The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Mark, the 6th chapter:
He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus, this morning, by the inspiration of His Holy Word, by speaking of faith, the faith that has been given to you, shows us what it should look like to go out into the world and be a part of His mission. This is such an important topic for us today, and it has been the topic of Christians for countless ages. When I spread the Gospel, what should I expect? What should I do? What will the response be?
Even our beloved Martin Luther, convinced that, after the Gospel had been freed from the Roman Catholic Church, now that the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone, and not faith and works, was being preached, the Jews of his beloved Germany would convert to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He thought, for sure, now that they would hear they had been freed from obedience to the Law of God for salvation, they would turn to the cause of the Reformation and join hands as fellow believers in Jesus Christ. Yet, they would not turn. They would not convert. And Luther became angry and jaded, and in his old age sinned, saying many disparaging things about his fellow citizens.
Though wrong, Luther’s heart was in the right place: he wanted to see them come to faith. And, though powerless, our Lord’s heart in the text was in the right place: He wanted to see the Nazarenes come to faith. And our Lord sent out His disciples, desiring to do the Lord’s will, whose hearts were in the right place: they wanted to see all of Israel come to faith. Yet there were those who would not turn. There were those who continued to reject the gifts of Jesus Christ, even as He stood among them.
Notice what is happening in the text. The gift of Jesus is not the miracle. In fact, He could do no great, mighty work in His hometown of Nazareth, for few believed. The gift is not the mighty work; the gift is faith. Only the one who has faith to believe in Jesus Christ and the mighty works that He does would receive such a one as a miracle. Even today, we explain such things away with science, medicine, luck, fate. Yet to the believer in Christ, who is inexplicably healed from their terminal cancer diagnosis, is there anything else to call it but a miracle from the hands of our Lord?
Notice though, it is faith that receives the miracle, not the miracle that creates faith. Our Lord doesn’t use His signs and wonders for the show. He doesn’t use them to attract the unbeliever; He uses them to show to those who have faith in Him that their faith is not without foundation. In fact, their faith is built upon the firm foundation, Jesus Christ, our Lord. On the same side, faith needs no miracle to believe. God nowhere promises to the believer miracles, unless of course, we are talking of the miracle of new birth in the waters of Baptism, the miracle of the forgiveness of sins in the Absolution, or the miracle of the Lord’s Holy Supper. But, even these are miracles received by faith; an unbeliever has no use of such things.
But, our Lord shows us more than miracles. Yes, the disciples were given authority over unclean spirits, and, by Christ’s command and authority, even over sickness and disease. But, just as it is with Christ, this is not the disciples’ major work. What is the major work?
To go out into the world and proclaim repentance. And where the proclamation of repentance is, there is always the forgiveness of sins. To repent, believe, and receive forgiveness, this is based on faith. Look at the prophet Jonah, sent to unbelieving Nineveh. Jonah begrudgingly went and preached to the evil city and called on them to repent. And when they did, the Lord forgave their sins. Look at Peter in the Temple at Pentecost. What did he preach? That they had killed the Lord of Life, and were guilty of all of His blood. And they asked what it was they should do now? He told them to repent, and be Baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. Faith caused them to confess their sins, and it delivered to them the forgiveness of their sins.
This is even the case for you. For indeed, you have been called to repentance. You know you are unworthy sinners, just as I am. You know that you are guilty of breaking God’s Law, and for that we should repent, for we are sorry, and there is nothing we can do to make it up to Him. Yet, the forgiveness of sins is for you. The forgiveness of sins that Christ won for you in His death and resurrection, that is for you! You are forgiven in Christ Jesus!
You see, even in this congregation, this Divine Service, repentance is never preached apart from the forgiveness of sins. And that is the model as we go forth, making disciples of all nations. So, as our Lord did, and as He sent His disciples to do, He bids us even do the same. He tells us that as we spread the Good News of the Gospel, as we share with the world that Christ has won the redemption of all people from sin, death, and the devil, He tells us to proclaim to others that they must repent, and, when they do, they are forgiven in Christ.
As Jesus did this, and as the disciples did this, what happened? For those who were sick, lame, blind, deaf, dumb, or even possessed, they received their Lord and He cast out the unclean spirits from their midst as Jesus made way in them for the Holy Spirit, the deliverer of faith, just even as He has done to and for you.
And what of now? We don’t often see such miracles today, and the reason for that is we have all the miracles we need of Jesus Christ written for us in the New Testament. It would be amazing to Baptize the dying child in the NICU and have them instantly healed; and God can do it, but He often doesn’t. It would be amazing to preach to the one on their death bed, and they get up and dance; and God can do it, but He often doesn’t. It would be amazing to bring the Lord’s Supper to the one who is hurting and have them back in our midst all the time; and God can do it, but He often doesn’t.
So, what of now? What does our faith receive? For just as we are full of sin, just as we are unbelieving as Nazareth, just as we act as if we are possessed by the full legion of demons under Satan, we receive, when we believe, every good gift our Lord has won for us upon the cross. That’s more important than a miracle. So, for one who does not believe, yet hears the Gospel and then stops rejecting it, coming to faith, does that one expect a miracle? The main work being done for them is through the proclamation of repentance, and then they receive with grateful hearts the forgiveness of sins. Nothing is more miraculous.
But, sometimes God’s Word of faith in Jesus Christ is rejected. It is turned away. It is shot down. His gifts are not received. His work in Baptism is rejected. His Absolution is turned away. His forgiveness and strengthening in the Lord’s Supper is shot down. And the one who Christ would have receive His gifts excludes themselves from all He would give them. What a pity.
For these people, our Lord marvels at their unbelief, that they could turn away from Him, that they are actively rejecting the Lord’s gifts when He so freely gives them to all. After all, this is His cross that they receive through Word and Sacrament. There is no other way that one is saved, except as He has promised, that He is found in His Word, and delivered in His Sacraments. And when one rejects those, they reject Christ Himself. And what does our Lord do after marveling? He moves on.
It’s not to say the person is cut off forever from the Lord, or that He will never return for them. But, when the one lamb of the ninety-nine that the Lord chases after runs away from Him to fling themselves off a cliff and die, the Lord will return to the ninety-nine. But, even as we have seen in ourselves, a dead sheep can still be brought back to life. Just as we have died to sin in the waters of Baptism, and raised to the newness of life, Christ can continue to work this way.
And for His disciples, what are they to do if the people they preach to will not hear the message of Jesus Christ? Not get back at them, not beat them over the head, but, as they have been sent in the image of full poverty, they leave with the people the only thing they have left: the dust upon their sandals.
All things the disciples would receive from the Lord, for after all, all things belong to the Lord, and so when anything is given to another, it is as if the Lord Himself were giving it. So, when the disciples were told to take no food, no bag, no money, and only to wear the barest of clothing, the Lord was basically telling them that He would sustain them through those who had faith in Christ. They would worry about nothing. And even when they received nothing, and when their message was rejected, give to the people all that you have: the dust off of your feet. By doing so, you are telling them that they are judged as unrepentant and they shall be seen so by the Lord.
Imagine if, when you came to the altar, instead of a sip of wine, it turned to dust upon your lips. This is the image we should have when we think about this. For if we reject the Lord’s gifts, it as if He gives us nothing but the dust from which we come and the dust to which we shall return. We receive not His body, not His blood, not His washing of regeneration, not His sweet words of comfort, but we receive the dust of the earth our forefather Adam was made from, and the dust of the earth we shall be laid in.
To not receive the Lord’s gifts is death; but to receive them by faith is life. As we go into the world, we should expect to see both at any time. We should expect many, even in our own midst, to reject our Lord, for He tells us, in Matthew 7, that not all who call upon Him shall enter His Kingdom. If we can expect that even in our own family, we should even more expect that of the world. Yet, even in the same chapter of Matthew, our Lord tells us that we should certainly expect some to be saved; the road for them is narrow, that is, it does not need to be wide, for there shall not be the multitudes of the earth traveling upon it. And for those upon the narrow path, as you are, the Lord’s gifts are life and salvation to you.
You have faith to believe in Christ; therefore, you have faith to receive His gifts. Receive His gifts, receive them all, His Word and Sacraments, so that you might receive Christ’s perfect life of obedience, His blessed death, and His glorious resurrection, all so that you would receive the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from the devil.
So, when, like the disciples, I spread the Gospel, which is the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, what should I expect? Perhaps unbelief. Perhaps rejection. Perhaps, in a few cases, faith that comes from the Holy Spirit. What should I do then? Point them to Jesus where He is to be found: in His Word, and in His Sacraments. What will the response be? To those who reject Christ and His Word, anger, slander, malice, and the rejection of the Lord’s man, even the prophets of old, even the disciples of Christ, which is to reject Christ Himself. But to those who have faith to receive Christ, gladdening spirits, strengthened faith, and the blessing of God as He continues to bring Christ to us just as He promised.
Should we then lose heart if they reject us? No. But we shake the dust off of our feet and leave them to the Lord, for He is their Lord, and if He can raise a man out of the dust, perhaps He could even raise them.
But, if they do not turn from the message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, if they are ready to receive as we have received, bring them to the Word, show them to the Sacrament, for them, just as it is for you, Christ is there, ready to forgive, ready to bring everlasting life, ready to proclaim their salvation. It has all been already won for them, it has already been won for you, by Christ, and is given to you and them freely. Trust and believe in this Jesus, and you will receive the greatest miracle a sinner could possibly imagine: by faith, you shall be with Jesus forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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