The Lutheran Hour
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"The Wrong Question"
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Text: Mark 6:2
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! In a world which has, for 2,000 years, minimized, misinterpreted, misread, and misunderstood Him, the living Lord Jesus wants you to understand: He is your Savior, Redeemer, your loving Lord. By the Spirit’s grace, may you be given understanding and faith of His Calvary sacrifice. Amen.
Years ago, one of the members of my church stopped in at my office for what he said was just a little talk. During the course of his “little talk” he told me that he was going to be getting a divorce. After 22 years of marriage, two children, and 18 years of house payments, he was getting a divorce. When I asked why, he summed up his terrible, unbearable home life by saying: “My wife doesn’t understand me.” Now, when pressed, the man wasn’t especially specific about his wife’s misunderstandings; he didn’t get much farther than she cooked his eggs too long and she kept telling him not to leave his dirty socks and underwear on the bedroom floor when he got undressed. Still, since he was “not understood,” the man had felt perfectly justified in taking up with another lady who, apparently did understand him.
Normally I don’t like to air our family’s laundry on the radio, but I just wanted you to know that my wife, Pamela, doesn’t understand me, either. You would think, after more than 35 years of marriage, she would, but she doesn’t. My wife doesn’t understand me. Last year, when our car decided to get finicky, in a fit of foolish macho bravado, I actually took screwdriver and wrench in hand and opened the hood. I managed to successfully remove the reemaframer, so I could look into the hoogiebob, peered around at the wheezeldoober, brushed off some cobwebs, and almost, I would like to emphasize that word “almost” got the machine going. It sputtered. That’s it; one sputter. On the basis of that single sputter, my wife, good Christian woman that she is, actually has faith that I really know what I’m doing when I tinker with the car, or with anything that has more than one moving part. She doesn’t understand me. The only thing I know about things mechanical is how to look up the address of a competent mechanic. My wife doesn’t understand me. It’s a quality in her for which I daily thank the Lord.
“My wife doesn’t understand me.” That’s not a comment which is limited to the male of the species. Women say the same thing about their mates. If the TV talk shows are to be believed, women say, “He doesn’t understand me,” with a greater intensity and frequency than do their men. Women wish to be appreciated, even if they’re not applauded; they want to be loved and not just leered at; treated with courtesy even if their husbands can’t muster up any caring or compassion. And when these ladies fail to get what they need and expect, their disappointment and dissatisfaction is summed up in the words, “He doesn’t understand me.”
Nor is the feeling of being misunderstood confined to the married people among us. A goodly number of teens are absolutely convinced that their parents have no concept of what is on their minds, in their hearts, and going on in their lives.
“You don’t understand me.” That’s the lament of the underappreciated, underpaid, unpromoted employee. We all know that if our boss had the sense God gave grass; if our boss, just once, opened his eyes and looked, yes, really looked at us, we would have received the raise, the promotion, the benefits that went to the overrated doofus in the next cubicle.
We all want to be understood. Every one of us has a craving, a longing, a yearning for somebody, anybody, to truly, fully, completely understand us; to give us the benefit of the doubt; to put the best construction on who we are and what we say and do. Being understood is a desire which, almost always, is left unanswered. Jesus is not the exception to the rule. You can almost count on your fingers the number of times that somebody actually got some inkling, some partial understanding, of who He was and what He was doing. As an infant, Jesus was brought to the temple. There, by the Spirit’s power, Anna and Simeon showed that they understood why He had been born. John the Baptist understood. So did Peter when the Spirit allowed the fisherman to identify Jesus as the Son of the living God. In the list of people who understood Jesus you would have to include Martha, who said Jesus was: “the Christ, the Son of God, who was coming into the world.” Then there was the Calvary’s Centurion who, having watched Jesus die, said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). There were a few others. All-in-all, Jesus’ life was marked by great misunderstanding.
Years before He began His active ministry, after Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, wise men, magi, came from the East to worship Him. Thinking a prince would be born in a palace, they went to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who is born King of the Jews?” Their misunderstanding was compounded by Herod, who, thinking of Jesus as a political rival, sent his henchmen to murder the male children of that small Judean town. Jesus was misunderstood by the crowds which followed Him; who wished to make Him an earthly king to provide for their physical wants. Jesus was misunderstood by the Pharisees who considered Him a blasphemer, heretic, the devil incarnate, an uneducated upstart, a partygoer who was trying to rewrite God’s Scripture and disregard His laws. The priests of Jesus’ day thought of Jesus as competition, a false prophet, guiding the people down a path of doom and destruction. Read through the Gospels and you will be amazed at the intensity of misunderstanding which surrounded the Savior.
Nowhere, I believe, is the misunderstanding of the Lord greater than in His own boyhood hometown of Nazareth. In the sixth chapter of his narration of Jesus’ life, Mark tells us what happened when Jesus came home to visit His family, His friends, the people who had watched Him grow into manhood. Today it is customary, when a native Son makes good, for the people of His hometown to proudly claim some responsibility in having shaped their hero. On every major road that leads into the community, the town puts up a sign which says: “The birthplace of…” or “The boyhood home of…” and then they name the famous individual.
Now, if that famous individual is actually convinced to come home, the town kicks into high gear as it rolls out the red carpet of welcome. The town encourages the poorer businesses and homes on the outskirts of town, to primp up and paint up. The mayor in an over-long, formal-sounding speech, hands over the keys to the city. The Community Council renames a street in the famous person’s honor. The Board of Education, not to be outdone, does the same for the community high school. The newspaper has a reporter interview teachers, classmates, and playmates of the town’s famous son or daughter. Inquiring minds want to know: What was he like when he was here? Did you have any idea she or he would be so successful? Do you have an early age anecdote which gives indication of early age greatness? That’s the way it should be done when a famous son or daughter comes home. That’s the way it should have been when Jesus came back to Nazareth. I mean think about it. Nazareth didn’t have a great reputation. It was an unappreciated city, located in an out-of-the-way Roman province, where people spoke with a peculiar and uneducated accent. Nazareth should have had the town band leading a parade, with decorated fire trucks and the homecoming queen and court riding decorated donkeys. Jesus, the same Jesus who had taught a great crowd on the Sea of Galilee, who had calmed a storm; who had driven out demons, who had healed a woman of a hemorrhage; who had raised a dead man’s daughter, Jesus was coming home.
None of that happened. What did happen was this: Jesus was asked to say a few words at the local synagogue. He did so, and gladly. According to tradition, He would have read some Scripture, probably from the prophets. According to what happened in other, similar situations, Jesus would have told the people He was the promised Messiah, the long-awaited Savior; the deliverer from sin, death, and devil. He would have implied that He was God’s Son who had come to seek and save the lost; to bring hope and healing to those who had known only hurt; to rescue souls from sin and the damnation which their transgressions demanded.
Mark tells us that the people who should have known Jesus best, who had seen Him grow up, were pretty much unimpressed. They turned to each other and asked, “…and where did He get these words of wisdom? Isn’t this the carpenter… the lowly, uneducated carpenter?” It wasn’t a compliment. They said to each other, “Isn’t this Mary’s Son?” The reference to Jesus being the “Son of Mary” wasn’t a flattering remark, either. In the first century, sons were known by their fathers names. Those of you who are of Scandinavian heritage know what I’m talking about. You have the same tradition. The American name, Johnson, means “the son of Johannes.” Swenson is the “son of Sven.” To associate Jesus with His mother was a real put down. The people of Nazareth weren’t done. They knew this guy; they knew His family, and they weren’t impressed.
Why should they be? Their favorite Son had not turned out as everyone thought He should. It’s quite probable, that when Jesus had left town, some of His neighbors had shaken their heads. As the oldest Son of Mary, and with His father apparently out of the picture, it would have been expected that Jesus would have become head of the household and chief provider for His family. He had left Nazareth as a carpenter and alone. Now He had come back as a Rabbi, with a gaggle of disciples trailing behind. If you had listened closely that day, you might have heard somebody mutter: “I changed His swaddling clothes when He was a baby,” or “My brother beat Him up when He was little…He ain’t so tough.” Although Mark doesn’t tell us exactly what Jesus said that caused the problem, he was able to sum up the reaction of the people with the words: “…. They took offense at Him.” Realizing the homecoming had fallen apart, Jesus commented, “Only in His hometown, among relatives, and in His own house is a prophet without honor.” Jesus hadn’t been understood.
It wasn’t the first time Jesus had been misunderstood. It certainly would not be the last. Jesus came to fulfill His Father’s plan to save us from our sins. Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for our souls; but people don’t want to hear that. They don’t want to admit they are helpless before the Law of God. They don’t want to confess that if they are going to be saved, that salvation must be built completely and totally upon the work Christ completed upon the cross and guaranteed at His empty tomb. Sure, folks are glad to accept Jesus as a teacher. He said many wonderful things, things that you can engrave on a wooden plaque and hang in a prominent place on a dining room wall. “Jesus was good that way,” people admit. “He gave voice to many uplifting thoughts and moral concepts which teach us how to live, how to get along, how to care each for each other.” But that’s as far as they go. They refuse to be taken further. Jesus, for them, is misunderstood.
That’s sad. Keeping Jesus confined to the role of teacher is like using the Hope Diamond to cut glass. It can do the job, but it’s foolish to use the world’s most expensive diamond that way. You can keep Jesus as a philosopher, but that’s like using a Corvette to deliver pizza. It can do the job, but it’s an insult to the engineering of that superb vehicle. You can restrict Jesus to being a philanthropist, a good-deed doer, but that is like using the Mona Lisa as a doorstop. It can do the job, but… Jesus needs to be your Savior, nothing less. To make Him less is an insult, a slap to the sacrifice He made on the cross; to make Him less shows a desire to remain as you are, steeped in your sin; to make Him less is to be lost.
To be your Savior from sin is why He was born into this world. To be your Savior from the law’s condemnation is why He lived a perfect life. To be your Savior from the devil’s temptations is why He rejected every shortcut, every sidetrack that Satan proposed. To be your Savior, so you might be accepted into heaven, Jesus put up with ignorance, opposition, and misunderstanding, far beyond anything we have experienced. So you might be able to stand before God, washed clean of your sin, is why innocent Jesus allowed Himself to be condemned at an assortment of trials including a Jewish court, the Roman governor, a pretentious king, and a crowd calling for His crucifixion. So you might live forever, Jesus died. It is my prayer that you understand Jesus is your Savior; that you believe He is your Redeemer.
Now, it probably doesn’t make much difference if you understand a lot of things in this world. You may not have to understand how a fool and his money got together in the first place, or why Braille is put on the drive-through machine at the bank; or how the “Do not walk on the grass” signs got there; or why tourists go to the top of tall buildings, put money into telescopes, so they can see things which are on the ground? It probably doesn’t make any difference if you understand why the guy in your rear-view mirror is tailgating you. He probably doesn’t understand why you’re only going ten miles over the speed limit. You may not understand why the TV evangelist who claims he has a direct connection with God, doesn’t ask the Lord to supply a name and number instead of wasting valuable broadcast time pleading for someone out there who is supposed to pledge $10,000. You may not understand that ministry which tells you to order a book about Jesus returning today or tomorrow, says you are going to have to wait four to six weeks for delivery. For all of these things, understanding may neither be necessary or needed. That, however, is not true of everything. Some things we need to understand; some things we need to believe.
At the beginning of my message I talked about how the Lord has given me a wonderful wife, who, in spite of not understanding me, still loves me. The Lord has blessed our relationship with three wonderful God-fearing children. I’d like to tell you a story about one of them, our middle child, Kirsten. Back when I was in the parish, I was preaching that we are saved by God’s grace and not works. Unfortunately, I was living my life as if the congregation was going to be saved by my works alone. I was putting in 15-18-20 hour days; thinking I was serving God by skipping days off and vacations. At that time we had, in our church pews, some cards. One side of the card was meant to be filled out by visitors; the other side by someone who was sick. Both sides had a check box which said, “I would like the pastor to call on me.”
One Sunday, one of the elders, that is, one of the lay leaders, came in chuckling. He handed me one of the cards which had been filled out on both sides. Both sides had requested a visit from me, the pastor. I put it in my pocket to be referred to later. The elder stopped me, saying, “I think you need to take a closer look, Pastor.” I did. The card had my address, my phone number, and my daughter’s name. She was requesting a call from her pastor: from me, her father. At home I asked her, and she said, “Daddy, I don’t get to see you anymore. I know you call on the people who send in a card… so I thought I could get you to call on me.”
That day it was important for me to understand what was happening, what my daughter was saying. I did and our home life changed. Permanently. For the better. It is far more important, my friends that you understand what Jesus is saying to you. He is saying, “Understand I am your Savior. Understand the cost I paid for your salvation. And then, believing, be changed.” If you understand, if you believe, your life will be changed. For time and eternity. Changed for the better. This is the promise of God. May it be for you as He wishes. If you need further help understanding and believing the summons of the Savior, please, I mean that; please call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 9, 2006
TOPIC: Is The Devil A Real Person?ANNOUNCER: Is the devil a real person? That will be our question today as Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener. I’m Mark Eischer. And the question is: Why blame the devil for everything? How do you know he really exists? And, isn’t all the evil in the world just the result of people not caring about each other?
KLAUS: Interesting questions. I hope my answer will do the questioner justice. Let’s start with the last question. Isn’t all the evil in the world just a result of people not caring about each other? To fully answer that question we need to expand the discussion just a bit. Certainly there is badness in this world because people don’t care, but also because we are predisposed to being greedy, covetous, immoral, vulgar, proud, you name it.
ANNOUNCER: Yeah, but some would maintain that people are basically good.
KLAUS: Yes, and it’s nice to say that. It makes people feel good about themselves. But it’s not all that accurate, is it? The Bible is quite right when it says there’s not a just man upon the earth that does good and doesn’t sin. I mean, if people were good, why are wars still raging around the world? Why all the crime? Why the hatred? Why the families breaking up? Why do situations tend to get worse instead of better? It’s because we all have a sinful human nature, and that sinful human nature, without a lot of prompting, all on its own, is responsible for much of the evil that is in the world. In that, our listener is right. It would be wrong, however to say that all evil comes from within us.
ANNOUNCER: And that takes us back to the original question about the devil. Is the devil a real person… a living being… and what does he do?
KLAUS: Is the devil real? Yup. The word “devil” means accuser. He accuses us of our sin before God in hopes that we will be condemned. Something that can only be prevented through Jesus. In the Bible the word “devil” is a name used to describe Satan. When the word “devil” is used in the plural, when the Bible speaks of devils, it is talking about the host of demonic fallen angels. By rank, Satan is the chief of these fallen angels.
ANNOUNCER: And where did these fallen angels come from?
KLAUS: Well, they came from God, but not the evil part. Created by our holy God, the angels were originally made holy, too. According to 2 Peter 2, during their time of testing, they fell into sin. That wasn’t God’s will that they do this, nonetheless they rebelled and were thrown out of heaven.
In retaliation, the devil, having fallen into sin, tried to corrupt the perfect physical world that God had also created.
ANNOUNCER: And he succeeded.
KLAUS: He did. By the failure of one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death came into the world with the very first sin that was committed.
ANNOUNCER: But later Jesus came into our world to save us from sin, death, and devil.
KLAUS: That was His mission. You know, Mark, in answering this question about the devil being real, we should point out that Jesus had no doubt about the existence and reality of these forces of darkness.
In Matthew 13, Jesus specifically refers to the devil as “the evil one.” That means, for Jesus, at least, the devil is not a figment of the imagination, or a merely figurative representation of evil.
ANNOUNCER: Are there other times where Jesus talks of the devil as being a real person?
KLAUS: There are many. Matthew 13, Jesus refers to the devil as an enemy. Of course I dare not neglect Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. There the devil came to the Savior and personally tried to tempt Him to abandon His mission to save the world. Jesus, when He was called a devil, didn’t say, “Come on, guys, you know there’s no such thing.” And when He encountered people who were possessed by demons, He didn’t say, “You’ve got a psychological problem here. It’s all in your mind, or the result of some emotional trauma.” No, Jesus looked upon these problems as being real; and from what I see in Scripture, they were not just a mental problem or some kind of chemical imbalance of the brain. These people had really been taken over by some spiritual evil force, a devil.
ANNOUNCER: How would you sum this up for us today?
KLAUS: Two things: first, Satan is powerful, but he is not all powerful. Only God is all powerful; and with faith in Jesus Christ we can be conquerors, indeed, more than conquerors through the Savior’s power. Apart from Christ, there isn’t much hope for us. In fact, apart from Christ there isn’t any hope. But in Jesus, trusting Him, we receive forgiveness, a new direction, the promise of heaven, and someday a new creation in which there will truly be no sin, no death, and no devil intruding.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC“Listen, God Is Calling” Kenyan traditional; tr. Howard S. Olson, performed by the Kammerchor, Concordia University-Wisconsin. Used by permission
“Jesus Shall Reign” by Timothy Albrecht. From Grace Notes by Timothy Albrecht (© ACA Digital Recording, Inc.) Augsburg-Fortress/SESAC
“God of Grace and God of Glory” by John Behnke. From For All Seasons, vol. 2 by John Behnke (© 2001 John A. Behnke) Augsburg-Fortress