Uncategorized – Page 7 – What Does This Mean?

Sunday School: Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany

Encore Post: The town of Bethany was a bedroom community for priests and Levites, just over the Mount of Olives along the road to Bethlehem. Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus were well off. They owned a home and probably a few slaves. The Scripture does not tell us what they did for a living, but they had enough resources to afford expensive perfume and likely were donors to the ministry of Jesus and his disciples. Outside the small circle of the apostles, they were the closest friends of Jesus during his earthly ministry. It seems likely that Jesus and his entourage stayed with them every time they came to the Holy City.

On one trip to Jerusalem, Martha was preparing a banquet for her favorite rabbi. Nothing was too good for him. Mary was helping her sister, but when Jesus began to teach, she sat down like a disciple at his feet, listening to him. Martha was angry that her sister was lounging around while there were many things that needed doing. She complained to Jesus, who told her affectionately that she didn’t need to worry so much. What she was doing was good. Hospitality is a form of the loving service God calls us to do. Some in the early church, in fact, looked at the example of Martha as a model for the work of a deaconess. Listening to God’s word was more important than all the details that she was concerned about.

The week before Palm Sunday, the family was grieving. Lazarus had died and was in the tomb four days by the time Jesus got there. Both Martha and Mary expressed strong faith in the Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead.

To celebrate their brother’s resurrection, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus held a banquet. Once again, Martha was preparing the feast. This time, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a perfume worth $24,000. Judas made a scene about how it could be sold to feed the poor. The disciples later questioned his motives, since he was the treasurer of the group and a week later, he would betray Jesus for coins worth $3200. Jesus told him to leave well enough alone. Mary had learned from Jesus well — she was preparing him for his burial. Two weeks later, Jesus would serve them — and us. He suffered for their sins and ours, died to pay their debt and ours and rose again that we might all rise on the last day. Now we can serve like Martha, Mary and Lazarus, showing our love for Jesus by caring for others.

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Jesus the Good Shepherd

Encore Post: In the Middle East, shepherds often build a common sheep pen for their town. All the shepherds in the village would keep their sheep together in this pen overnight. They would build a wall to keep the sheep from wandering away and to keep wolves and other predators from attacking them. A watchman would guard the gate or door to the pen so that only shepherds could enter. This discouraged thieves.

When a shepherd was ready to feed his sheep, he would go into the pen and call them by name. A shepherd had an intimate relationship with his sheep. In some cases, they would be as close to them as a pet is to us. So the sheep recognized the voice of the man who cared for them. When he called them by name, they would follow. The shepherd would take them to good, green pastures and nice, quiet waters. He would keep them from wandering off and would treat any wounds, binding them up. He would protect them from wild animals, often doing battle with them, as King David describes what he did as a young shepherd. True shepherds would risk their lives to save their sheep.

Kings often compared themselves to shepherds. They liked to be seen as caring for them and keeping them safe. They expected their subjects to willingly follow everywhere they wanted them to go.

In the Bible, God tells us He is our Shepherd. He will feed them, gather their lambs in his arms and hold them close to his heart. (Isaiah 40:11) Most of all, in Jesus, God is our Good Shepherd. He leads us with his word, guides us and protects us from evil. Like a good shepherd, he laid down his life for the sheep. He died so that we might be saved. On the last day of our life, he will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death safely home to dwell in his house forever. (Psalm 23)

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Ten Lepers Healed, One Praises God

Encore Post: Leprosy was a dreaded skin condition during Biblical times. It was caused by a number of diseases from bad rashes to sicknesses that caused the loss of fingers, toes and other parts of the body. Lepers were made to live away from everyday people and to yell unclean if anyone came close to them. They were not allowed to go to the synagogue or the temple and so were cut off completely from God and the care of family and friends. Often they lived together with other lepers. If a person touched a leper, they were called unclean, too, and couldn’t enter the temple or synagogue.

Sometimes lepers would get well. To recognize that the person was no longer a leper, a person would go to the priests to be declared clean again. One sign of the Messiah’s coming was that he would heal lepers. Jesus showed God’s love for everyone, even lepers, when Jesus healed the disease.

One day, when Jesus was walking down the road, ten lepers shouted to Him from a distance: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. He told them to go and see the priests in Jerusalem. As they went, they were healed. When one of them, a Samaritan, saw that He was well, He went back to Jesus, loudly praising God. The man lay down on his face at Jesus’ feet to worship Jesus and thank Him. Jesus asked where the other nine were. Jesus told the man to get up because his faith made him well.

Even though Jews of Jesus’ time despised Samaritans and treated them poorly, Jesus once again makes the point that God does not discriminate against people because of sickness, race, or religion. All people are his children and he shows mercy to us all. After all, he was about to bear the sins of all the sons and daughters of Adam on the cross. On the last day, people from all nations, races and time, redeemed by his blood, will gather as one to praise him. So, now, we join the former lepers is praying, “Lord, have mercy” and reach out to care for all his children in need.

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastot Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: The Widow’s Mite

Encore Post: One day, Jesus sat down to teach in the temple’s Court of the Women where he could watch people putting freewill offerings into the offering box. People of all walks of life day, put money into the treasury from the wealthiest to the poorest of God’s people. One of those people was a poor widow who contributed her last two copper coins.

Since this offering was not required, anyone who gave to the Lord in this way showed love for God. The rich people Jesus saw contributing were giving from their wealth and did not miss the money at all. The widow showed complete trust in God. She literally did not know where her next meal would come from. Yet she gave her last resources so that God could be praised.

In the time of Jesus, widows had a hard life. Very few women had independent means of support. When a widow’s husband died, she was completely at the mercy of her relatives, especially her sons. If they did not care, she would have to scrape by in any way she could. The widow in our story is likely one of the less fortunate ones.

Jesus commented on this woman’s faith and praised her for her trust that God would care for her. He did not condemn the giving of others. Instead, Jesus taught the disciples that the amount someone gives to God is not as important to him as the faith it demonstrates.

Christians are not commanded to give a specific amount of money or even a particular percentage of our income. We give offerings to our church, to other organizations in the Church and to care for those in need. We love God and want to participate in His mission to save the lost. So we share what we have, praying that God would bless them for the good of others.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Jesus Walks on Water

Encore Post: For Jesus and the disciples, it had been a long day. The crowds had turned out to hear Jesus teach, and he did so all day. In the evening, Jesus challenged the disciples to feed the crowds with five loaves and two fishes. They couldn’t, but he did. They gathered up the pieces in twelve baskets. So Jesus needed to get away to pray. They just needed to get away. So Jesus pushed them to get in the boat and do what they knew very well — travel across the lake. He went away to pray alone.

For people in ancient times, the sea was a symbol of chaos and evil. They did so for good reason. Not only was the sea a place that could become violent at a moment’s notice, they had no way to know about coming storms as we do today.
The disciples were veterans of the sea, not bothered much by the wind and wave, even when it was rough. That evening, the sea was much trouble. They could not use their sails, which would be blown to pieces. So they labored to row against it all night. They made good progress nevertheless.

Yet they were so exhausted that they did not know Jesus at first. They thought He was a ghost. When He told them who He was, they still weren’t sure. Peter came up with a test. If it was Jesus, Peter could walk on the water too, if Jesus wanted him to. As long as Peter paid attention to the Lord, he did walk on water. Only when he turned to watch wind and wave did Peter fear and begin to sink. What they missed is they did not need to be afraid. They should have known they could trust Jesus. By this event, Jesus taught His disciples to trust Him, even when water and wave threaten to destroy them.

The writer of the must loved hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” sums it up well:

O Savior, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walked upon the foaming deep,
And calm amid the rage did sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Five Loaves, Two Fishes and the Five Thousand

Encore Post: Jesus had sent his apostles out on a mission to preach in the towns and villages of Galilee. When they returned to him, he decided rest was in order. So they got into a boat, went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to a place in the wilderness. But people saw where they were going and ran ahead of them. When they got out of the boat, a crowd had gathered. So he taught them. The disciples recommended Jesus send them away at evening to get something to eat. But Jesus told them to feed the crowd. Since they had only five small loaves of bread and two fish, they thought it was impossible, but did as he asked. The whole crowd was fed with twelve baskets of bread pieces left over. (Mark 6:33-44)

The people no doubt remembered that, when God freed His people from slavery in Egypt, He led them into the wilderness for forty years. He fed them with bread from Heaven, called Mana, and quails for meat at night. Much later, during a drought, the prophet Elijah stayed with a widow and her son in Zarephath. God made the widow’s flour and oil last until the prophet left.

When Jesus fed over five thousand people in the wilderness, they would remember these things and the other ways that God took care of His people. Later, Jesus would give us the Lord’s Supper, where He gives us His Body and Blood to eat with bread and wine. This sacrament meets our need for forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. When we remember how God provides for us food to eat, we also think of how he also feeds us with his own body to strengthen us. He gives us bread in the wilderness of this life and bread for our long journey until we arrive home.

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: The Good Samaritan

Encore Post: Three thousand years ago, ten tribes of Israel broke away from King Solomon’s son and formed a new kingdom north of Jerusalem. The kings of the northern tribes built a capital called Samaria about forty miles north of Jerusalem. When the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom, they deported many of the Israelites and resettled people from faraway places. The Samaritan people were born when the Israelites married their captors. The Jewish people considered them as traitors and hated them. The Samaritans hated them in return, especially when Jewish armies destroyed their temple and their city. At the time of Jesus, Jews wanted nothing to do with them. They would avoid even traveling through Samaria, even to go to Jerusalem. The worst thing one Jew could call another was a Samaritan.

One day, an expert in God’s law asked Jesus a traditional question posed to Rabbis: which is the greatest of all commandments? Jesus turned the question around to him. The expert replied with the commandments to love God and to love neighbor as yourself. Jesus agreed and told him to do these and he would inherit eternal life. Then the expert asked Jesus who is our neighbor. Jesus’ answer was the story we call the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)

In this story, the two kinds of people you would expect to help you were priests and Levites. They led worship in the temple, where God showed His love for His people by forgiving their sins. They did not want to become unclean by touching a dead person. So they did not help the injured man. But the Samaritan felt very sorry for him, cared for him and paid a lot of money to see that he was cared for until the day he recovered.

Jesus asked the expert which of these three was a neighbor to the injured man. He answered, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus told him to do the same. As sinners, we will fail to do this perfectly. Yet as Christians, the church responded to the love of God in Christ, and so has reached out in mercy to those who suffer with countless needs over the last two thousand years. We remember Jesus responded to our greatest need by suffering and dying that we might be saved and inherit eternal life. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we reach out to care for those who need us the most to show them the mercy God showed us.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: The Lord’s Prayer

Encore Post: Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer on at least two occasions: during the Sermon on the Mount and when the disciples asked about prayer. One is recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew and the other in Luke. The version in Matthew is the one the Church has memorized and that we recognize. The version in Luke contains selected petitions to give the disciples examples of the kind of things to pray about. There, Jesus emphasizes we should keep praying for these same things because God wants His children to ask for things “with all boldness and confidence … as dear children ask their dear father.” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism 3.1)

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on God’s desires and will, not on ours. We pray for His name to be made holy, His kingdom to come, His will to be done and then only for our physical needs, forgiveness and deliverance from Satan.

You may have noticed that our prayers are filled with requests for physical concerns — for healing, for food and clothing, for guidance in making decisions and for protection in times of disaster. We focus on our wants and desires. Yet our Heavenly Father knows these and will take care of them. God wants us to share our wants, worries and desires with Him, but then leave these in His care. (Philippians 4:6-7) Then our focus can be on His kingdom and His righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)

So … how do we do that? Praying from our hearts has its problems. Our old, sinful nature still lives there (Mark 15:17-23), which urges us to focus on our desires and our new nature, filled with the Holy Spirit, which urges us to focus on God’s word, his worship, his will and the needs of others. That is where the Lord’s prayer comes in. It reorients our priorities because it is God’s own words. That is why it is the most prayed Christian prayer of all.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Sermon on the Mount

Encore Post: After the Babylonian Exile, the Jewish people were determined to keep God’s Law. They put a very high value on the study of the Torah — the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses. They gathered around teachers, whom they called Rabbi — my master — who would give their interpretation of the law and the opinions of previous Rabbis. They considered these teachings to be the oral law, which by tradition was given by Moses, never written down, but passed down from teacher to teacher.

They taught that if you wanted to keep God’s law, hold yourself to practices stricter than the actual words of Scripture. These are called the “hedge around the Torah” and are gathered into the Talmud. So, for example, if you don’t want to take the name of the Lord your God in vain, then never pronounce it. Instead, say “My Lord” or “The Name.” If you don’t want to work on the Sabbath by sewing, stop after four stitches. And many similar things.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does the same thing. Only he goes well beyond what a rabbi would teach. Not only must you not murder someone, Jesus taught, you must not even call someone stupid. Not only should you give to the poor and pray, you must not do it for the recognition you’ll get. He quotes the law, “You will not murder,” “You will not commit adultery,” and then says something no other rabbi would say. “You have heard it said … but I say to you.” Some of his hearers must have thought: “Who does he think he is? God?” (well, yes, but that is another post!) Most of those who heard him were amazed. He teaches with authority, not like the Pharisees, they said to each other.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is the first of five groups of teachings. He does this to show Jesus is a new Moses. But Jesus is much greater than Moses. He is the Word of God himself. If we see the teachings of Jesus as a new law, we miss the point. We cannot keep the law on our own, for we are not perfect as the Heaven Father is perfect. Jesus kept the law perfectly for our sake, took our disobedience on himself and died to pay its price for us. He now gives us his righteousness in exchange. More than that, he now gives us the strength to keep God’s law and to live in it by the freedom the Gospel gives us.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Jairus and His Daughter

Encore Post: Jairus loved his daughter very much. As the leader of the local synagogue, he was a respected man. When he bowed down before Jesus, he sacrificed much of his dignity. What made his daughter’s illness especially painful was that she was twelve years old. At the time of Jesus, a child became an adult in the eyes of the community in their twelfth year. Plans for her marriage were likely under way. She would have been seen as a survivor, since many children died before their twelfth year.

The woman who interrupted Jesus’ trip to see Jairus’ daughter had also been ill for the same twelve years. Her illness was also very disruptive, since it meant that she could not go to the temple nor to worship in the synagogue while she had this constant period of hers. Nothing any of the doctors could do for her helped her. Jesus was her last hope. And his healing made all the difference in the world for her.

When Jesus was delayed as he went to Jairus’ house, his daughter died. Jesus told Jairus to trust Him and not be afraid. No one knew what Jesus would do, just that He cared about the sick. When Jesus raised her from death, everyone was amazed.

The healing miracles of Jesus show us several things. They demonstrate he is God himself and that God has compassion for the sick and suffering. In fact, Jesus shared our sufferings and took them to the cross. There he died for the sins of the world and bore the sufferings that came because of it. His resurrection is the promise of the ultimate healing of all our sickness, sorrow, grief, and death. At his second coming, he will bring an end to it once and for all when he dries every tear from our eyes.

Jesus wants us to have compassion for the sick, too. He tells us to love them, to pray for them and to take care of them. He continues to show mercy to people who suffer through our care. In these ways, we show people that God loves them, too.

Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana