JUN 28, 2009  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN

The text for our meditation today is the Holy Gospel recorded for us in Mark chapter 5. We will concentrate on these few words:

Daughter, your faith has made you well - Do not fear, only believe.

Thus far the text.

If there’s anything not lacking in the world today, it’s suffering and death. And you do not need to hear of a sick woman or a dying girl to know this.

Suffering and death have always reigned in this world, and they always will. And, they are not the most welcome of subjects among people, either.

Death especially is not easily talked about. And it is not discussed because people just don’t like to think about it or deal with it. But death is the reality nonetheless.

Oh, sure, disease rates might go down — you might have a better chances nowadays of beating cancer and you might live longer, but the death rate is now and always will be one per person. Unless the Lord returns in your lifetime, you will experience death.

But this isn’t the way it is supposed to be. Death is not a natural part of life, as you’re so often told. Death was not part of God’s plan. Death is the enemy, the wretched out come of man’s fall into sin. Man brought it upon himself, an now, people spend their lives trying to avoid it.

The woman with the flow of blood was just such a case. She suffered from a malady that could possibly become life-threatening. Mark records that she had spent all she had on physicians and yet they could do nothing for her. In fact, her condition got even worse.

But doesn’t that situation sound a little like what people go through all the time? So often, people will spare no expense in getting the best medicine, the best cures, best therapy for the body. And please understand — I am not preach against seeking medical attention. The advancements made in medicine are also gifts from God — I’m walking proof of it, literally.

To refuse them is to refuse help from Him.

No, it is a matter of where your faith is placed.

Before going to Jesus, the woman had trusted in the physicians up to the point of poverty. And even then, the doctors told her the words you and I fear: "I’m sorry, but we’ve tried all we can — there’s nothing more we can do for you."

It’s easy for one who is healthy to give thanks to God for the gift of bodily health and well being, just as easily as it is for one who is financially sound to give thanks for the higher standard of living.

But where do such faith and trust go when jobs are lost or the physician is the bearer of bad news? Thanksgiving and praise are replaced with petitions and laments. And they are accompanied by fear and doubt. That is human nature.

In a world where death reigns, Satan employs fear and doubt as his own weapons of mass destruction. In times of suffering, such as this woman endured, as well as time of bereavement, such as Jairus experienced, the deceiver -the old liar -entices you away from the sure promises of God. He tempts you with doubt, the sin that crushed our first parents in Eden.

The devil afflicts the Christian in the sickbed, and he attacks bereft families.

Where is your loving God now, he hisses at you, What good is your faith doing you?

So where is God in all this? He healed the woman of her disease, and he raised the daughter of Jairus. Why does he not promise to do the same for you?

These afflicted ones showed their faith — why doesn’t your faith bring about the same results? After all, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue "Do not fear, only believe," and proceeded to bring the man’s daughter back from the dead!

Dear baptized children of God, Jesus indeed shows you the necessity of faith in the case of these two miracles. He wasn’t simply healing people to demonstrate again and again that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. But to have faith in Christ is to believe in his promise. And his promise to you is not exemption from pain and suffering. His promise is the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.

The Lord does perform miracles in our day. He heals sicknesses and saves lives from certain death. But he does so according to his unsearchable will when it pleases him. No one knows when and where he will do it, but you are not to dwell on such things.

I’m satisfied with Luther’s answer that if God were to heal every disease and raise up all your loved ones you miss, there wouldn’t be anyone left to resurrect on the final day! Your task is to rely on his certain promises that your sins are washed away in the blood of Christ and that heaven is your inheritance.

Your pilgrimage on this earth will be one of suffering — and as Christians you may face an extra helping of it — both because of your nature as sinners and also because of your faih. But you have the promise of a healing far greater than a simple cure of bodily illness — in his suffering and death, Christ Jesus healed you from the terminal disease that affects every person in the world — original sin.

Sin is not a matter of deciding to be bad. Sin is not a matter of choice or free will. Sin is what each one of us are born into. We all come into this world without love of God and without love for our neighbor. Mankind’s natural "wiring" if you will is inclined toward transgressing God’s Law.

Sin is not something that you can defeat like some disease. No surgery, no chemo-therapy, no holistic healing from the hand of man can touch it. It is the plague of the entire history of the human race. It is aggressive, and fatal in every case.

But do not fear, Jesus says, only believe. For it is God who heals you of this infirmity. He gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have ever- lasting life. In performing the two miracles you heard about, Christ Jesus shows that he is Lord over death itself, and he has power over it.

Death is not the end. It is the last enemy, but it has already been conquered and is no longer to be feared. Those who die in the Faith are dead to you, but not to Jesus Christ. To him they merely sleep in blissful rest from their earthly labors. And he will raise them and all the dead on the final day as he raised the daughter of Jairus. Jesus told the woman, your faith has made you well. Faith in Christ receives the gifts that he came in the flesh to impart to you — the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. And from what you have heard of Jesus this day, he is the Lord and Master who has power even over death itself.

The young girl, no doubt the darling of her family, was taken from them. But death could not keep her in its grasp when Jesus took her by the hand. He had compassion upon her bewildered father in light of his faith. The mourners outside laughed him to scorn when he said she was not dead, but asleep. But as far as the Lord of heaven and earth is concerned, she was in fact merely asleep.

Paul uses such language of those who have died in faith — they are in fact not dead, but are in the presence of God, awaiting the resurrection of all flesh. Faith in Christ never disappoints. That is a promise you have from God. For those who are baptized into the death of Christ, death no longer has any power. Death loses its power because in baptism, the child of God is cleansed in Christ’s blood.

As St. Peter put, baptism now also saves you. It saves you because it is God’s chosen means where he makes you his own and creates in you saving faith that can receive his grace.

You’ve already had death taken out of the way in your baptism. When your soul is separated from your body at the Lord’s appointed time, you will depart to be with your Lord and Redeemer, which is far better than remaining in the body.

And this separation is only temporary, as the young girl’s restoration was only temporary. Let’s not forget that although Jesus raised her there in the presence of her family, we know that she died again and returned to the dust from which she came. Jesus granted her temporal life, but he gives you eternal life. Jesus restored her due to their trust in him as the only Savior from death.

Likewise, the hemorrhaging woman’s faith made her well not because she believed in Jesus’ ability to perform a miracle but because she trusted in him as her Savior. Jesus is not a faith healer.

He is not a traveling magician who works through sleight of hand to create an illusion.

And he most certainly is not a TV preacher who promises answer to prayer if you call the number on your screen and have your credit card ready. If you’ve ever seen one of these, you’ve noticed that the call is never toll free. The caller is paying for it, as well as for the deceiver’s house, sports car, and often his toupee.

Be not deceived by those who will recite to you a litany of Bible verses in an attempt to portray Jesus as one who gives you your heart’s desire.

Do not listen to those who tell you that you’ll never be sick if you’re a Christian, or that if you, for some reason, do get sick you can be healed by some guy on a stage.

By Christ’s stripes you are healed indeed, as Isaiah said, but not from the flu or from cancer. His stripes, his wounds, heal you of your terminal disease of sin. And faith in Christ, the faith of the woman healed and of the father of the dead girl, is faith in the Son of God to save.

It is trust in the promise that your sins are washed away, and that your iniquity has been removed from you. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Let us consider once more the words of Jeremiah from our Old Testament reading: "The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. And though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. "

How important are these words of Jeremiah pertaining to his Lord! How correct they are in describing the love and mercy of God. And how fitting they are to the words and deeds of Jesus, as you have heard this day.

Do not fear, dear Christians, only believe — for your faith has made you well, that you may go in peace. Christ is Risen.