Pentecost 7B, 2024

7th Week after Pentecost, Year B

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

How many interns/vicars has Miller’s had over the years? How many do you remember? Internship is a powerful experience for any would-be pastor. I remember mine vividly. I have many fond memories. I also have more than a few difficult memories. But all of them shaped me. There’s one thing about being a Vicar in the Lutheran tradition (and this is fairly universal across the different “flavors” of Lutheranism) - you should not be called as pastor in the church of your internship. Yes, there are exceptions…but those are rare. There’s another rule that goes with it: you should not be called as pastor in the church where you grew up. And these rules are related. It is difficult - if not impossible - to hold the authority of the office of pastor in a setting where they knew you as an awkward, buck-toothed teenager with a face full of acne. Likewise, as an intern you’re likely to make mistakes and stumble on your path of learning. People remember you for THAT kind of stuff… not for the things you did right.

I find it fascinating that even JESUS experiences this. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this scene in their Gospel accounts. Jesus gets up to read a passage from the Scriptures. Luke tells us that he reads

Isaiah 61:1–2 (ESV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor...”

And he finishes with “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) The passage in Isaiah is one of the most clear prophecies of the Messiah promised by God. That Messiah is speaking in that prophecy, as heard in the pronoun “me”. Jesus is telling his family, friends, and neighbors that he is “me”. All those who saw him from a very young age, doing all the awkward and goofy things that children do, is now saying that he is THE MESSIAH of God. That’s a bold statement.

And their reaction is perfectly understandable: “Where did this man get these things?” They’re referring to both his knowledge of the scriptures and to the works of power they’ve heard about - healing the sick and cleansing the lepers, casting out demons, and so on. When you read this in the Greek, this question is clearly asked in a way that’s terribly insulting. “Where did *this* man get these things?” The implication is that he’s no better than any of the rest of the people… if not even lower than they are. He could not POSSIBLY be worthy to have such knowledge and power. After all, he’s Joseph and Mary’s kid! We know his brothers, and his sisters are here. Who does he think he is?

What are these people missing? Remember last week, when I told you 2 things that God might be trying to teach me? Well, there’s a third thing that God MUST have been trying to teach me…and that’s the same thing these people are missing: HUMILITY. It takes humility to acknowledge that Jesus is God and I’m not. Yet one more thing the world does differently than God....

The next sentence is also very telling: “And they took offense at him.” We’ll dig into this more in a moment. Jesus responds with a statement about how prophets are not honored (as God’s prophets normally are) in their hometown. Of course he’s referring to himself… and he calls himself prophet here because the contempt against him began during his preaching. “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.”

So, there’s at least some correlation between healing and belief (or unbelief). That’s no surprise - we had great examples of the connection between healing and belief last week: Jairus and his daughter, and the hemorrhaging woman. Both had such strong belief in Jesus’ healing power.

Mark 5:34 (ESV)

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

And so this week, we see the opposite: those who do not believe will not be healed. I’m going to use the word “belief” interchangeably with the word “faith”. Their meanings here are virtually the same. Those who did have faith were healed in last week’s story. I can’t help but think here about what Pastor Dave says about faith: “The first thing faith says is ‘thank you’.” What’s implied in that is that faith is how you receive a gift from God. If you don’t have faith, how would you receive the gift? So as with last week, I don’t think it’s that Jesus *couldn’t* heal anyone. In fact, it tells us that he did heal “a few sick people”. It’s that these people who had no faith were incapable of receiving the gift of healing from him. They could not receive something they didn’t believe in.

Let’s go back to that last sentence in verse 3: “And they took offense at him.” An older translation says this: “And they were becoming entrapped in connection with him.” [Lenski, 236] There’s one word that really changes how we look at this sentence: offense/entrapped. That verb in Greek is σκανδαλίζω - skandalidzo. This is where we get our English word “scandalize” from. The Greeks had a very specific definition of this word…but the meaning we have here comes from the Jewish culture. The men who wrote the New Testament may have written it in Greek, but their culture was Jewish. “To take offense” does not really capture the whole meaning here.

One Greek scholar explains it like this: “The person and work of Jesus are a divine sign ... which demands faith and finds it in some, but meets with opposition and rejection in many.” [Kittel, 345] He goes on to explain that this will result in a division of people: believers and unbelievers… Put another way, he says “the ministry of Jesus can have two results, life on the one side and death on the other.” [Ibid.] That’s pretty serious stuff. But then, this should be no surprise. Jesus himself says, in John 14:6 “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Believing in Jesus means eternal life. Not believing in Jesus means eternal death. It’s very clear and quite black & white; there’s no grey area.

So this “skandalon” (the noun form of the word) is the relation to God. It is “an obstacle in coming to faith and a cause of going astray in it.” [Ibid.] Let’s put that definition in our Gospel for today: “And they had an obstacle in coming to faith in Jesus, and it prevented them from believing in him.” It was much more than merely taking offense at him. Their reaction to him actively PREVENTED them from believing His Word, from believing His claim that He *is* the Messiah. Without that belief, they could not receive what He was offering them. In addition to the thought of an obstacle, Lenski also suggests that this skandalon can be thought of as a trap. They’re caught, stuck in this trap, and they’re not likely to escape.

Now let’s compare this again to last week. What we have in common between the two stories is that in both readings, the people involved have an encounter with Christ. The difference is in their faith. Those with faith received healing. They experienced Jesus’ power. Those without faith received nothing. They were kept from experiencing Jesus’ power. Did Jesus still have power? Yes, of course he did. Remember: Jesus is both fully man and fully God. His power is not diminished. Those who do not believe simply prevent themselves from experiencing it. They do not believe it, so they cannot witness it.

Sadly, this is true not just for their immediate healing, but also for their eternal salvation. “No one comes to the father except through [Jesus]” right? Eternal life *is* eternity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the only Way to that is through the Son… then those who want that eternal life must believe in the Son.

In a few minutes, we will come to the highlight of our worship: when we receive the Body and Blood of the Son. His Body given for us and His Blood shed for us to ensure the eternal life promised to us. This is Christ’s greatest gift - giving himself over to be executed to pay the price for our sins. The first thing faith says is “thank you” - and we do just that when we receive this meal. In coming to His Table to receive this wonderful gift, just in coming forward, we are telling Jesus that we believe in Him. We believe that He has saved us. We believe that this meal is a taste of our very salvation and all that He has accomplished on our behalf. We believe that He *is* the only Way to the Father, and we believe that He will bring us to the Father on the Day of Judgment. We believe that He has already conquered sin and death, and we trust that our future is secure because of His victory. All of that is what we receive in this meal.

There are many appropriate ways to respond when receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. What you say is entirely up to you. Most of you typically say “amen” which is absolutely appropriate. But just this morning, I’d like to ask you to say “Thank you, Jesus” when you receive His Body and Blood. Just today. Remember all that He has done as you taste your own salvation. And as you taste that, know that there is no skandalon… no obstacle to your faith which prevents you from receiving all that Jesus has given you. The moment that His Body is placed in your palm, all obstacles are gone. The gift is now yours. As you taste the meal in your mouth, you are now as close to your Savior as you can possibly be on this side of eternity. Pause briefly to experience Christ in that moment and know that you are saved. Let that meal be a boost to your faith.

Brothers and sisters: we HAVE received the gift of salvation from Christ. We have the benefit of knowing the Good News of what He has done for us. What are we going to do with that? May I suggest that the second half of the Gospel for today gives us an idea of what we should consider: we, too, are sent out. To where? You might ask. That’s what we are called to figure out. Let us do that in prayer and with thanksgiving in our hearts. Where do we take this? Let’s pray that God would show us the answer to that, and also that He would give us the courage to go where He sends us.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.