Sermon: St. Mark 10: (First Sunday After the Epiphany of Our Lord), Bethany-Princeton MN

Transcription

1 Sermon: St. Mark 10: (First Sunday After the Epiphany of Our Lord), Bethany-Princeton MN HOW JESUS BLESSES, AND KEEPS BLESSING, LITTLE CHILDREN Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are not willing that any of these little ones should perish, and through Your Son You have said, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God : We fervently pray that, by Your Holy Spirit, You would so bless and rule the hearts of these who are Your children by faith in Christ Jesus, that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge of Your Word. Protect and defend them against all danger and harm, giving Your holy angels charge over them, to keep them in all their ways. Amen. St. Mark 10: Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them. Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen. Dear people loved by Him who became a child that we might be children of God resting in His embrace here on earth and forever in heaven: Oh, what trouble was stirred up by these little children and their mothers! This is not just a cuddly, harmless little story about Jesus and little children. The story begins earlier. At some point these mothers realized that their little ones couldn t do without Jesus. Circumcision was available for the boys, but the mothers evidently had such faith in Jesus as the Savior, they knew their little ones couldn t be saved by keeping that law. Their babies are not OK as they are; they brought [their] little children to Jesus, that He might touch them. If the teachers of the law knew this, they would ve thrown a fit. Long before St. Paul preached to the Galatians about the Gospel of Christ being incompatible with a belief that salvation comes through observing laws such as circumcision, these moms preached the same sermon just by bringing their little children to Jesus. 1

2 Jesus blessing their children was the opposite of Law. It was the Gospel. First we have to know what Jesus blessing is. It s not like when you say He gives you many blessings. We tend to think of those blessings as things we might or might not get. But this blessing from Jesus is the Gospel, it s something you know for certain that He wants you and all people to have, you don t ask if it is Your will with this blessing. This blessing is the opposite of curse, the curse of the Law, from which Jesus came to redeem everyone. Without His blessing, there s only curse. Without the Gospel, there s only condemnation from the Law. These mothers are showing faith in the Gospel. Faith in the Gospel is not praised by the world. However, Jesus praises it; He defends these young mothers. What trouble they stirred up in Jesus little circle! St. Mark is the one who tells us that Jesus was greatly displeased with the disciples. His face changed, He was bursting with emotion, that emotion was anger, and it was directed at His beloved disciples of all people, with whom He was normally so tender, and patient beyond reason. He is extremely angry, and why? Because He knows as the mothers do how much these children need Him and need His blessing, forgiveness of their sins. The blessing is Gospel. The disciples are keeping these children away from the Gospel, away from salvation, away from the Savior. And what trouble these mothers and their little children have stirred up through the years! Everyone claims to love this story. But it means something, and there is a basic disagreement about what it means even though it can t have two opposite meanings. We hear this story in every baptism; our verses this morning are the main Scripture lesson in the baptism liturgy. But on the other hand, there are many churches in which you ll never hear this story in connection with baptism -- because they don t agree with baptizing babies. They read this story and understand it just as Jesus love for all little children and His desire that they would be brought to Him. But they will not bring them to be baptized. 2

3 They will do a child dedication, but it isn t the same as baptism. In a child dedication, it s a work that people do; pastors in such churches will tell you the parents make a commitment to raise their child in a godly way and wait for the child to make his/her own decision someday to accept Jesus as personal Savior. Jesus doesn t get to do anything. See? They are blocking the way to Jesus. How do you think Jesus feels about that? In this story He shows how He feels about it. Jesus is here for one purpose: to be Savior, to save, to give the blessing of the Gospel that takes away the curse of the Law, to forgive sins apart from works. So even though Jesus does not baptize these little children or say let the little children be baptized since He had not instituted the sacrament of baptism yet -- it s all about the blessing that comes from Him. That s why this is a baptism story. The question is: How does Jesus bless little children? He does this in baptism. Baptism is the means of grace for little children. When Jesus instituted this Sacrament, He said to baptize all nations, that is, all people. He says, Make disciples by means of baptizing them, baptism makes little ones into His disciples, those who follow Him. By the time the gospels were written, they had been obeying Jesus command, baptizing whole households including infants for 30 years. When they read in this story that Jesus said, Let the little children come to Me, and furthermore what happened when the little children were brought to them is that He took them up in His arms and blessed them, the natural thing is to see where this blessing, the Gospel -- forgiveness of sins, life and salvation -- where it is given to little ones, and that s in baptism. In this story these were not older children, but Mark and Matthew say that they were little children, and in Luke it says they were infants. So we can be certain that this Bible story is teaching us that Jesus wants little ones to be baptized. But we shouldn t look at this pridefully, as if it s just a matter of obeying Him. This is not Law. It s Gospel. He is here to bless to save. 3

4 Don t miss this part! When little ones are brought to Jesus in baptism when you were baptized Jesus was there to bless you with His love. Jesus was taking away your curse, the curse and condemnation of sin, and giving you only love, and by the power of His Word in the water you were given the faith to believe it. This is wonderful. The blessing is wonderful. But it isn t a onetime blessing. Even in this Bible story when it says that Jesus blessed them, the sense of that word is really that Jesus was blessing them, it was ongoing. This is what we need to hear especially. His blessing is ongoing. He wants to keep blessing, that is, He is here for one purpose: to never stop Gospel-ing you. I don t think we get this part so well. We all think it s so important to get the newborn baby baptized so they ll be saved right away. But what sense of urgency do we apply to our own lives? You grow up learning to be self-sufficient. This is why Jesus speaks about how important it is to receive the kingdom of God as a little child. He doesn t mean it s about receiving it when you re a little child, as if someone not baptized as a baby can t ever be in His kingdom. He is saying to receive the kingdom of God as a little child does. In baptism, we are all sure that the little child who has to be carried to Jesus, and held, can t do anything. Everything is done for them. Their having faith is a miracle, something given to them and not earned even the least little bit. They don t make up for their sin or prove themselves worthy; their sin is washed away. And yet you grow up and grow old proving yourself all the time, either thinking your faith is good and strong or feeling the burden that your faith is not strong enough and you need to believe better; pleased with how you carry out the duties in your various vocations, or else disappointed in what you failed to do, how you fall short in your marriage or your friendships, or you have parental guilt, and you respond by trying to do better, and never being satisfied. 4

5 Or you think of your faith as something you just have, not that it s something that has to be given to you every day. You read the Bible as something you already know, nothing new there. You can miss church since you ve heard it all before, and your kids have been in Sunday School for years. You know what s right and wrong, you think you can handle temptations. You hang around sin and don t take it as a serious threat. Overcoming temptation and believing right are up to you. All this is not receiving His kingdom as a little child does. How often have we blocked the way to Jesus for ourselves and our children! This is what the devil wants. If a child is baptized, the devil works to make sure they won t keep being taken up in Jesus arms having their sins washed away. He wants you to think you can be strong on your own. This has kept us away from the Savior, sometimes by not being in church, but sometimes it s that you don t dare to bring your sin to Him, or to believe His love is for you. But what we learn from this story is that Jesus removes the blockade. He has compassion on those who are being kept from Him. So even when it is you yourself doing it, or letting it be done to you, He has compassion on you. You do not even get to burden yourself with making yourself to be like a little child. The as a little child part is done by Him. This part of the church year shows this. Think of the shepherds, who overcame their tendency to trust what they could do with their physical strength, and came to the manger. Think of the wise men, who overcame their dependence on human logic and learning, and worshipped a poor child with costly gifts. These became little children, by His doing. The fact is, you are a little child to Him. He is the one who makes and keeps you as a little child in His arms. No matter how we deny this by what we do, or try to become something more, after all this time He doesn t do any differently, but in His Word all He does is take you in His arms and bless you with His forgiveness. He knows: that s how you have the whole kingdom. Amen! 5