PENTECOST 16, B – September 20, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Psalm 37:4-7; Jer. 11:18-20; James 3:13 – 4:10; Mark 9:30-37

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Did Jeremiah delight himself in the Lord? He certainly did. He served God and His people as a prophet for over 50 years. He faithfully preached and taught God’s Word: in the city and the country, in the temple and in the king’s palace. And, what thanks did he get? Even the people of his own hometown rejected him and plotted to kill him! 

Did Jesus delight Himself in the Lord? Of course He did. He loved God and His Word and followed it completely! And, what happened? His closest disciples focused on themselves and what they would gain from following Him. Which of them would be the greatest? And, His own countrymen had Him put to death on a cross.  

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Really? 

While walking my dog the other day, the thought came to me: “Boy, sometimes I wish I were a dog. They don’t wrestle with such dilemmas!” My dog Jack has it great. He sleeps all day in his comfortable bed when we’re not around. Then, when I come home in the late afternoon, he jumps up and spins around excitedly, saying, “It’s time now, right? We’re going for a walk now, right?” He gets to sniff all kinds of interesting smells; gets to greet his dog buddies (although, I’m sure glad I’m not a dog when I see that!); gets to do his business wherever he wants and have me take care of it. Then, when we get home, he gets a treat. Later, he stands at his bowl and whines until we give him his dinner. What a life! Jack isn’t worrying about what he does or doesn’t have; or what the future will bring; or about whether his work will be rewarded or whether, like Jeremiah, he will be opposed and abused. As far as I can tell, Jack’s mind is not preoccupied with much of anything. Oh, to be like him and have his life! Now, sometimes I wonder why I have him. Why not a regal dog, like a boxer named King? Or, why not a powerful and manly bulldog? “C’mere, Brutus!” Instead I have a scraggly toothed, smelly, strange looking beast. How did this happen? Jack was not the desire of my heart! 

We often don’t get the desires of our hearts. But, remember how Psalm 37:4 begins: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Be glad in your God and in His ways! Consider His ways and His commands the best things possible. Delight in them so that you commit to them and follow them. “and [then] he will give you the desires of your heart.” Your desires will then be God’s desires, and so your desires will be good and right, ones which He will gladly fulfill. 

What are your desires? Jesus’ disciples each desired to be the greatest. We’re like them, aren’t we? Our focus is on ourselves. We look around and see what we have and don’t have, what we’d like to have and what we hope to keep. We want good health; a satisfying job; a secure life; a decent place to live; a nice car; good friends; a good church. These things are all fine, of course. But, be careful of looking upon such things, of focusing upon yourself. James warns:

“You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” 

Where does God look? What does He focus upon? Not Himself, for He needs nothing. He has no worries or fears, no unfulfilled personal desires. God is always looking outward, to see how He can help and bless us whom He has made. 

Jesus put a child in the midst of His disciples because they needed to learn to look outward, because we need to learn to look outward. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” The thing about children is that they need. They need to be fed, bathed, helped, taught, guided. They take our focus off of ourselves. Parents have to focus upon them, especially when they are little. They demand it! They help us to change from being self-focused to outwardly focused – like God. 

Of course, if your focus is God’s focus, if you focus upon others and not yourself , this doesn’t mean that all will go well; at least, what we consider well. There will be times when you will be taken advantage of, abused, and hurt. You may suffer the loss of money, or of possessions, or, worst of all, of reputation. You may appear the fool. The carefree life of a dog then seems desirable! It is especially then that we need to remember this promise from Psalm 37: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” 

God acts to bring forth righteousness, to bring it forth to us and to bring it forth from us. His eyes are always upon you, His precious people whom He dearly loves! He is not pleased if you suffer and are taken advantage of. Not at all! Nor is He unable to help. He helps, always; but not in the ways we desire. He helps in the ways we need. He helps through the cross. 

Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand when He spoke about the cross. And so, they wanted to avoid the topic and instead think about and focus upon a good life with Him, how they would be blessed and what place they would have in His kingdom. This is our nature. We want God’s blessing on this life, to have things go well and life be good. We would rather have Jesus the protector, the healer, the rescuer from enemies, the miracle worker, than Jesus the crucified, whose blood saves us from eternal punishment for our sins. 

The Jesus we need above all is the crucified One. We need the cross. We need the forgiveness of sins. This is why God allows us to be hurt and rejected, and to have our desires be frustrated. He wants us to be unsatisfied with this life and yearn for life with Him. He wants us to believe in Him and yet wrestle with Him, to go to Him to question and cry out and wonder, and not be so comfortable with this life that we don’t feel a pressing need for Him. 

In the crucified and resurrected Jesus we see God acting for us: forgiving our sins and bringing forth righteousness, making us righteous; but also, putting an end to sin and evil and bringing forth a new and holy life, a life that is ultimately with God in heaven, where all that is true and good and right reigns and where all evil and evildoers are forever removed. That life and heaven are yours because Jesus died and rose for you! Fix your eyes upon them; fix Jesus, His life and Word, in your mind and heart. Make them the desire of your heart. You can then be assured that He will act and bring forth this life, this righteousness, for you. You can be sure because Jesus died, shed His blood for the forgiveness of your sins; and then, He rose from the dead, triumphant over your sins and every evil opposing Him and His people. 

“Delight yourself in this Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” He will fill your heart. He will be with you and keep you always! – until He brings you to Himself in heaven.