Was Jesus Unloving?

Newsletter arrticle for July 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Once when Jesus was teaching about himself as the bread of life his followers found it hard to understand and accept this teaching. In fact, they said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Now you might expect that Jesus then sat down and explained to them the meaning of His Words, perhaps He could have taught them about the real presence in the Lord’s Supper (although at this point He had yet to institute this Sacrament.) This is not what Jesus did. Instead Jesus gave them more things that they could not accept. He said, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe….This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” Upon hearing this many of His “disciples” turned away and no longer followed Him. Was this the loving thing to do? (See John 6:60-66)

Another time a man came up to Jesus as He was walking along the road, and the man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Now you might think that this is just the kind of highly motivated person that Jesus wanted to be a disciple. You might expect Jesus to say to him, “Come on along, I have plenty of work for you. The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.” But that is not what Jesus said to him. Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” So instead of telling of all the great work that needs to be done, and telling of all the glory that comes with being a follower of Jesus, He discourages the man and tells of the hardships of being a disciple.

In the same passage of Scripture (Luke 9:57-62) Jesus Himself gives an invitation to someone else saying, “Follow me.” The man responded, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Obviously this man was distraught and in mourning for his father who recently passed away. Since even then it had long been the custom in Israel to bury the dead the same day they died this task should not have taken long. But Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Does this seem a little insensitive and callous to you? Didn’t Jesus understand what this man was going through?

Again in that same passage of Scripture another man said to Jesus, I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” This seems like a reasonable request, doesn’t it. He wants to serve Jesus, and he doesn’t want his family to worry about where he is and what he is doing. But once again Jesus rebukes him saying, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Doesn’t this seem harsh? Even if this man was unfit for service in the kingdom of God, couldn’t Jesus have trained him or otherwise made him fit?

What about the Pharisees? These were the leaders of the Israelites, and they were all fine, upstanding people who were well respected. They did hate Jesus and conspire to kill him, but didn’t Jesus teach us to “Love your enemies?” Then why does Jesus berate them in an extended vitriolic tirade (Matthew 23), calling them such names as hypocrites (at least six times by my account), blind guides (twice), blind fools, blind men, blind Pharisees, whitewashed tombs, snakes, vipers, and He implies that they are murderers of God’s prophets. Doesn’t Jesus practice what He preached? When Jesus spoke to Satan (Matt. 4) He used more respectful words that weren’t so harsh.

Another time the Pharisees simply asked Jesus to give them a miraculous sign, presumably so that they could believe in Him and know that He truly is from God. Instead of giving them the proof they required, Jesus condemned them saying, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it ; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” As Jesus was teaching this (Matt. 12) Jesus’ mother and brothers were outside the house, and they wanted to speak to Jesus. When He was told about this He said, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Then Jesus pointed to His disciples and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Did Jesus renounce his relationship with His family? Was He that uncaring and unloving that He preferred His friends over His family?

Obviously Jesus was neither unloving, nor unnecessarily discouraging, nor insensitive, nor callous, nor harsh, nor hateful, nor uncaring, nor a bad son and brother. The reason why Jesus acted the way He did in each of these situations is that He knew how to properly apply God’s Law and God’s Gospel in every situation. In all the situations above, Jesus was dealing with unbelievers or the self-righteous, or with people who otherwise were unwilling to die to sin and live for Christ (see Romans 6:11-14).

The reason why Jesus spoke more kindly to Satan was that there is and was no hope for him to be saved. The devil is already suffering the punishment for his sins, but when Jesus spoke in Matt. 23 there was still hope for the Pharisees if only they would have recognized their sin and repented, so Jesus got to the point where strong words of rebuke were called for, and He did not hold back because He loved them and wanted them to be saved.

In the other situations the people who wanted to follow Jesus also wanted to hold on to some worldly things, and Jesus saw the need to teach them the First Commandment, that to be a disciple of God is to love Him with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength. If you love God you cannot also love the world. Remember the words of 1 John 2:15-16, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.”

In all these situations Jesus DID show love, but remember that Jesus is not a Gospel reductionist (see this article). Jesus knows that the best thing for all people is that they repent and turn to Him for forgiveness. If someone refuses to repent then they need to be condemned by the Law until they come to Jesus. For Jesus and His disciples there is no shame in bringing rebuke or punishment on the unrepentant. Christ’s salvation is forever, but for the repentant sinner pain and shame last only a little while, and if a little pain leads people to Jesus, then it is worth it. Only the enemies of Jesus would hesitate to bring harsh words of condemnation to those who follow Jesus half-heartedly. Only the devil and his followers would call someone unloving who did and said what Jesus did in the situations described above. Let us not be turned aside from the path of our salvation, but let us follow Jesus in truth and purity.

Generic Christianity?

Newsletter article for June 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)

There is a tendency in America to reduce the Christian faith to a “generic Christianity.” I am not sure if this originates within the church. It may come from our ignorant and illiterate society’s desire to fit everything into simplified categories that are easy to understand, and easier to ignore, but I have seen this idea beginning to make its way into churches and into the minds of Christians. (Actually I can’t see into the minds of others, but I can recognize this when it comes out of their mouths.) This tendency may also come from an overwhelming desire to avoid conflict so it avoids issues that may cause conflict or division, and reduces the Christian faith to some simplified, lowest common denominator. Jesus Himself didn’t do this. He recognized the divisive nature of His message when He said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”

This simplification of the Gospel message is not something that Christians ought to be doing. The message of the Gospel can be simplified for children and others into a message that can be as simple as “Jesus loves you” we ought not stop there as if that were sufficient. Although this simple message is the most important truth of the Gospel (and is enough to bring eternal salvation), there is much more to the Christian faith than just that. Just as babies grow from only needing a diet of milk to a gradually more complex and varied diet, so Christians need to grow from this simple message of the Gospel to a more detailed and mature understanding of God’s Word. We can’t remain “baby Christians” for an extended period of time any more than we can live our whole lives on a diet of only milk. We must either grow or die. The trouble with a simplified, generic Christianity is that something important is lost in the transition.

What is lost in generic Christianity is the specific details which make Jesus real to us, and show us that He is the true source of life and salvation for all who believe in Him. If Jesus is generalized or simplified to the point of abstraction then to our minds He becomes just that, abstract, and with abstraction He then becomes unreal to us. I think in some cases this is the intended effect. When, for example, feminists attempt to de-masculinize the Bible they are making God’s Word into something generic, and then (and only then) is it possible to dismiss it as something irrelevant and out of date. The same thing happens when fundamentalists attempt to determine which parts of the Bible are important, and which are not, or even when well intentioned evangelists try to cater to special interests in order to try to make the Bible less offensive to certain people. But even though God’s Word may offend some, God still intends us to preach and teach it in all its truth and purity, because that is the best way to bring salvation to those who do not yet have it.

Jesus is a specific man, an Israelite, a descendent of King David of the tribe of Judah (a Jew). He was born sometime around 4 B.C. (even though this seems to make no sense it results from some kind of addition error when the Gregorian calendar was first developed) in Bethlehem. Jesus is the only begotten son of God, and the firstborn son of a woman named Mary. After fleeing to Egypt to escape the murderous insanity of King Herod, His family settled in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and lived a mostly unremarkable life. At around age thirty Jesus called twelve disciples to follow Him and He began a three year ministry during which He demonstrated His divine power through teaching and miracles. Although Jesus demonstrated great power and an ability to do whatever He wanted, He allowed Himself to be arrested, charged with false accusations, and condemned to die by crucifixion. He died and was buried, and on the third day after His death He rose to life again. After forty days He ascended into heaven where He rules over all creation at the right hand of God the Father. All this was done for us and for our salvation. We know all this (and much more details of Jesus’ life and mission) only from the Holy Scriptures which, from Genesis through Revelation, is the true Word of God.

The specific details of the life and mission of Jesus are offensive to sinful human beings like us. In Galatians 5:11, St. Paul complains that if he is preaching anything other than the truth of God’s Word then “the offense of the cross has been abolished.” The specificity of God’s Word, though it may offend us from time to time, should really be a comfort to us. The details of our own lives are of great concern to each of us. It ought to be a tremendous comfort to know that our Lord and Savior, Jesus, also had to deal with the same specifics in His life. Hebrews 4:15 shows us that our Savior can sympathize with the details of our lives because He was “tempted in every way just as we are – yet was without sin.” His sinlessness, although foreign to us, is what qualifies Jesus (and no one else) to save us from the consequences of the guilt of our own sin.

Therefore we should avoid this generic Christianity. But the only way we can avoid it is if we are well taught in the truth of God’s Word and in the specifics of Holy Scripture. We all need to be in Church to worship every week, and those of us who are confirmed ought to receive the Lord’s Supper frequently. We all need to study the Bible frequently, at least once a week, although every day would be much better. As we do this Jesus will become a more important part of our lives and we will appreciate Him for who He is. Jesus is our one and only Lord and Savior. There is no one else like Him.

Rejecting the Survival Instinct

Newsletter article for May 2003
© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Behavioral philosophers (Psychologists and sociologists call themselves scientists, but human behavior is so complex and inscrutable that their work is nothing more than philosophical speculation) describe something which they call “survival instinct”. This is a subconscious drive to preserve one’s own life when faced with life-threatening danger. In some situations this instinct is a gift from God. Many people’s lives have been spared from dangerous situations when they acted on this instinct while their rational minds were paralyzed by fear. However, in God’s kingdom here on earth (i.e. among Christians) this natural instinct must often be overcome in order to remain God’s people and survive in His kingdom.

Proverbs 14:12 tells us that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” The way that seems right to us is that we ought to do everything we can to save ourselves both for this life, and in the life to come. However Jesus taught that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) This goes against all of our natural survival instincts, and yet, Christians know that Jesus loves us and He would never tell us to do anything that isn’t in our best interests, so we accept this as true, and we struggle to understand this paradox and live our lives according to it. So then we need to know, “What does this mean?”

It doesn’t mean that we ought to try and hurt ourselves. Instead Jesus means that we ought to put our lives into God’s hands in all things, and instead of trying to save ourselves we ought to be obedient to God in all things, even if it causes us pain or costs us our lives. In doing this we must rely and trust in God to rescue us from all dangers of body and soul. One of my favorite examples of this in the Old Testament is David. Several times in his life, David acted in a way which was sublimely faithful to God, but from a human perspective was suicidal. The first incident happened when David was only a teenager or a young man. David risked his life in a one-on-one battle with the giant Philistine warrior, Goliath. David trusted that God would give him the victory over the blaspheming pagan, and that is exactly what happened. (1 Samuel 17) Later David allowed King Saul to escape his sword twice even though Saul had sworn to kill David, but David refused to kill the man God had chosen to be king. (1 Samuel 24 & 26) David did this even though Saul had turned against God, and God had already chosen David to replace Saul as the next king.

Other Old Testament examples of risking one’s life in order to save it are shown in the lives of Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Each of these four men remained faithful to God in violation of the King’s decree, and would have been executed except for the miraculous power of God who rescued Daniel from the hungry lions (Daniel 6), and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the blast-furnace (Daniel 3).

In the New Testament we see faithful believers going even further. Stephen continued to witness to the Lordship of Jesus even while he was being stoned to death, and other Apostles and believers were persecuted and killed for their faithfulness to Jesus.

What is wrong with instinct? Since we are by nature sinful, our natural instincts are basically selfish. Selfishness means that we are more concerned with pleasing ourselves than pleasing God. God doesn’t want us to be selfish because he knows that selfishness will lead us to despise Him and we will be lost forever. Instead God wants us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5) Gideon is a great example of this (Judges 6-8). When God called him to raise an army to defend God’s people against the attacks of the Midianites he started with an army of over 30,000 soldiers. God told Gideon that he had too many soldiers because when they won the victory they would think that it came by their own strength and power, and they would again forget about God (which is why God allowed the Midianites to harass them in the first place). When Gideon’s army was down to only 300 soldiers God was satisfied that it was small enough that they would know that the victory was won by the power of God, and not by their own strength.

If we save our life by losing it then does this mean that we shouldn’t care for others? Not at all! God commands us to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31& 33; Luke 10:27; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8) However, this command is described as the Second greatest commandment. The First is that we ought to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 13:3, 30:6; Joshua 22:5; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27) This means that while we do care for the needs of others, we don’t do it above and beyond the will and commands of God. If we try to love our neighbor, but in the process disobey God, then not only are we not loving God, but we really aren’t loving our neighbor either. We can’t despise God and still love our neighbor at the same time.

So what does this mean for the church? Well, in times of trial and testing, as we are presently experiencing, it means that we don’t necessarily take the obvious or easy path. If our problem seems to be a lack of money then we don’t solve the problem by seeking to get more money. God is in control of His church. If God thinks that we are trusting too much in money He can invent ways to relieve us of that problem, and no matter how much we may try to keep up with the bills, it won’t be enough until we learn the lesson that God wants us to learn. In God’s tests the only correct solution is to die to yourself and live for God. This means that we may have to do things which we “know” won’t work. The ways which “seem right” to us, are often wrong in God’s eyes.

If we want to grow the Church then we “know” that if we stand firm on teaching the true Christian doctrine of the Lutheran Church we will drive people away. However, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) The Lutheran Church has a marvelous treasure in its doctrine and teaching. It is nothing less than the treasure of heaven itself. If we are to call ourselves by the name “Lutheran” then we should learn exactly what that is all about and know and make use of the great riches which have been entrusted to us. This calls for great faith because it means trusting in God’s Word and Sacraments to work miracles when we would rather trust in ourselves and the way that “seems right” to us. God is faithful (1 Cor. 1:9) and His word will accomplish great miracles that we can’t understand how (Isa. 55:11). Through His Word, God has kept His church alive through all kinds of trials and tribulations for many thousands of years, and He will continue to do so to the end.

The Real American Idol (Part 2)

Newsletter article for April 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

In last month’s newsletter article I noted that the selfishness of Americans has reached idolatrous proportions. Since in His First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods.”) God condemns all idol worship and idolatrous practices this is a very serious offense against God. However, the offense is multiplied when such idolatry reaches into the church where God’s people gather around the common ground of God’s Word and His holy Sacraments.

Americans have turned their “Liberty” into a selfish desire for making their own personal choices about nearly everything, including things for which no real choice exists (especially life and death issues, which God alone controls). Consider how God would feel if His people would want to make decisions about things for which He has already graciously given them. Would Jacob, for example, choose not to accept a flock of sheep and goats simply because they were spotted and speckled (see Genesis 30), or would Jacob rather give thanks to God for giving him wealth despite the wicked greed of his father-in-law, Laban? If Jacob had chosen to reject God’s gift then what else would God do but say, “then you shall starve to death because you have rejected what I have given you.” Or what if Jacob had made a big deal out of accepting God’s gift, even then wouldn’t he still have made God angry by making it seem like he was blessed with riches because he had made some kind of right choice, rather than being blessed simply because it was God’s good pleasure to bless him? Either way he would have been insulting God.

In the above example God blessed Jacob despite the fact that Jacob had used trickery and deceit to steal the blessing and birthright from his brother Esau. The choices Jacob made were selfish and sinful and although God blessed him and gave him wealth and a large family, it wasn’t because Jacob was so good, it was because God is so forgiving and good.

The only “choice” which plays a significant role in the life of the Christian is the choice that God made to save us from our sins. God’s choice is the only one that matters, and because of that all people can be saved because Jesus died to pay the price for all the sinful choices that we make. True Christians know that it is an insult to Jesus and the sacrifice that He made for us to say that “I am saved because I chose Jesus as my savior.” That person is likely wrong on both counts. Jesus accomplished everything that needed to be done to bring us salvation, and for us to take even the smallest credit is stealing that praise and glory from Jesus.

The appeal is often made to “free will” as proof of our cooperation with Jesus in our salvation. However, this denies the fact of original sin which means that we are all born sinful (see Ps. 51:5). The Holy Bible clearly states that because of our sinfulness that we cannot contribute anything to our own salvation, and our own will is completely corrupted by sin. Even the great evangelist, St. Paul, struggled greatly with his sinful nature and recognized the corruption of his will. He says in Romans 7:15-20, “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. I know that nothing good live in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” It was not St. Paul’s choice to serve Christ, in fact it was Paul’s choice to persecute the church and imprison and kill Christians, but God chose him anyway despite this.

God works the same way in our lives, too. Whether we are converted at our Baptism when we are still infants, or whether we are converted as adults after hearing God’s Word and believing and then being Baptized, God gets all the credit in both cases. The choices that we make are connected to our “free will”, but whenever we exercise that will we are doing so in opposition to God, as the Scripture says, “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23) Faith is all about submission to God and to His will, and about the subordination and subjugation of our own sinful will. Faith has nothing to do with making “right choices.” Even Jesus would not have chosen to die on the cross if He had done what He wanted to do, as He said in Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Since Jesus subjected His own will to God the Father’s will even though His human will was perfect and sinless, then we ought not claim that our “free will” or our choice means anything because our will is always tainted by sin. Instead we ought to thank and praise God for His good and gracious will through which He provides forgiveness and salvation for us.

The Real American Idol

Newsletter article for March 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

A few years ago the Detroit Free Press newspaper changed the name of its Sunday editorial section from “Opinion” to “Choices”. The content of the section did not change, only the name. Logically and linguistically this makes no sense because editorials are completely different from choices. There are no real choices given in this newly named section, only editorials and opinions. The change in the name was made to reflect the growing desire for people to feel like they are in charge and can make a choice about what is going on in the world, even when there are no choices to be made.

Now, this may seem like a trivial little thing, and sometimes it does to me, too. I still think it is silly every time I open up the Sunday newspaper. Often the editorial section is the only part of the Sunday paper that I read, (besides the comics) and I find it a little unsettling how the heading in no way describes its content. So what is the big deal about choices?

I believe that Americans are so selfish that the Free Press editors feel they have to play silly word games to get people to give their attention to the editorial section. The word games are not the cause of the problem, merely a symptom of a much greater, and more serious, problem in society. It is a generalization to say that Americans are selfish to the point of idolatry, but I believe that even in this short essay that I can give enough evidence to say that this is generally true.

The real American idol is selfishness, and it shows itself in a number of ways. First, with regard to the “choices” mentioned above, Americans demand choices about everything. From the multitude of channels available on cable television to access and content of the Internet, we must have the sense that we are in control and are making the choice about what we do, or where we go, or how we spend our money or time. Americans even demand choices where no real choices exist. This desire for “choice” gives people the idea (or the illusion) that they are in control and can do whatever they want to do, so in a way we convince ourselves that we are little gods.

The most horrific example of this idolatrous self-interest is the American lust for the pleasures of sexual relations without the associated responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. At best this selfishness results in loneliness and lovelessness which comes from not being committed to one person in a lifelong marriage. At worst this self-worship causes parents to murder their own children in the name of “choice.” This “choice” is really a false choice. If “choice” enters into the situation anywhere it comes very early when the man and woman choose to engage in activity which results in the conception of a child. After the conception has taken place there is no real choice. That child is completely dependent on his or her mother for life for at least nine months, and any “choice” which results in the death of the child is a false choice because God has given the parents the responsibility to care for the child.

The history of legalized abortion in America is itself an example of the selfish idolatry that I am describing in this essay. According to our Constitution, only the Congress can pass laws, but abortion became legalized nationwide by an act of the Supreme Court which, in effect, simply decreed that mothers have the right to murder their children. Although the Constitution makes no mention of a “right” to abortion, the Supreme court invented one that can only be overturned by another ruling of the Supreme Court, or by a specific Constitutional amendment denying such a “right.” But the American idol will not permit either to happen because that would force Americans to be responsible for their actions.

If selfish “choice” is a god to many Americans then that would also explain the rising popularity and acceptance of such perversions as homosexuality. This is another false choice. There are precious few things more obvious to all self-aware people that God made men and women for each other, but we see that as the Bible tells us, sinful people will always choose to rebel against God’s good design despite any number of horrible consequences. This horrible sin is only made more attractive when so-called “Christian” denominations refuse to call homosexuality a sin as the Bible does, and thus they encourage people to rebel against God’s plan in this way. Selfish “choice” is an extremely short-sighted god in that as long as the person doesn’t see an immediate bad consequence he or she can easily convince themselves that there are no consequences.

You may ask why I am addressing this issue in the Church newsletter? The answer is that although as Christians we are citizens of God’s Kingdom first, and citizens of our nation second, we cannot help but be affected and influenced by what goes on around us. If all the world (or what may seem to our eyes to be the whole world) is saying that they are free and that it is a good thing to make yourself into your own god so that you can do any thing you want to do, then it is only natural that after a few dozen times of hearing this we get tired of fighting it, and after a few hundred times we may begin to believe it. It may start out with simple envy of people who don’t feel constrained by God’s laws, but that envy can grow into doubt and unbelief, and unbelief is just a short step to idolatry. As Christians we need to remain faithful to God’s Word above all things. Even when it seems wrong or unfair or restrictive, we need to trust that God still knows what is best. Only when we are faithful to God and learn what His will is from the Holy Bible then we can recognize the false choices that the world gives us and we can avoid falling into the trap of self-worship or some other idolatry.

This self worship idol is particularly attractive because our sinful nature secretly desires to be a god. That is how the first sin came about, and we are no different in that respect from Adam and Eve. Don’t be misled by false choices which go against God’s laws and His Word. The world may ridicule Christians for their obedience to God and His good laws. The world may say that we are unnecessarily enslaved by our “blind” obedience to God, but they don’t understand that because of the forgiveness and salvation that God has won for us in Christ Jesus we willingly obey whatever God says because we know that whatever “freedom” we may lose by ignoring those false “choices” we will gain vastly greater freedom and greater rewards in heaven.

Gospel Reductionism

Newsletter article for February 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

When is the Gospel a bad thing? This ought to be a trick question, but more and more the Gospel is being used to rationalize all kinds of things which God describes as sin in His Word. In this article I wish to teach you a new phrase which I think faithful Lutheran Christians will (regretfully) soon be hearing more often. The term is “Gospel Reductionism” and in learning what it means you will learn that the answer to the question above is that the Gospel is a bad thing only when it is misused.

The term “Gospel Reductionism” refers to a method of Biblical interpretation which ignores God’s Law and places the sole authority in the Gospel for theology and practice. I believe that this idea is peculiar to Lutheranism because only Lutheran theology has made such a sharp distinction between the Biblical doctrines of Law and Gospel. Lutherans have long known that in Christian preaching and teaching the Gospel must predominate, because although God’s Law and Gospel work together for our salvation, only the Gospel really can save us. The trouble with Gospel Reductionism is that it goes a step or two further, and is in reality a new teaching.

Now, when I say it is a new teaching I don’t mean that it is “new and improved.” In theology “new” is ALWAYS a bad thing. Any “new” teaching is false teaching because it is man-made, and not from God. The Holy Scriptures warn God’s people about the false teachings of men (see Mark 7:6-7) and it warns that the time will come when people will not put up with good, sound doctrine, but instead will gather around them teachers who will tell them only what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-5). There is something about Gospel Reductionism which is attractive to many pastors, teachers and lay-people in the LCMS. I believe that I myself may have been influenced by it in ways I am only beginning to understand. As I write this I have been studying this for about a month, and I know it is not Biblical, and therefore wrong, but I caught myself giving a reductionistic answer in a recent Sunday Bible study, and I had to correct myself when I realized what I was doing.

The trouble with Gospel Reductionism is that it makes the Gospel the only authoritative part of Scripture. This wouldn’t be so bad except that God gave us His Word as both Law and Gospel. Both teachings are authoritative as God’s Word, but the reductionists dismiss the Law as something useless, or even harmful. What is more, the reductionists also broaden their definition of the Gospel to include anything which might possibly be construed as beneficial — even things the Bible says is harmful and sinful. The proponents of Gospel Reductionism claim that they are faithful to God and to the Gospel, but in truth they are faithful to neither. God gave us both Law and Gospel so that we might be saved, and if we ignore either one of those teachings then we disobey God and are in danger of being eternally lost.

There is a tension between Law and Gospel which must be maintained always in our teachings. If we lost the Gospel then we would either despair of salvation because God’s Law accuses and condemns our sin, or we would become complacent and self-righteous thinking that we could gain salvation by obeying the Law in some minimal way. On the other hand, if we don’t acknowledge the authority of the Law then we won’t see a need for a savior and so Jesus becomes meaningless to us and we will grow to despise Him.

You can identify Gospel Reductionists these days because they are the ones complaining most often about “legalism” in the Synod. True “Legalism” is a valid danger and concern, and we ought to avoid it. Legalism is the result of a kind of “Law Reductionism” where the Gospel is dismissed as authoritative in place of the Law. However the Gospel Reductionists cry “legalism” about any application of the Law, including many good God-given ways of disciplining sinners and calling them to repentance. This is actually quite clever (in a Satanic sort of way) if you can get away with it. If you don’t acknowledge God’s Law (or even a part of it) then you can do whatever you want to do and nobody can say anything contrary because that would be considered legalistic or irrelevant. The trouble with this is that although you might be able to get away with this for a little while, you won’t get very far trying to convince God about the benefits of this, and everyone will have to answer to God some day.

Lutherans have a great blessing in our traditional doctrine of the dynamic working of God’s Law and Gospel. If we would ever truly put our trust in God’s Word and use it the way He intended then there would be no stopping the Lutheran Church, though many would try. Many well-intentioned people have been led astray by this “Gospel Reductionism.” People have been complacent in their sins because they do not acknowledge the Law of God and His Word which calls on them to repent. God’s Law is a good thing, but although no one likes to be reminded of sin, it is a necessary part of the Christian life. Only in using the Law properly can we truly appreciate the salvation we have in Jesus.

God’s Gifts in the Life of His Church

Newsletter article for December 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Jesus said, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) God has also said, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) These words are a wonderful source of comfort and consolation from a God who loves us and cares for us, and watches over us, but in addition to these words God has given us something more substantial upon which we base our faith. God has given us the “Means of Grace” to give us His presence, and also to prove to us that He is here with us when we need Him. The Means of Grace are the ways that God delivers to us His good gifts of salvation. The Means of Grace are God’s Word, and the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Although the Means of Grace are the ways that God makes Himself and His Gospel tangible and real to us, each of the Means works in a different way, and each one has a special place in the life of the Church (i.e. God’s people). It is important for us as a Church to understand how the Means of Grace work among us so that we can gain the full blessings which Christ wants for His church. For example, if we use the Lord’s Supper the same way we use the Holy Scriptures, then we may miss out on some of the extraordinary blessings of this sacrament.

In my personal studies recently I have been working my way through a book of essays by the 20^th century Lutheran theologian and historian, Hermann Sasse. Pastor Sasse spent much of his ministry dealing with the unionistic Lutheran Church in Germany (and elsewhere), and I have found that his essays from the 1930’s are surprisingly relevant now. The unfaithful desire for unity without full agreement in the Gospel and all of its articles, which has afflicted American Lutheranism for years, is now beginning to infect the Missouri Synod as well. American Lutherans have not done well to learn from history in this case, but as history repeats itself, our Synod (and we, as faithful Christians) can remain faithful to God and show the world the true blessings of God’s Church, and not some man-made unity based on lies.

Dr. Sasse recognized that in the Union church in Germany the use of the Means of Grace suffered. In his 1938 essay “Church and the Lord’s Supper” he noted how the Means of Grace work to build Christ’s church. He begins by telling how God’s Word works in the church. “Because the Word of God is given to the whole world, it resounds throughout the world, which is why the Christian service of the Word has been a public event open also to non-Christians, as a matter of principle, since time immemorial.”* This shows that God’s Word is a Means of Grace which is to be shared with everyone. The “whole world” is to know about Jesus through the Word, but the other Means of Grace don’t work the same way.

The next of the Means of Grace is Holy Baptism. Dr. Sasse says this about this Sacrament: “Baptism stands at the borderline of church and world, acting either by itself or in combination with the closely associated rite of confirmation to disclose to people the inner space of the church, which is forever hidden from the gaze and understanding of the world.” Since Baptism makes a person a child of God, and a member of Christ’s church it has a special place in the life of the church. Through Baptism we are given new citizenship, so to speak, as it says in Philippians 3:20, “our citizenship is in heaven.” Also, the grace of God is nowhere more clearly shown than in the practice of infant Baptism. Infant Baptism clearly recognizes the original sin which afflicts every person, and also shows God’s Grace in that an infant can do nothing to bring this blessing upon himself or herself, neither to ask God for forgiveness and salvation, nor to earn it through good works. But whether it is infant or adult Baptism, God brings us into His kingdom through this means.

Finally, the Lord’s Supper, has a still different role in building up the church of Christ on earth. Sasse notes: “As the sacrament proper to the church, the [Lord’s] Supper is, therefore, as a matter of principle, not a public event. Thus the most ancient church celebrated it behind closed doors (Rev. 3:20)…. Although it is celebrated in a particular place at a particular time with earthly elements, the Supper does not belong to this world but always remains an intrusive alien element within it. Even for this reason, the church needs the Supper.” We dare not treat the Lord’s Supper as we do God’s Word or vice versa, although they are both His means of delivering His grace to us. We ought to share the Word of God with all people, but Scripture itself (1 Corinthians 11:29) warns us not to give the Lord’s Supper to just anyone, only those faithful Christians who can recognize it for what it really is, the true body and blood of Jesus.

Since the Lord’s Supper brings the body and blood of Jesus to all those who partake the Sacrament it truly brings the metaphor to life that the church is the “body of Christ.” Since Jesus comes to His people in this real, physical way, the Lord’s Supper is very important for the life of the church. Dr. Sasse observes, “Whenever the Lord’s Supper has been permitted to decay, the boundary lines between the church and the world have universally disappeared and the church has been absorbed into the world. The Supper is thus the Sacrament in which the church’s ‘foreignness from the world,’ and hence her essence as the church of God, finds visible expression.” He is talking about both the doctrine and the practice of the Lord’s Supper. Where these decay the church decays and is no longer separate from the world. This is always a great tragedy, and when we see it happening we should work hard to prevent it by remaining faithful to Christ’s words and His sacraments.

Although Jesus ascended into heaven some 1,970 years ago to rule with the Father over all creation, He hasn’t left us. Jesus is still with us, and working among us through these three gifts, His Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. These are precious gifts, and we should treasure them, and we should faithfully make use of them whenever we can so that God’s people are strengthened, and His will is done here on earth.

* The quotes from Hermann Sasse come from “Church and Lord’s Supper”, quoted in The Lonely Way, p. 378-380, CPH 2001.

The Morality of War

Newsletter article for November 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

With the past year’s military action in Afghanistan, and the talk lately of a potential war in Iraq (again) I believe that it is good to take a look at the Bible’s views on war and military action. This is not necessarily an easy task. The Bible is somewhat ambivalent about war, in much the same way that it is ambivalent about such things as divorce and slavery. The Holy Scriptures clearly frown on both divorce and slavery, but they also accept them and deal with them as an ongoing reality because people are sinful. The same is true with war, except for the fact that unlike divorce and slavery, God actually told His people to go to war on occasion, although with some very strict and oftentimes bizarre rules of engagement.

Because of this ambivalence about war you can sometimes find both “hawks” and “doves” quoting the scriptures to support their position, which just confuses the issue. However, there is one passage that I find most illuminating to help understand this issue. You may find it in Joshua 5:13-6:7. There are few books of the Bible which contain more battles than Joshua, and here in the account of the fall of Jericho you will not find a more bizarre battle tactic, but God does most of the actual killing (which is proper).

In this passage Joshua is preparing for battle when he meets a man with a drawn sword who claims to be the “Commander of the army of the Lord,” From what follows this is apparently God Himself in human form. Joshua asks the man if he is “for us or for our enemies” and He replies “neither.” Now I find this rather puzzling and somewhat strange. The “Commander of the army of the Lord” proceeds to give instructions to Joshua for how the Israelites will go and attack Jericho in a siege which must result in the death of all the people of Jericho except for the former prostitute Rahab and her family (because she protected the Israelite spies when they were in the city.) Since God clearly wants Israel to destroy Jericho you might expect that he would be for Israel and against Jericho, but He instead says that He is for “neither.”

How can God not be against the people that he is going to kill in just a few days? We can find the answer in Scripture. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all sinners in God’s eyes. There is no one who is better than anyone else because we are all sinners. No one is saved because they are more worthy than anyone else, because no one is worthy of salvation. However we also read in Acts 10:34-35 that “God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” In the book of Joshua God did not favor Israel because they were better than the Canaanites, instead God had promised the land to Abraham’s descendants because God had chosen Abraham as the ancestor of the Messiah (Christ) who would come to save all sinners from their sin. The Israelites were far from perfect. Many times they showed themselves to be no better than the Canaanite people they were fighting, but God was able to lead Israel to repentance, while the Canaanite people stubbornly rejected God’s calls to repentance. That is why God gave Israel the Canaanite land and destroyed the former inhabitants.

So what does all this mean for today? There are some very profound lessons here which are ignored at our peril. All war happens as a result of sin. God doesn’t want nations (or others) to go to war for the sake of conquest or cruelty. But since God has sanctioned war in Biblical times we see that there are occasions when even the Christian may get involved in war.

Romans 13 says that God gives the authorities “the sword” to enforce laws and keep the peace. From this we can say that war may be waged in defense against an unprovoked attack, and also for the sake of upholding justice and peace. This is shown most recently in the fight against Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist network in Afghanistan. They made an unprovoked attack on our nation, and we fought back to discourage terrorism and to bring peace to the world. In the process we (hopefully) laid the groundwork for a more stable, peaceful government in Afghanistan. The fight against Germany and Japan in World War II was also a just war which brought justice and punishment to those nations which sought to expand their empire by force.

Let us therefore first of all pray for peace, that there may be no need for our countrymen to fight and die in a war. Next let us citizens hold our nationally elected representatives accountable and only pursue war for the sake of justice and peace. Finally let us take advantage of the peace that is here and spread the message of the Gospel both in our country and in others so that more people may come to believe in Jesus and be saved. If we do this then God will certainly continue to bless our nation and give us the peace which we treasure so much.

The Origin of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

Newsletter article for October 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

In Germany in the mid-Nineteenth century there arose what could be called a “confessional movement” in the Lutheran Church. These people believed that the Historical Lutheran confessions of faith (collectively known as the Book of Concord) are a true explanation of God’s Word (The Holy Bible). It is sad (but accurate) to say that this movement arose, because the only way it could have arisen is that some time in the three centuries since the days of Martin Luther the faithfulness to God’s Word had receded, even in the very land that Luther began the reformation of the Church.

The problem was that the Reformed (Calvinist) churches had made large inroads into the Church in Germany, and in some instances they won the hearts and minds of the German people. In other instances the Reformed church won the heart and mind of the rulers, and that was all that was necessary. In the German province of Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm III decreed a union between the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Prussia, despite the fact that Prussia was overwhelmingly Lutheran. The resulting church was more Reformed, and less Lutheran, and faithful Lutherans had to struggle to keep their Churches free from the false teachings of Calvin.

In the 1830’s a pastor named Martin Stephan began to attract a following in Saxony. Pastor Stephan was a faithful Lutheran whose sermons were very faithful to Holy Scripture. He was very outspoken against the humanistic ideals of the age which undermined the authority of God’s Word, and he was a very effective leader. In 1838 he organized a group of several hundred faithful Lutherans (including several pastors) who believed that the only way they could openly worship God faithfully was to emigrate to America. They sold all they had and left their homes to set sail for America in five ships, the Amalia, the Copernicus, the Johann Georg, the Republik, and the Olbers. Tragically, the Amalia was lost at sea along with her 57 passengers, but 600 people arrived in Missouri in early 1839 on the remaining four ships.

Not long after they arrived it was discovered that Pastor Stephan had committed adultery with two young women and he was banished from their communities, taken across the Mississippi in a rowboat, and told never to set foot in Missouri again. The community was in quite a bit of turmoil wondering if they had sinned by following Stephan to America, and they wondered if they could be considered a Church now that their “Bishop” had proved unworthy and unfaithful. A young pastor named Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther diligently searched the Bible, the Book of Concord, and the writings of Martin Luther and determined that the misbehavior of their bishop did not invalidate their position in the church, because the church is not determined by people and their actions, but by Christ Himself, and His Word. Where Christ is, and where His Word is preached in truth and purity, there is the church. Rev. C.F.W. Walther soon became their spiritual leader and he became the first president of what would later become the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

The Lutherans in Missouri wanted to ensure the purity of their doctrine so they decided to conduct their worship and teaching in German. There were two reasons for this. First they saw that nearly all of the Lutherans who had settled in America previously had compromised their doctrine and were no longer teaching the pure Word of God, and were no longer faithful to the Book of Concord. The Previous American Lutherans had become “Americanized” rather than remaining “Lutheran” and the Missouri group attributed this to the use of the English language. The English reformation begun by King Henry VIII had followed a more Calvinist theology so the prevailing English expressions of the Christian faith (i.e. hymns and liturgical forms) reflected a theology which did not live up to the strict standards of the orthodox Lutheran teachings. On the other hand, by 1840 the Lutheran Church in Germany had already spent 300 years of teaching the Gospel and defining the terms (in German) and defending the faith against false teaching. Although this did not prevent enforced unionism in Prussia, nor did it prevent humanism from affecting others in Germany, they felt confident that holding to the German language would help keep their group from compromising the faith.

This desire for the purity of doctrine through the use of the German language was believed to be of the utmost importance. The desire was so strong that for nearly the first one hundred years of our Church’s existence German was the official language of worship and theological instruction from the Seminaries on down to the elementary schools. It took World War I (and American distrust of German speaking folk) to get the LCMS to begin to change to English on a large scale, and by the time of World War II the LCMS had mostly become an English speaking church. This reluctance to embrace English wasn’t just stereotypical German hard-headedness, but this was a recognition of the importance of the pure and proper teaching of God’s Word, and faithfulness to God.

In some ways we have come full circle. Fortunately Martin Stephan’s indiscretions were not a pattern of things to come. There have been other Lutheran pastors who have fallen into the sin of adultery, but these are usually dealt with properly, and it is not a pattern in our Church. The Church still must constantly be on guard against false teaching. This is not new. It has been true for each of the 150 years that the LCMS has been in existence, and even longer than that. The church has always had to be on guard against false teaching even since Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. There is never a time nor a reason to be complacent about false teaching. The devil still prowls around like a roaring lion seeking for someone to devour. If he can get people to put their faith in themselves or in anything other than Christ then he will do so. The Gospel is of the utmost importance because it shows us Jesus Christ, and when we see Jesus for who He is, then we will believe and be saved. Christ is our life and our salvation, and there is none other. Let us hold fast to the truth, and pray that the church does the same.

Why Doctrine Matters

Newsletter article for September 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 12:28

God is not a fundamentalist. There are not a set of fundamental teachings which God values over any other. God’s teachings are ALL important, and God required the Israelites of the Old Testament to obey all of His laws, even the ceremonial laws. For the selfish person who thinks that he is the center of the universe, this may sound harsh and uncompromising, but God had a good reason for His uncompromising stance. As He said above, if we keep God’s regulations as He wants us to then things will always go well with us and with our children. God’s purpose in giving us His Word is so that things will always go well with us. God isn’t being mean or nasty (He isn’t capable of being mean), instead God tells us this for our benefit because He loves us.

God knows what is best for us. He created us, after all, and God wants what is best for us. God knows that if we follow His plan, as He created us to do, then things will work according to His plan and we will be happy. God also is the only one who can save us when we sin against His commands, and that is also why He wants us to love and worship Him above all else.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Galatians 1:6-9

These are some very strong words from St. Paul. Here he proclaims eternal damnation to anyone to teaches a gospel other than what he preached to the church in Galatia. This would again seem the height of arrogance, except that what Paul taught the Galatians was the Word of God. Paul wasn’t teaching something that he invented, or some new educational theory. He was preaching the Gospel of Christ as Jesus had told him to preach. The false teachers in Galatia were perverting the Gospel and were evidently leading people away from Jesus. That is why Paul declared that anyone who preaches a different Gospel would be damned, because there is no salvation except that which comes from Jesus.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3

Not every teaching that claims to be from God actually does come from God. This is why John gives this warning, but he also tells us how to test the doctrine to know that it has come from God. Those who speak God’s word truthfully must acknowledge Jesus as Lord and God. Similarly, no messenger from God would deny God’s Word either, even in the smallest degree.

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 1 Timothy 4:3-4

These verses do much to describe the situation in our world today. Even in the Christian Church, there are a seeming multitude of denominations and each one teaches something different. This certainly cannot please Christ because each different denomination gives credibility to some false teaching which can lead people away from the truth, and lead them to put their faith in something which cannot save them. Only Jesus can save us from our sins.

“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’" John
8:31-32

Walking the Middle Road

Newsletter article for June 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Many are the times in life when Christians must walk the middle road. This is the road where to step to the right or to the left would lead them into forbidden territories which lead to temptation, sin, and destruction. You would think that such a middle road should be the easy road to travel, but often it is the most difficult because as the Christian walks the middle road there are those on the right and on the left who try to tempt, and tug, and pull you over to their side. They want to pull you into the muck and mire in which they wallow.

There is a debate currently going on in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod about where this path is located, and how do we walk down the correct path, without being dragged down to one side or the other. The debate is not whether or not to walk the middle road on this issue, but the debate is about just what actions and public witness define the middle road.

These are the dangers which lie on either side of this middle road. To walk to the one side means to give in to the world and become more like the world. To do this we must deny God’s Word and say that anything the world does is all right, despite what God has commanded. God condemns this in James 4:4 which says, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” When the Bible talks of the world in this way it means everything which comes from and follows our sinful nature rather than God’s commands. Instead of indulging our sinful nature we ought to fight against it and do what is godly and right.

To walk to the other side means to withdraw from the world and try to have nothing to do with worldly things. Jesus himself shows that this is not what he wants in John 17:15 where he says, “My prayer is not that you [God the Father] take them [His disciples] out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.” Jesus wants us to be engaged with the world and be witnesses to the truth about His love and salvation. Jesus doesn’t want us to withdraw from the world and isolate ourselves, instead he wants us to influence the world to do good and to show them that He is the only way to salvation. Jesus also says in Matthew 10:32-33, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

It is true that Christians should not always walk the middle road. Sometimes God asks us to stand firm and take a strong stand on one side or another. For example, It is the greatest insult to God to even give a hint that there may be some other god who is worthy of praise, or that there may be some other way to heaven. God says, “You shall have no other gods.” (Exodus 20:3) Jesus also tells us that there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Him. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Holy Scripture also tells us that “Salvation is found in no one else [besides Jesus Christ], for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” There is no room for compromise with these truths, and although the world may not like it, we Christians must stand firmly and confess these truths, no matter what the consequences. This is both for our personal benefit, as well as for the benefit of those who hear these truths and believe them and put their faith in Jesus. Jesus says in Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” There is no middle road here for the faithful Christian.

Please keep our Synod in your prayers that God may grant wisdom to bring an end to any controversy, and prevent schism. Pray that God would keep all our pastors and Synodical officials faithful to Jesus and His Word above all else, and keep His church united in the one true faith. Please pray that God would strengthen the LCMS that we would actively engage the world and boldly and effectively testify to the saving power of Jesus Christ as the true and real solution to all our troubles, all our fears, all our sin, all our sorrows, and all our pain.

Worthy of Salvation

Newsletter article for April 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Who is worthy of Salvation?

There once was a king who had a very special daughter. She was his only child and the king loved her very much. When the girl reached maturity the king was determined to find a husband for her who would love her with his whole heart and would be a good and wise ruler over the kingdom. The king issued a decree that he was looking for a man who would be the most worthy to be the king’s son-in-law and heir.

This news was greeted with great joy and hope and anticipation. The princess was very beautiful and kind, and her father was extremely wealthy and powerful. Whoever was chosen to marry the princess would not only get the most desirable woman in the kingdom, but would also inherit the richest kingdom in the world.

The king was very protective of his daughter and would only settle for the best for her. In order to ensure that he would find the most worthy prince to be his heir the king had a magic sword called the Sword of Truth. If anyone told a lie in the presence of this sword it would immediately kill him. This way the king would be sure that the man who married his daughter would be most worthy of her.

After a time the king held court in the great hall in order to interview all of the potential suitors for his daughter. The first man to stand before him was the son of a very wealthy nobleman. He was handsome and charming and well-liked by all who knew him. As he stood before the king he was sweating a little as the king asked him, “What makes you worthy to marry my daughter, the princess?” The young man hesitated and then said, “I love your daughter and I only want what is best for the kingdom.” Apparently none of this was true because before he drew his next breath the sword of truth flew out of the hands of the king and impaled the man right through his heart.

The next young man chose his words very carefully. “I choose your daughter to be my wife,” he told the king.

The king was furious. “Don’t make fun of me!”

“I’m not.” The man replied. “I believe I am worthy because I choose your daughter to be my wife.”

Despite his foolish words he was telling the truth because the sword of truth made no move in his direction. However the king was indignant. “You must think I am a fool, and I would be if I considered you worthy simply because you chose my daughter. Open your eyes! Every man in the kingdom would choose my daughter if they could. Look behind you, many of them are here now! She is the most desirable woman in the world because of her beauty, her wealth, her power, and her loving heart.” At this the king sent the man home until he would come to his senses.

The next suitor came and with a humble and sincere bow he declared to the king, “I would give your daughter everything I have.”

The king was beginning to get tired of this nonsense, so he laughed. “Do you have any idea who I am? I am the ruler of the richest kingdom in the world. I could buy you and sell you hundreds of times. Do you consider my daughter some sort of beggar who can be bought for a pittance?” With these words the king sent the man to prison until he would repent of his arrogance.

And so it continued for quite some time. The finest men in the kingdom all came and made their claim as to why they were worthy to wed the king’s daughter, but each plea was rejected by the king. In addition many came who were not nearly the finest men in all the kingdom, trying to trick their way to winning the greatest prize in the kingdom. These were either slain by the Sword of Truth, or imprisoned or banished by the king.

Finally, a man came before the king dressed as a common laborer. He didn’t appear to be wealthy, nor of noble birth or heritage. The king looked down on this poor man and asked in a stern voice, “Do you think you are worthy to be my son-in-law and heir?”

The poor man trembled. “Have mercy on me, lord. Forgive my simple clothing, but it is the best that I have. I am not a rich man. I do not intend to insult your majesty or your lovely daughter by my appearance here. It is true that I am not worthy of such a fine woman as your daughter. I cannot give her the fine things that she deserves. My language isn’t as refined as that of a nobleman, and I suppose I appear to you to be vulgar. There is absolutely no reason why you should give me your daughter to be my wife, and I would completely understand if you quickly send me on my way. I can only say that if you choose me by your grace and kindness then I would love your daughter and treasure her and make her know that she is the most valuable thing in the world to me, because she is.

The king looked at this humble man. He had hardly looked up at the king the whole time he was in the great hall. Then the king spoke. “You are right to say that you are not worthy of my daughter. And of all the noble men who have come seeking my daughter’s hand, you are the first to admit that you are not worthy, but they were not worthy either. You were wise to appeal to my grace and kindness because it is by reason of my good grace that I accept your petition to marry my daughter. You are not worthy of my daughter, but I will make you worthy. You will be a good husband to my daughter, a good son-in-law to me, and a good ruler of my kingdom when the time comes. I will see to it myself.”

And this is how it happened that the poor man became the king’s heir. It wasn’t because he was worthy, but because of the king’s kindness and grace.

Stand Up for Jesus

Newsletter article for February 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Jesus said, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.” (Luke 12:8-9)

It is in times of crisis that it is important to stand up and be counted for what you truly believe in. Unfortunately there more than enough crises to go around. There are always several international crises to choose from, although they don’t always impact us directly. There are national, state, and local problems which often affect us negatively. There are family problems, work problems, social problems, and even personal problems which cause us concern and possibly worry.

Jesus tells us several times in Matthew 6, “Do not worry.” God, our Father, provides us with all we need, so we are always well taken care of, and we don’t need to worry about anything. This lack of worry, however, only comes from a strong faith that trusts that God will take care of us and provide for all our needs. This faith also helps us to accept the fact that although God always provides for our needs, He may not always provide for our wants and desires.

St. Timothy has had to deal with several situations lately which might be cause for worry. With the public school system moving toward a chaotic-like state, it has decreased our school enrollment the past couple years. Our congregation has supported the school (as it should), but our current resources are quite limited. Our financial troubles have forced us to determine what is most important for us to be doing, and cutting back on things that, while still important, are not vital to the operation of the Church and School. We have been forced to examine our priorities, but isn’t that just like human nature — people don’t change their priorities until they have no other choice (and sometimes, not even then).

Well, we are human, but with all our troubles we can take comfort in a couple of things. First, we are still God’s people, and Jesus tells us “Do not worry” and “Trust in Me.” As long as we listen to Jesus and put Him first in what we do, then He will bless us. Along the way we may have to learn some hard lessons, but in the end we will be better for them. We have learned, for example, that Christian churches probably ought not to get involved in raffles, but instead should focus on the Bible verse at the top of this page and concentrate on proclaiming Christ as Lord.

Second, it may sound strange, but we can take comfort in our financial troubles. It is not a pleasure by any means to struggle to pay bills, or to lay-off staff, but we can be thankful to God that our troubles are only financial. There are troubles that are much worse. Despite our troubles we still belong to God. We have pulled together to prayerfully resolve our problems, while at the same time we have remembered that Christ wants us to confess Him alone as Lord, and that to everyone who does this, He will also claim as His children. This is a wonderful blessing. There are many churches which are much better off than us financially, but are beset by troubles which are much more difficult to overcome. Our troubles are not small, but in many ways they have drawn us closer together, and made us rely more on God for help and direction. It is my prayer that we will work even harder to remain faithful to Christ and do the work of God’s people, which is, above all, to share the Gospel with those who don’t know Christ, and make disciples through baptizing and teaching God’s Word.

The Will of God is always best and shall be done forever;
And they who trust in Him are blest, He will forsake them never.
He helps indeed in time of need, He chastens with forbearing;
They who depend on God, their friend, shall not be left despairing.
“The Will of God is Always Best” The Lutheran Hymnal #517

The True Story of a Terrorist Turned Christian

Newsletter article for November 2001
© 2001 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff
Since the unbelievable attacks on the United States on September 11 many people have been struggling with their emotions about this incredibly evil turn of events. The Bible has much to say about the presence of evil in the world, about its cause, consequences and (thankfully) its solution. The following story is completely true, and shows us how to view the situation in a completely Christian way.

There once was a man named Saul. He was born in the Middle-East and grew up in a privileged family. He was well educated and well respected among his peers. Even as a young man, Saul quickly moved up the social ladder. He was kind of a zealot, but he lived in a place and time where zealotry was appreciated and rewarded. He had studied religion (of sorts) and was convinced he was right, and he didn’t care who suffered because of it.

Saul grew up learning about a god who only made commands, demands, and requirements of his people, but this god had no mercy. The way that Saul learned about his god made him impossible to please, but Saul tried to please him, and so Saul wanted to be like his god—merciless, demanding, and unyielding.

In the course of practicing his religion, Saul took the job of making sure all of his countrymen were diligent in their obedience to their god. He was ruthless in carrying out this task. He particularly focused on Christian people, who he saw as a threat to the worshipping of his god. Saul attacked civilians, including men, women, and children, and put them in prison and he even had some of them killed for their disobedience to the laws of worship. Saul did not even respect national boundaries. He pursued his victims across borders into different countries. Saul was a nasty, evil man who only brought fear, terror, and destruction, wherever he went, and left hatred and death in his wake. You would think that God (the real God) would have been extremely angry at Saul and many people would ask the question, “Why didn’t God kill Saul?” That is a good question, but the answer is even better. God didn’t kill him because God had a better plan.

We know Saul today as Saul of Tarsus, but he is also known as Saint Paul. Now you might complain that nothing I have said so far would qualify this man as a saint, and you would be correct. Up to this point, Saul was an evil terrorist who was working against God and His plan to spread the Gospel and bring salvation to the world. You might think that it would take a miracle to change a terrorist into a saint, and you would be absolutely correct, but God specializes in miracles, and that is exactly what happened.

Saul was on his way to Damascus, Syria to terrorize the Christians living there. As he traveled Jesus met him on the road and knocked him to the ground, and temporarily blinded him to get his attention. Jesus asked him, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul replied, “I don’t even know who you are.” Jesus responded, “I know. That’s the problem. I am Jesus of Nazareth, who you are persecuting.” Jesus told Saul to go to Damascus and wait there and he would be told what to do. Now Saul was frightened. He had thought he was serving God by bringing terror to Christians, but now he began to realize just how horribly wrong he was. He believed he only deserved to die because of his vicious, hateful, evil crimes, and he was correct. However Jesus didn’t kill him.

After a few days to let Saul think about what he had done, He sent Ananias to Saul to teach him about Jesus. Ananias wasn’t too happy about the mission. He had heard about the evil things that Saul had done to Christians, and he was afraid. God told him to go anyway, and because Ananias trusted in Jesus he went to Saul, even though he was afraid he was going to suffer because of it.

The first thing Ananias did was to say to Saul, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” Immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. Then he told Saul about Jesus. He told Saul that God is not only a God of rules and laws and fierce power and judgment, but God is a God of mercy, love, and forgiveness. Jesus is both God and man, and he shows us how much God loves us. Because of our sins, we all terrorized the Son of God to the point that He was unfairly murdered, but instead of paying us back in the same way, Jesus still loves us and forgives us and wants us to love him back. Saul was amazed by this message. He had never known that God was so kind and loving, but he knew it was true because he had met Jesus, and despite his vicious crimes, he was still alive. From that moment on, Saul dedicated his life to serving Jesus, and the change was nothing short of miraculous.

Instead of persecuting others, Saul was persecuted. Instead of imprisoning others, Saul was imprisoned. Instead of beating and torturing others, Saul was beaten, whipped, abused, and even had rocks thrown at him in an attempt to kill him. Yet through all this, Saul remained faithful to Christ and continued to preach and teach about Christ’s love and did not return the hatred with hatred. Saul endured much suffering to bring the good news of salvation to many people. He preached about the love of Jesus to everyone who would hear him, and also to some who would not listen.

Saul had learned about the true God and it changed his life in every way. God was a God of love and mercy and forgiveness, and Saul wanted to be just like God. God had spared his miserable life when he did not deserve to be saved, and Saul wanted everyone else to know how wonderful God is, but whereas early in his life when Saul didn’t care who suffered in the practice of his religion, after Saul knew Jesus it was Saul who endured suffering, and because of his witness and testimony many people also came to know the love of Jesus and were saved.

Jesus tells us to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) Why and how should we do this? The life of St. Paul shows us exactly why and how. Jesus changed Paul’s life and because of it many more people learned about Jesus and were saved. God wants all people to be saved and there is no one who is so bad that Jesus cannot forgive them. The life of Paul shows that. If God can forgive a terrorist, then He can forgive anyone, especially you and me. Pray for your enemies, that God would show them the truth, and they would know His love, change their hateful ways, and be saved.

For further information on St. Paul’s life read the following: Acts 7:54-8:1, Acts 9:1-31, Acts 22:1-21, Galatians 1:11-24, First Timothy 1:12-17, Second Corinthians 11:22-33. Second Corinthians 12:1-10.

Moral Issues

Newsletter article for September 2001

© 2001 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There has been much discussion this past summer about morality and what is life all about, specifically the morality of certain medical research. President Bush did much to bring this issue to prominence with his nationally televised speech about new rules for embryo and stem-cell research.

Issues of morality and moral discussions are often equated with religion, but very often these moral discussions have little, or nothing, to do with religion, faith, or God. The trouble with this is that whenever a discussion on morality excludes God, it is inherently immoral. Morality and ethics deal with what is right and what is wrong. Since the ultimate authority on right and wrong is God, you can’t talk about what is ethical or moral without talking about what God says is right or wrong.

God’s authority to determine right and wrong is undisputed in all cases (except by people who wish to deny the truth). God created and is still in control of everything that exists, and He is Holy, so God can do no wrong.

The main issue being debated and discussed recently deals with the Fifth Commandment where God tells us, “You shall not murder.” This commandment tells us that God values human life and forbids us from treating life with contempt. In most cases this is pretty clear cut, but not all cases are easy to determine what is good, right and proper to do. We all know that it is wrong to kill innocent people, and it is right to try to save the life of innocent people. The difficulty comes when these two truths conflict and people cannot agree on what is murder and who is a person.

I cannot say whether or not what President Bush did was ethical or right. I probably would have done things differently, but I am not President (yet). I do believe that he did the best he could to prevent the murder of innocent people (embryos) while trying to further the research which may (or may not) extend the lives of people with serious diseases, although sometimes doing your best is not the same as doing what is right.

Holy Scripture is quite clear that human life begins at conception. In Psalm 51:5 David says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Here David was not just using hyperbole, or exaggeration, to express his guilt over his sins, he was using a truth about life to express the extent of human sinfulness. Also the time when John worshipped Jesus before they both were born (Luke 1:44) shows that a person’s individuality begins long before birth. Science, too, teaches this because it is at conception that a person becomes a distinct individual, and genetically unique. Although some scientists ignore this fact, that doesn’t mean much in this debate because science and morality are very different disciplines and scientists are generally not known for their depth of thinking on ethics or morality.

It is good that our nation is having this discussion about ethics and what is the right way to deal with life issues. As Christians we should make the most of this opportunity to tell others about what God says about such things. We should join in the discussion whenever we can, not to argue, but to witness God’s love, and share God’s Word. We can use this as an opportunity to share our faith and tell people how great and wonderful our God is, while encouraging others to respect the life that God gives and try to be a nation of people who live and work by high moral and ethical standards in all we do. We should want to do this because it pleases God and He surely will bless us if we do what is right by Him.

Lessons Amidst Tragedy

Newsletter article for June 2001

© 2001 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

I’m sure by now most of you who get this newsletter have heard about the accident where a car crashed through and destroyed our fifth and sixth grade classroom on the day before Easter. I have been thinking about what I can learn from this incident, and what we as a congregation and school community can, or perhaps should, learn from this.

If you saw the aftermath from the accident, or if you have seen the photographs of the wreckage you know that this kind of incident is extremely unsettling. Possible reactions to this include anger that someone would lose control of a car and cause so much damage. Another possible reaction is fear. Could such an accident happen in broad daylight when children are in the classroom? Such reactions are quite disturbing. Is there something we can we learn from this tragedy without being overcome with anger or fear?

The day after the accident was Easter Sunday, and I reworked the Easter sermon to try to put it into perspective. In a message which kind of had the theme, “What could have been … but wasn’t” I noted that viewing the damage which was at the time still very much in evidence, it was easy to imagine what could have been. However, that way of thinking isn’t always constructive (except when planning to rebuild with more protection for our precious children). Especially on Easter Sunday a better way of viewing this is to focus on what didn’t happen. No children had been in that room for two days, so none of our students were even close to being injured, and they remain safe and secure to this day. Even the driver of the car was spared, which must be considered a miracle (especially if you saw the damage).

We can view the death of Jesus in the same way. The crucifixion of our Lord was a great tragedy, but think about what could have been. It should have been each one of us paying the price for our sins for the rest of eternity, but because of Jesus, that won’t happen. All who trust in Jesus will never be punished for their sins, but will look forward to a resurrection and eternal life just as Christ himself enjoys today.

Another lesson from this accident focuses on the driver of the car which crashed into our building. I would like to meet this man and give him a message. This may not be the same message as you would give to the man, especially if your children were students in the destroyed classroom, but I have a potentially life-changing message to give. I would tell the man who survived this accident that it is truly a pleasure to be able to meet him. Given the force of the impact no one should be able to meet him ever again. God must have something great planned for him to have spared his life after coming so close to death. I hope he appreciates it. Of course this message comes with a warning: Whether this crash was truly an accident, or whether it was an inevitable consequence of foolish actions, this should be a clear warning to avoid being in a similar situation again. The next time someone will surely die. But God is a merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in love. God often gives people second chances, and for that we should praise our savior, Jesus Christ.

Christ’s death and resurrection are the best signs of God giving us second chances. None of us should take them for granted. Not all of us have had near-death experiences, nor should we tempt fate by requiring such things to make us trust in God and give Him the credit and praise He deserves. What can someone say who survived such an accident except that “God has graciously spared my life, and I will praise Him for as long as I live, and even forever, should He give me the chance. And I know He will, because of Jesus.” To say anything else is to invite disaster. God is a patient God, but His patience is not infinite. I would like this fortunate man to know that God has great things in store for his life, and I pray that he appreciates that and takes advantage of this opportunity. It doesn’t matter whether this accident was out of his control, or self inflicted, this man can still give a powerful testimony of God’s gracious love, and God seems committed to giving this man at least one more chance to accomplish great things through Jesus Christ.

For the rest of us, we too, ought not to take for granted the second chance we have in Christ. Without Christ none of us would have any hope whatsoever of enjoying the bliss of God’s paradise. But because of what Christ has done for us, He gives us the whole world for free, forever. We all should act as if we have been miraculously spared certain death, because we have. We all were under a death sentence from God because of our sin, but Jesus spared us by dying in our place. God has great things planned for your life too, so put your trust in Jesus and give God all the credit and praise, and humbly serve Him in all you do.

The Latest Gossip

Newsletter article for May 2001

© 2001 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Have you heard the latest about you-know-who? The attraction of gossip is that it seems to give a person some measure of power or control over someone else. It is difficult to resist the urge to spread some information about a person which puts them down in some way, because if someone else is lowered then it seems as if you are being raised by comparison. Even if you are on the receiving end of gossip it is a strong temptation because no one wants to be left out of the information loop.

Much gossip is justified because it gives the appearance of truth, but whether or not it is true, it may still be gossip. Gossip should be thought of as any kind of talk which is unflattering to someone else. The Golden Rule is in effect here. If you wouldn’t want someone talking about you in a particular manner, then you ought not speak of others in that same way. The eighth commandment says, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” God wants us to respect the good name and reputation of other people, just as we ought to respect God’s name and reputation. The danger of gossip is that, whether true or false, it causes people to think less of the subject of your gossip.

God’s word calls gossip a betrayal. “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” (Proverbs 11:13) So here we see that although I said above that gossip seems to raise the status of those who spread it in comparison to others, in reality those who gossip show themselves to be untrustworthy. Who would confide in a person who is likely to spread your secrets to others in such a destructive way? “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.” (Prov. 16:28) If someone who gossips is not trustworthy, then that harms friendships. We need to have friends we can trust, not those who will speak against us behind our back.

No matter how someone may justify spreading gossip, those who look for opportunities to put others down are simply troublemakers. Proverbs 26:20 says, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” There is always something exciting about a quarrel, or an argument, or a dispute between people. I suppose that explains why television shows like the Jerry Springer show have a measure of popularity. The problem is that such excitement appeals only to our lower (sinful) nature. Such behavior is completely unacceptable for God’s people.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains the Eighth Commandment in this way: “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” This is how God wants us to behave in regard for other people’s good name. If we only speak well of others we show ourselves as people of good character, trustworthy, and a good friend. St. Paul writes in I Thessalonians 5:11, 13, 15 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing…. Live in peace with each other…. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.” If you want people to speak well of you, then begin by only speaking well of others. Put the best construction on everything. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Instead of telling of people’s faults and shortcomings, speak of their good points, their strengths, their likable qualities.

There are many Biblical examples of people who obeyed the Eighth Commandment in this way. Jonathan defended David to his Father, King Saul, even though Jonathan knew that he would not succeed his father as king because God favored David (I Samuel 19). The people of Capernaum spoke well of the Roman centurion in Luke 7. Jesus defended the actions of the woman who poured perfume on him (Mark 14) when some criticized her actions. Let us all work hard to avoid gossip. Let us speak well of others, that they may speak well of us, and let the Gospel of Christ shine through in our lives in every way.

Who Will Take the Son?

Author Unknown

(The first part of this story was forwarded to me in an e-mail message, and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share it with all who get this newsletter. The second part of this story is a brief theological commentary on the story.)

Newsletter Article for April 2001

Commentary © 2001 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Rafael.

They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The young man held out his package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears.

He thanked the young man and offered to pay for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings.

Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”

There was silence, then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”

But the auctioneer persisted, “Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?”

Another voice shouted angrily, “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!”

But still the auctioneer continued, “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

“We have $10, who will bid $20?”

“Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.”

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?” The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel.

“Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!”

A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”

The auctioneer laid down his gavel, “I’m sorry, the auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”

“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!”

God gave his son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is, “The son, the son, who’ll take the son?” Because you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

***********************************

Theological Analysis

by Rev. Paul Wolff

There is much to like in the story above. It is an uplifting story, and it has many things to remind us of Jesus, but as with all parables and analogies, it has its limits. So to better appreciate this wonderful story I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few things that I find useful, and note a couple of things where care and discernment must be used, just as in reading the Bible.

Among the many good points in this story is the main theme that “Whoever has the Son has everything.” This reminds me of the story of Mary and her sister Martha (Luke 10:38-42) where Jesus speaks of the “one thing needful” which is to let Jesus serve us because that is much more important than our serving Jesus. Jesus is the “One thing needed” so whoever has Jesus has everything he or she needs.

Another good image in this story is the riches that come with the painting of the son reminds us of the riches of heaven which God has promised to give us through Jesus.

I also like the part of the story where the son had given his life to save someone else. This reminds us of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us when He died on the cross to save us all from the punishment for our sins.

The reaction of the participants in the auction, and their contempt for the painting of the son reminds us that the world does not care for Jesus, but is only concerned about their own riches and welfare. This brings to mind the passage from John 1:10-13 which describes Jesus in this way, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

The purchase of the painting by the poor gardener is tricky, but it brings to mind the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This also reminds us that when Jesus preached and taught it was the poor and despised “sinners” who most eagerly responded to His teachings of forgiveness and trust in God for salvation.

But as with all parables it has its limits to its meaning. I suppose that someone could read this story and conceivably think that because the gardener bought the painting that there must be something that we must do to obtain the riches that God has promised. To think that one must make the first move to God goes against what God says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.” It will be to that person’s eternal regret who meets Jesus on judgment day and says something to the effect of, “Yo, dude, let me in, I paid my dues, now show me the money.” (see Luke 13:22-30) Jesus is not very likely to respond favorably to that person, especially since Jesus had to suffer and die to pay the price for our salvation. There is nothing left for us to pay, and Jesus gives it to us for free, as a gift.

It is also a little difficult that the gardener who worked for this rich man was so poor that he could only afford $10 for the painting. That may suggest to some that God doesn’t properly reward his people (until the end), or it may lead some to justify the underpayment of church workers. This would be a wrong interpretation of Scripture because I Tim. 5:18 says, “The worker deserves his wages” so we ought to do all we can to pay our pastor and teachers a generous wage. On the other hand, the poverty of the gardener could remind us that God never said that His people would be guaranteed wealth and prosperity in this life, only “daily bread.” Nevertheless, God’s daily bread is generous and sufficient for all our needs, and even more, and God will reward us.

I hope that you continue to find blessings in this story, and will use it to remind yourself to treasure Christ, because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Lk. 12:34)