Jesus for You, By Rev. Harrison Goodman
Vocation is how God ties us to each other. He has given us specific people and has commanded us to love them in specific ways. Parent, child. Husband, wife. Pastor, hearer. Teacher, student. Ruler, citizen. These are God-given and unique roles we fill. We don’t do it for ourselves, but to care for our neighbor. It’s all Law. Do this and not that to these people. You can find the specifics in the Table of Duties—that section we tend to neglect in the Small Catechism. I don’t know about you, but I can’t read it without the phrase “Not enough!” kicking me in the gut. Nowhere in the Table of Duties is there the encouragement to “try your best.” To be honest, I haven’t really done that, either.
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I know what it takes to fulfill the vocations I’ve been given, and I know that I’m not enough. That word eats at us: “enough.” It steals our sleep. It bites at us no matter how hard we try to run and hide from it. I’m not a good enough husband, dad, or pastor. Are you a good enough student, athlete, friend, son, or daughter? Or does that word “enough” keep you up at night, too? This is how the world measures our stations in life. It’s why there’s such pressure on you to succeed, and such shame when you don’t. The church word we use to address that failure, the shame, and the terrible things we’ll do to climb over each other to never feel it again, is sin. Jesus bled and died for you to forgive your sins. While that’s great news, the forgiveness of sins won’t pass your math test. You’re still not enough. Looking in the mirror is still a disappointment. Deep down we feel like the Gospel shouldn’t be Christ fulfilling the Law for us, but rather Christ teaching us how to fulfill
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it ourselves. We want Jesus to teach us how to be enough. The problem is that we’re trying to make the Gospel about us rather than for us. The Gospel isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus for you, as Paul reminds us: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10). You’re justified before God on account of Christ’s works—not your works. There is no boasting in the word “enough” here. Your Baptism, not what you do, makes you a good enough Christian. Your worth isn’t about what you earn, but what about what God paid for you. This is not measured in your success or failure. It’s not measured in you at all. It’s measured in Christ’s blood, shed for you. It’s enough, even though you aren’t. God loves sinners. God loves you. Jesus didn’t need you to be enough for Him to save you. He doesn’t need
