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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.
As elsewhere in Holy Scripture, in today’s Gospel Reading, our Lord Jesus calls His followers to a discipline of self-denial that, in the end, relates to whether one is “Going to Hell or Entering Life”. With His three parallel examples, our Lord Jesus would have us consider not only our hand, foot, and eye but also anything else that might cause us to sin or to fall from faith, and then He would have us try as we might to do away with whatever it might be, because going to hell with it is far worse than entering life without it. This morning we consider especially that aspect of today’s Gospel Reading, and we do so directing our thoughts to the theme “Going to Hell or Entering Life”.
Today’s Gospel Reading begins with the disciple John’s telling Jesus that the disciples had seen someone casting out demons in Jesus’s Name and at least tried to stop him because he was not following with them—which incident at least the organizers of our three-year series of appointed Readings seem to think is like what we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Numbers 11:4‑6, 10-16, 24-29), namely, Joshua’s expressing his concern to Moses about Eldad and Medad’s prophesying in the camp of the Israelites. Somewhat as Moses replied to Joshua, Jesus replied to John not to stop the man, at least for now (confer Luke 9:50, but compare Matthew 12:30 and Luke 11:23). Then Jesus spoke about people who might do for those who are in the Name of Christ either something positive, such as giving a cup of water, or something negative, such as causing them to sin or to fall from faith, and Jesus contrasted the consequences of doing the positive and the negative things. But, as Jesus’s teaching in today’s Gospel Reading makes clear, more important than the disciples’ concern about what others are doing is what should be the disciples’ concern about what they themselves are doing, as our primary concern should be about what we ourselves are doing, what is causing us to sin or to fall from faith, because of the consequences of “Going to Hell or Entering Life”.
Now, there have been those throughout Church history who have thought that Jesus’s commands to cut off one’s hand or foot and to tear out one’s eye were meant to be taken literally, but such a view seems to under-appreciate how corrupted we are by sin. For example, cutting off a hand that might surf on a computer or phone for internet pornography, and cutting off a foot that might take one to an illicit in-person encounter, and tearing out an eye that might watch a sleazy show at a cabaret hardly eliminate the lust of the heart that prompts such behavior in the first place. Because of our sinful nature and all such actual sins of thoughts, words, and deeds, we deserve to be cast into or otherwise go to hell, where the maggots eating one’s flesh never run out of one’s flesh to eat, and the fire is neither quench‑ed nor quench‑able (confer Isaiah 66:24). Such inevitable punishment for sin all too easily can be forgotten even by Christians, who otherwise avoid such punishment only by their daily sorrow over sin and their trust that God forgives sin freely for Jesus’s sake. To such repentance God calls and so enables us, even as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (James 5:13-20), both about someone’s bringing sinners back from their wandering and about faith’s leading to forgiveness through the elders—which, in the Epistle Reading, refers to the pastors—of the Church.
In contrast with the punishment of going to hell is the reward of entering the life of the Kingdom of God. Even though the word “reward” can have to do with wages earned, in this case the life of the Kingdom of God clearly is a gracious blessing of God as He forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. Moved by His great love for us, Jesus took our sins to the cross, and there He died in our place, the death that we deserved. As true man, Jesus was able to die, and, as true God, His death was sufficient for the sins of the whole world. And, Jesus’s resurrection shows, among other things, that God the Father accepted Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf. When we repent, then God forgives us; God forgives us all our sins, whatever our sins might be. God forgives our sins through those whom He sends’ exercising His authority in His Name on His behalf.
Notably, in the Gospel Reading even the man the disciples saw who was not following them cast out demons in Jesus’s Name, and those whom the English Standard Version says “belong to Christ”, more literally, are those who are “in” the Name of Christ, and in the Epistle Reading the rites and rituals that the pastors of the Church do are in the Name of the Lord. The Name of the Lord is far more than a magical incantation but includes invoking the Lord, calling upon Him, proclaiming Him, and His being present with His power to forgive and so giving the blessing of entering life. We especially think of Holy Baptism, where water is applied to an individual in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and we especially think of Holy Absolution, where pastors’ hands are applied to an individual in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Demons are so cast out, and baptized and absolved sinners are welcomed to the Lord’s Altar where He Himself is present with His Body and His Blood in the bread and wine of the Sacrament in order to give the forgiveness of sins and so also give eternal life. In all these ways we have fellowship with God and come under His power and operation that transform our lives.
We do nothing in order to save ourselves, but we cooperate with our transformation. Instead of a literal cutting off of a hand or foot and a tearing out of an eye, we figuratively put our sinful flesh to death with its sinful passions and lusts. We pass through the fires of self-denial and so have salt in ourselves and are at peace with one another, not “tolerating” as society might “tolerate” those who are apart from the fellowship of the Church, but proclaiming the truth to them and being patient with them, as long as the Lord is patient with them, in order for them to repent. For ourselves, we remember the eternal consequences of falling into unrepented sin or from faith, namely, going to hell, where we are not annihilated but are tormented for eternity, so, we remember that whatever we might have to experience here and now in our struggle with sin in order to avoid that torment and to enter life is better. Our beloved sister in Christ Olene’s struggle with sin ended yesterday morning. I had the privilege of seeing her hours earlier in order to remind her of her redemption in Christ Jesus and so also of God’s promise to deliver her from her affliction in His way and time, as He did deliver her, and also will deliver all of us. We may grieve her loss in the meantime, but God comforts us with the sure and certain hope both of the resurrection of the body, glorified at that point, and of the blessed reunion in heaven.
Considering the Gospel Reading this morning, we have realized that our Lord Jesus calls His followers to a discipline of self-denial that, in the end, relates to whether one is “Going to Hell or Entering Life”. Even as we fail in our struggle with sin, with daily repentance, we live in both the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and the forgiveness of sins that we extend to one another. Though we deserve to go to hell, by God’s mercy and grace for Jesus’s sake, we who repent and believe instead will enter life.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +