Turn the Other Cheek

Sermon October 27, 2024

            “It was a slap in the face”.  What do we think when we hear that phrase?  How do we, in the twenty-first century United States interpret that?  Interestingly, our first thought when we hear this phrase isn’t one of physical violence.  Our first thought is that of a rude awakening, a dismissive gesture that is intended not so much to injure physically, as to injure emotionally.  Because the majority of the time when we use this phrase, we use it idiomatically.  We are not actually talking about a physical assault; we are talking about something that someone said or did that caused discomfort or emotional pain.  In her hit song “You Oughta Know” Alanis Morissette said “It was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced.  Nobody actually hit her, she was commenting on something that had happened that was hurtful to her.  And the fact is, this idea of a slap in the face being a dismissive and scornful act is not at all new.  The first century inhabitants of Israel would have understood this in a very similar way.

            Our lesson today talks about how Christians are to interact with other people, particularly… difficult people.  We begin with a very familiar Bible quote, and as is the case with many widely known Biblical quotes, I believe that the majority of those who hear or repeat the phrase, misunderstand the actual, Biblical teaching behind it.  The phrase is “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.  It is a phrase that many folks believe is a justification for violent retribution; if you are going to hurt me, I am going to hurt you.  However, if we look at the original verse that’s found in Deuteronomy 19 in context, what we discover is the fact that this verse is directed only to courts of law.  This is not an individual authorization for people to take the law into their own hands, it is part of a group of instructions to judges and officials to help them to administer justice effectively and appropriately. 

Not only is this an instruction to judges and officials, but we find that in a passage in Leviticus 19 personal retaliation and retribution is specifically condemned.  Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.“  Interesting!  The presumption here is that you have just been wronged in some way, and yet we are told that our response to that injury is to love our neighbor.  And this is coming from the OLD TESTAMENT!

Getting back to the verses in Deuteronomy 19, we find that the verse about an eye for an eye is actually a limiting verse, meaning that judges are called to make sure that punishments fit the crimes.  Judges are called in this verse to sentence without mercy, but what they are not called to do is to issue a sentence that is more severe than the original infraction.  So, counterintuitively, this verse is actually designed to protect the accused from excessive punishment.  And understanding the fact that this verse is meant for judges and officials, combined with that Leviticus passage that we just read, we are able to see that the Bible is emphatically not telling individuals to take retribution into their own hands. 

And as an aside, this is a perfect example of the fact that no verse of the Bible can be taken on its own.  Every verse, every word in the Bible, needs to be understood in the light of the witness of the entire Bible.  When we read Deuteronomy 19:21, “Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” And we pay no attention to the context, or that passage in Leviticus condemning personal retaliation, it would be very easy for a person to take violent retribution on someone and then claim it to be Biblically sanctioned, but as we have just seen… the Bible doesn’t support this at all.  So extreme care must be taken any time we try to justify something Biblically.  One of the first things that I learned in my Seminary Old Testament classes was the importance of filtering everything that we read in the Bible through the lens of the law of love.  That is, does this teaching spring from a heart that loves God and loves others?  And is this teaching consistent with the love exemplified by the life, teaching, and example of Jesus?  If the passage, as we understand it, doesn’t pass this test, then we are failing to understand the text in its original intent, and we certainly shouldn’t be using this text in its misunderstood form to justify behaviors.

            And now I will get off of my soapbox and get back to our lesson.  As Jesus repeats the “eye for an eye” phrase, He follows it with the instruction not to resist an evil person.  And then He tells us that “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”  And here, I think an explanation is in order, lest we misunderstand what is being taught.  The Bible is not telling us not to defend ourselves.  On more than one occasion, the New Testament tells us that the disciples carried swords: almost certainly for self-defense.  Exodus 22 has a lengthy discussion about protection of personal property and the rules relating to self-defense, so the Bible is not asking us not to defend ourselves.  But if we are not being asked not to defend ourselves, what ARE we being asked?

            Well, let’s think about this for a moment.  First, let me state that for first century Jews, a person’s left hand was not to be used for anything except for unclean tasks.  In fact, for a Jew to gesture with the left hand meant they would be excluded from the community for 100 days.  So, Jews would, for all tasks that didn’t require both hands, use their right hand exclusively.  So… picture this… you are facing me.  And you are about to slap me in the face, and you are going to slap me on my right cheek.  How are you going to do that with your right hand?  In order for you to hit me on the right cheek, you would have to be hitting me with the back of your hand.  This would not be a slap that was intended to injure me physically.  It would be a dismissive and disrespectful act intended to “put me in my place”.  So, this verse is not telling us to endure physical abuse, it is telling us not to respond with violence to an insult, but rather to endure the insult in the interest of promoting love and peace.  To turn the other cheek to someone is to invite them to express their anger towards you physically in a way that is not demeaning.  In other words… to stand tall; to make a statement that, as one bearing the image of the Living God, you are to be treated as an equal, not as a nobody.  And at the same time saying that regardless of what another may choose to do, you will show them that you will respond to their unkindness with kindness, to their hate with love, and to their violence with peace.

            Jesus continues with His teaching.  ‘If anyone wants to sue you and takes your shirt, hand over your coat as well.’  First century attire would have consisted of an undergarment, an overgarment, referred to here as a shirt but was actually more like a tunic or a dress (for lack of a better way to describe it), and a cloak or overcoat.  The Law states in Deuteronomy 24 that if you take someone’s cloak as collateral, it must be returned to that person before sunset, as the coat was necessary to keep one warm in the cold of the night.  So what Jesus is saying here is for His followers to offer more than what is required.  To give up both your shirt and your cloak would leave you standing there in court in your underwear.  But if you have lost a lawsuit and have been required to give up the shirt off your back, offer more than what is required in the interests of love and peace.

            Jesus next tells us that, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  Roman soldiers were permitted, by law, to conscript anyone they wished to carry their equipment for one mile (well, actually for one thousand steps).  Jesus tells us that, in the interest of love and peace, we should go beyond that which is required and carry that equipment for 2,000 steps instead.  If you are watching the TV show “The Chosen” (and if you are not, you should really check it out!) there is a great scene where Jesus and the disciples are accosted by a group of Roman soldiers and forced to carry their equipment.  The soldiers rudely put their helmets on Jesus and the disciple’s heads, give them heavy packs to carry, and treat them all with abject disrespect.  When they reach the 1,000-step limit, an argument ensues as Jesus informs the soldiers that they will all be continuing to carry the equipment for another thousand steps… the soldiers are understandably a little wary about this offer, as if it is a trap of some sort, but Jesus explains Himself in a very loving and compassionate way, and so they continue to carry the soldiers equipment.  But during the next thousand steps the demeanor of the soldiers changes.  Most of them take back their helmets and their treatment of Jesus and the disciples becomes much more respectful.  The writers of the show did an extraordinary job of expressing the thought that is the foundation of today’s lesson, that kindness and a willingness to do more for another than is required is an extraordinary way of promoting peace.

            Jesus ends this part of our lesson by saying, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”  In a world where people tend to cling tightly to that which is theirs, Jesus calls for generosity as the believer recognizes the needs of others and seeks to fill those needs as circumstances permit. 

            In speaking of our passage today, Pastor Brent Kercheville said, “You will notice in each of these illustrations we are seeing our rights being voluntarily revoked. We do not say, ‘I have a right.’ We give up our rights for others. In Christ Jesus we do not say that we have a right. Personal sacrifice replaces personal retaliation-just as Jesus showed us in his own life.  This is the big idea: we do not make our rights the basis for our relationships with others. Be prepared to take a lowly position as a humble servant. Be prepared to sacrifice your rights for a life of following Jesus. Be prepared to pay the price of imitating Jesus.” [1]

            Being a peacemaker is not an easy task.  It requires a willingness to place the needs of others ahead of our own needs.  It requires us to be meek.  But I would like to take a moment to define Biblical meekness, because I don’t think it means what we might think it means.  Meekness, in the Greek, is πραΰτητι, (prauteeti) and in first century Greek, πραΰτητι is a word that was used to describe a horse that has been trained.  Biblical meekness does not mean being powerless or weak, Biblical meekness means to have great power, but to have that power under the control of a master.  We have this great power within us, but it is not a power to serve ourselves.  It is a power to serve others.  Pastor David Guzik of Enduring Word tells us that when we serve others, when we do more than the Law requires us to do, “That is sacrificial Christian love, and it is radical, but it transforms the world when we express it”. [2]

            And this… this is our mission.  We are called to be disciples.  We are called to allow the Spirit to transform our hearts into hearts that reflect the love of God.  And when our hearts reflect the love of God, the world will see His love for them, exemplified in us.  And in the process of reflecting this love, we will find that we are able to form deep connections with people in ways that would just not be possible otherwise.  And not only are we able to create these deeper connections, we are also able to reach some people with whom we may not see eye to eye, and with whom we would never be able to establish a dialogue in any other way.  But reflecting God’s love in our words and actions results in our being peacemakers.  Because God’s love promotes peace and understanding.  God’s love residing in our hearts leads us to be people of empathy and kindness, and to the world, those traits are both compelling and unifying.

            Mother Teresa once said, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”  We need to be touching the lives of others with the love of God.  And we need to be doing that praying that the love of God will touch their hearts as well, because when it does, it creates one more little oasis of peace in this world.  And the more of those little oases that we can create, the more we will accomplish in fulfilling our role as God’s peacemakers.

            Amen.

---

[1] Sermon:  Matthew 5:38-42, Sacrificing, Brent Kercheville

[2] Enduring Word, David Guzik

Sermon June 25, 2023

Who… was your favorite teacher?

And why?

Did anyone have any trouble coming up with a favorite teacher? 

Of course not, everyone has a favorite teacher.  My favorite teacher was George Hoffman.  Some of you may know him, he was the band director at Monmouth Regional for quite some time, including the three years that I attended there.  Mr. Hoffman was, quite simply, the best teacher I ever had.  And it’s curious that I should think that.  I moved to New Jersey from Ohio the summer after my freshman year in high school and the band program at the school that I was blessed to attend in Ohio was perennially one of the best bands in the state.  Monmouth Regional?  Not so much.  But here is the thing about Mr. Hoffman.  For those of us in the band who were serious about music, and there were a few of us, Mr. Hoffman would have moved heaven and earth to give us the opportunity to become the best musical version of ourselves that we could possibly be.  He was a great educator and mentor, he was encouraging and supportive, and he was persistent in pushing us to be our best, and that’s why I think he was such a great teacher.

I would imagine that many of us have similar experiences with our favorite teachers.  Tell me, was your favorite teacher widely liked in your school?  It’s OK, you don’t have to answer, we are Presbyterians, after all.

So, as I said before, the Monmouth Regional band was rather average.  Without going into a lot of the things going on in the school system that directly contributed to the quality of the band (or lack thereof), most of these things were not in Mr. Hoffman’s control, but nevertheless there were a few students, and probably a few parents as well, who didn’t think very highly of Mr. Hoffman because they blamed him for us not having a better band.  As for me, well, for the first time in my life, I, usually a rather marginal student at best, was the teacher’s pet.  And so, I occasionally found myself defending Mr. Hoffman from those who didn’t share my enthusiasm for what I felt to be the depth of his skill set, and I suppose it makes sense that some of those of a differing opinion didn’t think very highly of me either.

In today’s Gospel lesson we read “Students are not greater than their teacher, and slaves are not greater than their master.  Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master.  And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons,the members of my household will be called by even worse names!”  Jesus warned the disciples plainly that, because of the opposition to Him and His message, the disciples should expect opposition as well.

It’s probably pretty easy to understand why the band director of a less than stellar band program may have his detractors, but to a world that is accustomed to hearing at least the basics of the Gospel message and that mostly views Jesus (if not always His followers) in a positive light, it may be a little harder for us to understand why Jesus faced such opposition.  Well, two thousand years after the fact, it’s hard to see just how revolutionary Jesus’s message was. 

The priests of Jesus’s day had over a thousand years of religious tradition and regulations covering nearly all of life’s daily routines.  Their job was to instruct and lead the people into the following of the traditions and the minutiae of these regulations, and to them, Jesus was making a mockery of their faith. 

The priests, especially the Pharisees, were deeply committed to ritual purity, to meticulously following the laws both written and oral, and if you didn’t follow those regulations to the letter, then you were “unclean” and a “sinner”.  On Bible.org, Bob Deffinbaugh gives us this description of the Pharisees “(T)he Pharisees… were a religious party.  The word “Pharisee” literally means “Separatist”, the name given to them by their opponents because of their “holier than thou” haughty attitude.  Their supreme aim was to strictly follow both the written and oral law.  They looked down upon the common people who did not have the slightest chance of fulfilling the complex requirements of the Law.  However, the common people admired the Pharisees as representing the ideal followers of Judaism.”

It was those who didn’t “have the slightest chance” of fulfilling the law that were embraced by Jesus.  His association with, and acceptance of, these “sinners” made him unclean in the eyes of the Jewish authorities, and worse than that, Jesus regularly admonished the leaders over their lack of care and concern for those whom they had rejected, the ones that Jesus referred to as “the least of these”.  Jesus flouted the law to which the priesthood was so deeply committed, failing to follow prescribed hand washing rituals before meals, healing on the Sabbath, which the religious authorities considered to be prohibited work, touching lepers, and allowing Himself to be touched by a bleeding woman, all of these things rendering Him “unclean”, and in the eyes of the religious authorities, a “sinner”.

But by far, the biggest problem that the authorities had with Jesus was the fact that Jesus, on multiple occasions, identified Himself as being one with the Father.  In Mark 2 Jesus healed a paralytic who was let down through the roof of a house.  When Jesus healed him, he didn’t say “get up and walk”, He said “Your sins are forgiven”.  The religious authorities were outraged because only God can forgive sin.  In John 5, when the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus as to why he healed a man on the Sabbath, Jesus said “My Father and I are always working”, equating Himself with the Father, which the authorities believed was blasphemy.  In John 8 Jesus, speaking of Abraham, said to the people “Before Abraham was even born, I AM”.  Though the “I am” statement may not mean much to us in our time, His Jewish audience would have instantly recognized the fact that Jesus used the name “I Am” which is the same name with which God identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush.  In John 10 Jesus said to the religious authorities “The Father and I are one”, and before the Jewish Council in Matthew 26 Jesus said, “In the future you will see the Son of Man, seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven”.  To those who understood what Jesus was saying, there was no doubt that Jesus was claiming to be Messiah.

This message that Jesus was bringing, this Gospel of Good News to the poor, releasing of the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the coming of the year of the Lord’s favor, this astonishingly Good News, because it was announced by a human, was interpreted by the religious authorities to be the height of blasphemy.  And this is the message that the disciples were called to bring to the world.  Is there any wonder that the disciples were persecuted?  And yet in spite of the difficulty and the persecution, the disciples love for Jesus, and the disciple’s “fear” of God, was such that not bringing His message to the world was never an option. 

You may be wondering why I said “the fear of God” please allow me to make an observation about this phrase.  In the Greek, the word is θεοσέβεια and it is not a word that bears the meaning of being afraid, but rather it is a word that means reverence.  The Gospel is not something that we share because we are terrified of what will happen if we don’t, or because we hope to gain a reward if we do, the Gospel is shared, by the disciples and by us, out of our devotion to God.

Like the disciples, we carry this message because of love.

Our Gospel lesson today is a difficult one:

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.  ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  Your enemies will be right in your own household!  “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.”

It’s hard to read this passage, especially for folks who are family oriented, which is probably most of us.  It seems kind of harsh, doesn’t it?  But, contrary to how we may read this, this passage is not telling us to turn our backs on our families.  You see, there is a little gem almost hidden in the midst of our Gospel lesson today.  Verse 32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven”.  Is this something that you want for yourself?  How about your family?  If we read a little further in our passage today in verse 40 we find Jesus saying “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  Do we want Jesus welcoming our family?  You bet we do!  This seemingly difficult passage isn’t about abandoning our families.  On the contrary, this passage is about loving our families so much that our priority is not keeping peace in the family by not “rocking the boat”.  Our priority is to live our faith before our families; to be the witnesses that we are called to be to the world before those who are the most important to us. 

Now I know the idea of witnessing carries some pretty bad connotations, and please understand that this isn’t a call to be obnoxious.  We’re not here to knock on our family member’s doors and hand out tracts.  Nor are we called to be judgmental, trying to identify the sin in the lives of our family members and tell them how to correct them.  Sharing our faith should be a gentile thing.  There’s a saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.  “Share the Gospel, use words if necessary”.  Our lives are our best witness.  Living a life of love and grace before the world will speak louder than pretty much any words we may think to say.  This thought is illustrated beautifully in one of my favorite quotes from Madeleine l’Engle that I love and repeat often.  “We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

What our passage is telling us today is that, if our families oppose us, love them, and be a faithful witness anyway.  If our families are unkind to us, and we suffer their slings and arrows, love them, and be a faithful witness anyway.  If our families choose to ignore us or to belittle us, love them, and be a faithful witness anyway. Even if our families abandon us, love them, and be a faithful witness anyway.

God loves us with an amazing, extravagant, gracious, all-encompassing love.  If the world fails to understand that, it’s because they don’t see enough of His love reflected in the lives of those who profess to follow Him.  Let us be those faithful witnesses.  Let us be the people who do show that love to the world… and to our families.

What’s Wrong with “What Must I Do”?

Sermon October 13^th, 2024

            It is very possibly the single, most often inaccurately quoted verse of the Bible.  So common is the misquoted version of this verse, that it has become a part of popular culture, and yet I think that most people don’t realize that what the popular version of the verse says is not what the Bible is actually teaching.  How many have heard the phrase, “Money is the root of all evil”?  It IS common, isn’t it?  But that is not what the Bible is teaching. The quotation, in context, from 1^st Timothy 6 is this, “The LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  This Bible teaching isn’t about the evils of money, it is about the evils of the LOVE of money.  You see, there is nothing wrong with having money.  There is nothing wrong with having a lot of money. 

The Bible is full of very faithful people who were wealthy.  Genesis 13:2 tells us that “Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.”  Job had 7,000 head of sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen… he was extremely wealthy, and yet God said about him that, there is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”  Two weeks ago, we heard that “Solomon made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones”.  Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy, and in Luke 8 we read about Joanna and Susanna who supported Jesus financially from their own resources.  So, there are plenty of instances of wealthy and faithful people in the Bible. 

Money is most emphatically not the problem here.  The problem occurs when the love of money supersedes the love of God, or the love of others.  And you actually don’t even have to HAVE money for money to be a problem, because you can love having money, you can love acquiring money, and you can even love attempting unsuccessfully to acquire money.   So, like so many other things that we have learned about over the last few months, this also is a teaching about the condition of the heart.  In our story today, Jesus teaches us how this all works.  And it’s an interesting story, so let’s get started.

            Those familiar with this passage call it the story of the rich young ruler, but all Mark tells us is that a man came running up to Jesus and knelt in front of Him.  We find out that he is young because Matthew tells us that, and we find out that he is a ruler because Luke tells us that.  And as far as his being rich is concerned, all three synoptic Gospels tell this story, and all three wait until the very end of the story to tell us that he’s rich.  Anyway, this man knelt before Jesus and said, “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”  Rather than answer the question, Jesus begins by asking a question of His own.  “Why do you call me good?”  Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone”.  At first glance, this seems like an odd way for Jesus to respond.  I mean, what exactly is He saying?  This verse has been used by some as an argument to deny the deity of Christ, but Jesus is not implying here that HE isn’t good.  Rather, Jesus is setting the stage for the answer that is about to come.  But I can’t answer this question until I answer another one.

            Jesus continues, “You know the commandments: Never murder. Never commit adultery. Never steal. Never give false testimony. Never cheat. Honor your father and mother.”  The man replied, “Teacher, all of these I have done since my youth”.  This man, earnest though he is… is approaching Jesus with the assumption that he can somehow earn his way into heaven.  And so, before Jesus even answered the question, He had made a statement about goodness.  And the reason that He made that statement was to preemptively challenge the man’s assumptions.  If the man hoped to gain entry to heaven by earning it with his personal goodness, well, if only God is good, where does that leave him?  If goodness is a prerequisite for heaven and only God is good, then the man has a problem.  Dr. Mark L Strauss explains, “Jesus nullifies the man’s assertion about his own goodness before he has made it and sets up the conclusion that no one can merit God’s salvation”. [1]  And so, Jesus has set the stage for a very important lesson on God’s grace, and at the same time, a very important lesson on idolatry. 

            Now, following the story, we don’t yet know that the man is wealthy.  And yet, did anyone happen to notice anything unusual about Jesus’ response?  With the Ten Commandments, the first four commandments speak to the relationship of God’s children, with God, and the last six commandments speak to the relationship of God’s children with one another.  Here, Jesus lists only those commandments that relate to our relationships with others.  And in naming the commandments, Jesus moves honoring one’s father and mother from the beginning of the list to the end, but that isn’t the unusual thing that I am looking for.  Did anyone happen to notice that Jesus has replaced “do not covet” with “do not cheat”.  The Greek here is ἀποστερήσῃς (aposterēsēs) which, according to the Bill Mounce Online Greek Dictionary means “To be unjustly withheld, to cheat or defraud.”  Why do we think that Jesus changed the wording of one of the commandments? 

            Well, the man is already rich.  He is probably able to buy almost anything he desires, but as is so often the case with the wealthy, it’s likely that what he really covets… is more.  The Old Testament prophets spoke often and vociferously about economic injustice.  Amos said, “They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.  They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.”.  Micah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea all specifically condemn the economic exploitation of the poor, and so it appears that what Jesus is doing here is identifying covetousness as manifesting itself in fraudulent means of acquiring more wealth.  In other words, do not allow that which you covet, to cause you to cheat another, in order to gain it.  One needn’t look far today to see examples of this principle at work in the schemes, influence buying and corporate malfeasance that can sometimes characterize the ultra-wealthy.  This is not something that is new.  In fact, archaeologists have found letters written by ancient merchants warning them not to do business with specific other merchants because they couldn’t be trusted.  The LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

            Returning to our story, our rich young ruler said, “all these [commandments] I have kept since I was a boy.”  Next, Mark tells us that, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”  And then, the most unimaginable thing happened.  This man had humbled himself by falling at Jesus’ feet and had asked a question that showed concern for his spiritual condition.  The man was on the right track to be sure, but Jesus knew the condition of the man’s heart and cut straight to the issue.  “One thing you lack,” [Jesus] said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  And then, Mark tells us that, “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”  The NIV uses the word “sad” for the Greek word “στυγνάσας” (stygnasis).  The NRSV uses the word “shocked” but in Mattthew, that same word στυγνάσας is used to describe the dark and threatening sky before a storm.  This is actually a word of despair. 

            The man was actually presented with an opportunity to follow Jesus, personally.  A chance, not only to be gifted a place in God’s kingdom, but also to learn directly from Jesus how to live a life of eternal significance.  Who knows what might have happened in this young man’s life, or the impact he may have made for future generations?  But he walked away in despair because his wealth was more important to him than having a relationship with the Living God.  Interestingly, the man had said that he had followed all of the commandments since he was a boy, but in this one moment, Jesus showed him how he had failed at the very first commandment, “Thou shall have no other Gods before me”. 

            Timothy Keller said, “The rich young ruler had come to the right person: Jesus.  He had asked the right question: How do I inherit eternal life.  He had received the right answer: Honor God and follow Jesus in complete trust like a little child.  Sadly, he did not respond correctly, and he walked away from the only true source of eternal life.  When Jesus called the young man to give up his money, the man started to grieve, because money was for him what the Father was for Jesus.  It was the center of his identity.  To lose his money would have been to lose himself.” [2]

            Jesus, turning to the disciples, said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”  Mark tells us that the disciples were astonished, but then Jesus doubled down on His comment, saying “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

            It was a common Jewish perspective that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing.  Deuteronomy 28 begins with a long section explaining how the faithful will be blessed by God, and Proverbs 10:22 says flat out “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth”, so it stood to reason, at least for the disciples, that those who were wealthy were recipients of God’s blessing.  But at this point, it shouldn’t surprise any of us that Jesus, once again, turned the wisdom of this world upside down. 

            So, let’s take a moment to recap and see what exactly Jesus is teaching here.  “Why did you call me good?” Jesus asked.  “Only God is good”.  There is nothing that we can do to earn our way into heaven… nothing.  The standard that would have to be reached to attain goodness is entirely and completely unreachable.  Our rich young ruler friend couldn’t earn his way with his actions or his wealth.  What was required was for him to place God first, above all else.  Or… to give up his life for the sake of the Gospel.  Sound familiar?  Dr. Mark L. Strauss again, “Salvation comes not through human effort or meritorious work, but rather through the renunciation of self and dependence on God – becoming like a child.” [3]  And so, today’s lesson ties in with what we learned last week about the ways in which one must enter God’s kingdom as a child. 

            But there is just a bit more to our lesson today, and the remaining part of our lesson is steeped in the Good News of the Gospel!  After Jesus’ comment about the camel and the needle, the disciples asked in incredulity “who then can be saved?”  Does anyone remember how Jesus answered?  “With [humans] this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 

            My friends, salvation is a gift, freely given by a loving and compassionate God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, and yet delights in us because He alone knows what it is that we are capable of becoming.  God calls us, woos us, and loves us completely and relentlessly.  He will never turn from us or abandon us, and He removes our sin from us as far as the East is from the West.  In exchange, He asks for nothing but our love and devotion.  So, can our rich young ruler friend eventually be saved?  Of course he can, because what is impossible for humans is easy for God.  But remember my question about what our rich young ruler friend might have become?  Though saved, his reward in heaven would be minimal, because what he gave was minimal.  Can the thief on the cross next to Jesus be saved?  Absolutely!  In fact, Jesus personally invited him to paradise.  And we also can stand on this precious promise that what is impossible for us is easy for God. 

            Peter spoke to Jesus and said “See, we have left everything and followed you”.  Jesus’ response to Peter is a response to us as well.  “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

            Romans 8:28 tells us, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Those who stand on this promise know that the riches of this life are insignificant compared to the riches that God has in store for those who trust Him.

            Oh! And that part about the first being last and the last being first?  Remember that the one who is greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who is a servant to all.

---

[1] Mark L. Strauss, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Mark Pg. 440

[2] Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, Pg. 132

[3] Mark L. Strauss, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Mark Pg. 448

The Kingdom of God Belongs to Such as These

Sermon October 6, 2024

            There is more going on here today than meets the eye.  The Pharisees have asked Jesus a question about divorce, but what is not immediately apparent is the fact that among the first century Jews, this was kind of a loaded question. 

            We have learned over the last few months how much emphasis the Jews put on rabbinical teaching.  Maybe you remember me reading a passage from the Mishna a few weeks back that said, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict scripture itself”?  Between the late first century BCE and into the first century CE there were two very influential schools of rabbinic thought.  They were the schools of Rabbi Shammai and Rabbi Hillel.  And to best understand the dynamic of these two schools of thought in modern terms, Rabbi Shammai was a conservative and Rabbi Hillel was a liberal. 

The Law regarding divorce was worded that a wife could be given a certificate of divorce for (and my Hebrew skills are non-existent) but the interlinear translation of Deuteronomy 24:1 is “Some uncleanness in her has been found”.  The controversy was related to the rabbinical interpretation of the Hebrew word “ervah” or “uncleanness”.  Shammai had the very conservative interpretation that only marital infidelity or abandonment qualified as grounds for divorce, while Hillel’s liberal interpretation, was that she could basically be divorced for “burning your toast”.  The best analogy I can give for how much of a hot button issue this was is if modern day Pharisees were to have asked Jesus a question about abortion.  No matter how Jesus answered this question, the Pharisees reasoned, He would be alienating about half of the people who heard the answer.

But Jesus didn’t take the bait.  In fact, the Pharisees have just opened up an opportunity for Jesus to give another rather unexpected lesson on love.  Jesus bypassed the rabbinical debate entirely and asked His questioners “What did Moses command you?”, taking them directly to the source of the Law.  And we need to remember that we have seen that this was the standard practice of Jesus, disregarding the interpretations of the rabbis and instead focusing on a spiritual understanding of how the Law is intended to be a condition of the heart.  The Pharisees, possibly confused at this point, replied “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”  For the Pharisees, who of course knew the written law, Jesus’ answer probably made little sense because without a discussion of the meaning of that Hebrew word “ervah” it appears that Jesus completely sidestepped the question.  But He hadn’t. 

I love the way The Message translates verse 5, “Jesus said, Moses wrote this command only as a concession to your hardhearted ways.”  And then Jesus takes us even a step beyond the Law and takes us all the way back to Genesis.  Continuing with The Message translation, Jesus said, “In the original creation, God made male and female to be together. Because of this, a man leaves father and mother, and in marriage [they] become one flesh—no longer two individuals… but forming a new unity. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart.”  You see, the Pharisees were so focused on how the law applied to behavior, that they failed to understand that the proper way to interpret the law is to look deep within that law to determine how God intended that law to affect our hearts, and this is how Jesus taught.

Dr. Jason Meyer comments, “Jesus is saying, ‘The problem here is you.  You are trying to test me, but you fail to see that the Law judges your hearts.  The Law had to make legal allowances for the people’s sinful heart issues.  In a perfect world, divorce would not happen, but God gave this commandment because He knew it would.” [1]

Before I continue with this thought, a little commentary is in order.  We live in an imperfect world, and because of our imperfections, sometimes things don’t work in the way that God intended.  As Christians, it is wise for us to continually remind ourselves that our imperfections are forgiven by a gracious and loving God who, through Jesus, experienced life in exactly the same way that we do.  Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” 

Because divorce is so common in our society, and because divorce leaves so much pain in its wake, it is important for us as Christians both to understand marriage as God intended it to be, but also to understand the depth of God’s grace to each and every person’s unique situations and challenges.  Dr. Mark L Strauss commented on this when he said, “There is no sin that Christ did not pay for on the cross and no emotional damage that that the Spirit of God cannot eventually heal.  To say that remarriage after a divorce is never an option (or is an option only if “grounds” have been established) seems to limit the power of the gospel to bring renewal and restoration to broken people.” [2] It is on this firm foundation of forgiveness that the follower of Jesus Christ stands, giving us the reassurance of His unfailing love for us.  Last week I said, “let us not be discouraged by focusing on the missteps that can cause us to stumble.  Rather let us press on towards the goal of living our lives in such a way that they become lives of eternal significance.”  Simply put, if God has chosen, in His love for us, to separate our sins from us as far as East is from West, why would WE ever choose to let our past interfere with the task of becoming the people that God has called us to be?

That having been said, let’s take a quick look at what Jesus is actually teaching here, because it is a lot.  Most important is something about which I have been speaking for the last few months, and that is the fact that the focus here is not on our actions, but rather the condition of our hearts.  In other words, it’s not about what we do, it’s about who we are.  (You’re going to hear this phrase from me so much that eventually you will probably end up repeating it with me when I say it!)  Over the last few weeks, we’ve heard multiple times about how we are to set aside all of our self-serving ways in favor of a willingness to serve others.  Jesus called this “giving up our lives for the sake of the Gospel”. 

And nowhere on this earth is this dynamic more impactful than in a marital relationship.  The Bible actually correlates marriage to the relationship between Christ and the church.  And as we are called to be devoted to Christ, giving our lives to Him, so we are, in exactly the same way, called to be devoted to our marital partners.  Just as discipleship is not about serving self but about sacrificially serving Christ, and the church, so it is that marriage is not about serving self, but about sacrificially serving our partner.  So important was this subject to Jesus that He included part of it in the Sermon on the Mount where He identified lust for another as spiritual adultery.  Last week I talked about how, when our hearts are full of love, that love impacts our actions.  Love in our marriages is no different.  When our hearts are filled with love for our partners, that also impacts our actions, leading us to actively involve ourselves in the filling of the needs, desires, and well-being of our partners.  And at its core, the marital relationship is both our example of how we are to love God, and how we are to love others.

The benediction that I have been using for the last few weeks speaks of love as being something that is “just that easy” and also “just that hard”.  I am not trying to say that living with a heart of sacrificial love is easy, we all know that it isn’t, but I am saying that allowing God to develop within each of us a heart that loves sacrificially is well worth the effort, and indeed, that to which we are each called as believers.

Now, before I move on, there is one other important thing that I wanted to say about Jesus’ thoughts on marriage.  In the first century, a wife was property.  Women generally had very few rights.  Divorce could only be initiated by Jewish men.  Jewish women were not permitted to divorce their husbands.  For Jesus to teach here that both men and women could initiate a divorce was, in that patristic culture, revolutionary.  More than that, Jewish laws about infidelity applied to women but not to men.  The Bible reverses that, demanding fidelity and devotion from both partners.  And finally, we have in Ephesians 5 that famous comment about the requirement that wives should submit to their husbands, an often misinterpreted verse if ever there was one.  But this verse was followed by what, at the time, was a completely counter cultural comment that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church and to give their lives up for them.  Jesus made it clear that the marital relationship was designed to have both partners on an equal footing.  The goal of a Christian marriage is a true and equal partnership where EACH partner is lovingly attuned to the needs and wants of the other, and delights in filling those needs and wants.  And in that process, we can see an echo of the love that Jesus has for His church.

Returning to our story today, during this conversation about marriage, people were bringing children to Jesus for Him to bless them.  The disciples were trying to prevent the people from doing this, and our story tells us that Jesus was indignant!  One would have thought that Jesus, having just recently held a child on his lap, and taught the disciples that “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me”, that the disciples might have been a little more inclined to allow the children to be brought to Jesus, but that is not what happened.

Once again, Jesus has to intervene on behalf of the children, telling the disciples not to hinder them from coming to Him.  He then tells the disciples that “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these”.  And so, we need to ask ourselves, what is it about children that makes them particularly well suited for the kingdom of heaven, and more important, how do we go about allowing the Spirit to develop these child-like attributes in ourselves? 

First, children, particularly young children, are helpless; unable to care for themselves, provide for themselves, or protect themselves.  And yet, children don’t worry about these things.  They have a fully trusting faith in the capacity of others to care for them and to provide for them.  And children have a deep love for those who care for them and show them kindness.  When we stand before God, we truly have nothing to offer Him but our hearts.  If we are willing to enter the kingdom of heaven acknowledging the fact that we are entirely dependent on God to fulfill our needs, and if we enter the kingdom of heaven loving and adoring God for His providence and His care, then we are entering as a child. 

Second, children have no illusions of their having earned the love and care of their parents.  They have full faith that they will be cared for, without any thought of any need for reciprocation.  If we trust fully in God to accept us without any thought of our earthly actions somehow earning that acceptance, then we are entering as a child. 

Third, children actively seek the affection of their parents and caregivers.  The love and affection that they show is unconditional.  They love simply because it is in their hearts to do so.  If we are to love God and to love others without condition, simply because it is in our hearts to do so, then we are entering as a child.

Lastly, children have no status, in fact, mostly children have no concept of status.  Children have no power over others and seek no power over others, and they have no riches to protect, nor do they seek riches.  Children are quite content with living a simple life without striving, power struggles, and need to acquire possessions that sadly tend to characterize the adult life on earth.  If we are willing to abandon the trappings and power structures of the world and instead permit the Spirit to work in us to lead us to become the people that God has called us to be, then we are entering as a child.

I’d like to close with a few quotes.  The first is from one of my favorite Christian authors, Warren Wiersbe, “We enter God’s kingdom by faith, like little children: helpless, unable to save ourselves, totally dependent on the mercy and grace of God.  We enjoy God’s kingdom by faith, believing that the Father loves us and will care for our daily needs.” [3]

The other quote is from Dr. Daniel L. Akin who tells us that “[Children] come small, helpless, and powerless.  They have no clout or standing, and they bring nothing but empty hands.  This is appropriate, because only empty hands can be filled” [4]

My friends, let us enter the kingdom with empty hands, that they may be filled to abundance.

---

[1] Mark for You, Jason Meyer Chapter 9 Pg. 150

[2] Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on  the New Testament, Mark.  Mark L. Strauss Pg. 429

[3] Be Diligent, Warren Wiersbe Pg. 121

[4] Exalting Jesus in Mark, Daniel L. Akin Pg. 214-215