Trinity 21 (10.St John 4:46-54/Genesis 1:1-2:3/Ephesians 6:10-17
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was not an act of desperation that brought the official to our Lord. It was faith. Desperation does not rouse a man from the bedside of his dying son to walk twenty miles on a chance. A father would not leave his sick child for anything. No parent would. Like King David, fasting and weeping for his son conceived in adultery with Bathsheba, this nobleman would keep vigil over his boy, even into those arduous, long, dark hours.
But when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him. This is not desperation. This is hope. Hope forged in the crucible of suffering; borne in the midst of fatherly chastisement and discipline, hope given as a gift from the One who subjected all creation to futility. This man is called an official, a nobleman - and he is - but his royal connections to the house of Herod cannot save him or his son. At this most crucial of moments his first and most important vocation is seen: he is a father; a father to a dying boy.
And so he grieves. His sorrow is too deep for words as he watches his son’s life fade from him. All he has is the promise of Christ Jesus. All he knows is that this Man from Nazareth broke into the futility of creation and set it free from bondage. And he, like all creation, awaits the fullness of that freedom.
For Christ had come previously to Cana, to a wedding feast, where He had made the water wine. This sign of Jesus pointed forward to that great, heavenly sign - the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end. This sign of Jesus showed Him to be the One spoke into being all things in the heavens and the earth. He is Lord over creation. And keeping watch over the misery of his son, this father knew that Jesus is the only One who can help. So in faith, not desperation, he goes.
It is no different for you. It is not desperation that brought you here today, to where Jesus is. It is faith. Sure, you may have your doubts, your anxieties. Faith is not the absence of doubt, just as courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the right thing, even when it is hard. So too with faith. Your old Adam wishes you not come. Satan himself would keep you away. The world thinks it utter foolishness to trek forty-miles round trip - two days travel - to leave the bedside of your child, who may die while you are away. For what? To go to see Jesus? To hear a Word from Him?
For you have plenty of other things, better things, you could be doing! There are chores to complete, errands to run, homes to tidy, children to shop for, fall breaks to enjoy, deadlines to meet, sleep to catch-up on. Life does not stop. So why drop everything? Why leave that which seems most important - even the bedside of a dying child - to go to Jesus?
Because there is only One who can give life. Only one who can bring back from the precipice of death, and even from death itself. One whose Word cleaves the darkness of your sin. One whose Word bespeaks you righteous, bright with His own holiness. Faith goes to Jesus. It clings to Him and nothing else.
And he went to Jesus and asked Him to come down and heal his son. Jesus said to him, “Unless you signs and wonders you will not believe.” Now he is hard pressed. He goes to the One who alone can help, begging him for mercy, and he is rebuffed. Like the Canaanite woman, rebuked as a family dog, yet happy with the mere crumbs from the Lord’s table, will this father bear the chastising embarrassment for sake of his ill son? Will he once more courageously beseech our Lord in prayer?
For this is how our Lord often treats His dear children - He may appear to them to be their enemy. He chastises and disciplines them as a stern father, that He may strengthen their faith and enliven their courage and trust in Him. For His Christians are His knights, dressed and ready for battle against the evil horde of Satan. But remember King David and the affliction of his little boy? It is written, The Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David. The Lord. What good is an armored knight who lacks courage? Of what use are his weapons if he has not been trained to use them? Often our Lord spars with us, training us, strengthening us, preparing us for real battle. Consider the words of the Psalmist:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13)
I have trusted in Your steadfast love. If Jesus would spar with him, this nobleman would wrestle back. He is Jacob, clinging to the Lord, not letting Him go until he has received his blessing. And so he begged Him, Lord, come down before my little boy dies. This knight would not submit; he would not yield.
And as Jacob and the Canaanite woman before him, this nobleman prevails. He prevails in prayer over our Lord who seeks to strengthen his faith. For our Lord loves to hear the prayer of His people. He has given everything into your hand; He has given you dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. He has blessed you. He awaits your prayer.
And He says to this distraught father, Go, you son lives! It is present tense. He lives now! Just as in the beginning the Word spoke, Be light! and there was light, so now the Word made flesh speaks, Be life, and there is life! The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. He had that promise in his pocket - your son lives! - and he walked the twenty miles back home. He didn’t see his son recover; he only had the word. It was not until he arrived home did he learn of the hour - that very hour - in which his son was healed.
And two souls were healed that day. The boy, who recovered immediately at the word of the Lord, and the father, whose faith was strengthened in Christ Jesus. He preached to his household this saving Word of Christ, and they believed; his wife and other children, servants and their families! This is the blessed joy of the Gospel that you take from here, the Word of Jesus, which you receive in faith, and return home, sharing it with your children and spouse, your family and friends, that they too may believe.
Beloved there is another aspect of this story that ought not be overlooked. The nobleman entreated Jesus to come down and heal his son. He did not, but simply spoke the Word and the boy was healed. The father did not see signs and wonders, but had merely the Word of Christ. That was enough. This knight was to stand firm with nothing more than this meager word, Go, your son lives.
But for you, dear little ones, the Son of the Nobleman did come down. He came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man. For you He did battle not against flesh and blood, but against the Ruler, against the Cosmic Power, against sin, death, and Satan. He did not fight as a knight, but died as a Slave. And the sign that Jesus gives is His Cross and Resurrection. And behold, it is very good. For by His death, you are made sons and daughters, alive in the Victorious Christ who has conquered the grave for you.
And since He shares in your flesh and blood, He knows your weakness. He knows you need signs. And so He has given them to you. The sign of His Cross, the sign of Holy Baptism, the sign of His Supper, the sign of His Absolution. And these are not empty signs, but are filled with the Word of Christ, making them what they are. They give what they say: the forgiveness of sins. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
This is His present tense forgiveness - just as to the man, Your son lives - He speaks His Word of life to you now. Go, your sins are forgiven. Present tense forgiveness for present tense sinners.
Beloved His Supper is the Meal for your journey. The Word made flesh puts His own Body and Blood into you; to strengthen your faith, to give you courage in the day of trouble, to withstand the assaults of the Evil One. You are His saintly knights, armed with prayer and His Word. At times it may seem as if even God is your enemy.
Yet He bids you come, not in desperation, but in faith. Come, battle wearied and worn out. For the Church and her liturgy dispense rations for the battle. Come then and receive them. Not in desperation, but in faith. For your Lord goes with you through this dark valley, He Himself feeds you and guides you along the way. You are fitted for battle, dressed up in Jesus. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was not an act of desperation that brought the official to our Lord. It was faith. Desperation does not rouse a man from the bedside of his dying son to walk twenty miles on a chance. A father would not leave his sick child for anything. No parent would. Like King David, fasting and weeping for his son conceived in adultery with Bathsheba, this nobleman would keep vigil over his boy, even into those arduous, long, dark hours.
But when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him. This is not desperation. This is hope. Hope forged in the crucible of suffering; borne in the midst of fatherly chastisement and discipline, hope given as a gift from the One who subjected all creation to futility. This man is called an official, a nobleman - and he is - but his royal connections to the house of Herod cannot save him or his son. At this most crucial of moments his first and most important vocation is seen: he is a father; a father to a dying boy.
And so he grieves. His sorrow is too deep for words as he watches his son’s life fade from him. All he has is the promise of Christ Jesus. All he knows is that this Man from Nazareth broke into the futility of creation and set it free from bondage. And he, like all creation, awaits the fullness of that freedom.
For Christ had come previously to Cana, to a wedding feast, where He had made the water wine. This sign of Jesus pointed forward to that great, heavenly sign - the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end. This sign of Jesus showed Him to be the One spoke into being all things in the heavens and the earth. He is Lord over creation. And keeping watch over the misery of his son, this father knew that Jesus is the only One who can help. So in faith, not desperation, he goes.
It is no different for you. It is not desperation that brought you here today, to where Jesus is. It is faith. Sure, you may have your doubts, your anxieties. Faith is not the absence of doubt, just as courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the right thing, even when it is hard. So too with faith. Your old Adam wishes you not come. Satan himself would keep you away. The world thinks it utter foolishness to trek forty-miles round trip - two days travel - to leave the bedside of your child, who may die while you are away. For what? To go to see Jesus? To hear a Word from Him?
For you have plenty of other things, better things, you could be doing! There are chores to complete, errands to run, homes to tidy, children to shop for, fall breaks to enjoy, deadlines to meet, sleep to catch-up on. Life does not stop. So why drop everything? Why leave that which seems most important - even the bedside of a dying child - to go to Jesus?
Because there is only One who can give life. Only one who can bring back from the precipice of death, and even from death itself. One whose Word cleaves the darkness of your sin. One whose Word bespeaks you righteous, bright with His own holiness. Faith goes to Jesus. It clings to Him and nothing else.
And he went to Jesus and asked Him to come down and heal his son. Jesus said to him, “Unless you signs and wonders you will not believe.” Now he is hard pressed. He goes to the One who alone can help, begging him for mercy, and he is rebuffed. Like the Canaanite woman, rebuked as a family dog, yet happy with the mere crumbs from the Lord’s table, will this father bear the chastising embarrassment for sake of his ill son? Will he once more courageously beseech our Lord in prayer?
For this is how our Lord often treats His dear children - He may appear to them to be their enemy. He chastises and disciplines them as a stern father, that He may strengthen their faith and enliven their courage and trust in Him. For His Christians are His knights, dressed and ready for battle against the evil horde of Satan. But remember King David and the affliction of his little boy? It is written, The Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David. The Lord. What good is an armored knight who lacks courage? Of what use are his weapons if he has not been trained to use them? Often our Lord spars with us, training us, strengthening us, preparing us for real battle. Consider the words of the Psalmist:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13)
I have trusted in Your steadfast love. If Jesus would spar with him, this nobleman would wrestle back. He is Jacob, clinging to the Lord, not letting Him go until he has received his blessing. And so he begged Him, Lord, come down before my little boy dies. This knight would not submit; he would not yield.
And as Jacob and the Canaanite woman before him, this nobleman prevails. He prevails in prayer over our Lord who seeks to strengthen his faith. For our Lord loves to hear the prayer of His people. He has given everything into your hand; He has given you dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. He has blessed you. He awaits your prayer.
And He says to this distraught father, Go, you son lives! It is present tense. He lives now! Just as in the beginning the Word spoke, Be light! and there was light, so now the Word made flesh speaks, Be life, and there is life! The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. He had that promise in his pocket - your son lives! - and he walked the twenty miles back home. He didn’t see his son recover; he only had the word. It was not until he arrived home did he learn of the hour - that very hour - in which his son was healed.
And two souls were healed that day. The boy, who recovered immediately at the word of the Lord, and the father, whose faith was strengthened in Christ Jesus. He preached to his household this saving Word of Christ, and they believed; his wife and other children, servants and their families! This is the blessed joy of the Gospel that you take from here, the Word of Jesus, which you receive in faith, and return home, sharing it with your children and spouse, your family and friends, that they too may believe.
Beloved there is another aspect of this story that ought not be overlooked. The nobleman entreated Jesus to come down and heal his son. He did not, but simply spoke the Word and the boy was healed. The father did not see signs and wonders, but had merely the Word of Christ. That was enough. This knight was to stand firm with nothing more than this meager word, Go, your son lives.
But for you, dear little ones, the Son of the Nobleman did come down. He came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man. For you He did battle not against flesh and blood, but against the Ruler, against the Cosmic Power, against sin, death, and Satan. He did not fight as a knight, but died as a Slave. And the sign that Jesus gives is His Cross and Resurrection. And behold, it is very good. For by His death, you are made sons and daughters, alive in the Victorious Christ who has conquered the grave for you.
And since He shares in your flesh and blood, He knows your weakness. He knows you need signs. And so He has given them to you. The sign of His Cross, the sign of Holy Baptism, the sign of His Supper, the sign of His Absolution. And these are not empty signs, but are filled with the Word of Christ, making them what they are. They give what they say: the forgiveness of sins. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
This is His present tense forgiveness - just as to the man, Your son lives - He speaks His Word of life to you now. Go, your sins are forgiven. Present tense forgiveness for present tense sinners.
Beloved His Supper is the Meal for your journey. The Word made flesh puts His own Body and Blood into you; to strengthen your faith, to give you courage in the day of trouble, to withstand the assaults of the Evil One. You are His saintly knights, armed with prayer and His Word. At times it may seem as if even God is your enemy.
Yet He bids you come, not in desperation, but in faith. Come, battle wearied and worn out. For the Church and her liturgy dispense rations for the battle. Come then and receive them. Not in desperation, but in faith. For your Lord goes with you through this dark valley, He Himself feeds you and guides you along the way. You are fitted for battle, dressed up in Jesus. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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