Good Thing Jesus Is So Kind

There she was in the Walmart parking lot holding her plastic bags of groceries when I saw it happen.  She dropped her key fob.  I immediately went over and said, “Let me help you!”  She smiled and was happy I bent down and picked up her fob and handed it to her.  Being kind is a good thing.  Maybe you’ve gone over and above to help someone who needed some serious help.  You probably didn’t expect anything in return, you were simply happy to help. 

When I read this gospel lesson for today under the theme: “The Kindness In His Calling,” I couldn’t help getting another picture of something or someone getting help and then following that person.  It happened at the pond on Liberty Grove by Waterview.  Last year I saw some little ducklings following a man walking on the sidewalk.  This phenomenon, common in birds, is called imprinting. Those ducklings saw the man, this bigger creature, and connected that this must be their parent. So, they followed him, much like you would see a line of ducklings following the mother duck.

In today’s gospel, you see men starting to line up and follow Jesus as his disciples. What moved these disciples to leave behind their regular, familiar, comfortable lives to follow Jesus? They were found by Christ to follow him in faith.  That’s right, sinful human being were motivated to follow Jesus.

Good Thing Jesus Is So Kind

Drawn by His Word

People were coming from all around to the wilderness area of the Jordan River to listen to a peculiar preacher named John the Baptist. John the Baptist was proclaiming that the Messiah, the Lord’s promised Savior for the world, was near. This is what the people of Israel had been waiting for.  John the Baptist had some disciples that were following him, but “³⁵ The next day, John was standing there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When John saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37). There were men who were longing for the promised Messiah spoken of by the prophets.  They were searching, but Jesus came and found them. Jesus found and called Andrew, and Peter. 

Now, it was Philip’s turn. “⁴³ The next day, Jesus wanted to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.” Jesus personally reached out to Philip, singling him out to follow him.  Think about what was happening here.  No matter who Jesus picked to be his disciples, they were all stained with sin.  No one should be chosen to follow Jesus, but condemned by him.  Just as the Lord was gracious and kind to choose Mary to be the mother of Jesus, so Jesus was gracious and kind to call these men to follow him. Like the other men already chosen, Philip new something about Jesus having heard the basic from John the Baptist. The Lord had already found Philip’s heart through His Word in the Old Testament. Now Jesus found Philip and invited him and created faith in his heart to see for himself that Jesus was indeed the promised Savior. Philip followed Jesus in faith.

Having been drawn to Jesus by his Word, Philip couldn’t keep this to himself. He had to share the good news. So, he went and found his friend Nathanael. “⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  Wouldn’t it be great if all we had to do was tell someone about Jesus and WHAM! They would believe!  You know how many times you have shared the gospel with people and they are skeptical.  Things haven’t changed. “⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”  Philip’s description of Jesus didn’t fit Nathanael’s idea of a Savior.  From the Galilean city of Nazareth? Nope.  A simple, normal, humble looking guy? Nope. That this could happen in his lifetime? Nope. Whatever was going through Nathanael’s mind, it kept him from believing Philip.  However, instead of arguing or trying to convince him, Philip simply invited him. “Come and see!” Philip told him.”

He did.  A skeptical man with a life of sin went to meet Jesus.  And Jesus was not angry at Nathanael for doubting, but convinces him by some very simple Words. “⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  ⁴⁸ Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?  Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”  What a surprise!  Jesus already knew him. How could that be? Jesus wasn’t actually there. Nathanael could only conclude one thing, Philip was right. “⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  Jesus, the kind and gracious Savior found another disciples, created faith in his heart through his Word and Nathanael followed in faith.

We know this is a characteristic of God called omniscience.  In his state of humiliation Jesus did not always make full use of his divine power, but it was always there to use in order to call his disciples to follow him.  Jesus appeared to lost sinners and showed himself to be the Savior, the one who would rescue sinners by bridging the gap between God and man. The Holy Spirit used the kind Words spoken by Jesus to create knowledge in their minds and imprint faith on their hearts that Jesus was their Savior. They lined up to follow Jesus in faith.

God works that miracle in your life too. Jesus still finds you and invites you to follow him. Jesus has to find you because you naturally line up and follow the wrong things in life. Those ducklings who followed the man had latched on to the wrong thing. But you can guess why. They saw a creature that was bigger than them, that paid attention to them, that seemed to want to help them. So, they followed. But that man wasn’t what they really needed. He didn’t have interest in caring for them long term, and if he was in the mood for duckling soup, could have been a real danger to them. Rather, those ducklings needed a real parent to follow, a duck like them.

So the devil is working hard to convince us to follow the wrong things. What is it that you are following?  Chasing after wealth, or a career. Hooking yourself up to churches and preachers that tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear.  Rationalizing the way you live your life in spite of the Lord’s will.  You find yourself following these big, enticing, ideas and ways thinking that this is what you need, this is what matters, but you’re lining up to follow the wrong things. They may be fun to follow for some time, but they don’t lead you to eternal life with God.  Dear Christian friends, Good Thing Jesus Is So Kind!  What we deserve is not what we get.  We get a Savior who draws us to himself by his Word.  And when he does, then our life changes because we are

Motivated by His Promises

So, when did Jesus find you?  The Lord God found you long before you ever knew him.  St. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4).  Yes, Jesus knew you long before you ever knew him.  Just as he saw the men full of sin and called them to follow him, so he saw you.  And what were we like when Jesus saw us?  “You were dead in your trespasses and sins….we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath” (Eph 2:1,3).  You might be drawn to a cute duckling swimming in a pond, but would you ever go and pick up a duckling that’s a roadkill?  But, the Lord God did.  Actually, that’s exactly why Jesus came.  To rescue and redeem people like you and me.

Jesus found us through his Word and Sacraments.  There Jesus shows us who he really is.  In God’s Word, the truth is all revealed.  Do you want to hear the truth?  The truth is that you and I were lost sinners separated from the Holy creator God. The truth is that God promised to send the Savior to destroy the curse of sin, the power of the devil and the punishment of hell.  The truth is that Jesus came to die on the cross to pay the penalty of all you sins and give you the holiness you need to live forever in heaven.  The truth is that Jesus is the Perfect, Kind, Gracious Savior that we all need.  This is the Great Epiphany, Shining, Revelation, of the Good News of the promises fulfilled in Jesus.  Through God’s Word you learn in your mind the promises fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit imprints on your heart a faith that sees that Jesus is the Lord.  Jesus, the object of our faith, moves you to line up behind the real Savior and follow him in your life. We heard this described in the second reading from 2 Thessalonians, “But we are always obligated to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation by the sanctifying work of the Spirit and faith in the truth. ¹⁴ For this reason he also called you through our gospel so that you would obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:13-14).

Maybe you would like to have a little more motivation.  Listen: “⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  ⁵⁰ Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” ⁵¹ Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you (Greek = Plural): You (plural) will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Jesus, our Kind Savior, found disciples who would hear his Word and see his miracles and would follow him, even if it meant death (when they would see the glory of heaven) rather than giving up on the truth of Jesus Christ who is the Savior of the world.  These disciples lived with him and had an close relationship with Jesus. They saw, listened, learned, believed and were motivated to be witnesses to the promises Jesus proclaimed.

Now it’s our turn.  Your kind Savior has made wonderful promises to you.  Today let us follow Jesus.  Not like ignorant ducklings, but as his dear children who live for Jesus, spend time with him in his Word and prayer.  Listen, learn, believe and be motivated to follow him!  Live in that relationship and let that relationship motivate you to shine for others to see.

Picking up a dropped key fob for someone is kind.  But, the help I gave her only lasted a moment.  Looking back at that experience I should have said, “I’m happy to pick up your fob for you because Jesus loves me and you so much.”  A conversation might have started in order to give witness to Jesus, our Kind Savior.  Yes, may God guide us to be like John the Baptist, to point people to our Kind Savior.  People today are in desperate need to learn the truth that we are sinners, but that it’s a Good Thing Jesus Is So Kind.  Then draw people to Jesus by sharing God’s Word with them.  Yes, let’s be motivated by the Promises of Jesus and let our friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors know what a blessing it is that Jesus is so Kind.  Amen.