That Part!

Yesterday, during the Friday night edition of Issues and Answers, a caller suggested that Scott Cannon and I should seriously consider running for elective office because of our piercing commentary about the economic and ecological situation here in Gary relative to the possible entry of Djuric Trucking and Fulcrum Biofuels into the city. Many, including the Station Manager and the Owner of WLTH, respectively, are opposed to both on the basis of our history with pollution courtesy of the Steel industry in General and U.S. Steel in particular. Others are in favor of both on the basis of our relative lack of heavy economic investment and activity that would lead to more employment and a better economic quality of living, even if there is a possibility of some ecological impact, but in the belief that this impact would be negligible at best. I will say this, I believe that it is imprudent to take a hard hostility before we have fully studied the situation to include data that has not yet been presented by either side except in generalities of “what could happen.”

Suffice it to say that you won’t be seeing any bumper stickers that say “Cannon/Campbell” on any election ticket anytime soon. We are quite content with our current vocations, thank you very much!

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Luke 10:38–39 ESV

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

Before we go any further into this text, I need you to remember something about the context. The setting here is very important to what I will share with you today, and I will not really be able to share everything that is available because of time. This event takes place during the period where Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be crucified.

Luke 9:51 ESV

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

There is a pointedness, an urgency, in everything that we hear Jesus doing in this period, expressed in all four of the Gospels. Jesus is intent on delivering the Gospel to Israel and opening their eyes to the fact that the forgiveness of sins is theirs if they will only “receive it as a child,” humbly, by faith, with repentant hearts. There are fewer signs and wonders at this stage, more confrontational conversations, and the lines are being drawn between those who embrace Him and those who reject Him as the Messiah, although neither side fully grasps what Jesus is presenting.

Seemingly, we are being introduced to these two sisters for the first time by Luke in this passage. I think that we have been to this house before:

Luke 7:36 ESV

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.

Now, if you take a quick look at this passage - I know that it’s three chapters earlier, but I don’t think it’s location at that point indicates chronology, but illustration. Luke tells of this incident at the home of a Pharisee named “Simon” (v. 40), and he shares the incident when an unnamed woman, identified as “a sinner” comes into the dinner, breaks open an alabaster flask of ointment, and weeping, pours it over Jesus’ head and feet. Jesus declares that she, although publically identified as a sinner, has come to know what it means to receive the forgiveness of sins from Christ, and as such, loves Him greatly. Simon, by contrast, believing himself to be free of guilt because of his focus on keeping the Law, even to the point of thinking that he deserved to be healed of his leprosy by Jesus.

The reason that I am taking a different path from many commentators regarding who these people are would take up more time than you are accustomed to spending here, so let me give you the “Cliff Notes” version.

John 11:1–2 ESV

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

You all know this story - the raising of Lazarus. They all live in Bethany. After this sign, 6 days before the Passover, according to John, they come to Bethany.

Matthew 26:6–7 ESV

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

Both this passage and Mark 14:3-9 describe the same situation at the same house with the same event. There are differences in details, between these readings, the reading in John, and the passage in Luke 7:36-38, but John specifically identifies Mary in John 11:2

John 11:2 ESV

It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

Every commentator, from Eusebius to the present agrees that the Gospel according to John was written last.

The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Introduction) by R.C. H. Lemski (1961) wrote

The fact that John writes for believers should be considered together with the obvious relation of his Gospel to the other three. John not only knew the other Gospels, he wrote his own in such a manner that entire sections of it cannot be understood by the reader unless he, too, knows the other three Gospels.

John 1:1–7:1 by William C. Weinrich writes in his Introduction (The Origin of John’s Gospel: Some Patristic Testimony):

The earliest explicit testimony concerning the writing of the Gospel of John comes from Irenaeus (ca. 180). He lists the four evangelists through whom the Gospel had come down to him, the Gospel “which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures.” After mentioning Matthew, Mark, and Luke (in that order), Irenaeus writes the following concerning John: “Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.”

In other words, for John to have written what he wrote in John 11:2, he wrote it knowing about Luke 7:36-38, yet he only talks of one anointing by one particular woman - Mary - dare I say it - Magdalene, “out of whom the Lord had cast seven demons,” according to Luke 8:2. Like I said, there is so much to this, but the clock is a peculiar tyrant, and time waits for no man, not even for an LCMS national missionary.

Luke 10:40–42 ESV

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Someone called in yesterday afternoon and asked me whether I agreed with his pastor that it was better to be called than educated in order to serve as a pastor. First, I educated him regarding the difference between his pastor’s understanding of a “called pastor” and the Lutheran understanding, that the former is entirely subjective, offering no evidence to comfort those who are uncertain, while the latter is objective, and grounded in the certainty that God works through the Church to accomplish His mission in the world. I then told him that the two are not mutually exclusive, in fact, there is really no excuse today for a pastor to reject the opportunities for pastoral education that exist today. I look for opportunities to share the Lutheran view of the Faith, the Gospel, and of life together with every person that gives me the opportunity because I believe that what we believe, teach and confess will strengthen the faith of those who hear it, that God gave us this treasure, knowing that we are earthen vessels, so that He would get the glory, not us. God wants us to share with others the certain promises of God, that Christ is the hope of Glory, and that He is for you!

The Book of Concord (Ap IV: Justification)

[48] The opponents imagine that faith is nothing more than a knowledge of history, and so they teach that it can coexist with mortal sin. As a result they say nothing about the faith by which (as Paul so often says) we are justified, because those who are accounted righteous before God do not continue living in mortal sin. But the faith that justifies is not only a knowledge of history; it is to assent to the promise of God, in which forgiveness of sins and justification are bestowed freely on account of Christ. To avoid the suspicion that it is merely knowledge, we will add further that to have faith is to desire and to receive the offered promise of the forgiveness of sins and justification.[49] It is easy to determine the difference between this faith and the righteousness of the law. Faith is that worship which receives the benefits that God offers; the righteousness of the law is that worship which offers God our own merits. God wants to be honored by faith so that we receive from him those things that he promises and offers.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ. There is no obedience to Christ that does not begin with listening to the Word of Christ. Your service for Christ’s sake will never be more valuable than your willingness to receive Christ’s service to you of His grace and mercy, conveyed to us in Word and Sacrament - the Pure Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins, through His Body and Blood, given and shed for you!

There are many things that will pull on you in this life, many things that will call for your attention. You can be almost literally pulled apart by all the things that are pulling on you. Jesus knows all about those things - He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He never lost sight of the missio Dei, never forgot Whose will He was called to do. Yes, He has the advantage of being one being with the Father, but that’s why the burden of perfectly doing the will of the Father is not yours. That’s why He invites you:

Matthew 11:28 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That’s why He set His face to go to Jerusalem. That’s why He rejected Peter as Satan when Peter resisted the revelation that Christ would die for our sins. Jesus knew that our eternal life could only be obtained by His tasting death for us, our justification could only come through His sacrificial death.

There is no Plan B, no other Gospel that works just as good as this one, no philosophy of politics or economics that provides reconciliation between God and men, no amount of private or public service that will wash away your sins. There is nothing but the blood of the lamb and the Word of His testimony. You want to defeat the devil? Here the Word from the last Book of God’s Word:

Revelation 12:10–12 ESV

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

That’s what will get us through this present darkness, this present evil age: the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and the Word of their testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is already established, all we need to do is listen and take heed, following the lead of our Good Shepherd, Who leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

And the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

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