St. Mark 9:30-37
Divine Service
Pentecost 16 (Proper 20) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Let’s talk about rewards!

Rewards are a strange and uncomfortable topic for us Lutherans to talk about in the Church, because we continually state that we are saved by FAITH ALONE.  The whole concept of getting a reward for works, then, seems foreign to us – even heretical.  It can be.  But that doesn’t mean we should shy away from the topic or even not talk about it.  The reason I am bringing this up this morning is because of the argument the disciples were having as they were traveling through Galilee to Capernaum.  Mark tells us that on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.  It seems like a strange argument to get into – and it raises several questions.  Are rewards something that we should also talk about and argue about or strive for?  This is the question that Jesus answers for his disciples when the group gets to Capernaum.

Are Rewards Something We Should Strive For?

If God didn’t want us to strive for rewards, then why would Jesus and Paul even mention them?  Logic would seem to make this answer an obvious “yes.”  But we need to be careful before we answer this too quickly.  Rewards can be good, but they can also be destructive.  Martin Luther once bet a man that he couldn’t pray the Lord’s Prayer without getting distracted.  He said, “If you can do it, I’ll give you a new horse and buggy.”  Sure enough, when the man only got about halfway through the prayer, then he started thinking about the horse and buggy.  The reward distracted him.  So rewards are tricky things.  They can be good, but they can also be bad.  Bad when they distract you from what you’re supposed to be doing.

The disciples were earnestly seeking greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  But was this a good thing?  “When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘what were you arguing about on the road?’  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.”  The disciples were not PROUD of the fact that they were arguing about who was the greatest.  They were embarrassed about it – so much so that they didn’t know what to say when Jesus asked them about it.

Why?  Because arguing about greatness leaves out a major point that Jesus, Paul, and the entire Bible emphasizes throughout.  Paul said in Romans 3 that, “‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’” (Ro 3:10-12)  Even as a believer Isaiah stated, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” (Is 64:6)  Even the RIGHTEOUS acts that we do as believers are only like filthy rags in God’s sight.  Jesus also said that “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)  How could any of us go before God and say, “I deserve to sit at your right hand in your kingdom,” when even our good works are tainted with sin?  Yet there are thousands – millions – of people in this world who get caught up in the mentality of the disciples, who think that they can do things so that they will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  Even you and I have a tendency to think these things to ourselves: “I’m a pastor – I came to church this morning – I don’t watch pornography –I deserve SOMETHING from God for this!”

The whole basis and concept of grace, my friends, is that you can’t earn any reward from God.  Your salvation is based on the fact that God has GIVEN us salvation through the life and death of Jesus Christ.  God says in His Word that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) When Jesus said on the cross, “it is finished,” he meant that all of your sins had been paid for –in full.  When Jesus went to the cross, you went to the cross.  When He lived a perfect life, God considered the world to have done it.  He gives each and every one of us this holiness through faith in Christ.  That’s why we call it grace – because God gives us it.  As St. Paul says, “if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” (Ro 11:6)  Therefore, all of us get the free gift of heaven solely based on Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

But does this mean that we shouldn’t seek rewards at all or even think about them?  Just because someone abuses food, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t eat food.  In the same way, just because people abuse rewards, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t think about them or even strive for them.  Just because we can’t really earn rewards, doesn’t mean that we can’t strive for them.  One of the greatest examples of this is in the lesson about the Canaanite woman that we heard a couple of weeks ago.  She came to Jesus seeking a gift – for Jesus to heal her daughter of demon-possession.  Jesus told her: “it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.”  The woman acknowledged that what Jesus was saying was true.  Yet she still sought His gift, in faith that even dogs get some scraps from the Master’s table.  She was given a gift in keeping with her persistent faith – her daughter was healed.  In the same of way, just because we are unworthy dogs, doesn’t mean we can’t pant and stare up at the master for an extra scrap or two.  Sure, we’re happy just to lie around and lick his feet, we’d be glad to die under the table even starving and smelling his feet.  But it doesn’t hurt to strive for an extra biscuit once in a while.  As long as you remember what you are, why not humbly whimper for a little extra morsel?  Especially if the Master has been known to be extra generous and rewarding in the past?

Jesus’ question had served to humble the disciples and put them back in their place.  I’m sure he also overheard their conversation – on WHY they thought they were the greatest.  Up to this point Peter could have said, “I saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration!” Judas maybe could have said, “I chased out five demons from one guy!”  John possibly could have said, “I’ve anointed more people with oil than you have, and they all got well.”  They all were probably thinking that with all these wonderful things that “they” were doing – even though it was God doing it through them – and about how they should get big promotions in the afterlife.  Jesus had to also correct this whole idea on WHAT brings greatness.

In the same way, if you think that greatness comes from telling others about how you work twelve hour days, read the Bible every day, tell people about Christ, or make great amounts of money, you’re wrong.  Greatness in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with how many people can see what you’re doing.  Jesus had a different concept to what is great and rewardable.  “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.’  He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.’”  Small children can often be the most ungrateful critters on the face of this earth.  You can spend a whole afternoon playing ball or changing their diapers, and they just turn and go on to the next activity without even thinking about saying “thanks!”  Parenting is one of the most unrecognized jobs in the world.  Nobody sees you feed your children.  Nobody sees you clothe them.  The very ones you are trying to help often times yell at you and whine to you.  It is a seemingly insignificant job – this welcoming of a child.  Yet Jesus says, “this is what service is all about.”

In foreign countries people will build and paint their gods out of wood.  They’ll build houses for their idols, shine them, carry them into safety from the rain, and think that by taking care of this block of wood they are earning their gods’ favors.  In that way they think they are serving their god.  Others will climb mountains and wear hardly any clothing to try and get some sort of contact with their god of nature.  But do you see how our God does it differently?  Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”  Instead of having us make our god, our God gives Himself a runny nose and puts on a dirty stinking diaper.  With tears in His eyes He cries out to you, “hold me!  Change me!  Rock me!  Feed me!”  He comes in the form of the most ungrateful critter on earth and says: “if you want to serve ME, then serve this CHILD that I have put on this earth for you to take care of!”  True service – things that God rewards – are not jumping in front of trains or blowing yourself up in the name of freedom or marching in picket lines, but wiping rear ends and runny noses, putting on clothes and feeding supper.  In other words: doing those seemingly LITTLE things of life that God puts in front of you – those unnoticed service projects – God rewards.

Jesus understood this best of all, for God called Him to do the dirtiest job of all.  He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”  Nobody praised Jesus for going to the cross that day.  Women were mourning over him.  His disciples were deserting Him.  The soldiers were mocking Him.  He allowed Himself to be beaten by filthy sinners and to suffer the most humiliating and excruciating death used at the time – the cross.  On the cross, Jesus became the least – the worst of sinners – all of the sinners in the world.  Yet after all was said and done, Jesus raised from the dead and God made Him FIRST.  With that death and resurrection, Jesus earned the reward that He came for – the sins of the world had been paid for.  With that death and resurrection, those who now believe in Christ are now holy in God’s sight and will rise from the dead.  It wasn’t a glamorous job that Jesus was called to do – but it gave eternal rewards to all who believe in Him!  In becoming last, Jesus became first, and so did we!  No matter who you are – young or old, rich or poor, famous or infamous, you are all number one on God’s list through faith in Christ.

That’s what service is all about.  But we can’t forget the rider that Jesus put on TRUE service.  Jesus said, “I want you do these things in my name;” whatever we do is done through faith in Jesus Christ – to add to His reputation – His name.  We aren’t doing it for our recognition – we are doing it for HIS.  We do what we do because we have a Savior who died for us and GAVE us salvation.  If this gracious God wants to give us even more rewards in heaven because of His grace, then that’s great!  More power to Him!  But all we are concerned about is that Christ’s name is exalted in this world and the one to come. 

Our gracious God has given us more than we can ask or imagine in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We have holiness.  We have perfection.  We have eternal life!  What more could we ask for!  What more could we imagine!  It’s hard to imagine that God could be more generous than that!  But God, in His generosity WANTS to give us more.  It kind of reminds me of my grandma.  After she’d feed us a wonderful meal and we were full, then she’d even pull out a wonderful apple pie!  We definitely didn’t need it, but we sure looked forward to it.  Like grandma’s desserts, our rich God wants to give us even more!  We look forward to it.  But for now, God says, “feast on my main course of Jesus Christ.  Feed Him to others.  Take care of the service I put in front of you, and in due time I’ll feed you with wonderful rewards in heaven.  Don’t worry where you are in line, for there’s plenty of my grace and my gifts to go around!”

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

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