The Lutheran Hour
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"When Do I Get What’s Comin’ to Me?"
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Text: Mark 9:34-35
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed! The crucified and ever-living Savior has come to seek and save the lost; to be the Light for those who lived in darkness; to substitute His blood-bought salvation for our sin-earned damnation. Now, by His grace, through His love, all who believe on Him as their Savior from sin are rescued. God grant this Lifeline to us all. Amen.
As I travel around the country, there are certain themes which seem to stretch from coast to coast. No subject has received wider acceptance than the one that says, “Life’s not fair. When am I going to get what’s coming to me?” If you visit with older children in a family, they’ll tell you life’s not fair. After all, their younger siblings get away with all kinds of stuff for which they once were punished. Visit with the younger children in the family and they’ll say their older brothers and sisters get to stay up late, take the car, go to parties, and do a host of things which seem a lifetime away for them. Both groups agree: life’s not fair and they want to know when they’re going to get what’s coming to them.
In the last month I received a gathering of letters, two of which stand out. The first was from a man who wrote, I believe, in a joking way. He said: “Life’s not fair for us men. When we’re born, our mothers get the compliments, the presents, and the flowers. When we’re married, our brides get the gifts and the showers. On Mother’s Day they get items which were not picked up at the last minute from the drug store. When we die, our widows get our life insurance. Life’s not fair, when are we men going to get what’s coming to us?”
As I said, that was a humorous letter. The other letter I received, one from a lady, offered a very serious rebuttal. She wrote: “Life’s not fair. Five months ago my husband and I were divorced. He never told me exactly why we were splitting up. He just mumbled something about growing apart. Now he’s running around with a woman, a girl who is half his age. I get to pay the bills, do the laundry, clean up after sick kids, help them with their homework, pick up the tab for the tooth fairy, and consider going to McDonald’s a night out on the town. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and the time I spend with them, but it seems to me life’s not fair. When do I get what’s coming to me?”
Now I know I’m opening up a can of worms with those two letters — and it is not my intent or desire to get into the inequities of our divorce courts. Shall we simply say, “There are injustices enough to go around”? But it proves: life’s not fair. Talk to the older folks and they’ll tell you the younger generation doesn’t understand what it means to really work for a living. Speak to the younger folks and they’ll let you know it’s unjust for them to pay Social Security when the statistics say the system will be broken before they’re old enough to reap the benefits. Life’s unfair. Did you ever get a speeding ticket when, just two minutes before, a fellow blazed past you? Have you been let go at work when more likely candidates were not only kept, but actually promoted? Did Aunt Hortense divide the bulk of her sizable estate between her cat and the mechanic who worked on her car? Are you working for a company which has seen a downturn in business — and nobody in Congress is ready to bail you out? We all know life’s not fair; what we need to know is when do the scales balance out; when will they flip our way; when will we get what’s coming to us?
That pretty much sums up the feeling of most people. And while the reasons they feel as they do changes radically from person to person, everyone agrees: they’re being picked on and put upon more than the average individual. Oh, there’s one other area where they agree: they’re getting tired of waiting for, you know, getting what’s coming to them. Does that sound about right; does that pretty much describe how you feel? Yes, I know you wouldn’t say those things out loud. That would seem sort of whiney. I’m not talking about what you say… I’m talking about what you feel.
If I seem to be hesitating, it’s because I don’t know if I should tell you what you want to hear, or if I should share what the Lord wants you to know. There is a big difference between the two. Tell you what; let’s begin with me telling you the things you’d like to hear. I can do that. From a psychological perspective, I would tell you, “You’re a good person. It’s your parents who messed up; your boss who doesn’t understand you; your spouse who doesn’t appreciate you. You’re fine just the way you are. Don’t worry about them and what they think. Just keep doing what you’re doing and be happy with yourself as an independent, self-assured, self-contained individual.” There, how did that feel?
Or, I could tell you what other TV and radio preachers have been saying for a few years now. Many of them tell people what they want to hear. For example, I could say: “God wants us (all) to be prosperous. I think He wants us (all) to be happy. I think He wants us (all) to enjoy our lives.” I could tell you, Christianity isn’t a religion where “you’re miserable, broke, and ugly and you have to muddle through until you get to heaven.” I could tell you that “if you give God, meaning this ministry, $1,000 as a seed-offering, then the Lord will be compelled to bless you with $10,000.” Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Those are the kind of things which people want to hear, it’s what they line up to hear, and it’s what a lot of preachers are more than glad to tell them. It doesn’t matter that if a pastor preaches that message he has to ignore the Savior Who said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up His cross…,” (Matthew 16:24). It may be what people want to hear, but it’s not what God says. Jesus was clear when He told His followers: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Yes, I could tell you all the sweet-sounding, sugar-coated things those other fellows tell you. But if I did, I would have to forget Jesus’ first bed was an animal’s feeding trough, that during His ministry He had “nowhere to lay His head” (Mathew 8:20); and that they gambled for His clothes when He died. I could promise you a good life of prosperity, but I think St. Paul might have a problem with that. When the apostle described his walk of faith, he spoke about imprisonments, beatings, and how he had often been near death. He related how he had been whipped and shipwrecked and adrift at sea; how he had been in danger from rivers, robbers, his own people, and those who weren’t his own people. Paul tells how he had been sleepless, hungry, thirsty, and cold.
Those other guys may tell you, “God wants you rich and happy and everything else you can imagine,” but I don’t know where they get their information. Which of Jesus’ disciples ended his life filthy rich; and which ones had two chariots; and which of them had lived their lives without a single speed bump? Why have so many seniors seen their retirement funds depleted; why have I seen so many families saddled with ongoing health problems; why are there Christians living in poverty? Do all of them have a weak faith? Understand, God doesn’t mind rich people. Scripture speaks of many who were flush. But nowhere does the Bible promise limitless riches, ideal health, and days filled with sweetness and light.
Which takes us back to our original question: if life isn’t fair, when are we going to get what’s coming to us? It’s a fair question, a reasonable question. It’s a question asked more than once by Jesus’ disciples. They seem almost preoccupied with getting what was coming to them. There was the time the mother of James and John asked that her boys be allowed to be Jesus’ right and left hand men (Matthew 20). That request didn’t sit well with the others who wondered what leftover spots they might get. They wanted what was coming to them. At the Last Supper, as Jesus was preparing Himself and His lads for His death, they kept arguing about which of them was going to be the greatest. (Luke 22:24) That must have made Jesus feel real good.
Then, there’s the time Jesus spoke plainly about His upcoming arrest, His unjust and undeserved crucifixion, and the fact that He would rise, a clear signal that sin, death, and devil had been conquered. It was important news; the most significant news this sad world will ever hear. But did the disciples hear what Jesus was saying? They didn’t. His words went almost unnoticed because, once again, they were worried about getting what was coming to them. Amazing! The disciples just couldn’t understand what was really important.
The closest comparison I can give you to this denseness of the disciples took place in December of 1903. The Wright brothers had managed to get their flying machine off the ground, and they sent a message to their sister. It read: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.” The sister took the news to the editor of the local newspaper who, having scanned the message, volunteered: “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” That editor didn’t get it and Jesus’ disciples didn’t, either. Like a broken record they wanted to know: “When will we get what’s coming to us? We’ve left our homes, our work, our families. We’ve served meals to multitudes; we’ve dealt with Samaritans, unclean lepers, people possessed by demons and a flock of mothers with little kids.” Taking a look at their performance the disciples felt quite justified in asking: “When is somebody going to serve us? When are we going to get what’s coming to us?’
Now, if you and I had been Jesus, and all the world needs to give thanks that we’re not, we might well have been tempted to reply in this way: “You insignificant, ignorant ingrates. Do you remember John the Baptizer? John, just in case you’ve forgotten, was just about the best man this world has managed to produce. John was great in the eyes of the Lord (Luke 1:15), but when John saw Me, he said that ‘he wasn’t worthy to carry My shoes.’ Are you really worried about getting what is coming to you? Do you really, I mean do you really want what is coming to you?
“Let Me think. Do you recall when that storm came up on the Sea of Galilee and you guys became all fearful and weak in the knees? What reward should your miniscule faith get you? And how about the time when those women brought their children to Me for a blessing? Oh, you were brave that day, weren’t you? You did your best to keep those women away from Me. What do you think you have coming for that one? Since I’m all knowing, I can list all the times that I’ve tried to tell you things and you didn’t pay attention, or you didn’t understand, or you just didn’t care. What do you think you have coming for all those moments? James and John, do you recall talking to Me about fire-storming that Samaritan village? Peter, remember when you tried to talk Me out of going to Jerusalem?” And if Jesus wanted to look into the immediate future, He could have said: “What do you think you should get for letting Me down in the Garden of Gethsemane? I ask you to pray; you keep falling asleep? Do you want what’s coming to you? What should you get for betraying Me, Judas? What should you others get for running away? Peter, what should you get for denying Me, for swearing you don’t know Me, never met Me? What do you think you have coming to you for that?
“You others, what should you get for hiding while I’m dying? What do you have coming for not believing the women when they tell you I’ve risen from the dead? That’s right, I’m going to rise from the dead, but you guys won’t believe it. You won’t believe it because you weren’t listening to Me just now when I said it was going to happen. And let’s not forget the lifetime of sins you’ve committed; those sins of thought, word, and deed. Want to know what you’ve got coming to you? I’ll tell you: the wages of sin is death; the soul that sins will die. You want what you’ve got coming? Death is what you’ve got coming.” Yes, Jesus could have said that to His disciples; He could say it to every one of us. He could say it to us because we are just as bad as were His disciples. We may not commit the same sins His first followers did, but there’s little comfort in that; we’ve committed sins of our own; sins which were equally bad and equally damning.
Jesus could have said that, but He didn’t. He didn’t say any of those things to His original disciples and He doesn’t say them to us. What Jesus did say was this: worried about getting what’s coming to you? If so, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” You should know those words were much more than Jesus encouraging the disciples to adopt an attitude of humility. In that one sentence, Jesus summarized His entire life. It was His job description. He Who had been there when the stars were scattered across the newly created universe; He Who had called life and light into being with a Word, humbled Himself to become a Human; to be born One of us. The second Member of the Trinity stepped down from His heavenly throne and came into this world so He might take our place. So we might be declared forgiven by our Father, Jesus was despised and rejected and became a Man of sorrows. So we might be forgiven, He took upon Himself our big sins and our little sins, the most horrible and heinous of sins, those sins which are unspeakable and unthinkable and everyone of them He carried to His cross.
And why would Jesus do all this? Why would the Son of God undertake this job where He would be degraded, despised, and detested; where He would be reviled, rejected, and refused? I can tell you why. He did it so we wouldn’t get what was coming to us; so we would escape the punishment that awaited us; so we could be freed from the damnation set before us. He did it because God loved this sinful world enough to send His Son to be our Ransom, our Rescuer, our Redeemer. It doesn’t make sense and it’s certainly not what we would do; but it is what God did, what God did so we might never get what was coming to us.
Thank God, He did. Now, because of what Jesus has done for us, because He has given the world what it didn’t deserve and could never have earned, all who are brought to faith in Him as their Savior are forgiven, they are freed, they are saved. Because Jesus has given us what we didn’t deserve, we are moved from darkness to light; from hell to heaven; from rejection to regeneration. Because Jesus has given us what we didn’t deserve, this day, every day lived in this world has been given a new brightness, and our eternity has the assurance of everlasting joy. Because Jesus gave us what we didn’t deserve; because He isn’t giving us what we have coming.
Well, because Jesus isn’t giving us what we have coming, we can be changed — changed enough to try and do the same for others. On April 25, 1958, a Korean exchange student, a young Christian leader at the University of Pennsylvania, left his room and went to the mailbox to send a letter to his parents in Pusan. Turning from the mailbox he stepped into the path of eleven leather-jacketed gang members. Without a word they attacked him, beat him with a blackjack, with a lead pipe, with their fists. By the time the police found him in a gutter, the young man was dead. All of Philadelphia cried out for vengeance; the district attorney sought, and was granted, the authority to try the gang members as adults. It was his intent, if they were found guilty, to ask for the death penalty.
That’s the way it was until a letter arrived from Korea, a letter signed by the parents and twenty other relatives of the murdered boy. In part the letter said, “Our family has met…(and we are asking) the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who have committed this criminal action…we have decided to…start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released. We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ who died for our sins.” That is the kind of transformation which is possible for those who know a Savior who doesn’t give people what they’ve got coming. If you wish to know more of this transforming Savior, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for September 20, 2009
Topic: Does the Bible Borrow from Other Sources?Mark: Does the Bible borrow from other ancient sources? I’m Mark Eischer, and today Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener’s question concerning the originality of the Bible.
Ken: Hi, Mark. It sounds like you’ve picked something of interest.
Mark: Here’s the situation. Our listener is a college student. She’s taking classes on comparative religions. She’s not surprised to learn that there are similarities and differences between the various religions. However, one of her professors says the Bible is not divinely inspired and it’s not even all that original. As proof of this, he points to some very old cultures that also have a story of a universal flood for example. Or, he says, take the code of Hammurabi which was written many years before Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.
Ken: So he’s basically saying that the Bible has been stealing from these other sources.
Mark: That is exactly what he’s saying. What do you think?
Ken: Well, I have a whole bunch of thoughts. First, we ought to give a little bit of background. With regard to the story of the flood, I have to let our listeners know that almost every culture of the world-and here I’m talking even about some of those cultures that are pretty much cut off from everybody else-almost every culture has in their history some sort of flood story.
Now the stories differ in the telling, they don’t always agree on the details, how long the flood lasted, what happened afterwards. But, there is a common link is that there is a story of a big flood.Mark: And those sorts of things have been noticed by anthropologists over the years. How would you explain it?
Ken: Well, the fact that all these cultures do have a flood story, some of which may be traceable to a time before Moses wrote the book of Genesis-that’s not surprising. An event of that magnitude would be passed down through the generations. That there are differences in the telling of those stories is also understandable. Different cultures would have different interpretations.
Mark: OK, but, where does that leave the biblical account?
Ken: There are such stories; some MAY be older, they certainly have differences, but that doesn’t mean Moses is guilty of plagiarism. All Moses did was write down what God told him to write. Other stories may be accurate from a human perspective — the Genesis story is accurate from God’s point of view.
Mark: And we should be clear we’re talking about accounts of something that actually happened, as well.
Ken: Absolutely. History, not myths with morals.
Mark: OK, now what about Hammurabi? Did Moses steal the idea for the Ten Commandments from him?
Ken: Once again, we need some background. Let me begin this way. Moses lived somewhere around 1,500 years before Christ. Hammurabi, a Babylonian king, lived around 1,800 years before Christ.
Mark: So, Hammurabi came first.
Ken: Right.
Mark: And what did he do that was so important?
Ken: Hammurabi is famous because he wrote a code of laws. This code, inscribed in stone, was found in the year 1901 in Iran.
Mark: And that is the code they’re saying Moses stole?
Ken: Well, no one would say it is word-for-word plagiarism. Maybe they’d say Moses was inspired or motivated to use Hammurabi as a base for the laws which he gave to God’s people in the wilderness.
Mark: Ok, but how would you respond to that sort of idea?
Ken: Well, first, we should say nobody would be surprised that Moses gave some laws and Hammurabi did the same. Hammurabi isn’t the first law- giver; he’s just the best known. For example there is the Code of Ur-Nammu that was written a few hundred years before Hammurabi (2050 B.C.). I say we shouldn’t be surprised because, as Scripture says, everyone has the moral law of the Lord written in their hearts. That’s what Romans 2:14 says, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.”
Mark: What else could you say?
Ken: Indeed, while both Moses and Hammurabi have some similarities in their laws, there are far more differences. Even when it comes to those similarities, it’s not surprising that these two cultures would have similar rulings. The fact that most nations today have laws against drunken driving or child pornography doesn’t mean they are stealing from each other.
Mark: All right, that makes sense. How would you sum this up for us today?
Ken: Moses’ laws are inspired by God. Period. Nobody else could say that. Hammurabi’s found their source in the natural knowledge of right and wrong in human hearts-that also is ultimately from God, as well.
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
“A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” by Paul Gerhardt, arr. Gerhard Krapf, Richard Wienhorst. From Heirs of the Reformation (© 2008 Concordia Publishing House)
“Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV650” by J.S. Bach. From J.S. Bach Organ Works by Per Fridtjov Bonsaksen (© 1995 Vanguard Classics)