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Nothing To Bring
Pentecost 18B
October 3-4, 2009
Mark 10:2-16
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Don’t you just pity the poor Pharisees? Here they are – they live lives of righteousness, trying to do the right thing. Trying to obey all of God’s laws, those handed down by Moses and by the elders since. Oh sure, they’re trying to trap Jesus, to trick him up once again, but that’s because he just doesn’t seem to get it. Why just the other day they criticized his disciples for not obeying the purification traditions handed down by their forefathers; of course they criticized Jesus too; after all, the faults of the master are reflected in the faults of his disciples. Sometimes they just have to draw a line in the sand. But Jesus keeps wiping those lines out. So what to do? They say among themselves: “Let’s see if we can trap him.” Maybe, just maybe, he’ll criticize Herod and Herodias and end up like John the Baptist did. They ask Jesus: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” And of course, no matter what rabbinical school Jesus uses to justify his answer, they win! If he says “only for reasons of unchastity,” well he’s criticizing Herod and Herodias who both divorced their respective spouses to marry each other. Add to that the fact that Herodias didn’t follow the traditions of her own people, instead divorcing her husband according to Greco-Roman tradition, well maybe Jesus will lose his head. The Pharisees themselves consider marriage a disposable contractual arrangement so if Jesus answers according to the School of Hillel that a man can divorce his wife even if she spoils a dish, or because he has found another fairer than his wife, well they win that way too! But once again Jesus turns everything upside down by asking them what Moses commanded. He then tells them that Moses gave them that commandment because of their hardness of heart – to try and prevent hasty divorces and at least give the wife some sort of dignity in a patriarchal society. Moses wasn’t encouraging divorces, he was actually trying to prevent them! Don’t you just pity the poor disciples? Here they are, once again trying to do the right thing. Not too long before, Peter rebuked Jesus for his obviously mistaken idea that Jesus would be arrested, tried and put to death. Oops! And the disciples have been arguing on the road about who is the greatest and then don’t want to tell Jesus what they were discussing. Oops! Jesus knew anyway. He who would be first must be last and servant of all!?! Doesn’t make any sense. It’s just not how things are done. And opening the ears and loosening the tongue of a man who could not hear or speak clearly – the disciples probably wish that Jesus would open his ears and do things/see things their way! The disciples have just tried to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he wasn’t one of them. Sounds so familiar. So they keep the kids and their parents away from Jesus. He doesn’t need any more distractions. After all, kids aren’t valued in their society – they aren’t regarded as family assets, especially when all they bring is another mouth to feed. And these kids -- actually the words “little children” don’t convey quite the right idea because the Greek word actually means “very young” or “infants” -- don’t bring anything of value. They can’t be disciples because they can’t even walk. Why, many of them won’t even live to become adults at age 13. They are helpless! Why should Jesus waste his time with them? Those bringing these infants are rebuked by the disciples. It strikes me that the disciples, like the Pharisees, like us every now and then, don’t have in mind the things of God, but those of men. Jesus becomes indignant, actually the literal meaning is Jesus is aroused to anger with his disciples. Let the kids come to me, he says, “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” What!? They’re helpless, they don’t even believe, they can’t follow Jesus! What do they bring? What do they have? Is it their innocence? Is that what we need to inherit the kingdom of God? Jesus blesses them. He blesses them for what they lack – they’re small, powerless, valueless in society, they are overlooked by all. No credit, no clout, not even a claim against God – they have nothing to bring. Whatever is received is received by grace. Jesus blesses them – a tangible expression of the love of God, given to infants and children, women, the unclean, to the sojourner and foreigner, to all who stand helpless before God. To you. To me. Whatever your sins, whatever my sins, all are helpless, powerless to do anything about them. Whether we try to do the right thing as the disciples tried, or to live the righteous life like the Pharisees tried, it matters not. We stand helpless before God, saved by grace, unconditional love, saved through faith, an unmerited gift from God. And we are blessed by Jesus, sometimes in spite of our own best efforts, we are blessed by Jesus. AMEN. Rev. Bruce Hannem, Associate Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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