If you were here last week you may remember the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. There we had a rich man who wore fine clothes and feasted sumptuously every day. Meanwhile a poor man named Lazarus lay sick and starving outside his gate. Both men die. The rich man is being tormented but Lazarus is in peace and comfort. We concluded by talking about the way riches can so easily blind people, and the same dynamics happen around us and in our lives as well. The whole thing was crippling to hear and very guilt inducing.
Our gospel reading this week picks up exactly where we left off last week and continues the conversation. Our translations get us off on the wrong foot. They try to make good English out of the Greek, but it just isn’t possible. Our English translations read, “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!’” Grammatically bad, but more literal, it would be, “He said to his disciples, ‘it is impossible for scandals not to come.’”
In other words, all that stuff that we felt guilty about last week is basically inevitable. It is impossible to live up to what we have to live up to. You’re going to fail God. Period. You’re going to fail and you’re going to fail in really big ways. So Jesus goes on, “It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck a you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” The image of a millstone was ludicrous. This would be an upper millstone, round with a funnel shaped hole on top that would spin on a stationary stone on the ground. Upper millstones could be three or four feet across, so just imagine someone with their head poking through the funnel shape hole of a round stone three or four feet across. The stone alone would crush them on land. It’s ludicrous to picture someone with one around their neck in water.
Who are these “little ones” who would stumble? Jesus doesn’t say specifically but it appears as if he means anyone who’s struggling to be a good disciple yet lead astray by someone else’s words or actions.
Jesus goes on to talking about rebuking disciples who sin, and if there is repentance you must forgive, even if it is seven times a day.
There’s no wonder the disciples say to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” I imagine them to be panicking. Jesus has talked about humility, bearing a cross, forgiving endlessly, the hopeless traps set by the world, the evil of money and more. The disciples feel like it’s hopeless. No one can live up to all of this. It’s impossible. What it takes to truly be righteous before God is just far too great.
The confirmands taking sermon notes have the question on their form, “Did you hear the Law?” In theological terms the Law is anything that makes you realize that you and the world are broken, and that you need God. It turns you to God knowing that you are hopelessly broken and that you need grace. This idea is not to make us feel depressed about ourselves; not at all. It is an honest acknowledgement of reality, and one that points us in the right direction.
The disciples’ plea for help is actually a sign of a deepening faith. Look at their choices. They could turn to the world’s ways for help. Many people do. They could just ignore Jesus and walk away. Many people do that too. They could be like the religious leaders and decide to not just reject Jesus but also try to do him in. Or they could turn to Jesus for help.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of their choice to turn to Jesus. For as Jesus will describe, faith is not a quantity to be measured. It is a disposition of life that constantly turns to God.
As I said a moment ago, it starts with recognizing the impossibility of your situation – and really realizing it; not in just some academic way, but really knowing it.
Two weeks ago I did a funeral for an elderly man who had died. He had been an electrical engineer and worked on nuclear submarines. All of his children were highly scientific thinkers. His one son was a mathematician who worked on computer algorithms for missile guidance systems. He spoke at the funeral and talked about how he wanted it to all make sense. He wished life and death and God could be simplified to mathematical predictable formulas, but ultimately he couldn’t figure it out. In fact, he couldn’t figure out anything. He was at a place of truly knowing the impossibility of the situation. Though he didn’t use the words of the disciples, he was basically asking the same thing: increase my faith!
Let’s keep all of that in mind as we turn to the final words of Jesus that we read today, “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
Interpreted the wrong way and this makes last week’s gospel reading a bed of roses! Interpreted the wrong way and you’d think God is incredibly cruel and harsh – to demand the impossible during life and then when it is all done expect us to say, “We are worthless slaves; we have only done what we ought to have done!” Who wants to serve a God like that? Who would want to have eternal life under such circumstances? I certainly wouldn’t! So what does this mean?
We should never impose our American understanding upon the Bible. American slavery was very different than biblical slavery. American slavery was a whole lot worse – among the cruelest forms slavery has ever taken. In biblical times slaves could be very powerful people, and despite being the property of someone they also often had tremendous freedoms and sometimes great responsibility. It was typical for a slave in the Roman empire to be someone captured in battle. After a long period of slavery – often about 30 years – a slave would be set free. And freedom meant receiving the full rights and citizenship of Romans. Yes, slavery could be incredibly cruel. A master could do whatever he wanted to his slaves and it didn’t matter. But slavery was often a way to get ahead.
A master never owed a slave anything. A slave could not make demands of his or her master. And we really have no right to make demands of God. We cannot say, “I’ve been good. I’ve been righteous. God, you owe me. I deserve this…”
Though many people do feel that way, that is missing the point of grace. True joy will come in faith when we realize the God’s favor and blessing are matters of grace. They cannot be earned. It is in hopelessness, then faith turning us toward God, then realizing God’s grace that we find true joy.
Perhaps we would not say, “We are just worthless slaves. We did nothing more than was expected of us.” But perhaps we would say, “I’m just grateful to be loved by God! I’m grateful to be forgiven endlessly. Therefore I understand the call to forgive endlessly too, and if I do, well, then I guess I’ve succeeded in one place, but not others.
I like this poem by Elizabethan era poet John Donne:
Wilt thou forgive that sin, by which I’ve won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
a year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
I think all of these teachings that Jesus has given which we’ve been reading for weeks and weeks have been pushing us to recognize our brokenness. The confirmation class will call this the “law” on their sermon notes forms. Jesus has been pushing us to realize our hopelessness in the hope that we will turn that hopelessness toward him, which is an act of real faith. From there God’s grace is not cheap, but we realize how costly it is for God to forgive us. And since it comes freely we can then more fully rejoice.
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