Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Jesus, Looking at Him, Loved Him
(God’s Love in Law and Gospel)
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. In today’s Gospel, St. Mark tells you a familiar story, one that St.
Matthew told before him. As he has done elsewhere in his book, Mark again makes
small changes in Matthew’s version of today’s event. Mark has added a detail
that Matthew neglected to mention, and Mark believes this detail is important
for you to notice. When this rich man responds to Jesus by saying, “Teacher, I
all these [commandments] I have kept from my youth,” Mark (and Mark) alone adds
a description of Jesus’ attitude toward this strong willed and foolish man:
“Jesus, looking at [the rich man], loved him.”
Dear Christian friends,
Every student of the Small Catechism has learned at least a little bit about
the differences between God’s Law and His Gospel:
1. The Gospel is the clear and simple expression of God the Father’s
overflowing and abundant love for you, despite the fact that neither you nor I
deserve such love from Him. The Gospel does more than tell the story that “God
so love the world that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). The Gospel wants you
to know and never to doubt that God’s Son Jesus was given into death for you.
Stated another way, the Gospel is not so concerned with the forgiveness of sins
as it is concerned with you personally hearing and believing that Jesus has
forgiven your sins in particular. You are the one for whom Christ died; you are
the one whose eternal life was guaranteed in His resurrection; you are the one
to whom Jesus spoke His promise at your Baptism, “I am with you always, to the
end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The Gospel boils down to four syllables: God’s
love FOR YOU.
2. Usually people do not speak in such glowing terms about God’s Law.
Where the Gospel is the expression of God’s love for you, the Law very often
gets defined as God’s demands placed upon you. God’s Law will send your life in
directions you might not want to go. The Law tells you what you must and must
not do. The Law defines the ways you must and must not speak. God’s Law even
tells you the sorts of thoughts and desires that you may and may not entertain
in your mind. The Law is wrath; the Law is judgment; the Law is condemnation.
At first blush, the Law does not sound a whole lot like an expression of God’s
love.
We should be careful that we not mistakenly think about the harshness and the
weight and the accusation of God’s Law. We should not fall into the trap of
thinking that only the Gospel speaks God’s love and the Law does not. To the
contrary, God’s Law also speaks your heavenly Father’s love to you! St. Mark
also wants you to know today that the Law is as much God’s love for as the
Gospel is. As He does with the Gospel, God your heavenly Father also speaks His
Law to you because He loves you and He wants you to be with Him forever.
[The rich man] said to [Jesus], “Teacher, all these [commandments] I have kept
from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You
lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor…
How is it that Jesus loves this man by telling him to sell everything
he owned and give it to the poor? Jesus spoke this commandment to the man in
order to pry the man’s fingers off from those useless things that the man loved
and trusted the most. Jesus wanted the man to stop worshipping a false god—a
lifeless god that would only lead to death and the grave. This man was happy to
call Jesus “Good Teacher,” but the man was totally unwilling to call Jesus “my
Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The man already had a lord and a god. The man
did not want to abandon the god of his money for Jesus’ sake. “Disheartened by
the saying” Jesus had spoken to him, the man “went away sorrowful, for he had
great possessions” and all of his possessions mattered too much.
“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Remember how St. Mark earlier told
you the story of how Jesus fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish.
Remember especially how the story began: “When Jesus went ashore He saw a great
crowd, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd” (Mark 6:34). That same compassion of Jesus is again the motivator in
today’s Gospel. Jesus was moved with compassion toward the five thousand
“because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus likewise loved the
rich man in today’s Gospel, but for the opposite reasons:
This man was not feeling harassed and helpless; he was feeling safe and secure
in his riches—too safe, too secure; falsely safe and falsely secure.
This man was not like a sheep without a shepherd; he was entirely confident in
who he was, what he desired, and where he wanted to be.
In the feeding of the five thousand, compassion moved Jesus “to teach the
crowds many things” (Mark 6:34). That is the Gospel. In today’s Gospel,
compassion likewise moved Jesus to kick this rich man in the pants, and that is
the Law. Either way, you get to see God’s great compassion and love in action.
Boil down the entire Law to four syllables, and you get the same four as you
did with the Gospel: God’s love for you.
“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Whack! Jesus, looking at you,
likewise loves you—you personally and individually—and sometimes you and I need
God’s love to come to us in, shall we say, uncomfortable ways:
We need Jesus to condemn our sin in the Ten Commandments so that we will not
continue to run after the impulses of our fleshly desires, leaving in the same
way that the rich man left in today’s Gospel;
We need the Holy Spirit to press the heavy weight of regret upon our
conscience, so that we will be discontented by every consolation except for
that which God the Father gives us in His Gospel; and
We need lousy experiences and great misfortunes—hopefully not too many, but
enough to get the job done. Without such hard conditions of life we would all
too quickly become satisfied with this crummy world and we would soon forget
the promise God has spoken to us concerning the resurrection and the life to
come.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go,
sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven; and come, follow Me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away
sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Whatever demand your Lord Jesus makes upon you, dear saint, it is made
on account of His great love for you and His mercy toward you.
When Jesus tells you to listen to the Ten Commandments and order your life
according to them, make every effort to hear and obey. These commandments are
nothing less than the shape of the life that your God has created for you,
ordering your days and your deeds in His peace.
When Jesus demands certain things of you—be it your possessions or your loved
ones, or even your own life at the end of you days—give gladly. There is
nothing your Lord will take away that He cannot return to you tenfold. Mark
10:29-30
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and
for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and
in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).
When Jesus speaks His Law to you in any way, hear in and under the harshness of
the Law the tender voice of His love. Where the Law is, the Gospel is never too
far away. In either case, your Lord knows exactly what you need and He never
fails to give you your full share.
Even when your God speaks harshly to you, that is much better than Him not
speaking at all. Here in these last days, God now speaks to you through His Son
(Hebrews 1:1). Where the Son is, there also is your forgiveness and life.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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