A man who helps share the gospel around the world started with his own journey of faith.

Julie K. Wietzke

Sean Young says he’s not much of an adventurer. He doesn’t even really like to travel.

Yet since he took the job as director of missions operations for WELS in 2012, he has been to the jungles outside Kumba, Cameroon; to Red Dirt Village in the mountains of Thailand; and to Kiev, the largest city in Ukraine—all to help plan how to spread God’s Word around the world. “It’s crazy that the Lord saw fit to put me here to help with that,” he says.

But Young will be the first to say that going to these exotic locales hasn’t been his greatest journey. His greatest journey has been one of faith—a trip that gave him true freedom through the gospel.

Growing up in an Irish family in Milwaukee, Young was raised in the Catholic Church, which included going to confession, serving as an altar boy, and being a Christian Youth Organization representative on the church council.

It was during a church council meeting that he started questioning the congregation’s priorities. The group was discussing an annulment request that came with a monetary gift—a request that came from the parents of one of Young’s friends. When the council began talking about how to use the money, Young raised the question, “Shouldn’t we be talking about the marriage?” His question was ignored and when he brought it up again, he was asked by the priest to step out into the hallway. When he told the priest that he couldn’t go to a church like this, the priest said, “Don’t worry, you’ll learn the ways of the church.”

“I left and never went back,” says Young. He was 18 years old.

Even though he left the Catholic Church, Young wasn’t giving up on religion. He began attending worship on Sunday at other denominations—United Methodist, Presbyterian and the Free Church. “Eventually when you’re church shopping, you end up sitting in the back so you can get an easy exit in case something goes wrong,” says Young. “I wasn’t finding truth anywhere.”

During the week, Young had to travel cross town by bus to get to his high school. One day he was heading home from school and stopped outside St. Lucas to look at the church service times. “I thought, This looks like a big old Catholic church—I should try this,” says Young. “I had no idea what Lutheran was, much less WELS.”

As he was looking at the times, a hand came down on his shoulder. “I heard someone say, ‘Looking for a church, son?’ ” says Young. “[The pastor] started talking to me and invited me inside. I asked him all sorts of questions, and before I knew it, three hours had gone by.”

That Sunday Young took the bus to St. Lucas to attend worship. As in the past, he sat down and had his exit strategy ready when in walked the girl he was dating and her family. They sat right in front of Young. After some initial confusion, Young sat with his girlfriend and her family for the service.

At this church, Young found what he was looking for. “My perception was that in the Catholic Church, the priest was telling you what the Bible said. Here the priest—I didn’t know he was called a pastor—was reading from the Bible,” he says.

“The sermon blew my socks off. It scared the snot out of me. He had me going to hell the one minute, and the next minute he told me why I had eternal salvation. It was the best sermon I ever heard,” says Young. “In 20 minutes, he opened my eyes. I was blown away. I thought, I have to get more of that.”

After the service, the pastor invited Young to Bible information class (BIC). Young agreed, and his girlfriend, Kirsten, offered to go with him.

Two years later, Young became a member. “I went from a two-time BICer to a confirmed adult,” he says. “I went twice not because I was a slow learner but because my commitment to my faith was huge and I didn’t want to go through what I just went through at [my old church].”

Young’s becoming a Lutheran didn’t sit well with his family. His mom, a strong Irish Catholic, had him excommunicated from the Catholic Church, kicked him out of the house, and didn’t talk to him for close to three years. “If you’re brought up Catholic, anything other than Catholicism is considered a cult,” Young explains. “She wanted me to be a priest.”

His grandmother finally helped convince his mom to rekindle the relationship—about five months before his wedding to Kirsten.

After that Young shared his faith often with his mom before her death. “Our first conversation was about having to go to confession,” he says. “Growing up a Catholic kid, you dreaded going into the box. I was telling her that this isn’t something she needs to do. The Lord is not asking this of her—for her to demonstrate her faith. That [discussion] went on for years.” He continues to witness to his brothers and sisters, who still don’t all know the truth. “I know their eternal salvation depends on it, but all I can do is plant the seed and leave it up to the Lord.”

His family aren’t the only people whom Young has told about the gospel’s saving message. “I’ve been on the evangelism committee of every church I’ve ever been at because we have to share this,” he says. “Growing up Catholic, I didn’t have this kind of faith. I didn’t have this kind of relief. I didn’t have this kind of joy in my faith. It was all the black marks on the soul. It was all the heavy lifting you had to do to stay ahead of it. And you just can’t do it. Here it’s just the truth; it’s just the gospel.”

Being part of WELS Missions is giving him an opportunity to spread that good news even further—though he didn’t immediately apply for the job. At the time, he was running a construction company and doing quite well. “I was making money. My plan was all set—here I am, still thinking it was my plan!” he says.

Several pastors kept encouraging him to apply. “Two and a half months later [my family] took a big step off the cliff, not knowing, and God instantly caught us and kept providing for us,” says Young. “It was like a rebirth. [Before] I was living for the dollar; I wasn’t living for my family or for my faith. This was a nice way for God to slap me upside the head and say, ‘Hey, let’s get back to doing what you love.’ ”

Doing what he loves means sharing the freedom the gospel provides by helping plan mission opportunities around the United States and the world and helping administer the gifts the Lord has provided for outreach. It’s a fitting next leg in his journey of faith.

And though we can’t all be part of the day-to-day work of WELS Missions, Young reminds us that we all have mission work to do. “We have to stay vigilant,” he says. “We have to make sure that we don’t just rest on the Word and be comfortable with it. We have to understand that our purpose is to share that gospel message with folks because there’s not a lot of time left.”

Julie Wietzke is managing editor of Forward in Christ magazine.

Author: Julie K. Wietzke
Volume 103, Number 3
Issue: March 2016

Copyrighted by WELS Forward in Christ © 2021
Forward in Christ grants permission for any original article (not a reprint) to be printed for use in a WELS church, school, or organization, provided that it is distributed free and indicate Forward in Christ as the source. Images may not be reproduced except in the context of its article. Contact us

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

—John 12:1-8

Jesus defends an extravagant gift of devotion.

Theodore J. Hartwig

This dinner in honor of Jesus happened six days before the Passover, and, as Matthew reports in his gospel (26:6-13), the host was Simon the Leper. Undoubtedly, Jesus had healed Simon of a disease that had made him a social outcast for many years. So it is not unusual that “leper” became fixed to his name, an enduring reminder of his gift from Jesus. This dinner was a special occasion for Simon, a way to show his gratitude to Jesus and to invite others not only to share in his joy but also to show Jesus honor and praise themselves.

MARY’S SPECIAL GIFT

Mary and Martha’s brother, Lazarus, was a guest at the meal. The previous chapter recorded the astonishing miracle of his return to life after being dead four days. We know nothing about the state of his existence during his four-day sleep in the tomb. As might be expected, Martha was busy at her specialty of preparing and serving the meal. It was a chastened Martha. We hear not a word of criticism that Mary was not helping her. Jesus was the focus of attention at the banquet. His disciples as well as other guests were also there for this dinner in honor of Jesus.

With her expression of loving devotion for Jesus, Mary unexpectedly became the center of everyone’s attention. The perfume she poured on his feet was generous, an entire pint. It was also of highest quality. That its fragrance penetrated the room evidences its high value. It was derived from nard or spikenard, a bush native to the far-away Himalayas. Mary spent a great deal of money for this special gift for Jesus.

Then we come to Judas Iscariot, the villain of the story. Supported by the other disciples in Matthew’s account, he criticized Mary for what they called her prodigal use of costly perfume. Judas was from the town of Kerioth in Judea and may have been the only non-Galilean of the Twelve. He may also have been the most educated, which could account for his having been entrusted with keeping the common purse used for the gifts gathered from Jesus’ admirers. Judas certainly seems knowledgeable about the value of the perfume, which was worth a year’s wages. But his concern for the poor was sham talk. His fingers dipped habitually into the purse, not to cover the cost of expenses but to line his own pocket. It seems that the disciples were not yet aware of it, and though Jesus knew “what was in each person” (John 2:25), he did not use his authority to veto Judas’s office. Let the disciples discover this mundane truth at its own good time.

We feel the full impact of Judas’s fault-finding when we put ourselves into Mary’s place. When criticized by Judas and the others, she must have wanted to crawl into a hole. At huge cost to herself, she had shopped for a gift that would express the dimensions of her gratitude to this man who was her Savior. He deserved the very best from her. And, throwing all Jewish conventions to the wind, she let down her hair in public to dry the feet she had anointed. Yet what reward had come of it from the bystanders? Grating on her ears and sensibilities, Mary was crushed by the critical voice of Judas and seconded by the other disciples. More than everyone else in that dining room, these men should have known better.

JESUS’ IMPORTANT MESSAGE

In the highly charged atmosphere around the table, it was vital that Jesus come to Mary’s rescue. Judas had rendered a judgment that for the practical-minded guests must have seemed common sense. Jesus might have scored Judas for his accusation. He might have said to Judas as he said to Peter for contradicting Jesus’ prediction of his death, “Get behind me, Satan” or, in this context, “Get behind Mary, Satan.”

But Jesus spoke on a far higher plane than defending Mary for her human devotion. Of course the poor for whom Judas seemed so sympathetic needed the service of others, and poor people are always present to be helped. But Jesus will not always be at hand. On its higher spiritual plane, Mary’s perfume anointed Jesus’ body for burial.

Such words, however, ran counter to the hopes and aspirations of most guests at the table. True to human nature, their minds were set on earthly things, not on things above. They expected Jesus to liberate them from their Roman masters and, like David, to establish another glorious Jewish kingdom on earth. At least they wanted him to be always with them to speak of God’s grace and to perform miracles like the one performed for Simon. They did not want to hear Jesus speak about his burial.

In the face of this negativity, Jesus kept to his message and mission. He did not flinch from his Father’s assignment. Of this determination, Isaiah writes of Jesus in his prophecy: “I have set my face like flint.” (50:7). Despite all the wrong ideas about his mission harbored by friends and followers, Jesus remained faithful to the mission he had come to complete. He was determined to go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, be buried, but also to rise again. In Matthew’s account of Mary’s devotion, Jesus enhances his defense of Mary with this forecast: “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (26:13).

Commendation does not come any higher. And it remains as Jesus said: This episode still holds a high place among the four gems from John.

Theodore Hartwig, professor emeritus at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, is a member at St. John, New Ulm.

This is the third article in a four-part series on the gems of John.

Author: Theodore J. Hartwig
Volume 103, Number 3
Issue: March 2016

Copyrighted by WELS Forward in Christ © 2021
Forward in Christ grants permission for any original article (not a reprint) to be printed for use in a WELS church, school, or organization, provided that it is distributed free and indicate Forward in Christ as the source. Images may not be reproduced except in the context of its article. Contact us