St. Mark 6:1-13
Divine Service
Pentecost 5 (Proper 9) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Imagine if you will, a knock at your door.  When you come to the door, you see two armed security guards on the porch who inform you that they have come to present you with a check in the amount of ten million dollars.  You ask who this is from, and they reluctantly tell you who your benefactor is.  The gift is from someone you knew a while ago, one who was a mere child the last time you saw him, one whom you thought would never amount to anything. 

Continue to imagine!  You seek out this person, foolishly angry because you received this check – as if you needed a handout.  You express your outrage at this person, who insists that this $10,000,000 is just a gift, one with no conditions – no strings – attached.  You become even more upset, accusing the sender of this check of lying to you, and you punch him in the nose.  As he lies on the floor unconscious, you tear the check into many pieces and stuff these pieces into his mouth.  Then you head back home.  You had this great gift in your possession, and you rejected it outright.

Now move ahead some years.  The local economy has taken a turn for the worse.  Homes are being foreclosed, and yours is one of them.  Your debt is huge, and you have no way of satisfying that debt.  You remember that nice young man who sent you that check for $10 million several years ago, and you think about how much money you would have if you had invested even part of it.  You call him up, and he demands that you leave him alone because you rejected his gift.  You had your opportunity to receive this free gift, and now you are regretting the day when you violently rejected it.

As far-fetched as this example may seem, it does speak to the importance of receiving good gifts, especially when these gifts come from our great and gracious giver: God.  The people of Nazareth rejected the gift that "one of their own," in their estimation, came to give them.  Our text for today shows that Jesus Himself was not received in His hometown of Nazareth.  They remembered Him as the carpenter's Son ‑ even as a carpenter Himself.  What they heard from the Lord in the synagogue on that Sabbath day it was not what they expected from Him.  Because of their expectations, the hometown kid is not welcomed back as he would like to be received.  The memories and perceptions of the hometown folks gets in the way of what the returning preacher has to offer them, namely, the Gospel.

Jesus returned to Nazareth and taught in the synagogue.  He read from the prophet Isaiah.  He then began to expound on what He had read, just you are hearing the Word expounded upon in a sermon.  He began to teach them, beginning with His announcement that this passage He read had been fulfilled in their hearing, by His very coming into the synagogue.  Luke notes that he read from Isaiah chapter 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19).  Indeed the Scriptures were fulfilled in their very midst, for the Lord blessed this assembly of worshipers with His very presence.  But they were scandalized by the words that came from His mouth. 

They saw His human nature, but they rejected the idea that Jesus, the son of Mary, could also be the Son of God.  They saw Jesus' earthly relatives among them.  It is as if they said among themselves, "Where did He get all this knowledge?  He is no more special than any of us."  What they heard in the synagogue each Sabbath day apparently did not register with them.  Had they paid full attention to the rabbi as he taught them each week, they might have realized that this Nazarene was, is, and ever shall be, the Fulfillment of the Scriptures.  Luke tells us that in their anger they tried to throw Jesus over the cliff.  They had the Gospel before their very eyes in the Person of Jesus Christ, but they rejected this gift, opting instead to remain dead in their trespasses and sins, following their legalistic rituals, the ceremonial requirements of the Law, which the Lord came to fulfill.

In the second half of our text, the Lord calls His disciples together and sends them out for a brief period of time.  This would be the somewhat equivalent to our seminaries sending out students for their year of vicarage.  The seminarians gain valuable practical experience in learning first-hand what happens in the ministry.  Jesus gave the Twelve, whom He sent in pairs, instructions concerning what they were and were not to do, just as vicars have limitations on what they can – and cannot – do.  The disciples were to stay at people's houses.  Since the disciples were acting in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, the disciples' presence among them was to be regarded as if Christ the Lord dealt with them Himself.  Those who received the disciples would have the peace of the Lord in their homes.  Those who rejected the disciples would see them depart, and the peace of the Lord would no longer rest on that place.  In those instances the Lord told His disciples to not simply leave, but to shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against them.  This symbolic move would indicate that, since those people rejected the Lord and His message of good news, the disciples, God's called messengers, would have nothing more to do with them and that the Lord would deal with them in His wrath as long as they do not repent and do not believe the Gospel.

The common thread running between the two halves of our text is that the Lord will remove His presence from those who reject the Gospel and thereby reject the Lord Himself.  The Lord does not offer His Means of Grace to those who despise the gifts.  He does not offer the forgiveness of sins to those who choose to live in their sins and have no intention of repenting.  To such people the Lord does not give the Gospel, but He gives them the Law.  The Law is for those who are secure in their sins, living comfortably in them.  It is this Law that the Lord sent Ezekiel in our Old Testament reading (Ezek. 2:1-5) to preach.  He sent the disciples with the message of repentance.  Anyone who rejects the teaching and preaching of the Word of God remains under the curse of the Law, for they do not want to hear the Gospel.  This is true of Ezekiel's intended hearers.  This is true of those to whom the disciples were sent.  And it is true of us as well.

We daily reject what that the Lord dearly wants to give us.  We let our opinions about the message, about God's called and ordained messengers, and even about God Himself cloud our thinking.  The people to whom Ezekiel was sent were hard-hearted, stiff-necked, and rebellious, and these were the chosen people of God.  God gave Ezekiel the charge to preach, saying, "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against Me to this very day.  The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.  Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’”  The Lord also says to His called and ordained servants of the Word today, "He who listens to you listens to Me; he who rejects you rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects him who sent Me" (Luke 10:16), and again, "there is a Judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept My words; that very Word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48).  When we show that the Gospel has no place in our lives and when the messenger shakes the dust off his feet, we will realize that we are all alone, just as Cain was, for the Lord has withdrawn His holy presence from us.  And when we die, the Lord will also marvel at our obstinate and stubborn unbelief.

But we are not a people without hope.  The Lord has sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we would be led to repentance and faith.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we come to faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  It is only by this same Spirit that we repent of our sins, including our sin of rejecting the Word who comes to us from font, lectern, pulpit, and altar.  It is the Spirit of God who moves us to confess to the Lord, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mk. 9:24b).  Such prayers are pleasing to the Lord, for He dearly wants us all to be saved.  Our heavenly Father sees the sorrow our sins have brought us, for the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin.  And when our Father in heaven hears our cries of repentance, He declares us forgiven – for the sake of His Son.  And He continues to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts, that we may live a godly life, free from the sin that has plagued us.  For those who wish to continue living in their sins, this gift means nothing.  But for those whose souls have been tormented by their sins and wish to shun them forever, this gift from God is great beyond our capacity to express or even comprehend, for with His forgiveness our Lord grants us His peace, the peace which surpasses all understanding, the peace which the world cannot give.  We cannot begin to fathom the depths of God's grace and of His love for us.  We cannot even start to understand how this is possible.

So that the Good News would indeed be true, our Lord on this day overcame death and the grave and by His glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.  He rose from the dead so that we would live with Him into all eternity.  He gives us the gift of eternal life and salvation along with the forgiveness He offers us.  He offers these gifts again in His Holy Supper to all who seek His salvation.  To those who wish to remain in their sins, be they adultery, slander, cursing, hatred, or even covetousness, and who have no desire to shun these sins, the Lord bids you to not come and take the gifts He sets before His people.  But to those whose consciences are being terrorized by their sins and who seek relief from the Lord, He tenderly invites you to come to the feast, just as He bids you to come this day.

Participation in the Lord's body and blood is not an inalienable right, but it is a privilege our Lord, who alone knows our hearts, offers to all who come to Him in repentance and faith.  Coming to the Lord's Table is not only a profession of the faith confessed at this altar, it is also the means, along with the preaching of the Word and with Holy Baptism, by which our Lord gives His gifts to us.  The Old Adam in us wants nothing to do with the gifts.  But the new man craves the gifts and clings to our Lord's promises.  Faith receives the gifts with thanksgiving and treasures the gift.  And, by the grace of God, faith responds to the invitation extended to us by the Psalmist: "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" (Ps. 34:8).

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

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