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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Probably all of us, in one way or another, have experienced what we could call “mixed results”. Maybe we have had mixed results at work, where we have taken the same approach to different projects, only to have it work for some projects and not for others. Maybe we have had mixed results in the kitchen, where we have used the same recipe on multiple occasions, only to have it turn out well some times and not others. Maybe we have had mixed results with friends, encouraging and interacting with all of them, only to have some relationships thrive but not others. The mixed results we have experienced in such cases are not unlike the mixed results Jesus experienced in today’s Gospel Reading—mixed results in His own ministry, which included sending out the Twelve for ministry, to experience their own mixed results. Reflecting on this morning’s Gospel Reading, then our theme is “Mixed Results and Ministry”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up where last week’s left off. You may recall that last week we heard how Jesus healed a woman who had had a discharge of blood while He was on His way to raise a dead girl. Today we heard how Jesus went away from there and came to His hometown of Nazareth, where His teaching in its synagogue led some to the astonishment of faith and others to the offense of unbelief. And, we next heard how the Twelve ministered by preaching and performing miracles, likely with at least somewhat similar mixed results.
“Local boy makes good.” Maybe you have seen such headlines in newspapers or heard such stories on radio or television. Some people want those who go out from their hometown to come back successful, though there always seem to be other people who are either jealous of others’ success or otherwise want people to come back failures. In the case of Jesus, St. Mark first tells us, by divine inspiration, that some who heard Jesus were astonished and believed, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands?” Yet, St. Mark tells us that there were others who took offense and were unbelieving, saying, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?” Reports of Jesus’s mighty works elsewhere and the people’s own perceptions of Jesus’s family ties played roles in how they received Jesus’s teaching.
What things play roles in how we receive Jesus’s teaching? Are we always astonished and believing? Or, do we sometimes take offense and not believe? Maybe sometimes we think of Jesus as too ordinary, as He seemed to be for people in Nazareth. Maybe sometimes we think we already know all we need to know about Jesus and so do not really listen to Him in His Word. Maybe we wrongly think Jesus is a buddy who will go along with whatever we do and forget that He actually is a Holy God who calls us to be equally holy! By nature you and I are like the people of Israel whom God described to Ezekiel in the Old Testament Reading: we are rebels who rebel against God and transgress against Him each and every day; we are impudent and stubborn. God sent Ezekiel to such people in order to call them to repent, just as the Twelve Jesus sent out in the Gospel Reading proclaimed that people should repent. God likewise calls you and me to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin, whatever it might be. He forgives our sin for the sake of Jesus, the God-man Who died for us.
We might say that the group astonished in Nazareth still did not have Jesus quite right, even as the group that took offense at Jesus did not have Jesus all wrong. The group astonished did not realize that, according to His nature as God, Jesus had the teaching He made, the wisdom He demonstrated, and the ability to do such mighty works by His hands. The group that took offense at Jesus was right that, according to His nature as man, Jesus was the Son of Mary and a relative of some sort to James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and the unnamed, unnumbered women. Jesus’s being God and Man made it possible for Him both to stand in their synagogue and teach them and to lay His hand on sick people and heal them. Likewise, Jesus’s being God and Man made it possible for Him both to hang on the cross and die for you and me and for His death to be a sufficient payment for your sins and mine. When we turn in sorrow from our sins and believe that Jesus died for our sins, then God forgives our sins, whatever our sins might be.
In the Gospel Reading, we not only heard how Jesus was both teaching and healing, but we also heard how He sent out the Twelve both to teach and to heal. Like the call of Jesus, the calls of the Twelve were not limited to one geographic region and included the authority to perform such things as exorcisms to give validity to their ministry. However, those whom the Twelve sent out ultimately, such as pastors today, have calls limited to one geographic region and use God’s Word to give validity to their ministry. For their teaching and healing with forgiveness, pastors use God’s Word in all its forms, including those connected with visible means such as water, touch, and bread and wine. Like Jesus’s being the boy next door, water may seem too ordinary, but Holy Baptism nevertheless does work forgiveness of sins, deliver from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation. Like shaking off the dust from feet’s functioning as a form of excommunication, a pastor’s touching his hands to the penitent’s head as part of individual absolution following private confession may seem too odd to be part of forgiving sins before God in heaven. Like the Twelve’s not taking a bag of bread on their journey but expecting to be fed each day, so we are fed on the way by daily bread that is Christ’s body and wine that is Christ’s blood, given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. There, at that altar, we, in the words our Introit’s antiphon quoted from Psalm 34, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Our Lord could forgive us in any number of other ways, but through His Word and Sacraments is how He has chosen to forgive us.
Jesus’s choice not to do more than a few mighty works that day in Nazareth is at least in part behind the small number of people He healed, since surely Jesus could have done more mighty work there if He had wanted to do so. (There are other possible explanations for the small number of people healed: perhaps, because more people did not believe, more people were not brought to be healed, or perhaps those who did not believe turned violent and so essentially kept Jesus from having the opportunity to heal more people.) Regardless, Jesus marveled because of the unbelief of the people in His hometown, among His relatives, and in His own household. In those places He lacked honor, as did His disciples in places they went, and as we do both as a congregation and in the individual places God puts us. People we know and love in our hometowns, among our relatives, and in our own households may not repent and believe, and like Jesus we may marvel at their unbelief. Due to such unbelief, there are and always will be “mixed results” to ministry. As Jesus did not stop after rejection but stepped up the work by way of the Twelve, so we keep up the work and leave the results to God. Even if unbelievers dishonor us, we, like St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading, can learn to be content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For, when we are weak, then we are strong in Christ. As with St. Paul, so with us, living each day in the forgiveness of sins: His grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +