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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. (Amen.)
Right after both saving a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years and raising a twelve-year-old girl from the dead, as we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Mark 5:21-43), Jesus went away from there and came to His hometown, to Nazareth, and His disciples followed Him, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading. On the Sabbath, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, and, the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark reports, many who heard Him were astonished. Now, that astonishment by itself could be a good thing or a bad thing, but what the astonished people were saying seems to show that they were not amazed by Jesus’s teaching but instead that they were amazed that Jesus was teaching. Ultimately, they were taking offense at Jesus. Indeed, such astonishment in the New Testament can lead to either “Taking offense at Jesus or believing in Him”. Which are we doing: “Taking offense at Jesus or believing in Him”?
The sending of Ezekiel that we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading made clear both that the people of Israel were a nation of rebels, who transgressed against God, and were impudent and stubborn, and that the two options were for them to either hear or refuse to hear (Ezekiel 2:1‑5). So, although Jesus marveled because of the unbelief of the people in the Nazareth synagogue, Jesus doubtless was not surprised when they took offense at Him. For them, there was an “irreconcilable contradiction” between Jesus’s work, which carried with it an “unmistakable claim”, and what they thought they knew about Jesus’s origin—His previous vocation, whatever they might have thought of that; His maybe illegitimate birth; and what they assumed were His family relationships—so they refused to believe in Him (Stählin, TDNT 7:350). They essentially were right in thinking that some supernatural power had to give Jesus the things that He was teaching, the wisdom that He was demonstrating, and the power or authority to do the mighty works that He was doing by His hands. But, instead of understanding that God the Father had given such things to Jesus, much less that the Son of God with Whom Jesus was personally united had given such things to Jesus, they instead are said to have understood that Jesus was in league with the devil (for example, Luther, AE 61:468).
In our day, especially with modern social media, there seems to be no end of talk about both taking offense and giving offense. We probably can agree that certain words and actions are offensive in certain contexts. Yet, we ourselves likely both have taken offense at something that we probably should not have taken offense and have given offense in some other, perhaps unnecessary way that we should not have given offense. Such secular taking or giving offense may even become a spiritual taking or giving offense, our being led to sin or to fall away from faith, or our causing another person to sin or to fall away from faith. We might tray to avoid saying that Jesus gave offense to the people in the Nazareth Synagogue (compare TLSB, ad loc Mark 6:3, p.1666, and Masaki, CPR 34:3, pp.33-34), but, no matter how we express it, ultimately the people in the Nazareth synagogue are to be blamed for being offended or taking offense at Jesus. And so, ultimately, are we to be blamed when something leads us to sin or to fall from faith, or when we lead someone else to sin or to fall from faith. For example, maybe we take offense at the lowliness of the Gospel and its preaching: sermons that are either too long or too short, eye contact that looks right at us either too much or not enough, delivery that is either too dynamic or not dynamic enough. However we might sin, the sin ultimately is on us, and so we deserve eternal damnation, apart from God’s leading us to repent by His Holy Spirit’s working through the preaching of that very Gospel—whether preaching by Ezekiel, Jesus, His apostles, such as St. Paul, or pastors today—and so to trust that God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The preaching of Christ crucified itself elsewhere is said for some to be a stumbling block: a cause for sin or falling away from faith (1 Corinthians 1:23). But, for us whom God has called to faith and is saving, the Word of the cross is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18, 24). God the Father gave all authority to God the Son, Who was personally united with the human flesh of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In that way the man Jesus did receive from God the things He taught, the wisdom He demonstrated, and the power or authority to do the mighty works that He was doing by His hands—precisely what the people in the Nazareth synagogue did not want to grant then, and what some so-called Christians do not want to grant even today. Rejection of Jesus like that of the people in the Nazareth synagogue later in part led to Jesus’s suffering and death, but, out of God’s great love and mercy, Jesus suffered and died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved because of our sinful nature and all of our sin, and then He rose from the dead. When we turn away from our sin and trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, then God does forgive us: our sinful nature and all of our sin. The faith of the woman who had had the discharge of blood who was saved and the faith of the man whose daughter was raised from the dead that we heard about in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading seem to be contrasted in today’s Gospel Reading with the unbelief of the people in the Nazareth synagogue (Masaki, CPR 34:3, p.33), unbelief that caused Jesus to marvel, as on another occasion Jesus marveled at a Gentile man’s faith (Matthew 8:10; Luke 7:9).
The people of the Nazareth synagogue took offense at Jesus Himself, or “were offended by Him”, and on other occasions the Jewish leaders took offense, or “were offended”, at what Jesus taught (Matthew 15:12), and people of the Jews took offense, or “were offended”, at Jesus’s teaching about the need to eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6:61). Yet, neither Jesus’s Word nor His Sacraments are changed in order to avoid giving offense, for they are the very means of salvation for us and for others! God’s Gospel read and preached is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16), regardless of external matters such as sermon length, eye contact, and voice dynamics. Likewise, we should not be led into sin or to fall away from faith because of the lowliness of the water of Holy Baptism, the pastor’s touch of Holy Absolution, or the bread and the wine of the Holy Supper. These all give forgiveness of sins and so also life and salvation. These all are the tools of the ministry sent with Christ’s authority, authority even to warn those who do not repent and believe, as Jesus did in the Nazareth synagogue verbally, as Jesus sent His disciples to do by their shaking off the dust that was on their feet (confer Acts 13:51), and Jesus sends pastors to do by the exercise of the binding key in excommunication (confer Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 20:21-23).
Jesus was rejected and suffered for the pure Gospel and Sacraments; as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 12:1-10), St. Paul was rejected and suffered for the pure Gospel and Sacraments, and likewise we should expect to be rejected and suffer for the pure Gospel and Sacraments. But, as also for St. Paul, so also for us: God’s grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are weak, then we are strong, and so we can be content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. As people supported the apostles in their ministry then, we support our pastors in their ministry today. We try not to take or give offense unnecessarily, and, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins for when we fail in those or in any other ways.
We may not be as astonished as we should be at Jesus, with that astonishment’s leading to our either “Taking offense at Jesus or believing in Him”. Those who take offense may treat us who believe with scorn and contempt, and so we, as we did in today’s Psalm (Psalm 123:1-4; antiphon: v.1), call for the Lord to have mercy upon us, and He does have mercy upon us, He has mercy upon us both now and forever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +