Don’t fight the wrong enemy

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Stand Where There is Stumbling

When is the last time you stumbled? I’ve noticed a change at MLC. The sidewalks are smoothed out. Years ago, when I was a student there, due to the frost heave, the sidewalks were uneven. You’d be walking along the sidewalk, hit your foot against the uneven sidewalk and many bad results would follow: 1) your foot would hurt, 2) you would fall down, 3) people would see you and you would be ashamed. Now I noticed that they ground down the sidewalk so that the harsh edges are rounded off. You know what this is like, don’t you? In God’s word this morning we hear about stumbling. But it’s not stumbling on the sidewalk. It’s the sort of stumbling that would, instead, threaten our faith. In Mark 9, we read: “³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.” ³⁹ “Don’t stop him,” said Jesus, “because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterward speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ For whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ And whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ—truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.” (Mark 9:38–41 CSB17)

In these words Jesus is preaching a sermon. And in the middle of the sermon, John interrupts with a question and a problem. Someone was driving out demons who wasn’t following them. Jesus tells them not to be concerned about this because you cannot invoke Jesus’ name and all that goes along with his name and then, in the next breath, speak against Jesus’ name. People would see that contradiction.

But here, Jesus is getting at a very important point. There are times in our lives where there is a problem and we need to attend to them. But there are other times where our role and responsibility is limited. For example, watching world news can be a real temptation to sin. There are horrible crimes happening in Afganistan and in China. Our role and responsibility is to be aware of the issues and pray for them. But, when we move much beyond that, our ability and responsibility will very quickly end. There will be some areas of our lives where, if it’s happening half a world away, Jesus is the one who will have to take his stand there—not us. So Jesus, first of all, tells them where they should not take their stand. They cannot peer into people’s hearts. That was Jesus’ job. But there are areas they can take their stand. Jesus tells us: ““But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42 CSB17)

What Jesus specifically mentions here as an area where we can take our stand is with stumbling children. First of all, we can see to it that they do not stumble because of damaging teaching. We need to be able to know God’s word well enough to show our children who they are in God’s eyes. And we need to stand for them against false teaching that would cause little children to stumble in their faith. One of the most obvious ways this happens is when, sadly, there are pastors and professors who deny the clear words that Jesus says here. Here Jesus says that little ones believe in him. But there are false teachers who say that children, especially infants are not able to believe in Jesus.¹ They say that faith is a work that we need to provide. And only children who are old enough are able to make that decision and choice. They deny the faith that God gives to little children. And, as a result, they deny the tool that gives them faith—baptism. And notice where that leads. If you tell a child that they are too young to know who Jesus is, you will make them stumble in their faith. You will make them doubt that they are Christians and you will end up denying Jesus’ words here.

My dear friends in Christ, if you’re looking for a place to take your stand, here’s your place. Take your stand against damaging teaching. But, my dear friends, just as there is damaging teaching, there is also damaging behavior. And sadly, we don’t have to leave our homes to put stumbling blocks in the way of our children’s faith. All we have to do is have our children see how we grown-ups deal with problems in our lives. Children learn from the sermons we preach to them. Sometimes the sermons are taught. Sometimes they are simply caught. Each of us has our ‘go-to’ way of dealing with problems. When we face problems, we deal with them by lying, gossipping, abusing substances, using bad language, or simply shutting ourselves off from the world. And sadly, when our children see these unhealthy ways of dealing with our problems and sins, they absorb, they learn unhealthy ways of dealing with life from us.

So we take our stand for stumbling children. This means taking a stand against damaging teaching. But, probably even more difficult and troubling is that we’ll have to take a stand against damaging behavior that each of us commits. My dear friends in Christ, these words make us sad, don’t they? We have children, thinking that we will hand down to them what is good in us. But very often we hand down to them what is the worst in us. What follows then is the answer to the question, “now what?” What is our response to the fact that we might very well be the ones who cause our children to stumble? “⁴³ “And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43–48 CSB17)

In these words Jesus is using exaggeration to make a very serious point. We know this is exaggeration because, if he were not speaking figuratively, there would have been a whole lot more disciples missing hands, feet, and eyes. The point he is making here is that, if we plan on standing with children, we must realize that we will be continually taking our stand against ourselves. There’s the old proverb, “stop it where it starts.”² If you know that, if you drink one beer, you’ll drink a case, don’t drink one. If you know that, when you come home from work and turn on the TV and what is going on in the world will make you angry and filled with fear, then don’t turn on the TV. If you know, that if you go to that website, you will be tempted, then you can use your time better elsewhere. It’s better to go without beer, the internet, cable TV, and whatever else and get to heaven than to have all of these and end up in hell. There are three threats in these words that Jesus speaks. But he concludes with a promise: “⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”” (Mark 9:49–50 CSB17)

This is a tough verse. But when we work through it we see how beautiful it is. Salt was used as a preservative. You can salt mean, for example, and make it last for a long time. How does our Lord preserve us? He burns us. He puts us in places where we, on our own, will have to say “no” to the parts of our lives that cause us to stumble. But what happens at the end of that testing? We are preserved. I used to know a guy who had a home in town and a house in the mountains. He spent the weekdays working and the weekends in the mountains fixing his second house. Where was he not present? He wasn’t in church on Sunday mornings. He had a make a hard choice. He sold his beautiful cabin with its beautiful view because of promises like these in the bible. He was looking forward to heaven and its views. And, wonderfully, when he was back in church, after a while, he didn’t miss his cabin much anymore. So we take our stand against ourselves.

And finally then, we take our stand on our baptisms. In our baptisms we have the promise of forgiveness. In our baptisms we have the promise that the Holy Spirit will lead us to live a godly life. In our baptisms we are connected to our resurrected Jesus. And with that we have the promise that there will be a day when we will not have to worry anymore about stumbling blocks. Amen.