Pentecost 3 2024

“The Will of God”

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  Why is it that we are so ignorant to the ways and the will of God?  Moses tells us, “The imaginations of a man’s heart are continually evil from his youth.” When it comes to the wisdom of men and the power of God, we have not yet attained to His glory or even begun to comprehend God’s will.  The longer we would remain Biblically illiterate the more we traipse through life thinking that our own religious thoughts are spectacular even if they contradict the clear Word of God.  You’ve been warned, however, to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding…” 

Yes, our spiritual predicament is rather clearly delineated in the Bible.  “That which is born of flesh is flesh…”  “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh…” “The carnal mind is enmity against God…” The first sin becomes the paradigm of all such flesh-oriented thought and activity… and none of it leads to a better understanding of the ways of the Lord.  Rather “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them…”  “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God… If you live according to the flesh [its influences, its tendencies, its ways] … you will die.”

For insight and heavenly instruction, I would invite you to sit at the feet of Jesus and receive your training from Him, but since He is not physically seen or heard by us then let us learn from the voice of the Shepherd as the Spirit informs us in the pages of recorded revelation and by the faithful preaching of the will of God by the Apostles.

Fallen man hides and covers up, makes excuses; he places blame and if necessary, he will accuse God.  We see that all the time today when man’s inhumanity is blamed on God’s lack of interest.  When God fails to intervene —when only a miracle might do — we, of this world, are quick to place the fault squarely on God’s shoulders especially when He has not done as we dictate.  It’s all part of that reaching toward our own divinity when we stand in judgment of what God does and how He does it.

Some faulty thinking is certainly seen in the Garden of Eden following the eating of the forbidden fruit and upon hearing the Lord walking in the cool of the day.

Our Gospel reading gives us three divisions of human thought about Jesus.  Of course, there were those who were sincere inquirers, who huddled at Jesus’ feet to listen to and linger on every word that proceeded from the mouth of the Lord. In them the flesh was subdued by the actions of the Spirit of God through the word of life.  There are no doubts expressed by these, they are simply noted as the multitude… those who sat around Him.  These are the ones who are said by Jesus to be doing the will of God. 

Just like Mary who intently listened to her Lord while Martha complained, for she was preoccupied with much service which distracted her from the “real thing!”  And Mary is commended as the one who has chosen the good part, from whom these things will not be taken away.  Jesus says, as recorded by St. John, “This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent!”  So those in the Word are open to the will of God and are thus influenced by the Spirit rather than the flesh, and, of course, we should go and do likewise!

But there is another group that we should take note of. There are those who know Jesus best because they were closest to Him for the longest time.  In the Gospel they are called “His own people.”  This includes Jesus’ family – His mother Mary and His brothers (James, Joses, Judas, and Simon). 

So, Jesus is deeply involved in His traveling ministry. He is going from village-to-village teaching, healing, exorcising demons, and people are drawing the conclusion (appropriately I might add) if the Messiah comes will He do greater works than this man?  Certainly not!  Some were convinced that Jesus is the Christ, and they didn’t hesitate to say so.  But His brothers, at the very least, believe that Jesus has become convinced that He is what everyone is calling Him.  At this point His brothers are unbelievers.  They were so close to Him in those days prior to His public ministry that, to them, He is just a member of their obscure little family and nothing more.  They couldn’t be led to think of Him as anything else (and this is so similar to Joseph’s brothers of Old Testament fame). Jesus’ brothers are saying that “He is out of His mind.”

Today, people have belittled and demeaned Jesus so that to them He is another Buddha, Mohammed, even Moses, (a teacher and prophet… but NOT the Son of God).   For them the stories of the Gospels are exaggerated myths and fairytales that go far beyond what Jesus ever thought of Himself.  These naysayers would conclude that the early church, the evangelists, the first believers were out of their minds.  Such are the thoughts of the skeptics!

Then there are the scribes, the Bible scholars, who are drawing the conclusion that the words of Jesus and all His works are of demonic origin. Jesus immediately puts them in their place by succinctly showing the absurdity of their reasoning.  If Satan has risen up against himself then his kingdom is done for.  But these men simply do not like Jesus’ teaching (more authoritative and more popular than their own) to be gaining the upper hand.  These, together with the leaders of the Jews, are in arms against Jesus on account of their own jealousy.  They have gone so far – by their official stated conclusions – as to have placed themselves outside the kingdom of God and His saving will.

Adam and Eve knew that they had not followed God’s will as He had earlier defined it for their life in Eden.  They knew that God was right in prosecuting them and condemning them to the death He had originally explained would be the penalty for disobedience, and still they thought that they could get off the hook by their own feeble efforts and excuses.

But here is where the greater will of God came into play and this is the part I don’t want you to doubt, rationalize, or ignore.  He “wills all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 

In the depths of the pages of Holy Scripture the will of God for the salvation of fallen man plays itself out over centuries of time until there standing before this multitude in Capernaum is the culmination of Scripture’s promises in the man who is the Messiah.

Soon after the Adam’s and Eve’s fall, the Lord cannot leave His beloved creation without hope… and so the Lord, in cursing that satanic serpent, speaks a word of life in the midst of their hastily earned death. This is the will of God: “I will put enmity between you, [Satan], and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”  Eve understood this to be a promise of hope connected to her offspring who would finally reverse the effects of sin, reign victorious over death, and conquer Satan once and for all.

Now that man – our God – is teaching, healing, and casting out demons… not by Beelzebub… but by His own right as the Lord of lords and King of kings… the Prince of peace, the Author of life!  In this is the will of God revealed… but that still isn’t the highest and best of what Jesus had to offer those who had turned to Him as their teacher and Savior.

No, the will of God is seen in Jesus’ coming… but it is at its peak in His dying!  Jesus had come to do God’s will to perfection, to fulfill the Law and the Prophets!  In His own body He would bear all sin, and absorb its punishment, even an eternity of hellish torment compacted into six hours on that horrid cross.  The worst blow of all would be the turning of His Father’s face in rejection – just as we deserved.  Then, as result of His perfect obedience to His Father’s will, three days later Jesus would stand alive, vindicated, and victorious, as the fulfillment – for us –of the accomplished will of God.  It was finished!  He would stand outside His tomb in the glow of His Father’s acceptance and approval.  This is the will of God: that you would come to know and enjoy the Father’s acceptance and approval by trusting in His beloved Son!

Yes, human thought could never have conceived such a glorious plan to play out for our salvation as what God had in store for those who love Him.

We are now called to be turned toward this Jesus and to hear and heed His word of instruction and His announcement of our pardon.  This is God’s will! 

And if we would be citizens in the Kingdom of God and members of His household, even His own family: His brothers, His sisters and mother… then we should dwell on His promise, trust in its fulfillment, and learn to see the hand of God working for our good in all things. We will humbly submit to His unchanging word and rest secure in that saving blood that has set us free. 

This is the will of God… not license, but liberty…  This is the will of God… not disobedience, but your sanctification.  This is the will of God… not your condemnation, but your salvation. 

Make no mistake about it.  Here is the will of God personified and incarnate… Jesus Christ, our Lord and righteousness, our Prince and Savior, our brother, and our life! 

Amen.