The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity - November 14, 2010

The Church Season of Trinity
The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (November 14, 2010)

“Certain Faith”

Readings:   
    Psalm 126
    Isaiah 51:9-16
    Colossians 1:9-4
    Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon Form    Deductive

+INI+

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 9th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verse:

Matthew 9:18-26

 18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.  20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”  22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.  23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In our Gospel lesson, one man and one woman desire healing from Jesus and both people receive what they desire in two different ways. Both people also are outstanding examples of faith that clings to Jesus Christ against all odds.

In the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke we hear that the ruler of the synagogue’s name was Jairus. His daughter has just died. Although he has no reason to trouble Christ with a request, nevertheless, he came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” Talk about strong faith! Jairus knew that all Jesus needed to do was lay a hand on her and she will live. A few weeks ago, we heard that someone with a fever wanted Jesus to come and lay a hand on them too.  And there Jesus spoke but a word and the fever was gone. This time Jesus follows Jairus who wanted Christ’s mercy. 

But on the way to someone who was dead, Christ came upon someone who was becoming dead.   For on the way to the ruler’s home, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” But, instead of our Lord laying a hand on her or speaking a word of healing to her, she touches his tunic and is healed. Jesus knows what has happened. Mark and Luke’s Gospel record Jesus asking who touched Him because Mark says He felt power leaving Him. Nevertheless, our Lord’s response to her action is the same: Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.

Faith is a word that is tossed around so much that it’s hard to remember what faith is and what faith is not. One thing is for certain: you don’t just have faith. Faith is not merely trusting a process or wanting the impossible to be possible. Faith has an object. For those in the Christian faith, the object of faith is the Triune God. You trust God to keep the promise He made to our fathers in the faith, to Abraham and all his children’s seed forever.

In the book of Hebrews we hear these words, “Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.”  So, you see that saying to someone, “You just gotta have faith” while still having the tiniest bit of doubt about who will perform your request, or who will take care of your needs is not really faith. Faith is being sure.

Now think about putting yourself in the place of the woman, for twelve years you’ve been sick. The doctors are stymied. They can’t seem to find the problem.  They’ve done all the tests.  The medicine can’t or isn’t curing the illness. So what are you left with, well quite frankly your only hope and trust and faith is in Jesus. But stubborn as we are we don’t go to Christ because we don’t think He will heal us. Or we won’t go to Him because He won’t heal us in our terms.

Now put yourself in the place of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. Jesus brings joy both to Jairus and his household.  Jesus comes into the house, a house full of doubts.  Tears are flowing because the young girl is dead.  And when Jesus says the girl is just sleeping, the mourners break out in laughter.  But, Jesus confounds those who ridicule Him for saying Jairus’ daughter is not dead, but just sleeping. He clears the room of the crowd, Jesus, “took her by the hand, and the girl arose” If the resurrection of the dead does not bring joy, then nothing can bring that kind of joy.

The same two things that happen to Jairus and the woman with a flow of blood happen to you now and will happen to you in the Day of Resurrection. When you pray for healing, peace, repentance, forgiveness, or any other need you may have, be it physical or spiritual, even if you glance the hem of our Lord’s garment, then you believe without a doubt, and Jesus hears your prayer and He will answer according to His good and gracious will.

When you pray for spiritual matters, like strengthening your faith, our Father in heaven has to give it to you. When you pray for earthly matters, like healing from illness, our Father answers according to His will. If His will is that your loved one die, and if they die in the Christian faith, then really they have the best healing possible. If His will is that your loved one recovers, you rejoice because the illness is gone. You also rejoice because, if the one healed is a Christian, they know that ultimately they will have final healing in their resurrection.

There is no greater joy than the eyes which will see and ears will hear than our Savior descending from heaven to call you to His side. For ages upon ages, up from this earth rise countless men and women who died in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His promise of forgiveness and they are restored, they are brought home to Him. Their sins are forgiven in Christ’s blood and righteousness. They are restored to the way they were meant to be when our Lord shakes off their mortal bodies, reunite their souls with their new bodies, and recreates heaven and earth, just as He promised in His Word. And their faith believes it possible, because with God all things are possible.

Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. And there is evidence of these things which you have not seen. The evidence is in Holy Scripture, God’s Holy Word. And here today the substance of your hope is in the visible Word with water, and with the bread, and wine, delivering forgiveness and eternal life into your life. 

Christ’s love for you is real, He came from heaven to earth for you.  In our lesson these two people are healed today, Jesus became incarnate to them.  He came into their presence, for them, to heal them, to set them free one from sickness and one from death.  The world today ridicules a faith which believes in Christ, just as it so many years ago Jesus was ridiculed just before He raised the Jairus’ daughter. But, Christians will have the last laugh against this world and the devil when Jesus casts out the unbelievers and He raises His children from the slumber of death to the joy of eternal life. 

Jesus comes into your lives to heal you too.  He becomes incarnate in this world to address your every sickness, to grant you hope for every trial, to give you the certainty of what you may not be able to see right now.  Though the world, the devil, and our sinful nature would throw trials and tribulations at us to try block and hinder your view of heaven.  Jesus casts away the blinding darkness of the unbelieving world, and He brings you through and out of all that would cause you sadness in the here and now.  For Jesus brings you to His there and forever.  Jesus came into this world, for you and for me and for all who would believe in Him.  And that heavenly relief is what we in faith hope for, and Jesus makes certain you will eternally see.  Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
+SDG+