The Lutheran Hour
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"Getting the Right Gift"
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Text: Mark 1:35-39
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. The Redeemer’s resurrection shows that His sacrifice has been accepted; His work of saving humanity is done. Now the Lord extends an invitation to us all. He says, “Come, believe, be forgiven and saved through the Gift of My Son.” God grant we receive this Gift with thanksgiving. Amen.
My wife, Pam, is a Christmasaholic. As far as I know, the American Medical Association has not yet labeled Christmasaholicism as being an illness worthy of treatment. I do know there is no known cure for the condition. Now for those of you are unsure if you know, or are, a Christmasaholic, I would like to share some of the symptoms by which the disease can be indentified. For example, if you come home on a 100-degree day in July, find the air-conditioning turned down to 60 and the stereo is blaring: “Here Comes Santa Claus” or “Frosty the Snowman” or “The Little Drummer Boy”, you may have a Christmasaholic in your home. If it’s the Fourth of July and the Christmas tree, bereft of all its needles, is sadly standing in a corner of the living room, you may have a Christmasaholic.
If all the holiday catalogs which have been mailed to your home are filed by name and product in a 3-drawer cabinet dedicated to that purpose, you may be harboring a Christmasaholic. If you go shopping in May and your spouse buys presents to be salted away until December 25th, your spouse is a Christmasaholic. If your better half has made a New Year’s Resolution to learn how to say “Merry Christmas” in 28 different languages before December 1st rolls around, that person is a Christmasaholic. If, when you’re opening presents, you are ordered to save the bows, save the paper, save the labels, save the boxes for next year, you’ve got a cheap Christmasaholic. Lastly, you are harboring a Christmasaholic if he or she not only reads the Christmas’ newsletters you get, but insists you sit down as he or she reads them to you.
Now I share all this with you so you may better understand when I tell you about a Christmas which came a number of years ago.
My Christmasaholic wife was in her new Christmas outfit, wearing her Christmas apron and Christmas dinner was in the oven. She situated us all around the Christmas tree for the official opening of the Christmas presents. She beamed as my father opened his gift. A man not given to verbal excesses, he gushed, “Oh, how did you know? This is exactly what I wanted. Thank you so very much.” The same response came from all the other adults. Then the children who had been impatiently waiting got their turn. One after another they tore open the paper, jumped up and down and squealed in delight when they saw the picture of their present on the side of the box. They stood and vibrated as the box was opened; they almost fainted when the present was out… and then… and then all four of our grandchildren ignored the hand-picked present and began to play with the boxes and bows. Pamie encouraged them, she urged them, she pleaded with them to play with the present, but they all stayed with their first choice: the boxes. Indeed, they played with those boxes for hours. In their minds those boxes were transmogrified into cars, trains, space ships, submarines, and tanks. Seeing the fun they were having, my wife, the Christmasaholic, developed a migraine headache and stayed in bed for the next three days. This she did because her grandchildren had not understood the value of the gifts they had been given. Oh, I should tell you I made up that part about the headache and staying in bed.
Not appreciating the gifts we’ve been given seems to be pretty normal for most of us. In the year 1799, Conrad Reed from North Carolina found a 17-pound lump of gold on his father’s farm. For years the family used the thing as a doorstop. They didn’t appreciate the gifts they’d been given. When the Spaniard’s conquered Peru, they didn’t realize emeralds are a very soft gem. On the contrary, they thought emeralds were unbreakable. Nobody knows how many precious stones were shattered by the hammers of the Conquistadores. Those fellows didn’t appreciate the gifts they’d been given. It’s a common trait.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a man who went to church on Sunday. He sat in the back rows where he could better observe the proceedings. When the organist missed a note during the prelude, the man winced; another bad note in the second hymn was agonizing and a third bad note made him squirm. When it came time for public prayer, he made note of the disrespectful teen who talked to a friend rather than folding her hands and bowing her head. He was pretty offended by the usher who seemed to give him a disapproving look when the offering plate was passed to him and he passed it without putting anything in.
Then there was the sermon. He might have been able to endure the rest of the worship service, but that sermon, a message supposedly being delivered by an educated man, was simply overflowing with grammatical errors. Let’s see, there was a preposition left dangling, at least three indefinite antecedents, verb tenses which were out of whack, and whole paragraphs composed of one, single run-on sentence. The only time the man was happy was when he slipped out a side door during the last hymn and thereby managed to avoid a special offering which was being taken by the congregation.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a man who went to church one Sunday. He heard the organist set the tone for worship with an incredibly complicated and powerful prelude. He was amazed when a young girl in the row ahead of him told her friend about the power of prayer and how she tried to bring everything in her life before the Lord. When the plate was passed, he was thankful to add what he could to the outreach of such a Christ-centered Spirit-filled congregation. When the Pastor preached the sermon, he was moved at the man’s eloquence, not that the story of the Savior’s sacrifice and the salvation Jesus won for us could ever be improved upon. The only time the man was disappointed was when the service was over. Still, as he left, he said a short prayer for the people in the Sudan who would be helped by the special offering which was being collected at the door.
I suppose I don’t have to tell you that both of these men, men who lived long, long ago had gone to the same church, on the same Sunday and sat through the same worship. That’s right the music was the same, the teen was the same, the offering plate, the pastor, the sermon, the special collection were all the same. The experience of worship was the same. What they got out of that worship was entirely different. One appreciated what he had been given and the other was disappointed by the same presentation. And although this happened a long time ago, and could hardly happen today, it all proves, the truth is we don’t always appreciate the gifts we’ve been given.
Now I could take you through Scripture and point to numerous stories which illustrate that fact. I could begin with Adam and Eve who didn’t appreciate the perfect Garden into which God placed them. I could reference the Children of Israel who constantly complained. Goodness, they complained even as God was giving them indestructible clothes, free meals, and signs that He was visibly leading them. They didn’t appreciate the gifts they’d been given. We could talk about those stories, but instead I’d like to spend some time with you recalling the time Jesus went to preach in the little town of Capernaum. According to the record, Jesus was sharing God’s message of salvation with the people when His presentation was interrupted by the shouts of a man who was possessed by the devil. It’s interesting to note that throughout Jesus’ ministry it was always His enemies who understood His mission and purpose and His friends who got it wrong. In this case the demon correctly indentified Jesus as the Savior who had come to rescue sinful humanity. Jesus took care of the demon in short order, cast him out of the man and sent him back to where he belonged. The people who saw what had happened, and that included just about everybody in the Galilean hamlet, were impressed.
After worship was over, Jesus, along with His disciples, accepted an invitation to eat at Peter’s house. When they arrived, they were surprised to find the hostess, Peter’s mother-in-law, was ill and unable to show her honored guests the hospitality which was part and parcel of life in the ancient world. It was a short-lived problem as Jesus soon set her right, fit, and able to supervise the festivities.
As I said, Capernaum is a small town and two miracles in one day is the kind of news which would have made the front page of the local newspaper, if they had had a newspaper. Since they didn’t have a paper, the small town of Capernaum did what small towns do best: neighbor started visiting with neighbor and soon the whole community was abuzz with news of the miracles Jesus had performed. Now I would like to remind you that Jesus had come to town to preach; to tell the people about sin and repentance and how the Father in heaven was sending a Messiah Who would, through His suffering and death, restore harmony between God and believing man. Jesus spoke about how God’s Son would sacrifice Himself so people could be moved from the fires of hell to an eternity in heaven. That was the message Jesus had come to share. To verify His authority, to prove His credentials that day He had done two miracles.
And what did people get out of the day’s events? Did they hear Jesus’ message of salvation; did they listen to God’s Son when He told them how to be saved? Of course they didn’t. People don’t often appreciate the gifts they are given. What went around probably went something like this: “Did you hear, Jesus is doing miracles at Peter’s? No appointment necessary… no embarrassing physical… no waiting for hours in the waiting room, no cold examination table… no threatening stainless steel instruments… no robe which won’t stay shut…. no blood pressure… no weigh in… no ‘open up and say AHHHHH’… no ‘take these pills for three weeks and call me if you don’t get better’… no co-pays at the pharmacy. Jesus is doing miracles at Peter’s house.”
Now if that kind of news got around your town, you know what would happen. Well, that’s what happened in Capernaum. People came to Peter’s house and they brought with them the lame, the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the possessed. It must have been an unusual parade as those folks hopped, hobbled, limped, groped, crawled toward the home where Jesus was. Led and carried, the sick came like a tidal wave. And those from Capernaum who weren’t sick, well, they came too, just to see what would happen.
Now I don’t know the total number of people whom Jesus healed that day. Scripture doesn’t give us any numbers. What Jesus was doing would have made it into the countryside and then into the other towns and cities which lined the banks of the Sea of Galilee.
And what did these folks hear? Did they hear that Jesus Christ was God’s Son, the Messiah? Did they hear that Jesus had come into the world to live a perfect life, to carry our sins and die the death which our disobedience deserved? Did they hear about the Savior’s sacrifice and how they could be moved into the light and life of the Lord? Probably not. If they did hear something, the whisper of Jesus’ salvation message was drowned out by the shout, “Miracles are being done at Peter’s house.” That’s what they heard and they decided if they were being given a chance to cure grandma, grandpa, or little junior, they would make certain they didn’t miss the opportunity. They asked themselves, “Should we wait until morning?” “No”, they decided, “that would be too risky.” That’s why, if you had been there that day, you would have seen a flood of sick souls streaming out of the towns and start walking the roads which led to Capernaum, Peter’s house, Jesus, and healing.
They must have been incredibly disappointed to find that when they arrived, Jesus was nowhere to be found. That’s right, Jesus was gone. Today the crowd might have stopped at a local restaurant and had a cup of coffee as they waited patiently for the Lord’s return. But coffee hadn’t been invented yet, so the people impatiently demanded to be told: “Where is Jesus?” It was a question the disciples couldn’t answer. The best they could do is say, “You stay here, we’ll find out.” And they left to find Him.
Since you and I are friends, I’ll tell you what had happened. Jesus had gone for advice. You see, something had gone wrong. No, nothing had gone wrong with Jesus. He was perfect, holy, sinless. No, something had gone wrong with those who had listened to Him. Jesus found Himself in the same boat as my Christmasaholic wife. Jesus was, with His life, death, and resurrection giving sinners the most precious, personal gift they would ever receive, and they… well, they were playing with the box.
That’s why Jesus went to pray. He wanted His Father to give Him advice and direction. He had come to tell the people about salvation and they had heard, “Jesus is doing miracles.” He had come to point out the gracious love of God and they were focusing on the power of God. The miracles which had been designed to point people to the Savior were being misunderstood and instead were pointing people to a Healer. People were not appreciating the gift God was trying to give them.
Eventually Peter and the other disciples found Jesus. When they did, they said, “Rabbi, You gotta get to the house, the place is full and overflowing with sick.” When Jesus heard their demand, He sighed and said, “I think I’ll take a pass on that, boys. Truth is, I’ve got to get going to somewhere else. I’ve come to preach and I’m going to do it in some other places other than Capernaum.”
By doing and saying this, Jesus set Himself apart from just about every pastor, politician, and famous person who has ever lived. Jesus set Himself apart by walking away from the adoring crowds, the multitudes who were clamoring to see and be healed by Him. He left the crowds so that He might speak to those who would hear, to those who, like you and me, needed to know that only through Him could we be forgiven, saved, and granted life eternal.
So Jesus went out to preach to anyone who would listen. When He met a lonely woman at a Samaritan well, He told her about the Messiah. He preached to big crowds on the shore of a lake; He preached to His disciples when they were in boats. He preached in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. With Words He preached; with actions He preached. With His life, He preached, with His death, He preached, and with His resurrection from the dead, He preached the greatest salvation sermon of all. He preached a message which has shaken the world for 2000 years. He preached and what He said was this: God has, through the substitution of His Son, given the world a chance for salvation. In Jesus, the Holy Spirit calls the world to repentance, forgiveness, and adoption into the family of God. Sure, Jesus did other miracles, but no miracle was greater, no message more needed than the one which said, “God so loved He world He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” It is my hope and prayer that those in Capernaum who weren’t physically healed that day got over their disappointment and they heard what Jesus had to say; that they appreciated the real gift Jesus was trying to give.
Now I tell you all of this because I want you to know and appreciate the gift of salvation Jesus is trying to give. I want you to be different than the people of Capernaum who didn’t get it; the people of today who are missing the real reason Jesus came to earth. I want you to appreciate the wonderful things He has done for you; be grateful for the gifts of forgiveness and fellowship His sacrifice has made possible. I want you to enjoy the gift and salvation of Jesus.
To that end, if there is anything we can do, I extend this invitation. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for January 27, 2013
Topic: Why Hell?ANNOUNCER: What’s the purpose of hell? Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hi, to you, Mark, and to our listeners today.
ANNOUNCER: This topic is one many churches kind of dance around without really dealing with it. The question is: What’s the purpose of hell? I don’t suppose it has a correctional purpose because even after you’ve, let’s say, “learned your lesson,” you still don’t get out.
KLAUS: Yeah, hell is not for rehab, that’s right. As we said in a previous session, hell is not a place to pay for one’s sins…
ANNOUNCER: …because no one keeps track of how much has been paid. They keep losing the checkbook, as it were. They don’t care.
KLAUS: And you don’t think many churches like to spend much time talking about hell?
ANNOUNCER: Well, nowadays, Jesus is often pictured as a good Guy, a nice Fellow, the kind of Person who always did only nice things for everybody.
KLAUS: That’s part of it. He spent His life providing healing, forgiveness, and salvation for sinners. And what else?
ANNOUNCER: Well, in Matthew 15, we see a Savior who takes hell very seriously. He says that on Judgment Day, “The angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 13:49-50 (ESV)
KLAUS: I agree with what you’ve just said. The reality is this: if there is no hell and heaven there simply is no need for Jesus to have come into this world to give Himself as a Ransom for our salvation. His suffering and death to save us from hell would be unnecessary if there were no hell.
ANNOUNCER: We’ve wandered a bit from the original question: what is the purpose of hell?
KLAUS: I can explain hell this way. God, in His love and mercy, sent His Son into this world to seek and save the lost; to be a Physician for the sick; to call people out of darkness into the light. To that end, Jesus took our place under the law and fulfilled the laws we have broken; He resisted all the temptations which were thrown at Him.
ANNOUNCER: Something we could never do.
KLAUS: Yeah, and on the cross, He experienced God’s wrath and punishment for sin. With His resurrection, He defeated death. Now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, people are called to faith, forgiveness, and salvation in His Name.
ANNOUNCER: And God wants all people to be saved through His Son.
KLAUS: Yeah, that’s right. That’s what the Bible says. There are no exceptions.
ANNOUNCER: But some are not saved.
KLAUS: No, they’re not. They die in their sins and hell is their destination. Most certainly that is not what God wants.
ANNOUNCER: So what is the purpose of hell?
KLAUS: Hell is God’s last act of love for people who don’t want the salvation His Son has won for them.
ANNOUNCER: I don’t know if I’ve heard of hell being described as an act of love.
KLAUS: It is. If you don’t want God in your life, He isn’t going to force Himself into your heart. If you don’t want Him, that’s okay but don’t ever say that He didn’t want you. If you don’t want Him, He has provided a place where that wish can be fulfilled that you can be without Him.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s what hell is.
KLAUS: Hell’s a place of darkness, despair, futility, illness, decay, regret, frustration, fire, brimstone; a place where God’s protection and laws are no longer in effect.
ANNOUNCER: Explain that.
KLAUS: God’s laws give us a universe in which we can live and function and serve Him by serving others. Today, the sun rose in the east; that’s God’s law of nature. Today, your heart beats rhythmically, your eyes can see, your ears can hear. Your brain thinks thoughts. Today, you plant a pumpkin seed and eventually–you’ll get pumpkins. That’s how things work here. In hell, God’s order and protection will be gone. It will be a disaster. And the unbelieving person will be there because that is where he wanted to be. But it doesn’t have to end that way for you! Even now, while you’re listening to me, God is calling to you-offering you His mercy, His grace, another chance-through faith in Jesus! A place where there is no eternal hell.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“The Gifts Christ Freely Gives” by Richard C. Resch & Charles J. Dale. From Sing with All the Saints by the Children’s Choirs of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (© 2006 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church)
“Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” by Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC