The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
FORBEARANCE Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Gospel Jesus shows you God’s most basic feelings toward you. Stated another way, today Jesus demonstrates God’s mercy and FORBEARANCE toward you. Here is what happened: Pharisees… asked [Jesus], “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he [Moses] wrote you this commandment.” Dear Christian friends, Today’s Gospel can be compared to a Fig Newton, or to one of those lollipops called a Tootsie Pop—crusty or hard on the outside, chewy in the middle. On the surface of this Gospel, Jesus is speaking about divorce. However, divorce is just the outside crust of the Fig Newton, so to speak, or the hard candy shell of the Tootsie Pop. There is a wonderful “chewy middle” in today’s Gospel. Like a Fig Newton or a Tootsie Pop, some really good stuff is waiting for you below the surface of this Gospel’s outer crust and shell. CRUSTY ON THE OUTSIDE That is why Jesus says here in today’s Gospel, What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate… Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. These Words of Jesus fall harshly for many people, but not for everyone. For example, • Some people have not even yet married, much less divorced. For them, as for widows, Jesus’ Words about divorce seem might to be beside the point. • For happily married people, divorce is probably the farthest things from their minds. • Then, too: If a divorced person thinks of himself or herself only as a victim of divorce and not as a contributor to it, then today’s Gospel may sound like it was written for his former spouse and not him. CHEWY ON THE INSIDE, PART 1 Here is the thing: Jesus is not speaking ONLY about divorce in today’s Gospel. Divorce is merely the crusty outside of the Fig Newton or the hard shell of the Tootsie Pop. When Jesus exposes the chewy middle of today’s Gospel, no one will escape! Here is the first part of that chewy middle, so to speak, that will implicate you and me and everyone who ever lived: “Because of your hardness of heart.” Pharisees… said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “BECAUSE OF YOUR HARDNESS OF HEART he [Moses] wrote you this commandment.” “Because of the hardness of your heart…” With these Words, Jesus is getting every single one of us involved in today’s Gospel. Even if divorce is not an issue for your own personal life, look beyond the outward crust of this Gospel and see its chewy center. “Hardness of heart” causes divorce, to be sure. But “hardness of heart” creates many more hardships and calamities than that! For example: • “Hardness of heart” is why we Christians so quickly bite and kick one another at nearly every opportunity—both inside and outside of marriage. “Hardness of heart” not only comes between husbands and wives, but it also divides fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and neighbors, bosses and co-workers. “Hardness of heart” is why we choose to cut our neighbor off and walk away, rather than submit ourselves to the hard labor of keeping good rapport. This is what God has written: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel (James 4:1-2) • “Because of the hardness of heart…” These Words also explain why God mercifully withholds certain earthly blessings from us. This is what God Himself has also written: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people!” (James 4:2-4) • Is it possible that “hardness of heart”—this disease that we all possess—is it possible that “hardness of heart” even limits or restricts some of the benefit we receive from our God here in worship? God might have had “hardness of heart” in mind when He wrote in I Corinthians, concerning His Holy Communion: Let a person examine himself… For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died (1 Corinthians 11:28-30). As you can see from these few examples, divorce is only the outward crust or shell of today’s Gospel. Below the surface of divorce, at its chewy center, Jesus speaks about the hardness of the heart. Jesus Words, “Because of the hardness of your heart” make today’s Gospel is a universal Gospel. Stated another way, the chewy center of today’s Gospel gives us the blessing and benefit of condemning each and every one of us—even those who have not divorced. CHEWY ON THE INSIDE, PART 2 GOOD NEWS! God has mercifully and lovingly hidden another blessing and benefit for us beneath the crusty surface and outer shell of today’s Gospel. God’s second blessing is even greater than the first. The second blessing in today’s Gospel is found in these Words, which might be the most beautiful Words of the entire reading: “Jesus answered them.” Again, “Jesus said to them.” With these Words, Jesus is showing us God’s most basic feelings toward us. The Words, “Jesus answered them” and “Jesus said to them” actually demonstrate God’s mercy and FORBEARANCE toward us! What I mean is this: “Pharisees came up… in order to test [Jesus].” The Pharisees were up to no good and Jesus knew it—Jesus knows the hearts of all people. So Jesus is surrounded by people who do not have good intentions; people who lack full sincerity; people who look for opportunities; people who whose hearts continually harden. Stated another way, Jesus knew full well that He was surrounded by people who, at their core, look very much like us. What does Jesus do for these people? “Jesus answered them.” Again, “Jesus said to them.” Jesus was under no obligation even to open His mouth! Jesus could very well have remained silent before these accusers, just as He would later remain silent before Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:5). The worst curse from God is God’s silence. God’s Words—Jesus’ Words—carry power and restoration and life in their very speaking. Jesus could have withheld His Words from the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, and He could just as easily and just as righteously withhold His Words also from us, BUT HE DOES NOT! “Jesus answered them,” despite their hardness of heart. “Jesus said [things] to them,” despite their impurity and sin. “Pharisees came up… in order to test [Jesus]” and Jesus bore with them, patiently and lovingly refusing to curse them with His silence. “Jesus answered them” and “Jesus said to them.” With these Words, God has packed the chewy center of today’s Gospel with forgiveness, endurance, and strength for you! The universal hardness of heart at the center of today’s Gospel—a hardness of heart that goes beyond what we can personally feel or detect within ourselves—the universal hardness of heart in today’s Gospel gets answered by the equally universal patience and love of Jesus. “Pharisees came up… in order to test [Jesus]… Jesus answered them… [and] Jesus said to them.” The word for this is FORBEARANCE. Jesus forbears with the persistent sins of the Pharisees because Jesus had already shouldered the entire load of all their sin and all their hardness of heart—carrying these things to His cross. Jesus forbears with the Pharisees in the same way that He forbears with you and me—and for the very same reasons. Simply stated: Jesus knows us, and yet He still continues to speak His Words to us. His Words carry forgiveness for us, and His Words preserve His gift of life within us. That is the chewy center of today’s sweet-tasting Gospel! Jesus perceives our inner core, and He continually drills into us with mercy and with grace—answering our darkness with His light and speaking life into our death. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
