16th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Mark 9:30-37
JESUS DID NOT REFUSE TO ASK OR ANSWER!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Dear friends in Christ; Scripture never records Jesus doing an object lesson for children (what we might call a children’s message). His Word commands parents to teach and train their children. His word consistently displays Jesus as teaching adults. In love, however, He did use children as object lessons for adults. Following Jesus’ example, it would be proper for me this morning to hold a young child in my arms to teach us older ones. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” What Jesus taught adults through the use of this child was not child’s play. He used that child to rebuke adult fears and adult ambitions. Let him who has ears to ear, hear what Christ says to His church.
Jesus was no longer the hero of Galilee – there was increasing opposition to Him! On their final trip through Galilee, Jesus renewed again the prediction of his crucifixion in Jerusalem just a few months ahead – and His resurrection. He kept on saying it! He kept on teaching His disciples this truth! And they kept on being quiet about it! They also continued to omit the most important action when you don’t understand – asking about it. They did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. Perhaps they remembered what happened when Peter earlier tried to turn Jesus from the cross (Mark 8:33). “Get behind me Satan”, Jesus had said to his face. They… were afraid to ask him about this teaching that mattered more than anything else in this passing world.
Quite a picture! The disciples, tutored privately by Jesus Himself, wouldn’t let God be God. While Jesus stressed the word “kill” in regard to Himself, the disciples stressed the word “great” in regard to themselves. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. Many think it was Peter’s house, the house Jesus called home when He was in Capernaum. Some also think this child was Peter’s son since he was right there in the house with the disciples. What all agree upon is the subject of the disciples discussion.
“What were you discussing on the way?” The Greek word has a broad range of meaning from arguing, to discussing, to reasoning. Scripture tells us that our reasoning is futile apart from God’s gift of faith (Rom. 1:16-21). Yet, such empty reasoning goes on all the time in our minds. Like the disciples, we argue about greatness along life’s road. We easily major in thoughts and worries about ourselves. We want to make our mark in this fallen world and so inwardly and outwardly we argue with others and with ourselves and with God. We are double minded in our fears and our fretting.
We forget how many lives have been ruined by winning first place. There are some who win an athletic championship and live as if it defines them, or makes them different somehow, never really growing up in Christ. There are those who win the lottery and lose their purpose and joy in life. There are the winners of Hollywood, that elite fruit basket of depression and divorce and drug addiction and spiritual deception and decadent morals. Parents love your children enough to teach them the empty lives that lie behind selfish ambition and winning through friendship with the world.
What were you discussing on the way?” Think about the paradox. They were afraid to ask Jesus about what mattered to Him – His cross – His resurrection. They were afraid to answer Jesus about that which mattered to them – their position, their rank, their success. They were sinfully silent on both counts. In their reasoning, some of them would be bigger doers, better givers, more significant than others. One of them would be the greatest of all in God’s kingdom. They were navel gazing, looking at them selves.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
The key here is not a command to be nice to children in some general way as a ticket into heaven. In Jesus’ day children were not the center of attention as they often are today. The oldest in the family, the grandparents were the revered and honored ones in that day. In modern America, those roles are largely reversed. When politicians want to get a bill passed, the trump card is often to say, “its for the children.” While Grandparents and the elderly are easily pushed off to the margin, children are viewed as the honored ones and as pathways to power.
Jesus, however, is not speaking about kindness to children in general. He is not playing political games with little ones. Rather, His words about receiving a child in His name tell us that He is speaking about the Christian faith. Elsewhere Jesus taught His disciples, that they must be converted and become like little children to enter the kingdom of God. A little child is dependent, not independent. A little child receives life and safety it doesn’t give life and safety. A little child delights in receiving gifts.
It is a great blessing when a father and mother raise a child in a stable home and provide for its food and shelter and discipline. The tragic decay of the family in our day is seen in the societal sickness and directionless lives of children all around. We should give thanks for and encourage God’s good gift of marriage and family. When those gifts are shattered, we should give thanks for and encourage foster care and adoptive efforts to provide daily shelter and supervision for children.
But, to receive a child in Christ’s name means more than looking after that child’s physical and emotional needs. It means to receive a child in such a way as to nurture, teach and defend the Christian faith of that child from the assaults of the devil and the world. It means to look after that child’s baptism and weekly worship and daily prayers. As he held that little boy in His arms, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me...” The key you see is Him, His name, His teaching, His person! The key to greatness in His kingdom is receiving His gifts in faith and helping others to receive His gifts in faith. This truth applies not only to children, but to how we deal with all people. Faith in Christ that seeks the eternal welfare of others and not our own earthly position is the true meaning of receiving a child in Christ’s name.
How are you doing in this regard? What are you reasoning along the way? What arguments have central place in your heart and mind? As James wrote, our passions do war within us. As James asked, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
In regard to personal and family and congregational priorities, what are you reasoning along the way? Perhaps your passions battle over time for daily prayer and weekly worship, perhaps your passions battle over first-place proportionate gifts for the sake of the Gospel, perhaps your passions battle over God’s teaching that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Perhaps your passions even battle over this whole devil thing. Is there really a devil to resist in your daily routine? Aren’t we educated, proud human beings quite capable of finding spirituality in our minds or in the trees or in the stars or in treating one another with humility and respect, or even in friendship with the world?
Beloved, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” As Jesus said to His disciples, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all”! Dear Christians, this is the wisdom that comes down from above. Jesus became last and servant of all. Jesus became last and servant of you, His child! He has given you a different spirit and He yearns jealously over the Spirit He has made to dwell in us. That Spirit is the Holy Spirit and He continually does what Jesus did in Galilee. He continually points back to what Jesus pointed forward to. The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when He is killed, after three days he will rise.” The Holy Spirit continually points to the crucified and risen Son of God whom the Father places into our midst today to serve us.
Jesus was not sinfully silent! He was neither afraid to ask or answer the question that matters for us. Father, how will they have life again? How will those rebels be reconciled to you and enter your holiness again? The Father’s answer was to place His holy Son in our midst. Through the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, God answered our eternal need. He is still God’s answer today, to all of our sinful fears and selfish ambitions.
As Jesus took that little boy into His arms, so He has taken you into His arms. In Holy Baptism He received you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Receiving Jesus, you also receive the Father. As Jeremiah, like a gentle lamb was led to the slaughter, so Jesus, the Lamb of God was led to the slaughter. Unlike the disciples on the day of our text, you understand that sacrifice. Unlike the disciples on that day of our text, you aren’t afraid to ask Him about it. Rather, as you eat His body and drink His blood, you all together proclaim His death until He comes again.
Let His gifts inform your reasoning along life’s way as you leave today.
What is it you’re afraid of? What is it you’re fretting over obtaining? What Jesus teaches us by way of that child is not child’s play. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. That doesn’t mean He will give you whatever you want in this passing world. We are, after all, double minded. It does mean that as you continue to enjoy the grace He gives you in Christ, God will also purify the desires of your heart. He will put into your heart desires that aren’t naturally there, desires to receive a child in Jesus’ name.
Beloved, have no doubt about this, God delights in you today for the sake of Jesus Christ. In Him you are God’s holy child. In Him God holds you in His arms and will not let you go. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. AMEN.
JESUS DID NOT REFUSE TO ASK OR ANSWER!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Dear friends in Christ; Scripture never records Jesus doing an object lesson for children (what we might call a children’s message). His Word commands parents to teach and train their children. His word consistently displays Jesus as teaching adults. In love, however, He did use children as object lessons for adults. Following Jesus’ example, it would be proper for me this morning to hold a young child in my arms to teach us older ones. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” What Jesus taught adults through the use of this child was not child’s play. He used that child to rebuke adult fears and adult ambitions. Let him who has ears to ear, hear what Christ says to His church.
Jesus was no longer the hero of Galilee – there was increasing opposition to Him! On their final trip through Galilee, Jesus renewed again the prediction of his crucifixion in Jerusalem just a few months ahead – and His resurrection. He kept on saying it! He kept on teaching His disciples this truth! And they kept on being quiet about it! They also continued to omit the most important action when you don’t understand – asking about it. They did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. Perhaps they remembered what happened when Peter earlier tried to turn Jesus from the cross (Mark 8:33). “Get behind me Satan”, Jesus had said to his face. They… were afraid to ask him about this teaching that mattered more than anything else in this passing world.
Quite a picture! The disciples, tutored privately by Jesus Himself, wouldn’t let God be God. While Jesus stressed the word “kill” in regard to Himself, the disciples stressed the word “great” in regard to themselves. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. Many think it was Peter’s house, the house Jesus called home when He was in Capernaum. Some also think this child was Peter’s son since he was right there in the house with the disciples. What all agree upon is the subject of the disciples discussion.
“What were you discussing on the way?” The Greek word has a broad range of meaning from arguing, to discussing, to reasoning. Scripture tells us that our reasoning is futile apart from God’s gift of faith (Rom. 1:16-21). Yet, such empty reasoning goes on all the time in our minds. Like the disciples, we argue about greatness along life’s road. We easily major in thoughts and worries about ourselves. We want to make our mark in this fallen world and so inwardly and outwardly we argue with others and with ourselves and with God. We are double minded in our fears and our fretting.
We forget how many lives have been ruined by winning first place. There are some who win an athletic championship and live as if it defines them, or makes them different somehow, never really growing up in Christ. There are those who win the lottery and lose their purpose and joy in life. There are the winners of Hollywood, that elite fruit basket of depression and divorce and drug addiction and spiritual deception and decadent morals. Parents love your children enough to teach them the empty lives that lie behind selfish ambition and winning through friendship with the world.
What were you discussing on the way?” Think about the paradox. They were afraid to ask Jesus about what mattered to Him – His cross – His resurrection. They were afraid to answer Jesus about that which mattered to them – their position, their rank, their success. They were sinfully silent on both counts. In their reasoning, some of them would be bigger doers, better givers, more significant than others. One of them would be the greatest of all in God’s kingdom. They were navel gazing, looking at them selves.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
The key here is not a command to be nice to children in some general way as a ticket into heaven. In Jesus’ day children were not the center of attention as they often are today. The oldest in the family, the grandparents were the revered and honored ones in that day. In modern America, those roles are largely reversed. When politicians want to get a bill passed, the trump card is often to say, “its for the children.” While Grandparents and the elderly are easily pushed off to the margin, children are viewed as the honored ones and as pathways to power.
Jesus, however, is not speaking about kindness to children in general. He is not playing political games with little ones. Rather, His words about receiving a child in His name tell us that He is speaking about the Christian faith. Elsewhere Jesus taught His disciples, that they must be converted and become like little children to enter the kingdom of God. A little child is dependent, not independent. A little child receives life and safety it doesn’t give life and safety. A little child delights in receiving gifts.
It is a great blessing when a father and mother raise a child in a stable home and provide for its food and shelter and discipline. The tragic decay of the family in our day is seen in the societal sickness and directionless lives of children all around. We should give thanks for and encourage God’s good gift of marriage and family. When those gifts are shattered, we should give thanks for and encourage foster care and adoptive efforts to provide daily shelter and supervision for children.
But, to receive a child in Christ’s name means more than looking after that child’s physical and emotional needs. It means to receive a child in such a way as to nurture, teach and defend the Christian faith of that child from the assaults of the devil and the world. It means to look after that child’s baptism and weekly worship and daily prayers. As he held that little boy in His arms, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me...” The key you see is Him, His name, His teaching, His person! The key to greatness in His kingdom is receiving His gifts in faith and helping others to receive His gifts in faith. This truth applies not only to children, but to how we deal with all people. Faith in Christ that seeks the eternal welfare of others and not our own earthly position is the true meaning of receiving a child in Christ’s name.
How are you doing in this regard? What are you reasoning along the way? What arguments have central place in your heart and mind? As James wrote, our passions do war within us. As James asked, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
In regard to personal and family and congregational priorities, what are you reasoning along the way? Perhaps your passions battle over time for daily prayer and weekly worship, perhaps your passions battle over first-place proportionate gifts for the sake of the Gospel, perhaps your passions battle over God’s teaching that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Perhaps your passions even battle over this whole devil thing. Is there really a devil to resist in your daily routine? Aren’t we educated, proud human beings quite capable of finding spirituality in our minds or in the trees or in the stars or in treating one another with humility and respect, or even in friendship with the world?
Beloved, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” As Jesus said to His disciples, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all”! Dear Christians, this is the wisdom that comes down from above. Jesus became last and servant of all. Jesus became last and servant of you, His child! He has given you a different spirit and He yearns jealously over the Spirit He has made to dwell in us. That Spirit is the Holy Spirit and He continually does what Jesus did in Galilee. He continually points back to what Jesus pointed forward to. The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when He is killed, after three days he will rise.” The Holy Spirit continually points to the crucified and risen Son of God whom the Father places into our midst today to serve us.
Jesus was not sinfully silent! He was neither afraid to ask or answer the question that matters for us. Father, how will they have life again? How will those rebels be reconciled to you and enter your holiness again? The Father’s answer was to place His holy Son in our midst. Through the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, God answered our eternal need. He is still God’s answer today, to all of our sinful fears and selfish ambitions.
As Jesus took that little boy into His arms, so He has taken you into His arms. In Holy Baptism He received you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Receiving Jesus, you also receive the Father. As Jeremiah, like a gentle lamb was led to the slaughter, so Jesus, the Lamb of God was led to the slaughter. Unlike the disciples on the day of our text, you understand that sacrifice. Unlike the disciples on that day of our text, you aren’t afraid to ask Him about it. Rather, as you eat His body and drink His blood, you all together proclaim His death until He comes again.
Let His gifts inform your reasoning along life’s way as you leave today.
What is it you’re afraid of? What is it you’re fretting over obtaining? What Jesus teaches us by way of that child is not child’s play. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. That doesn’t mean He will give you whatever you want in this passing world. We are, after all, double minded. It does mean that as you continue to enjoy the grace He gives you in Christ, God will also purify the desires of your heart. He will put into your heart desires that aren’t naturally there, desires to receive a child in Jesus’ name.
Beloved, have no doubt about this, God delights in you today for the sake of Jesus Christ. In Him you are God’s holy child. In Him God holds you in His arms and will not let you go. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. AMEN.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
9/25/2006
