ gives us in baptism. What you must do and haven’t done is actively search the Scriptures for your salvation, even in regards to what healing this deaf and stammering man, means for you today. And not just on your own, but with your church more than 1 hour a week.

On Easter morning, Jesus leads a Bible Class with 2 of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. They are talking together, but Jesus is not recognized by either disciple. Yet, when they get to their house and “…He was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” (Lk. 24:30-32)

The disciples would have known that it was Jesus Who was with them, had they not been foolish of heart and slow to believe what the Bible says. Had you been diligent students of the Word of God, you would also have known this. Similarly, you would have known that this 7^th chapter of Mark begins with the disciples being condemned by the Pharisees for eating bread with unclean hands.

Jesus then steam-rolls over their false piety by teaching that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of him. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come… All these evil things… and they defile a man.” (Mk. 7:21-23) Also, that just before He heals this bind, stammering man He casts out a demon from someone’s daughter who was miles away from Him.

All the unclean things have to do with your sin, Original and actual: unrighteousness, immorality, demon possession, even being deaf and dumb. Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…” (John 5:39) At Jesus’ encouragement, we will hear even more Scripture and find Him and subsequently the removal of our own deaf and dumbness.

From the Old Testament reading, Isaiah says the deaf are going to hear and the blind are going to see. Now, our modern medical technology has come a long way in aiding those afflicted with such ailments, but there is no complete restoration. We may be able to use stem cells and that is very close to what Jesus is doing, but just not being deaf anymore misses the point. You are still a person, even if you are deaf.

Isaiah is promising, by God’s own Word to all peoples, deaf and hearing, that the Messiah will come and when He does these are the things that are going to happen: miracles. However, we do not listen for these miracles anymore, because Jesus has already died and risen from the dead. We need no more signs from the Messiah. We do however, need to be reminded over and over again by Scriptures, Who our Messiah is.

Thus, our reading from 2 Corinthians. You are not sufficient. Repent. Read your Bible. The disciples are not sufficient. This deaf man today, is not sufficient. Christ must be our sufficiency. Not our ability to follow Him, obey Him, or even hear and speak of Him.

It must be Christ following us to the depths of death. It must be Christ obeying the Father even to death on a cross. It must be the hearing and seeing eyes of Jesus that see His creation in the hell of sin and have utter compassion upon us.

Our Introit made us sing it the best way, “I am poor and needy: make haste unto me O God: make no tarrying.” (Ps. 70:5) Even our Collect of the Day prays for this sufficiency from God alone. We need to be given the gift of performing true and laudable service to God, quickly or it will pass us by, for we do not have it inside us. We need faith to be given to us, and we need the grace of Jesus to obtain the heavenly promises.

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Thankfully, Jesus has spent all of time working on these Holy Scriptures for us. Making sure that in them is a blueprint that is easy to see, easy to hear, and easy to believe. A Blueprint of a Church that is already built, already provided for, and already redeemed. The Bible is not an instruction manual, but an autobiography of God made man, crucified for our sin.

In the holy Scriptures we don’t find a life to live, but an eternal life freely given, by Jesus. In the Bible, we find the deafness of our sin, but we hear the Goodness of our Savior. In the Word of God, we hear that God and flesh are made into one Christ and never shall the two be divorced.

In this way, Christians are not people of the book, but people of the Body; the Body of Christ. It is not the book itself, but what the book reveals and preaches to us: that Jesus is the Christ of God made manifest in human form, taking on the sin of the world upon the cross. Defeating sin (deafness and dumbness), death, and the devil for us.

It is only this Bible that tells you that absolute truth. It is the Word alone that reveals Jesus Christ to us and it is faith alone that gives us the ability to believe it. So, at the same time we don’t need a book, we do need a book and you need to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. You need to study it. You need to teach it. You need to eat it.

Thus, we come to the reason why Jesus stuck His fingers in the man’s ears and on his tongue. The Word is too hard for you to hear, you must also digest it. Studying and attending the Divine Service go hand in hand. You do not get the full picture in private study. It must be corporate study and corporate worship. You must read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.

And this is all that the Divine Service does for you. It preaches the Word to you that is too hard for deaf, sinful ears. It implants the Word into you that is too hard for stammering tongues. It feeds the Word to you that is too hard to digest. You must hear the Word and you must eat the Word for the full effect.

Proverbs tells us to “…not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; [but] Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.” (20:13) This is because in the Sacrament of the Altar your Savior approaches you and says this: “There is still much blindness, much deafness, and much dumbness in your soul.” Always, however, as at baptism, He continues: “Ephphatha, Be opened” and new light pours into your soul.

And He then adds: “What you received at baptism I wish to continue in you, preserve in you, and confirm and enrich it unto the day of My Second Coming. This I will do until the end of the Age.”

You're not able [Trinity 11; St. Luke 18:9-14]

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Today, we once again hear Christ speak to us, saying,

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”

First things first. We must make this statement over and over again: when God says “you shall” or “you must”, that does not mean “you can”. Simply because God gives a command, that does not automatically give you the ability to perform the command as commanded.

However, God told Cain that if he does well, he will be accepted, so today’s Gospel is cut and dry. Don’t be a Pharisee. Don’t treat others with contempt and be humble. Ask for mercy and forgiveness for your sins. Boom. Done. Thanks Jesus. We got it. See You next week.

One problem is you didn’t finish your sentence, “Don’t be a Pharisee”. It should read, “Don’t be a Pharisee, be a ____”, if Jesus really wants to be helpful. You don’t finish the sentence, but Jesus does. Don’t be a Pharisee, be a sinner. Why? Because sinners are those people for whom Jesus has come to save and no one else.

Moving over to our Old Testament reading, we hear everyone’s favorite part of chapter 4 when Jesus says, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Repent. Its not about you.

“Doing well” means “doing as well as you were made before Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden”, for it was then that God made all things well. The Lord is not asking for reform or commitment from Cain, He is looking for a restoration. Cain has sinned and if he continues on his current path, it will end in death.

This is because nothing is pleasing to God unless it is done in faith. Unless it is done in Christ Jesus. And without this physical faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). But just because God is pleased only with faith does not mean you can produce it, much less does God mean “the best you can do” when He says “faith”.

Living of life of faith or giving faith to please God or even producing faith within you is not what God means here. Look at how God addresses Cain. He pleads with Cain. Why are you angry? Why have you sinned? Why are you continuing to sin? With the same sort of questioning the Lord pleaded with Adam saying, “Where are you?” when He knew perfectly well where he was. The Lord is not asking Cain to work, He is asking Cain to believe.

The Lord said to Adam, “Didn’t you believe my word? Wasn’t what I gave you enough? Didn’t you think I had provided all things for you so that you have no lack?” All of that wrapped up in the words, “Where are you”.

Similarly, the Lord is asking Cain, “If you do well”, in other words “if you live who you are according to God’s Good creation” according to how God made you; in belief, there will be an uplifting. Not an acceptance, but a lifting up and away, is what God actually says in the Hebrew. What this means is that if Cain believed, there would be a lifting up and away of his sin, as God promised.

Abel offered the sacrifice in faith. Cain did not. Sin is always crouching at the door seemingly asleep. It lives just within reach of us, waiting for that moment of unbelief, which is every moment. Then it awakens and it strikes, for it is only after sinning that we feel the sting of its claws and the victory of death over us.

But the promise of God is greater. Not only did he created Cain and Abel in the same way, to contain saving faith, but He also made the same way for redemption, should they fall into sin. For there is a door between Cain and his sin. As insignificant as this might seem, once paired with the Gospel of John, it becomes of fatal importance: Jesus says, “I AM the Door.”

Like Cain, we are not allowed any sort of hint of victory if we swing aside the door and engage sin ourselves. Once sin pounces, its desire is so strong, that it devours you whole. Yet Jesus did not stop caring for and absolving Cain, even in the face of this first murder on earth. Three things given to Cain sustained him: the promise of the Seed to come, the Door, and his own mark.

Jesus Christ is the seed to come that pays for Cain’s sins, the Tax Collector’s sins, and your sins. There is no hope for the one who doesn’t believe, because he doesn’t believe he needs forgiveness. The Pharisee believes that he has already acquired the things that please God, when it is only the gift God gives that pleases, that is faith in Jesus.

The Door stands at the cross, opening and closing the gate to heaven. Cain and Abel are saved by God’s sacrifice, not their own. It matters not what or how much was on the holy Altar that day. Grace covered them both, in faith.

Cain’s mark also is a mark of grace. This may shock you, but it is consistent with the context. If God is pleading with Cain to repent, then why would He stop? Therefore the blood of Abel cries out, not for vengeance, but for mercy. Father, it says, forgive my brother for he knows not what he does. And so the Lord does it and marks Cain as His own.

St. Paul reminds us to hold fast to the Gospel that is preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, unless you don’t believe. For, of first and primary importance, Christ died for your sins and His blood speaks a better, more complete word than Abel’s, that of everlasting forgiveness.

There is no doubt that the Pharisee and Cain bring the better offering and live stricter lives, according to God’s will. But Abel, even though his offering was small and pathetic, a lamb, he brings it forward, because he believes that God will accept it no matter what, he receives justification. He and the Tax Collector do not rely on anything within them. Instead they rely on faith, freely given by Jesus.

It is only perfection that can stand in front of God: the righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees and Cain. What perfection means is that your entire being must completely conform with perfect holiness, which only happens in one place: the Body of Christ.

We must be perfect, but we are not able. Christ is perfect and able to give us His perfection and in order to receive it, all that is needed is belief. Belief that in the water and the Word, Jesus saved you. Belief that in the Word and the Supper, eating and drinking forgives sins. Belief that what Christ has done is greater than what you have and is the only thing able to save you from crouching sin.

In believing that atonement is needed; in believing that mercy is greater than sacrifice, Abel, the Tax collector, and now you return home justified. Abel returned to Christ, the tax collector to his family and you are also returned. Returned alive, not dead. It is Jesus alone Who offers the perfect sacrifice that pleases God and Jesus alone Who serves the benefits of this sacrifice for free.

Hang on His words [Trinity 10; St. Luke 19:41-48]

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Jesus speaks in your hearing today, saying,

“…but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”

If we are to take this verse romantically, then we have the perfect picture of the fan-girl fawning over everything that comes from her idol. The brazen boldness of these fanatics at Beatles’ concerts and their hysteria when Elvis performed were all inappropriate, yet they still made their way to destroy our culture.

Thus, Jesus becomes the superstar we always wanted Him to be, where His word melt over us as rivulets of savory butter and cover us in ecstasy. This riled up knot of emotions then begs to be shared, if not shared, then at least forcibly expressed to any and everyone. Jesus is the great orator. Jesus is the lover of my soul. Jesus is so smooth, so grand, so eloquent.

Except to those for whom He is not. Which means Jesus is not just charismatic, but something else is going on. One of those words in our Gospel reading today is going to unravel the mystery of the charismatic Jesus for us and its translated as “were hanging on”.

If you remember Joseph and his coat of many colors, you also remember what his brothers did to him. Thus, later they find Joseph in charge of all of Egypt during that great famine. Joseph is not recognized when they meet after so long, but Joseph tests them in order to get to see his youngest brother and his father.

At one point, Joseph accuses them of stealing from him and demands Benjamin stay behind as slave. His older brothers beg for this not to be saying that they brought Benjamin against their father’s wishes in the first place and if Joseph were to take him, their father would surely die. They said their father’s life is hung upon the lad’s life. (Gen. 44:30)

To lock the door on this romantic idea of “hanging on His words”, we turn to 2 Samuel where king David’s traitorous and rebellious son, Absalom, meets his demise on his way to finish off his father. As it goes, Absalom was riding his donkey (we know about those) and his head got caught in a thick branch and he was hanged; hanged on a tree.

Though you may have already seen striking similarities, the real clincher comes when king David learns of the tragedy. Though his messengers are delighted that the traitor has died, king David reacted this way: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam. 18:33)

King David wasn’t looking for a victory, he was looking for his son. His life hung on ever word that came from those messengers’ mouths.

Repent. Though Jesus deserves greater fanaticism than you devote to other things and other people, it is not a fanaticism that lacks virtue or intelligence. Jesus is not here demanding that we idolize Him in some kind of fan club. In the Gospel, Jesus is asking, begging us to hang upon His Word and His life as if our life depended on it, because it does.

Joseph and Absalom are the teachers Jesus has assigned to us. Joseph proves that the life of our heavenly Father hangs upon the life of the Son of God. That the unity in Trinity of Father and Son is not in emotion, but in essence. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God, one Lord. The Son is the Father’s greatest treasure, yet He does not hesitate to send Him towards death and Jesus does not hesitate to go into the sin-filled, death-infested Egypt we call earth, only to find a death panel and no fan club.

The Father’s life is the Son’s. god dies on the cross, where Joseph, Benjamin, and you keep your lives. Mercy is taken as the substitute sacrifice, because the true Son Jesus looses His life to gain that mercy from God.

Thus, Absalom clears the picture for us even more. Just as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, cleansing the Temple at the end of the ride, so also do the branches close around Jesus’ neck. After this point, “…The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him…”, by hanging Him on a tree.

Jesus is our Absalom. He becomes the chief of traitors and Rebels in our place, bearing all of the Father’s wrath against our sin for us. Jesus takes on our crimes against God and is crucified, instead of us: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal. 3:13)

The Father looks for His Son to be well received as is grieved to find Him hanged. Thus, “hanging on the words of Jesus” mean ever so much more than fan-girling. It means suffering. It means dying. Not alone or simply “to self”, but it means dying with Him; being crucified with Him. And because the Father’s life hangs upon the Son, it also means being resurrected with Him.

We the people do not need a Great Teacher or a smashing Orator. We need a savior. We need rescue from death. We need rescue from our own sin which drives our devotion to this or that idol; whatever happens to be placed in front of our face at the time by our television.

Jesus is our Joseph. The Father sends Jesus not just to speak good or perform miracles, but to die and rise again, in order that He may come out alive and in charge of all things. That He would not turn us away at the gate of sin and death, but welcome us with tears and kisses through the door of life.

Jesus is charismatic, but He is in the truest sense of the word. Its not just that He’s popular, its that His words give life and salvation. He doesn’t draw crowds with uplifting thoughts, He draws them with promises of forgiveness. He draws them with the cross.

That’s what these people are hearing and its what you’re hearing. You’re hearing that your sins of betrayal, insurrection, and rebellion are forgiven. That though your sins nail Jesus to the cross, the price has been paid. Though you turn away from God every chance you get, the true Traitor has been hanged.

Though the temple of your body is rife with disease and filth, Jesus still enters in and cleanses you, not with whips and anger, but with Word and Sacrament. The Flood of Noah is poured over you in baptism and sweeps away all that is condemning. The Word of Creation is shouted, not at you, but at the sin and demons clinging to you. The old is cast out and the new Body and new Blood are transfused in, setting up the cleanliness Jesus demands.

So be filed with emotion. Be so beside yourself with joy and elation over this redemption that you fill you life and your house with all of the novelty and collectables that go with this new life of faith. Share these stats and trivia answers with someone, that God has died for me. That there is a Savior Who laid down His life for me. That that traitor, that rebel hanging on the cross, is the one Who lives and forgives me.