Saturday, July 14, 2018

Because he said: A Meditation on Mark 6


For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, 
and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, 
his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her.
For John had said unto Herod, 
It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.

Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, 
and would have killed him; but she could not:
For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, 
and observed him; and when he heard him, 
he did many things, and heard him gladly.

And when a convenient day was come, 
that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, 
high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;
And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, 
and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, 
the king said unto the damsel, 
Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.
And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, 
I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.

And she went forth, and said unto her mother, 
What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.
And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, 
I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist.
And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, 
and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.

And immediately the king sent an executioner, 
and commanded his head to be brought: 
and he went and beheaded him in the prison,
And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: 
and the damsel gave it to her mother.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark 6 is a good reminder that political persecution for the sake of preaching God’s Word has existed for a very long time.  John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was not only the greatest of the prophets, but that no other person born of women had arisen greater than he, found himself in prison because he dared tell King Herod that his chosen bride was unlawful for him to have.   Of course, John had no ability to change the king’s decision, to influence politics (Israel was never really a democracy, and it certainly wasn’t during the Roman occupation of Jesus’ day), or to wield any earthly power; John simply bore God’s Word.  Herod wanted his brother’s wife, and she seemed eager to improve her rank by ditching her previous husband and becoming the consort of the king.  Abandoning marriage vows is not lawful before God, and Jesus pointed out specifically during His ministry that this kind of divorce and remarriage is just adultery dressed up in socially acceptable clothes.  Because John called Herod and Herodias’ sin what God’s Word said it was, refusing to celebrate and affirm their twisted delusion, John found himself imprisoned and eventually beheaded through the political intrigue of the slighted lovers.

As we walk through the season of Pentecost, it is important to remember that while we have been given by Jesus the authority and duty to abide in God’s Word, to preach it, bear witness to it, and to remain faithful to it, the world around us will not always receive it gladly.  Jesus, as the very Word of God incarnate, was received by some, rejected by others, and some even used their political or social power to plot His murder on a Roman cross.  As we bear the Word of Jesus in our own time and place, we should not think that somehow we will arise above our Master, for if the world hated and persecuted Jesus, they will hate and persecute His faithful followers, as well.  Jesus told us as much before His ascension into heaven, even as He told us not to fear this world, because He had overcome it through His life, death, and resurrection on our behalf.  The people of God have always lived out this truth, from Abel who was murdered by his own brother, to the prophets who were slaughtered for their faithful witness before reprobate kings and queens, to the Apostles and their descendants who suffered under the hands of tyrants, pagans, apostates, and heretics.  

And the same is true of our own age.  In China, only those churches which the government controls are allowed to preach, and to only preach the message which the atheist government permits.  In India, Christians are regularly accosted, raped, and murdered by Hindu mobs while the police look on approvingly, only later to feign their disapproval.  In many Islamic countries,  governments institute Sharia Law to keep Christians politically and socially enslaved below Muslim citizens, and then promote or turn a blind eye to the Muslim mobs which bomb, shoot, and burn their churches, and kidnap their children to be sold into sexual slavery.  In these lands the blood of the martyrs flow daily, and like John the Baptist, they are persecuted and murdered for the sake of their fidelity to God’s Word.

In our own lands, the tides of this persecution continue to rise.  ANTIFA mobs and social justice warriors target anyone who refuses to celebrate and affirm every kind of debauchery, insanity, and deviancy, stigmatizing Christians into unemployment and financial destitution.  We have thought crimes on our books which seek to prosecute the malleable concept of “hate,” oddly and often used to protect the hateful wrath of those who cannot abide anyone who might insinuate their behavior is unhealthy, unhelpful, or unlawful before God.  Professors and teachers, merchants and store owners, artists and executives, clergy and laity, politicians and staff workers, scientists and doctors, and numerous others in every walk of life have felt the seething, manipulative hatred of a world that will not abide the Word of God, and many have tired to find ways to live out their Christian convictions without drawing such violent attention to themselves.  Some even abandon it altogether, bowing to the world’s preference for darkness over light.

Yet the calling of Christ to His people continues through His Word and Spirit, regardless of the hatred of evil people and spirits, or the apostasy of those who reject it to substitute human opinion in its place.  That living Word of Jesus continues to work in the world, revealing the darkness of our hearts and our fallen nature which leads all of us toward death, and yet also offers to all people forgiveness, life, and salvation by grace through faith in Him.  The Law which Jesus sends to reveals our brokenness, is salved by the Gospel He brings to heal us— the faith and repentance He calls us to, leads us to turn from the ways of death and evil, and puts our feet firmly on the path of life, beauty, love, peace, hope, and joy.  Such a Word, though scorned by some, is the power of God unto salvation for all who will trust and receive it, binding to God with unbreakable bonds every reconciled soul which lives and rests in Him.  By the power of this Word every demonic force has been put to flight, every dark corner made bright, and every infestation of evil purged.  It is a Word which has inspired the saints and martyrs, Prophets and Apostles, to stand before an irrational and hate filled world with love, compassion, and courage, bearing witness to the love of God which seeks and saves everyone who will trust in Him.  It is a Word which fears no wrath of man, no executioner, no prison, no calamity, because the eternal life which comes through this Eternal Word transcends every passing darkness.  


Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, calling you to live in Jesus by grace through faith, undaunted and unafraid of the petty, transitory persecutions of wicked men.  To you has been given the forgiveness, life, and salvation won for the whole world through the Cross of Jesus, and to you has been given the mission to bear witness to the reconciling love of Christ to everyone around you.  Hear this Word of the Lord which compels and forces no one, but calls, enlightens, and enlivens everyone who will repent and believe, that through you Jesus’ Word of reconciliation might touch every soul around you— even those who hate and persecute you for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Sent with Power: A Meditation on Mark 6


And he called unto him the twelve, 
and began to send them forth by two and two; 
and gave them power over unclean spirits;
And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, 
save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:
But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.

And he said unto them, 
In what place soever ye enter into an house, 
there abide till ye depart from that place.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, 
when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet 
for a testimony against them. 
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable 
for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, 
than for that city.

And they went out, 
and preached that men should repent.
And they cast out many devils, 
and anointed with oil many that were sick, 
and healed them.

It is tempting to look at the state of the Church today, and see it as a mess.  Regardless of which Christian tradition one examines or finds one’s self in, there is plenty of scandal, incompetence, intrigue, and charlatan antics to go around.  There are church leaders angling for power or prestige, hucksters trying to separate gullible fools from their money, self righteous authors writing self help books to line their own pockets, abusers of young and old, cantankerous cranks and prideful ignoramuses.  And that’s just briefly looking at the inside.

Outside, the Church is beset by politicians who try to use her people and resources for political gain, and when even marginally rebuffed, attempt to destroy her; by academics who spin off endless vacuous theories to debunk the ancient witness of Scripture, who when when revealed as frauds, shift their attacks to other venues; by a media which seeks to use her foibles as entertainment, presenting biased and shoddy journalistic research as incontestable fact, then bristling with animus when confronted for their errors; by those who prefer darkness and evil to the light of God’s Word, who try by every means to extinguish the light which reveals their depravity; by demonic hordes who tempt and seduce the minds of fallen men into every form of evil, always urging the world toward bloodbath, insanity, and destruction.

On most levels of observation, the Church of Jesus Christ looks pretty weak and insignificant— not so unlike Jesus appeared during His earthly teaching.  Beset on all sides by every conceivable enemy, and in His humanity like us in every way except without sin, the divine Son of God embraced the weakness of persecution and eventual death on a cross to accomplish the greatest victory ever recorded in the history of the world.  Through His weakness, His omnipotent power was made manifest over sin, death, hell, and the devil, securing for every person the promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation forever.  Rising triumphal from the grave and before His Ascension into heaven, Jesus gave these powerful gifts He had secured for the world to His Church, carried forth by the Apostles and their successors into every generation, right down to our own.  These gifts of divine power and authority were shrouded in His Word and Sacraments preached and administered according to His institution and command, entrusted to sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Thus the Church became the living extension of Jesus’ Incarnation in the world, where His triumphal power would be made known through weakness until the end of time, when Jesus’ final return to judge the living and the dead will remove all shrouds of mystery, and every eye will behold the Lord of Glory face to face.

And so, the Church continues to battle her enemies inside and out, to struggle in faith and repentance against sin, death, and the devil wherever they rear their ugly heads.  She continues to bear the scorn of those who despise her and her saving Lord, of hypocrites and heretics and schismatics of every type and kind, and the manipulation of bureaucrats and politicians in secular or ecclesiastical garb.  In fact, every Christian wrestles with the same forces inside himself every day of his life, so that the existential struggle of faith on the individual and global scales are really one and the same.  But even so, shrouded within this mess of weakness, is the Eternal Word of God which comes to save every soul who will repent and believe in Jesus.


To you this Word comes again today, looking weak and despised by the world, but to those who believe, it is Word of eternal life which conquers every enemy of the human race.  Hear His Word come to you this day, that this treasure of infinite worth might be yours by grace through faith in Jesus, and that you, though broken and weak, may become yet another sanctified vessel by which the saving power of Almighty God will flow to everyone around you.  Amen.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Talitha Cumi: A Meditation on Mark 5


While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, 
Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,
 he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, 
Be not afraid, only believe.
And he suffered no man to follow him, save 
Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.

And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, 
and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.
And when he was come in, he saith unto them, 
Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.

And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, 
he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, 
and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; 
which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; 
for she was of the age of twelve years. 
And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; 
and commanded that something should be given her to eat.

As the Church walks through the season of Pentecost, her people are reminded of the power of the Lord whom they serve, today in the appointed Gospel reading from Mark 5.  Among the teachings and healings Mark records of Jesus, there is this account of a young girl brought back to life.  And though Mark records this event in fast paced narrative, he leaves us some details worth slowing down to consider.

At the outset, we are told that the girl’s father is a ruler of the synagogue, which would have placed him in close company to the Sadducees and Pharisees who were actively plotting to murder Jesus.  As a father of daughters myself, I can only imagine the agony of seeing a beloved child on the brink of death, and appreciate the willingness to cross any distance or sacrifice any material good to save her.  Jairus beheld his beloved daughter dying, and despite the social ostracization he would face from his peers— perhaps the loss of his livelihood, social status, or even his life— pressed through the crowd around Jesus only to fall at His feet and beg for mercy on behalf of his child.

Jairus had no reason to expect Jesus to help him, knowing what his brood of treacherous vipers were planing to do to Him.  But Jairus knew that he could not preserve his daughter’s life, anymore than he could preserve his own.  Perhaps in panic, despairing of his own powers and might, Jairus fell on his face before Jesus and begged for what he knew deep down only God could provide:  life in the place of death.  While he and his murderously minded cohort plotted to give Jesus death in place of life, now a ruler of the synagogue pleaded with Jesus for life in place of death.

And yet, Jesus didn’t rebuke him, call him out for his hypocrisy, or make a spectacle of him before the crowd.  He told him not to fear, but to believe, even as Jairus’ servants came to tell them that girl was already dead— and then, on the way to Jairus’ house, Jesus showed him the power of faith in the healing of the woman whose incessant bleeding had left her a broken and bankrupt pariah.  Rather than crushing the broken, Jesus showed Himself as the savior of the hopeless.

At Jairus’ home, the mourners scorned and mocked Jesus, but rather than become offended, Jesus simply but them outside while He took the mother and father, Peter, James, and John, into the dead little girl’s room.  Inside, there was no magical incantation, bizarre gyrations, or long winded prayers.  Jesus knelt down, took the girl by the hand, and said, “Talitha cumi.”  Translated, it means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”  At Jesus’ Word, life returned to the child and she arose, much to the grateful amazement of her parents.  In the place of death, Jesus gave life back to Jairus’ family, and reunited them with the beloved child they had lost.

Surrounded by a world of death and evil intentions, it is easy to lose sight of the Lord of Life whom we serve.  Like Jairus, we might forget that only God Himself gives life in the place of death, until death comes close enough to us to remind us of our utter weakness before it.  No one in this world commands life on his own authority, and every person will eventually meet death as their powers of mind and body fail.  Such a reality may drive some to ignore death until it smacks them square in the face; others may live in perpetual fear of death; still others may despair and take their own lives rather than have it taken from them.  And yet, into this cacophony of delusion, panic, and despair, Jesus comes to speak His Word of life.

Sure, we are all guilty of collusion with a murderous, treacherous, and evil world— and certainly, we all deserve the death which comes inexorably to us all.  Death reminds us that there is no one righteous in this world, no one who can say to God that he is not tainted by the corruption which leads to death.  No one, from the smallest child to the most aged elder, stands pure before the holy God of life, for we are a fallen race, each conceived in sin, and twisted toward it all our days.  But like Jairus, we find in Jesus not one who has come to ridicule or destroy us, but one who comes to speak life, forgiveness, hope, and mercy to us.  Though we are the people who betrayed Him to death on a Roman cross only to see Him emerge triumphant from a tomb which could not hold Him, what we hear from Him is not condemnation, but love.  To us He speaks peace and grace, washing away our sins and evil through His innocent blood poured out for us, and for everyone who will come to Him.  To us He says, “Fear not—only believe.”

Into your broken, dying, and troubled life, Jesus comes to you this day, that He might offer to you life in the place of your death, forgiveness in the place of your sins, and mercy in the place of your judgment.  To you He speaks His healing Word of reconciliation, that you might once again be at peace with God and your neighbor, not in the virtue of your own power or righteousness, but in His.  To you He speaks His Word of resurrection so that you might not fear death, but know that even at the end of your time in this world, Jesus will speak eternal life into the reality of your death.  The Word He breaths upon you today is the Word you shall hear even as death’s sullen stream over you flows, as He calls you to arise out of darkness, and live forever in His unspeakable light.


Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, that He may give you eternal life in the place of your death, by grace through faith in Him alone; He alone who has conquered death for you, and He alone who can speak eternal life to you.  Hear Him today, repent, believe, and live in Him forever, shining forth as a living testament to His everlasting Gospel of life.  Amen.