“Gehenna” (Mark 9:38-50)

Mark 9:38-50

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 19, 2021

Jesus is still holding the child and embracing her or him in his arms. He just said that to be greatest to be a servant of all. And to love the little ones around us are to love the Son of God. And to love him is to love the Father. Jesus’ words are striking. Jesus is zealous about the little ones. Jesus’ words are also unsettling. He talks about death by drowning and by fire. He says dismemberment is a better outcome than to hurt God’s little ones and face those consequences. So what the heck is Jesus’ point? What the Gehenna is Jesus saying here? For starters, let’s talk about what Jesus is not saying. This is not a text about hell. In fact, the word hell does not even appear in the Bible at all. The word hell is not English, Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. It is Old Norse and is the name of the goddess of the underworld, Hel, the daughter of Loki. Hel or helheim is the place in Norse mythology where some of the dead go after death. This is why I have done a six week Bible study on hell twice now at our church because it takes that long to undo the kind of fear and confusion we have accumulated in the last two thousand years.

Jesus uses the word Gehenna. I asked our office administrator to use that word instead because taking the shortcut with the word hell actually puts us further behind in our understanding of what Jesus is saying. Gehenna is a Greek transliteration of the Aramaic from the Hebrew Gehinnom which means “Valley of Hinnom.” The Valley of Hinnom is south and west of Jerusalem. And it has quite the dark history. Before the Hebrews settled in Jerusalem, it was where people sacrificed their children to the god Molech. In Jeremiah chapter 7 (vv. 30-31), God speaks of the abomination of the Judeans who made their own pass through fire there in a horrific imitation of their predecessors. Because of this, the Valley of Hinnom (or later Gehenna), became Jerusalem’s city garbage dump. It is where refuse was taken, discarded, and burned. It is where moth, rust, worm, and fire consumed all the rubbish that came out of the city.

Jesus loves the little ones. They are of supreme value and importance to God. So he says dismemberment is a better outcome than to hurt God’s little ones. It’s striking that Jesus would use the same imagery of how ancient people would discard their own children as a deterrent to bring further harm to young children. In today’s language, we might say it this way: God so loves the little children that to cause them even to lose their footing so that they might trip and fall is a crime so grievous to God that only the severest punishment would fit the crime.

My advisor in seminary told us that sometimes when we are dealing with Scripture that’s difficult to understand we should ask another question besides “What does this mean?” We should ask, “What effect does Jesus want in our lives?” That is crystal clear. He wants us to elevate to greatness those considered to be the least—the little children—those the ancient peoples so readily discarded. They are precious in God’s eyes. They are so treasured and cherished by God that only the severest justice is deserved by those who cause one of them to stub their toe. What effect should that have in our lives? It would be better for us to enter life dismembered than for our whole bodies to be offered up to evil and idolatry. So Jesus tells us that when we enter his reign of life and love, we should discard everything that prevents us from becoming the people he calls us to be.

This radical repentance calls us to surrender ourselves to his Kingdom rule of love. If we are to take anything to the city dump and discard it, it should be those things that cause us to stumble and cause others to stumble into evil and sin. If it is the lust of the eye, the violence of the hand, or the foot that runs toward evil. Jesus calls us to go to the root of the problem. It would be better for us to toss into the fiery dump those things that cause us to perpetuate evil than to lose our whole selves to sin, evil, and death. That is the vivid and unsettling call of repentance. But what further effect does Jesus want? Jesus calls us to see the lives of all of those around us as not only precious but also sacred. To receive one of these little ones, Jesus says, is to receive him. And to receive him is to receive God the Father.

Jesus ends our passage encouraging us to season our lives with the salt of God’s peace. God wants our relationships to not only be free of the destructive and deadly power of sin and evil. He wants us to be palatable, agreeable, and filled with the peace that the world cannot give—the kind of peace only Jesus gives. Jesus alone passed through the deep waters for us. With the millstone of our sin hung around his neck, he was buried in baptism. He passed through the fire of evil and death for us through his scourging and crucifixion. He drowns our old self in Baptism by the water, the Word, the Holy Spirit, and with holy fire. His refining fire purifies and removes the dross of sin, selfishness, and pride. And so we enter life and the Kingdom by the scars and wounds of the Cross of Christ. We now get to return our love back to Jesus and God the Father. That love fills our cups to overflowing. God’s love overflows to those around us—even the littlest of ones. For that is who we all are—the little ones who are deeply and passionately loved.

“The greatest” (Mark 9:33-37)

Mark 9:33-37

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 19, 2021

In our reading from Mark, Jesus shares his humble, selfless, and sacrificial mission. He will be betrayed, killed, and three days later will rise again. They do not understand and they are too afraid to ask for more of an explanation. Just after this, the disciples argue just out of earshot of Jesus. Jesus asks what they are arguing about. The disciples are silent—perhaps because they are so surprised Jesus calls them out or they are too ashamed to fess up. Jesus knows the answer to his own question: they were arguing about who is the greatest among them. Jesus sits down and calls his disciples to come and listen. Sitting down is a cue. He is signaling the need to not stand proud and tall but to humbly come down to the level of a child—not to be childish but to be child-like and humble.

The greatest are those we esteem or value the most—in this case, ourselves. In an article in Psychology Today, research says Americans are number one—number one in thinking we are number one. We live in a culture that encourages grandiose ideas about ourselves—that we are the first, the best, and the greatest. Of course, this is not an American problem; this is a human problem. But it does seem to be a growing problem. Perhaps it is because we are so individualistic. If we are too preoccupied with ourselves, our self-centeredness will keep us from thinking of our neighbor and stunt our growth in empathy and compassion. It is actually because of the disciples' deep sense of insecurity that they feel they must argue their way to greatness. And so it is for us. Self-aggrandizement is not only ugly, it is rooted in our desperation for attention and validation. As the actor Norman Reedus recently said, “The dog that barks the loudest is most afraid.” 

The Scripture addressed this problem thousands of years ago. Proverbs 26:12 says, “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them.” Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.” Psalm 10:4 says, “In their pride the wicked do not seek the Lord; in all their thoughts there is no room for God.” Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” There is nothing new under the sun, indeed.

Jesus asks us to consider what you and I argue about. Why are we so prone to  competition? Whom are we trying to impress? If we succeed at impressing others and even ourselves, the Word of God is clear that we have only temporarily fooled others and fooled ourselves. So Jesus sits down. The eternal Son of God comes down from heaven to earth. The Word takes on our humanity and is born a little child. He leaves his glorious throne and begins his earthly reign in a feeding trough. Jesus sits down. His posture alone preaches. He could have stood taller and beaten down their pride with words like a sledgehammer. Instead he sits down and says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” This is in keeping with what Jesus says just a chapter later in Mark 10:45: “For the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.” 

Then Jesus takes a little child into his arms. The word for child here is neuter. Mark does not tell us if the little child is male or female. That is why the translators use the pronoun “it” which in English may sound dehumanizing. But that is quite the opposite of what Jesus does. He brings the little child profound dignity Jesus sits down. He goes to the level of a little child. The child does not receive his or her worth from their stature, gender, or role in society. The child is deeply loved by Jesus. The child is invisible until Jesus brings attention to her or him. He takes the child into his arms. The child deserves loving and protective arms around him or her because the child bears the image of Christ and the image of God. “Those who welcome one such child,” Jesus says, “welcomes me and the one who sent me.”

This is the sure antidote to our grandiosity, competitiveness, self-aggrandizement, self-centeredness and pride—to take our eyes off ourselves and see the image and love of Christ imprinted into the little ones around us. They are not invisible to God. They are deeply loved and valued even without an impressive curriculum vitae, résumé, or entry into Who’s Who. Jesus masterfully redirects our attention away from ourselves to the little ones around us. He wants us to return our love to him and to God the Father by cherishing and loving the little ones around us. That is the fulfillment of the command to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as Christ loved us. 

Jesus has set little ones all around us. We are those little ones. He gathers us up by his Word and Spirit. He takes us up into his strong arms of forgiveness, protection, and love. Jesus becomes the Servant of all. He selflessly and sacrificially yields his life to us on the Cross to gather us up into his loving and eternal arms of mercy. The debate over who is the greatest is over. Greatness has been declared from the Master who humbly takes his seat on the earth. Greatness has been accomplished through the Shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. It’s not our greatness but the greatness of his love which he selflessly and sacrificially lavishes upon us.

“The Foolishness of the Cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 12, 2021

In our reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul says that the Cross of Christ is foolishness to the world. One comedian has an ongoing TV segment and movie called religulous—a word he made up combining the words religious and ridiculous.  The Apostle Paul would not be surprised. And, in fact, he experienced the same skepticism and mockery in his day. What makes this Scripture even more interesting is that Paul attributes certain negative reactions to Christianity to specific ethnic backgrounds of people.

He says that people of Jewish ancestry were looking for signs—they wanted the sensational, extraordinary, or the miraculous to authenticate a proposed truth. Those of Greek ancestry were looking for wisdom—well thought-out arguments, rational explanations, and insightful propositions.

Paul is speaking from his experience. He is making a broad generalization. Today, we might say that Christianity will encounter certain predictable obstacles in specific cultures. Or to say it another way, we all grow up with certain values or presumptions about life and truth that can impede our understanding of the Cross. No one is immune from having these obstacles to better understand and believe in God’s gift to us in the Cross of Christ. We all have expectations that we want to be met as we struggle to understand the meaning of the eternal Son of God taking on our humanity only to be crucified on a Roman Cross. We might be like those of Jewish origin in the first century—always looking for the supernatural and sensational. Or we might be like those of Greek origin—always looking for the intellectually satisfying. Or today we may want our religion to be more socially acceptable, culturally relevant. We may want Christianity to fit nicely into our other worldviews. 

With our Marxism, we may see salvation only through the lens of the plight of the poor—liberation theology. With our capitalism, we may see greed as naming and claiming the accumulation of wealth God wants us to have—prosperity theology. We may understand the Cross of Christ through the lens of our sectarian church traditions. We may want to completely eliminate the concept of sin from our understanding of the Cross because we don’t want to sound like conservative, religious fundamentalists. Or we may want to ignore the non-violent themes in Scripture concerning the death of Christ because we don’t want to sound like liberal, mainstream protestants. Jews look for signs. Greeks look for wisdom. But the Cross is foolishness to both because it does not fit tidily—nor will it in any human tradition or philosophy. 

I believe that Paul is challenging us all to lay aside our preconceived notions of truth—even those we grew up with—even our Lutheranism. This Scripture challenges us to open our minds and hearts to the power of the Cross that transcends human understanding and defies any humanly-devised system of thought. Our Psalm from today says it well: “The Lord has done marvelous things.” God has done things that the mind can scarcely take in. The Cross of Calvary is unexpected. It is so profound and glorious that our inability to fully grasp it leads us to worship, praise, and awe. The Israelites could have told God and Moses that to look toward a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole for healing is a ridiculous idea. Ironically, the image of a serpent wrapped around a rod is an international symbol of modern medicine. Jesus points to that ancient bronze serpent lifted high for God’s people. He says that points to the time he will be lifted up—lifted high on a Roman Cross. So Jesus surrenders his life for the healing of the nations.

There are so many truths about the Cross that we hold in tension as believers. Jesus died on the Cross but he also triumphed over death. He is both Victim and Victor. He sheds his blood for our sins but also purchases a place for us in heaven by that same blood. What appears to be the defeat and mockery of Jesus of Nazareth is victory over sin, death, and evil.  Our Scripture from Paul and Jesus calls us to reconsider the meaning of the Cross. We should not thoughtlessly wear crosses around our necks, hang them on our walls, or make the sign of the cross over our hearts. We look to the Cross for healing, understanding, strength for living, and peace in our minds and hearts.

In the days following the September 11th attacks in New York City’s “Ground Zero,” rescue worker Frank Silecchia discovered a 20ft cross in the rubble of the fallen Trade Towers. This intact cross-beam of steel had the exact proportions of a traditional Christian cross—this just in time for Holy Cross Day, September 14th. Christian workers and worshipers gathered around this cross to pray and to celebrate Holy Communion. The Cross reminds us that we have a Savior who knows our suffering and pain of loss in death. The Cross reminds us that we have new life, forgiveness, and a secure eternal future in Paradise with our Lord and King. At the dedication of the World Trade Center Cross, Franciscan priest Father Brian Jordan said the cross is a symbol of hope, a symbol of faith, a symbol of healing. And so it is for al the world—no matter our ethnic, cultural, or linguistic background. It points to a historical event of Jesus. He is both human and divine—both Victim and Victor “who has won the day”—the One who dies and the One whom death could not hold. 

Faithful cross, true sign of triumph,
Be for all the noblest tree;
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thine equal be;
Symbol of the world’s redemption,
For the weight that hung on thee!
          (“Sing My Tongue, the Glorious Battle,” LSB 454 v. 4)

“Mercy triumphs over judgment” —James 2.1-17

James 2:1-17

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 5, 2021

Just a few minutes ago, we confessed that “we justly deserve [God’s] present and eternal punishment” for the sinful things “we have done” and “the things we have left undone.” And then we prayed for God’s mercy “for the sake of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.” We prayed that God would unpack this mercy: “Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name.” And then we heard the assurance of God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy through Jesus: “Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins.”

Mercy is withholding punishment or harm to someone. The good news is that God has withheld punishment and harm toward us. God will not do to us what he justifiably can do—judge and condemn us for our sins.  Mercy is God not giving us what we have earned and deserved for our failures. Mercy is God not rejecting us and casting us away. Mercy is the absence of God’s anger and judgment. Mercy is God having the authority to condemn but deciding to relent. Mercy is when anyone has the power to do harm but chooses not to carry it out. Mercy flows from compassion and empathy.

That is why James is so worked up in our Scripture from James chapter one. There is a strong connection between James’ words here and Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, “Judge not, lest you be judged” and how he teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” James says, “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” There is an indivisible connection between the mercy we have received from God and the mercy we extend toward others. That is why James writes such strong words against showing favoritism toward the rich and disdain toward the poor in who show up in our worship services. We are judging according to appearances. 

When we interact with each other on Sunday morning, we do not have the whole story of who we are. We do not know the whole story leading up to our shared prayers, praise, and receiving of God’s gifts. None of us know even how our individual stories will unfold later today, this coming week, and how our stories will unfold for the remainder of the days God has given us. Only the Lord knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, the number of our days, and the miracles he will work in and through our lives. I believe this points to a false gospel that has infected Christ’s church in these days. And that lie and false gospel is this: that people need to fix themselves first before they are welcome to worship with us—that “they” need to stop certain sinful behaviors before they are worthy to receive God’s mercy. That is the genius of the Syrophoencian woman in our text. She applies mercy to herself. Or perhaps better stated, she understands that God’s mercy overcomes any ethnic, regional, or gender prejudice we have.

We all come here in our filthy rags needing cleansing, acceptance, and renewal. We all come singing, “Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling. Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die!”When we judge we are playing God. Only God has the authority to judge. Only God knows us intimately even before we were born and has loved us since before the foundation of the world. Only God sees into our future and how the Word and Holy Spirit will bear fruit in our lives into eternity.

There is an axiom in our text: “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” That is our shared story: God’s mercy is greater than God’s judgment. His love towards us far surpasses his grief over sin’s hold on our hearts, minds, and lives. Mercy has already won. Judgment has been swallowed up in victory when Jesus died and rose again for us.James wants this mercy that flows from heaven to earth to flow from our hearts, our mouths, and our lives. This happens when we are in awe of God’s mercy toward us. Mercy flows from us when we take an honest look at ourselves and can say, “But by the grace of God…but by the mercy of God I am who I am (1 Cor 15:10). I am a sinner who has been shown mercy. I now get to extend that same mercy toward others.” That means we are able to put the best construction on everything—to understand the unfolding stories around us in the kindest and most empathetic way. And is not that why we are all here this morning?

We are not here to publicize our wealth, health, and social status; we are here to extoll the name above all names. We are not here to assess the sinfulness of those around us; we are here to receive assurance of forgiveness, mercy, and eternal life. We are not here to place each other in tidy categories and make a seating chart according to our individual piety. We are all the same at the foot of the Cross of Calvary. In Christ’s Church, there is neither Jew nor gentile, male nor female, slave nor free.” We are all mercy recipients. We are called to be mercy extenders. Mercy triumphs over judgment. God’s love wins. The merciful work he has begun in us he will bring to completion as he works that mercy into our lives and through our lives toward others.

Penitent sinners, for mercy crying,
Pardon and peace from Him obtain;
Ever the wants of the poor supplying,
Their faithful God He will remain.
He helps His children in distress,
The widows and the fatherless.
Allelujah, allelujah!
          (“Praise the Almighty, My Soul, Adore Him,” LSB 797, v. 4)