Jesu Juva
“A New, Gift-y Life in Christ”
Text: Mark 7:1-13; Ephesians 5:22-33; Isaiah 29:11-19
(Psalm 34:9, 19 [Gradual])
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we’re back in the Gospel of Mark after three weeks in John chapter 6 and hearing Jesus’ catechesis on the Bread of Life. Mark’s Gospel includes the Feeding of the 5,000, which was the occasion for Jesus’ catechesis. His catechesis on the true bread that He has come to give - the true bread of His Gospel, His grace, His forgiveness, and His Body and Blood - gift after gift after gift! But only John records that catechesis. So it was a good little detour for us. But now we’re back.
So, gifts. That’s been the focus these past three weeks. The funny thing about gifts, though, is that they can make us uncomfortable. That sounds funny, doesn't it? Because we love getting gifts! But think about it a little. The husband brings home flowers or candy unexpectedly . . . And the questions come. Why? What did he do? What is he trying to smooth over? Maybe nothing! Maybe he’s just being a good husband. But . . . a little uncomfortable.
Or how about if someone gives you a Christmas present, but you didn’t get anything for them . . . and you feel ashamed. That can be uncomfortable so you sneak online and try to quickly order something so you can honestly say their gift just hasn’t arrived yet!
Gifts are supposed to have no strings attached, and they often don’t. Or they’re not intended to. The giver of the gift finds joy in the giving and attaches no strings. It’s the receiver who often does that. Who thinks there must be strings. Who feels obliged. Who feels guilty.
So it is with Jesus and His gifts. There are truly no strings attached. Jesus simply wants to give, and for all people to receive. To receive His life, to receive His Gospel, to receive His forgiveness, to receive His Body and Blood. And in receiving these gifts, to be children of God. To be with Him now and forever.
But . . . no! It can’t be. We must have to do something! We have to be a certain way, we have to keep the rules, we have to follow the Law.
But there are no strings attached. Truly! What happens is that receiving these gifts, you are not obligated, but you are changed. The old man, the old sinful being in us all is put down, and the new man strengthened and enlivened. With these gifts is not that you have to live a new life, it’s that you will live a new life. For with these gifts, your life changes. Your priorities change. Your outlook changes. What matters changes. You go from slavery to freedom, from suspicion to joy, from guilt to gratitude. Jesus gives not to obligate us, not to make us indentured servants, but to set us free.
So when Jesus feeds the 5,000 He asks nothing in return. When He heals there are no strings attached. When He forgives, “go and sin no more” is not a condition for His forgiveness, but the result of it. He simply gives joyously of His bountiful goodness, and wants all people to receive joyously, too. And then live in that joy, that joy we had in the beginning, but which satan stole as he plunged us into sin and death. Jesus has come to give that joy back to us.
Now I bring all this up to set the context for what we heard today, of the Pharisees criticizing Jesus and His disciples. Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? Did you hear it? Traditions, laws, obligations, strings. Jesus speaks of gifts, the Pharisees are about You have to do this, you have to do that. You have to keep the Law of Moses as defined and explained in the “traditions” . . . or else. So for many who were taught all these things, instead of a life of gratitude and thanksgiving, there was obligation and guilt, and as we heard today, accusation.
And especially egregious was the fact that the Pharisees had come up with a “tradition” that did not help people in any way, but, in fact, contradicted and counteracted a very specific commandment of God - the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and mother. Here’s what they said: if they dedicated their money to God, they no longer had to help or support their parents. They actually were not permitted to! It would be like stealing from God, they said.
No, stealing from God is what they were doing with this tradition. God didn’t want their money. God doesn’t need their money. Better is to do as God said and arranged. To take care of your parents and recognize them as gifts from God who should not be disregarded or tossed aside, and to receive them as a gift with thanksgiving. They won’t be perfect, we might think them a bit odd, but it is through them that God gives us life and many other good things.
If you’ve ever been in my catechesis, you’ll recognize that thought I was just describing: that the Commandments were not given to us just as rules or obligations to keep, but to protect the gifts God gives us. The gift of God Himself, the gift of God’s Name, the gift of God’s Word, the gift of parents and authorities, the gift of life, the gift of marriage and family and sexuality, the gift of possessions, the gift of a good reputation, and the gift of contentment. These gifts don’t come with strings attached. As we learn, God gives them to everyone, even to evil people! But He wants us to realize this, and receive these gifts as gifts, from Him, with thanksgiving. And seeing things in this way, we see God as our Father, from whom comes all good. As our Saviour, who grants us forgiveness and new life. And as the Spirit who works in us to live and love as the new creations we are. That as gift receivers, we then also be gift givers, to the glory of His Name.
And those gifts are abundant; that list I just went through. But specifically today we heard about parents in the Gospel, and then also what St. Paul talks about in the Epistle: the gift of husbands and wives. Now, we’ve kind of made a mess of marriage today, with divorce becoming as common as the cold, people living as though they were married without being married, and marriage being redefined and reshaped. And then there is the way marriage is talked about - more with words we’d used for a business arrangement than a gift from God. Marriage as a partnership, or a merger. All that is to put marriage into the realm of the Law rather than as a gift from God, and the results haven’t been good.
So, for example, you’ve heard people say marriage is 50-50, which sounds good, but can be devastating. Because if that’s the way marriage is, what often happens is that each spouse begins keeping score to make sure they get their 50! And then small things become big things, and big things become wedges, and the argument isn’t: Why do your disciples . . . eat with defiled hands? but similar accusations! Why don’t you keep your end of the bargain? How come you’re not doing your share? 50-50 isn’t the two becoming one flesh, but the two becoming one but remaining separate.
And when Paul talks about the husband being the head of the wife, some would say that means marriage isn’t 50-50, but 51-49 - the husband, as the head, gets the tie-breaking vote, because he’s the boss. And the wife has to submit to him and his authority. Which again, doesn’t sound very gift-y, but more like a business arrangement. More like what the Pharisees were saying with their parents. I’m not giving to you. I’m not giving for you. I’m going to decide what to do.
But what Paul is saying is that husbands and wives are God’s gifts to each other, and when you give a gift, it is 100%. So marriage isn’t 50-50, it’s 100-100 - each spouse giving themselves completely to each other. The husband giving himself completely to his wife, even laying down his life for her, and the wive giving herself completely to her husband, submitting to him. For that is the way of Christ and His gifts, Paul says. No strings, no conditions, no counting, no score keeping. Just giving. Not because you have to, but at least as a Christian, because you can’t not! Because Christ and His gifts change you. You live new because you are new.
Now, this might sound strange to the world, to those who are like the people Isaiah wrote to, who can’t read the book because it’s sealed, but when it’s unsealed can’t read it because . . . they can’t read! All this gift talk and gifts from God is like a foreign language. It’s not the way the world works. It’s not the way to get ahead in the world. It’s not practical.
Maybe not. But it is the way of it with God. With a God who does nothing but give, and knows the joy of giving, and wants His children to do and know the same. To be like Him and reflect His love and His life.
Jesus did that. It got Him crucified! You do it and well, maybe you’ll get the same. Gifts make people uncomfortable and when you lead a gift-y life and not life by the laws and traditions and ways of the world, people will feel suspicion, shame, and guilt. But maybe, just maybe, a little joy as well. When they see there’s another way to live. When sin is not countered with more sin, but with forgiveness. When giving is the norm, not getting. When instead of anger there is patience.
Now, if that doesn’t sound like you and your marriage and your life, if you struggle with that, that’s a reason to repent and receive the forgiveness and new life you need. The forgiveness and new life Jesus died on the cross to provide for you, when He was the husband who laid down His life for His Bride, the Church. For you. To give you all you need. No strings attached. Just forgiveness for you, life for you, and now His Body and Blood here for you.
And as you live here and receive these gifts here, and then live this out there, you might be uncomfortable for a bit. Just like new shoes are uncomfortable until you break them in. But you’ll grow into it, as Christ and His Word and His life grow in you. Gifts received become gifts given. Shame and guilt are taken by Christ and His joy given to you. And the “tradition” you live is not what the world passes down to you, or tells you to do, but what Jesus has passed on to you - a life of love that has no end.
And if living such a life sounds frightening, or a bit uncomfortable, remember what we sang in the Gradual this morning. The promises of God given to us there. Not that nothing will go wrong or that you’ll have an easy life. No. He gives us promises we can actually use; that reflect reality. That life is often tough. But you are not alone. You have a Saviour, the perfect Bridegroom, to lean on, to depend on, to give.So hear those words again, and as you do, marvel, and rejoice.
Fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing!
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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