The Lutheran Hour
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"Who Says?"
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Text: Mark 7:5-7
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed! The Christ has died and He has risen. This is God’s truth which we gladly proclaim today. If you have until now dismissed the Savior’s love because of His servant’s shortcomings, please, come look again. See the risen Savior and know He invites you to forgiveness and faith in Him. God grant this faith to us all. Amen.
Christians are supposed to behave like — well, they’re supposed to behave like Christians. You know it, I know it, even unbelievers know it. Christians are supposed to behave like Christians. Sadly, sometimes we don’t do a very good job and end up missing the mark. I remember, years ago, back when I was in the parish, we had a family who came to church… semi-sporadically. The husband, wife, and two boys, aged 4 and 7, would come to worship on one Sunday and then they would miss the next… year or two. The particular Sunday I’m recalling, they were in church. As they were not too sure of worship practices and since they didn’t wish to call attention to themselves, they all sat in the back pews of the church – the seats with a brass plaque which read: “RESERVED FOR PARENTS WITH SMALL CHILDREN.” Now you should know, these boys weren’t particularly ‘small.’ Indeed, if we had had a height and weight restriction for those pews, they would have been moved. But, since we saw them so seldom, nobody said a word; we were just glad they had joined us at worship.
Since the boys had forgotten everything they had previously learned about Church deportment, the whole experience seemed totally new to them. Before the service they said a loud, “Hello” to everyone who walked through the doors. They visited with the ushers; they turned around and gawked when the great pipe organ in the balcony began playing a prelude to a hymn. The louder the organist played, the more they loved it, eventually bobbing and dancing to the tempo. The younger of the two boys was overjoyed when he found, in the pew immediately behind him, a little girl about his own age. Every other minute or so he would stand up, turn around, and smile. Then his smiles became little waves; the little waves graduated into face making; the silly faces were promoted to a, “Hi, I’m fine, how are you?” The greeting became a conversation, the conversation created laughter. When mother realized what was happening, she gave her little boy a look, THE look. You older men, you married men, know “The Look.” THE Look, says, ‘You, sir, are in big trouble.’ THE Look can strike terror into the hearts of the bravest of men. But the little lad was on a roll with that little girl who was sitting behind him. As a result, he didn’t pay attention to Mom when she stared. That was a big mistake.
Since the service had begun, and I was way up front, I didn’t see what happened next. The rest of what I share is hearsay, told me by the officers of the church who were on duty that day. They agreed that the mother, realizing THE Look hadn’t had its desired effect, reached out and pinched her four-year-old on the behind. In less than a second, the boy turned in shock, sat down in surprise, and with tears welling up in his eyes, looked at his mother for an explanation, an explanation which never came. Seeing her sitting, crying boy mother simply said, “There, that’s better.” With one pinch she had taught her son the meaning of THE Look AND she had told him in church you don’t stand up, you don’t turn around, you don’t dance to the organ music, you don’t talk to the girl sitting behind you, you don’t smile at her, you sit. He also learned that Christians who are supposed to act like Christians don’t always manage it very successfully. It was quite a lesson for a 4-year-old.
Christians are supposed to act like Christians. That we don’t always do so is a great excuse-giver to those who are not members of the church. Looking at us they say, “The church is nothing but a bunch of hypocrites” and “the church is too judgmental.” That’s certainly what they would have said about that young mother who pinched her boy, who felt it her duty to enforce commands which the Lord never gave to His people. And while I applaud the idea of parents teaching their children proper behavior, both in and out of church, a loving bit of education is finer than a hard pinch on the bottom and a gentle explanation is better than a look which can make church a hateful experience.
“Christians are supposed to act like Christians.” That has always been the criticism directed against us by outsiders. 2,000 years ago, when Jesus, our Savior, was teaching, preaching, and doing miracles, a group of Pharisees checked Him out. They wanted to see if He was behaving; if His disciples were acting as good examples, if they were following all the laws and traditions. You can almost see those Pharisees standing at the back of the crowd. They did not smile, they did not laugh, they just watched and waited for somebody to do something wrong. It wasn’t a long wait, because the disciples, Jesus’ followers, soon made a mistake. They broke a law. Don’t be shocked; it was an easy thing to do.
You see, when Jesus was asked to condense and compress God’s laws, He found it easy to do. He answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and then He added, there is another commandment which is also important: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40). Then, lest anyone misunderstand, Jesus summarized: “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” For Jesus, love was the basis of everything God did toward humankind and love should be reflected in everything man does toward God and others.
Jesus’ position was quite different from that of those who had come to evaluate Him and His disciples. In contrast to Jesus’ two commands, the Pharisees had managed to come up with a tremendous list of rules and regulations. They had, over the centuries, invented a system of 613 laws, 365 things people weren’t supposed to do and 248 things they were obligated to do. What kind of laws? Nitpicky laws like this: on the Sabbath a woman shall not look at herself in a mirror lest she spot a gray hair and yank it out, which would be work. These laws of the Pharisees were continually changing, always being modified and amplified as situations, circumstances, and personal preferences demanded. For the Pharisees, these 613 laws were a source of pride; for the average Joe and Jane, they were a quagmire of confusion.
Which is why it didn’t take too long before Jesus’ disciples messed up, broke one of the 613 commands and gave Jesus’ critics cause to complain: ‘Jesus, Your disciples are supposed to act like good followers and they’re not. They didn’t wash their hands before they ate. They’ve broken our laws. They’re not acting properly. They’re not setting a good example.’ That was basically what the Pharisees said.
And what did Jesus say in response to these charges? Did He apologize; did He try to smooth things over; did He express His regrets and try to calm His critics down? He didn’t. On the contrary, the Savior went on the attack. Quoting the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah, Jesus said, ‘look boys, you’re honoring the Lord with your mouth, but the truth is: your hearts are pretty stony. Your worship is a joke because you’re replacing God’s commandments with your own made-up teachings.’
Now it would be wonderful if I could tell you the Pharisees who were there that day took Jesus’ words to heart. Indeed, I could tell you that, but it would be a lie.
For the rest of Jesus’ ministry they would try to silence Him, they would plot against Him; they would try to trick Him and turn the people against Him. So great was their hatred that they would be there to arrest Him and some of them would sit in on the trials which condemned the innocent Son of God to death. After His crucifixion the Pharisees would be present with those who petitioned Pontius Pilate to make Jesus’ grave safe and secure from the disciples and others who might wish to pretend Jesus had risen from the dead.
Thank God they did that. If the Pharisees hadn’t set a guard and seal on Jesus’ tomb, if they hadn’t been unwilling and unwitting participants in God’s gracious plan of salvation, it might have been possible for 20 centuries of skeptics and cynics to deny the Savior’s resurrection. But it was the Pharisees’ own guards who saw the angel roll the stone away from the entrance to Jesus’ empty tomb. It was the Pharisees who were among the first to receive a report that Jesus was alive and their worst dreams and greatest fears had become a reality. Precisely as He had promised; exactly as Scripture had foretold, Jesus Christ rose from the grave. It was the ultimate, unassailable, undeniable proof that the Redeemer’s work had been finished. Because Jesus’ life, from beginning to end, had been lived perfectly, the condemnation of the law ended for all who believe on Him as their heaven-sent Substitute. Because Jesus had resisted every temptation Satan had placed before Him, those who acknowledge Him with Holy Spirit-given faith know sin cannot short-circuit their connection to the Christ and the heaven He has given. Because Jesus has conquered humankind’s final enemy, death itself, we remain confident and secure in the knowledge the grave will not be our final resting place, and the tears of our mourners will, on Judgment Day, be overshadowed by the blood-bought, good news of everlasting life.
The Redeemer’s resurrection is God’s good news which changes our lives, our eternal destinies; which changes everything for those who believe. And, if you are not among those who have found comfort and direction from knowing Jesus as your Savior and Lord, be sure that today He holds out to you His presents of forgiveness, hope, and salvation. By Jesus’ life, through His suffering and death, by His rising from the dead, your life can be changed. The sins which gnaw at you; the questions of an afterlife which today seem unanswered, can be put to rest. The Holy Spirit can bring you to repentance and a peace which right now you would most certainly consider to be impossible.
Yes, Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and devil changes many things. But, and I say this sadly, it does not change this: the world still looks at the Savior’s people and finds us a disappointment. They examine us, scrutinize us, dissect us, and then like the Pharisees, they challenge: “Aren’t Christians supposed to act like Christians?” And when we don’t, we get hammered and the world’s estimation of the Savior erodes. Like the Pharisees, people continue to say, “Christians are supposed to act like Christians.” Only this time, rather than encouraging us to keep more laws, our critics want us to quit being so legalistic and judgmental. (sigh)
In truth there are times when we Christians have made believers and potential converts jump through hoops which the Lord never made. There are times we have spoken when the Lord is silent and when we have made up rules when the Lord has given none. When eyeglasses were introduced, some doctors opposed them as being harmful to the eyes and some preachers said the use of eyeglasses was an attempt to defy God’s verdict of bad vision. In the early 1900s, some concerned Christians in Evanston, Illinois, decided that the fizz in carbonated drinks was corrupting the young. A law was passed forbidding the sale of ice cream sodas on Sunday. To get around the rule, the soda jerks left out the soda and put a topping on the ice cream they sold. This new taste treat, sold on Sunday, became known as a Sunday. People liked it so well, they asked for the treat on the other days of the week. Later, so as not to identify a secular treat with the Lord’s Day, the name was changed to Sundae, that’s spelled, S-U-N-D-A-E. Now look as you might, the Bible says nothing about the sinfulness of fizz or the corrupting influence of ice cream. Now you may not remember those days, but there are many in The Lutheran Hour listenership who can recall when ‘honoring the Sabbath Day’ meant no playing, no games, no entertainment, no smiling, no — no nuthin’. Now, how did God’s day of rest and restoration become a day of dark despondency? We may have had the best of motivations, but the truth is, we made up laws where God had only said, “Remember the Sabbath Day.”
Yes, we Christians can and do get carried away. Maybe that’s why many of you look upon Christ’s church as an organization which is governed primarily by a great, long list overflowing with “Thou shalt do this” and “Thou shalt not do that.” It is why so many of you think of us as being hyper-critical, terribly intolerant, and unusually unkind. It is why so many of you have concluded the church and our worship is sadness and not celebration. If that is what you have come to believe, let me tell you, ‘it isn’t that way everywhere.’ There are still many preachers, many parishes who believe that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
There are many churches which know they cannot make a single enhancement upon God’s plan of salvation to save sinners. There are many who recognize that (paraphrase of Isaiah 55: 8), ‘God’s thoughts aren’t theirs and His ways aren’t theirs.” There are many churches who know they cannot improve upon God’s Word by adding to it nor can they fix it by taking things away. They peach the Word the best they can; they carry each others’ burdens as much as they can; they reflect the Savior’s love as accurately as they can. There are Christians out there who are trying to believe and talk and act like Christians. I know, for I have met more than a few.
Which is why I want to say, if you have, in the past, been disappointed with Christians; if you once joined a church with a hurting heart and ended up leaving that church with your heart still in pain; if you departed a family of faith in much the same condition you came to it, do not think the Savior is hypocritical, powerless, or uncaring. None of those things are true. Jesus is real and His love is real and His salvation is real. Please, don’t judge the Savior by His sinners.
Years ago, or so I’ve been told, a farmer encouraged his neighbor to try his apples. The friend always declined. Eventually the farmer asked, “Look, what’s the problem? Why not even a taste?” His friend countered, “The truth is, I have tasted your apples. They are terribly tart.” “Where did you get those apples?” the farmer inquired. “I’ve picked up some from along the road.” “Yup, those apples are sour”, the farmer confessed. “Those trees with sour apples were planted to keep thieves away. But, I tell you this: if you come to the middle of my orchard, you will find things taste differently there.” Which is just my way of saying, “If you’ve only seen what Christianity offers from the other side of the fence or from the road, things may indeed seem bitter. But, if you come into the orchard and try again you will find things quite different. In short, the nearer you are to the Savior, the sweeter will be the joy He gives. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 23, 2009
Topic: Is God a Guy?Mark: Is God a guy? Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
Ken: Hi, Mark.
Mark: This question comes to us from one of our listeners on the East Coast. She said, “Not so long ago I visited a local community church. … And during the course of the pastor’s message, he sometimes referred to God as “He” but other times, he talked about God as being a “She.” Now, I don’t know all the ancient words of Scripture, but I’ve never really heard of the Triune God being a girl. Are there any passages in the Bible which speak to the gender of God?”
Ken: Well, that’s one, certainly, we haven’t had before.
Mark: It’s a good question. It deserves a good answer.
Ken: Absolutely, and we’re going to do our very best to supply our listener with an answer. Since we’re talking about the attributes of God, it is right and proper that we remember what the apostle John wrote in the fourth chapter of his Gospel. There, in v. 24, he reminds us: “God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” That verse is pertinent to our question today.
Mark: You mean this part where it says: “God is a spirit.”
Ken: Right. And what is a “spirit”?
Mark: Well, a spirit is a being with a will, but who doesn’t have a body.
Ken: By that definition, an angel would be a spirit. So you would say an angel doesn’t have a body?
Mark: Right. Although they sometimes can assume a human form, as we see often in the Bible.
Ken: So, angels are spiritual beings. They have a will. But are they male or female?
Mark: And, not having a spiritual body, that wouldn’t apply to them either.
Ken: How about, what color hair does an angel have? What color eyes? How tall are angels? How much does an angel weigh? Do angels have big feet?
Mark: Well, I can’t answer any of those questions. I know that artists depict the angels looking a certain way… but, really, they’re just guessing and so would I.
Ken: Which also could be said about the Triune God. We have an idea of how God looks, but we don’t know. Since He’s also a spiritual being, that picture is in our mind, not in reality.
Mark: What else can we say?
Ken: We can say that Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, was definitely a man, not a woman. I know there are those who would make Him into a convertible, but the Bible says He is a Man, God’s Son.
Mark: But doesn’t God, when He speaks about Himself, also generally use male nouns and pronouns? As far as I know, He refers to Himself as “He.” It’s never God the Mother or God the Daughter. It’s God the Father, God the Son.
Ken: And that is absolutely right. When Jesus speaks about His relationship with the Church He always refers to Himself as the Groom and not as the Bride.
Mark: Anything else we could add to the mix?
Ken: Well, we really ought to say that while the Triune God always refers to Himself in and with male terms… there are times when He sometimes speaks of Himself with exhibiting some feminine qualities. I know that sounds strange. Maybe I had better explain.
Mark: Feminine qualities? Yeah…
Ken: Take a look, for example, at Matthew 23:37. There, Jesus is crying over the unrepentant city of Jerusalem and He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city which kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
Mark: And He doesn’t say there He was going to gather them as a rooster gathers his chicks.
Ken: No, He doesn’t. Once again, He is masculine… but so many of the qualities He exhibits are understood and especially appreciated by the ladies.
Mark: Such things as “kindness, gentleness, caring, compassion, love.”
Ken: Yes. Now, I realize most men do have these qualities, at least some of them, but I would say, on the whole, women possess them in greater abundance. They certainly appreciate the value of these attributes better than do men.
Mark: How would you wrap this up for us?
Ken: The Bible describes Jesus using masculine terms, even though the Triune God is a spirit and therefore without physical masculine traits. Since we can’t improve upon what the Lord has said about Himself, I am somewhat disinclined to change what God has said… especially in the name of political correctness.
Mark: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“With a Voice of Singing” by Martin Shaw. From Rise Up, O Men of God by the Lutheran Choralaires (© 2008 Lutheran Choralaires, Detroit) J. Curwen & Sons
“On What Has Now Been Sown” From Every Voice a Song (© 1995 Concordia Publishing House)
“Lift High the Cross” by Charles Ore. From From My Perspective, vol. 3 by Charles Ore (© 1995 Organ Works Corporation) Concordia Publishing House