Download Pentecost 19 Mark 9:38-50 October 7, 2012 Jesus used every day

Pentecost 19
October 7, 2012
Mark 9:38-50
Jesus used every day things to teach people the truths of his word. When he taught his disciples a lesson in childlike faith,
he held up a small child for them to see. When he taught about the kingdom of God, he compared it to a mustard seed. And
when he taught about faith in action, he compared it to ordinary salt. "You are the salt of the earth," Jesus said. "If the salt
loses its saltiness, it is fit only to be thrown out." Even the apostle Paul said, "Let your conversation be seasoned with salt."
Jesus uses the picture of salt in this section of Mark's Gospel, too. By our faith and by our lives, Jesus tells us to
“PLEASE PASS THE SALT”.
1. Be seasoned with humility
Jesus' disciples came across someone who was driving out demons in Jesus’ name and they told him to stop because he
wasn’t part of their group. They were probably looking for a pat on the back. Instead, Jesus corrected them about their
attitude of pride. The disciples were certainly privileged men –chosen, taught, gifted, authorized, sent by Jesus himself, but
God's grace didn't stop with them.
Jesus is also talking to us. Faith in Jesus is the gift of the Holy Spirit. It comes through the gospel wherever it is taught. If
someone else confesses faith in Jesus, they received their faith the same way we did. We are to praise God for the work He
accomplishes wherever the gospel is taught! At the same time, Jesus didn't tell his disciples to go and join the man they
were talking about. They were to stay with Jesus and continue to hear and share the truth of his Word. Jesus urged them to
"pass the salt" & be at peace with each other by not stifling anyone’s faith in Jesus. They also pass the salt by continuing to
be a witness to the truth so others know where to find it and may grow in the grace and knowledge of the truth.
It’s tempting for those who know God's Word well to look down on someone who is just taking the first steps in learning the
Bible. It's tempting to show off and try to impress them with how much you know or to expound about your Christian
education or how long you’ve been a member of your congregation. We may even risk discouraging them from serving God
by insisting they do things our way, by criticizing what they do, or by not allowing them to serve at all.
Jesus' disciples needed a lesson in humility. "Whoever is not against us is for us," Jesus reminded them. There's no
such thing as a "sort of" believer in Christ. You either believe or you don't believe. Then he added, "I tell you the truth,
anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward."
In this world people like to get their esteem from being associated with something that puts us a notch or two above others.
But Jesus tells us that we get our esteem from being loved by God. When we have God's love, we want to give love back to
him. No matter how small or feeble it looks to us, God counts each act of faith as a precious gem. If anyone can utter a
prayer in Jesus' name or do the smallest kindness in Jesus' name, it is a miracle of God’s grace!
So Jesus tells his disciples, who are the “salt of the earth”, to please pass the salt. Be seasoned with humility. Don't let
sinful pride discourage others from expressing their faith, but continue to encourage others with the truth in humility.
2. Preserve the faith of others
Jesus puts a much higher value on the soul than we usually do. It's easy to be concerned about how green our grass is or
how clean our car is or how good our clothes look or how good we feel and yet abuse our eternal soul...or the soul of
someone else.
Here's how it happens. Say you hear a joke that could lead someone to think a sinful thought. You know you shouldn't
repeat it, but it strikes you as funny. So you pass it on. The person you tell thinks it's funny, too, and he laughs about
something that's sinful. You've put a stumbling block before someone’s soul.
Parents are surrounded by the open eyes and ears of their children. When we sit down to watch a movie or TV program that
has foul language or indecent scenes, our kids’ eyes and ears are watching and learning from us. We are hurting their souls.
Jesus showed the great value of the soul when he warned, "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me
to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." The "little
ones" Jesus refers to are not only children, but anyone who is young and growing in the faith. They look up to those who
have been Christians longer. They look to you for guidance – to learn what pleases the Lord – to know what to avoid as sin
and what to do instead. That gives us all a great responsibility toward one another.
Each soul is so precious to God that he did not spare his own Son but gave him up to redeem us all from hell! It is terrible
when someone rejects Jesus and ends up in hell; BUT IT IS EVEN MORE TERRIBLE WHEN SOMEONE RETURNS TO
UNBELIEF AFTER GOD HAS GIVEN THEM FAITH IN JESUS! In a shocking way Jesus shows us that if something in your
life is leading you or someone else to sin, get rid of it. It would be better to lose anything than for you or someone else to
forfeit the gift of eternal life and end up in the eternal horrors of hell, where "their worm does not die and the fire is not
quenched." The word for "worm" here is "maggot", those little white worms that hatch from the eggs of flies and eat rotting
flesh. The worm of hell doesn't stop devouring and the fires of hell burn forever under God's judgment. Keep us from leading
ourselves or anyone else to stumble and fall, dear Father in heaven!
But does Jesus really want us to go so far as to cut off the parts of our bodies? If our body parts were responsible for our sin,
you bet. A doctor doesn't hesitate to remove a cancerous part of the body to save the rest of it. But when it comes to sin,
we'd have to cut ourselves to pieces, including cutting off our head with its evil thoughts!
So the problem with sin isn't our body. It's our sinful heart. Only God can change the heart, and that's why we pray, "Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." God overthrows the rule of sin in our hearts by creating faith
in us through the powerful word of forgiveness in Jesus. We can't cut sin completely out of our lives in this world, but we can
do things to keep sin from taking over our lives. We may need to change the channel on the TV, block that internet site,
change friends, or drop sinful relationships. Nothing is worth doing or keeping if we end up losing heaven because of it !
So as Jesus' disciples, please pass the salt. Help preserve your own precious faith and the precious faith of others, and….
3. Keep the shaker full
On our table, like most of your tables, we have a salt shaker and we use it all the time. But that isn't the only salt we have in
the house. In our cupboard we have a large container of salt. That's because our salt shaker needs to be refilled regularly.
It's the same with a Christian. We can't pass the salt if we go empty. We need to fill up from the larger container regularly.
"Have salt in yourself," Jesus said. The salt he's talking about is His Word. It's the salt of God's Word that gives us the
humility to accept one another for who we are in Christ. It's the salt of God's Word that works faith in our hearts to fight
against soul-destroying sin. Nothing else in all the world that can keep us salty.
"Have salt in yourself." When a salt shaker is out of salt, it doesn’t do anybody any good. When a Christian stops using
God's Word, their faith grows weak, their life loses its direction, and they have nothing to share. They aren’t any good to
anybody.
That’s when God uses the salt of his Word for another reason in our lives. Salt can also sting. Don't you just hate it when
you're cooking and you nick your finger and then accidentally get salt in the wound? It feels like fire, doesn't it? The salt of
God's law can also sting like fire when God pours it on a guilty conscience. But it's a good hurt. Just as you run water on a
wound to take the sting away, we turn to Jesus and have him pour the water of life and forgiveness on our hearts to take the
sting away. That’s how God keeps our faith alive and growing.
So "have salt in yourself." Let God's law sting your conscience so he can fill you with the salt of his forgiveness and love
to keep the shaker full. Then go and do what you do at your table: please pass the salt. Amen!