8 August 2010
Psalm 66, 67; Judges 11:1-11,29-40; 2 Cor. 11:21b-31; Mark 4:35-41

This is one of the worst incidents in the entire Bible. It begins well, the son of the prostitute, Jephthah, who was driven away by the “legitimate” children of Gilead was later recalled by the same when they were in trouble and needed a savior. Jephthah agrees on the condition that if he is successful he will be their leader. The Lord was with him and gave him success but for some reason he didn’t trust the Lord completely and made a vow that was contingent on success, “if you give them into my hands.” The good news is that they defeated their enemies, the bad news was that he was now obliged by his vow to sacrifice the first person he saw at his house, his own and only daughter. The fulfillment of the vow was more sinful than the rash vow of unbelief itself. Human sacrifice was unacceptable and unlawful. Why Jephthah would have done this is not imaginable, as it would not have pleased God in the least, he compounded his sin. What he should have done is repented of his vow and offered a sacrifice for the breaking of the vow, his daughter should not have paid the price for his sin.

This story demonstrates clearly that the Lord who spoke all things into being was also the Lord who had become flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The answer to the disciples’ question, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” is simple, the one who created them. There are parallels here between this scene and Jonah 1 when the men on the boat with Jonah have to waken him and ask him to pray to his god who might be the right one to save them. As they throw Jonah into the sea after his confession, the wind stops. The pagans there, however, ask forgiveness for throwing the man into the sea as a sacrifice, as opposed to Jephthah in our first reading.

Paul defends his ministry as over against the super apostles who have been among the Corinthians denigrating Paul’s ministry. Paul says that he is superior to these in every way and then lists all the ways in which he is greater. He does so not because he wishes to draw attention to himself but because these others have been leading the Corinthians to themselves rather than to Jesus. Paul’s argument is that in spite of all the things he lists he chooses instead to boast in his weakness, his inability to save himself, to boast in the one who has saved him. Paul was an amazing man, constantly preaching only one thing, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He voluntarily took up the cross of the churches God had allowed him to start and carried them always, no matter how painful they were to him and how easily they were led astray. He was always willing to lay down his life for the sake of the Gospel and the churches. Do we carry the burden of the Gospel for others?

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.