Episode 1478: Such as These

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 478 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Nick Kennedy: I'm Nick Kennedy, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to become a good entrepreneur is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friends, Scott.

[00:00:29] Scott Maderer: Because

[00:00:39] what's really matters is the relationship that they have with Christ and we are the representatives that invite them into that relationship with grace and kindness and joy and wonder and love and blessings.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:33] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Mark chapter 10 verses 2 through 16. I share how this is a hot button topic even today, and not just the part on divorce, but in the part on children. And I also share how the way we value God is reflected in how we value each other. Mark chapter 10 verses 2 through 16 says, Some testing him [00:02:00] asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

[00:02:03] And he answered them, What did Moses command you? They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her. But Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, He wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

[00:02:26] And the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. Then in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

[00:02:49] People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me. Do [00:03:00] not stop them, for it is such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.

[00:03:09] So this Mark passage may not be that long, but I would say it's a difficult and touchy sort of passage, like a lot of passages in the Bible that we often kind of skip over. It's one that challenges how we think about divorce, how we think about marriage, how we think about children, how we think about our relationship.

[00:03:39] And the Pharisees that are asking these questions, that's exactly what they're trying to do. They want to catch Jesus in a situation where either he looks foolish, because he has to contradict what Moses has said the law is, or he wants to take a position that is in support of that. And in either way, there's going to be [00:04:00] division, there's going to be anger, there's going to be heart, there's going to be people that are hurt by it.

[00:04:06] The Pharisees are trying to get Jesus in trouble with the people. And in this case, he doesn't avoid the issue as it is presented, but he turns it around where it's hard to take offense. It's rather just a statement of, wait a minute, there's a deeper law here than whether or not we can divorce each other.

[00:04:28] There's something about the way we relate to each other that is connected to how we're connected. relating to God. And if you think about today, there's tons of hot button issues. Divorce, homosexuality, race, religion, all of these things create division and create argument. And I'm not suggesting that we should preach about politics from the pulpit or that the pulpit is even the best place to confront such [00:05:00] hard issues, but rather There is something about our community as Christians where there are things like here This is an example of where there's one message in the Bible and there's another message in the Bible and they're different They contradict each other and I don't think that's because there's contradiction But I do think it's evidence that even our relationship and our understanding of our relationship with God evolves over time You And that sort of evolution is reflected in how we wrestle with these really difficult issues.

[00:05:39] Issues of culture, issues of relationship, issues of love. The Sunday that this passage is being read is also something known as World Communion Sunday. A date where we're reminded as we participate in communion that we don't do it alone. World Communion Sunday. That [00:06:00] this meal we share is not just for us alone.

[00:06:04] That this ritual of communion is something that is performed in more churches, more languages, more places. And the bread that's used takes many forms and flavors. The wine and the grape juice that's used takes many forms and flavors. The celebrants of communion come from all colors, all walks of life.

[00:06:24] all manner of titles. There's different rules and regulations around these and different denominations and yet here in World Communion Sunday we're observing that it's a diverse and divided world and yet it's a world with needs as real as bread and hungers as deep as the ocean and that we're all striving to have a relationship with God and with each other that is deeper than that.

[00:06:54] Communion is a bit of a physical and a bit of a spiritual event, but we tend to lean on the [00:07:00] spiritual side, so there is physical bread and juice, but the truth is that's just representative of the grace and the remembrance and the relationship, the community of communion. to experience the presence of Christ is the deeper meaning.

[00:07:17] I've participated in communion before when we didn't have grape or we didn't have anything else and we used paste picante sauce and tortilla chips. Probably not the thing that would be getting you through seminary, but it can happen because it's representative of something deeper than just the physical items.

[00:07:39] We're trying to transport ourselves into a spiritual relationship and build a relationship with the one who set the table. And Jesus here, though, is also pointing out that sort of sublime spiritual relationship takes place in a real physical world. You think about it, Jesus uses a lot of [00:08:00] examples where he seems to be trying to make faith real, bring it down into the physical world.

[00:08:07] The images of the kingdom, the metaphors he uses are things of seeds and pearls and light and darkness and sheep and coins. Things that we would be surrounded with if we were living in Jesus time every day. And probably at that communion table, he may have reached over and taken the bread and said, This is my body.

[00:08:28] This is me. I'm here. I'm as real as this bread. And every time you pick up bread, you'll be touching me, holding me, claiming me. I'll be here in the world with you. He wanted the people that followed him grounded in the real world, not floating around in some sort of ivory tower somewhere. But the disciples tried to turn the talk of the reality of the kingdom into seating arrangements and place cards and who gets this seat, who gets that seat.

[00:08:58] And Jesus says, this [00:09:00] cup is my whole life. I'm as present as the clay it took to make this cup. I'm as alive as the flavor and smell of the wine, the fruit of the vine. I am that vine. He was trying to get his followers to live in the world as well as in the spiritual to, to pay attention to what was in front of them in the world and the needs of the world.

[00:09:27] He often invites us to pay attention. He points to the most unlikely things and the most unlikely people and then says, see them. People that others cast out and the end of this Mark passage where they bring the children to him in order that he might touch them. This is the Jesus. This is the part of the Mark passage, by the way, that we usually talk about.

[00:09:50] We don't talk about the divorce part, but I think it's connected because even though this is the Jesus that we love best of all, this image of Jesus surrounded by [00:10:00] children, look at what he's actually doing. In this day and time, children had no authority or power or standing in society. Nobody with power would have made time for a child.

[00:10:13] For one thing, children died often very young, and so people didn't really want to get attached to them. Because soon they would be gone, in many cases. And yet, here's Jesus not only allowing children into his presence, but then taking them up in his arms, spending time with them, blessing them. Probably some of the disciples would have been scandalized by this behavior.

[00:10:38] It was unheard of. It's not what a leader or a messiah should do. And yet Jesus doesn't seem to care. He cares instead about the blessing. He cares about the touching and the putting children on his lap because they were real people and worthy of his attention and his presence just as surely as anyone else.

[00:10:59] Here's an [00:11:00] example of somebody who is the least And yet Jesus is treating them as the most. He cares about being welcoming. He cares about being including, even of those that maybe others don't want to include. He cared about making sure that everyone understood the value and he said let them come. Mark says Jesus was angry or indignant of that.

[00:11:27] You're in the way, he said to the disciples. You're trying to keep the kids away. You're in the way, not just of these kids, but of the kingdom itself. The disciples seem to be missing something fundamental. So Jesus is trying to help those hearers see something of the wonder and the glory of the kingdom.

[00:11:50] And he grabs the children and he says, come and see. See through these eyes of children, see the way they look at the wonder of God's creation. [00:12:00] See the needs and the opportunities to serve one another and serve those that most treat as lesser. Come and see how this is an example of living out the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.

[00:12:13] And then he gathers the children up. He sees that the best way of getting rid of doubts and fears and suspicion and animosity is by getting outside of yourself long enough to be with somebody that others will not be with. To be with a child, to talk to them, to listen to them, to experience the world through their eyes.

[00:12:38] And then he goes on to say, To such as these belongs the kingdom of God. Only the word for belong, that we translate as belong, is really a verb that means is. For it is such as these that the kingdom of God is. He seems to be saying that the kids have it or they are it. If you [00:13:00] want to embrace the kingdom, embrace a child, let them come.

[00:13:03] The way that you treat children and what we allowed to be done to children or not done to children is what we do to the kingdom of God. And that also, that extends out to everyone, it extends out to women, it extends out to those that are suffering, it extends out to orphans, everyone, homosexual, straight, I don't care.

[00:13:28] This message goes beyond just children to say the way we care about every person. Sometimes we focus on one thing. We focus on just how we treat children or just how we treat men or just how we treat this group or that group. But Jesus is saying it includes all. And then there's the question that biblical scholars have driven crazy over for thousands of years.

[00:13:55] On the one hand, he says, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a [00:14:00] little child will never enter it. And that's not really clear what that means. Is it we receive the kingdom as a child does? Or as a child we receive things? Do we receive the kingdom the way we receive a child? Or the way we treat a child?

[00:14:14] Is this something about how we relate to each other? How we relate to children? How we relate to God? And I would say it's probably all of those things at some level. This representation is a representation of the wider message. It's why when we take one side or the other and create division, we aren't living out the godly way.

[00:14:45] God is not about creating division, not about creating us and them, not about creating in groups and out groups or rule followers and rule breakers. Instead, God is about love and grace and kindness and reaching out to [00:15:00] each and every person, whether they're following the rules or not. Because what's really matters is the relationship that they have with God.

[00:15:10] Christ. And we are the representatives that invite them into that relationship with grace and kindness and joy and wonder and love and blessings, just as Jesus blessed the little children. Thanks for listening.

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[00:16:16] Until next time, invest your time, Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.