Sermon - Third Sunday in Epiphany - Matthew 4:23-25

 

Matthew 4:12-25  (especially 23-25) 

“Jesus the Healer” 

One of the major tasks of the Epiphany season is to continually reveal Christ.  Who is this child born in Bethlehem?  Who is this man, baptized by John?  What is his true identity, and what is his mission?  It’s as if we received the gift on Christmas, but we now spend weeks unwrapping it, appreciating it, and learning all about it. 

Today, in our Gospel reading, especially the last few verses, we see Jesus as a great healer.   

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. 

It is also our annual Life Sunday emphasis, and so I’ll tie in some of those thoughts as well. 

We Christians need healing, just like every human in this sinful, fallen world.  We are just as subject to the physical, bodily effects of sin as the next person.  The problem of illness and disease is a problem that goes back to the garden and the Fall.  It is, in a sense, death encroaching in upon us in various ways.  Just as Adam and Eve were told the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, they would die – and they did, at least spiritually – but they didn’t keel over and die that very day, physically.  But nonetheless death had its claws in them, and it wouldn’t let go.  Adam lived 930 years – but he who came from the ground returned to it, as the Word of God declared.  You are dust, and to dust you shall return. 

Death has its claws in you, too, or at least in your fallen, sinful nature.  Unless Jesus comes first, your flesh will go the way of Adam, and all flesh, and something or other will end your life.  You will die.  To dust you, too, will return.  The wages of sin come due. 

But yet in another sense, you will never die.  For you are in Christ.  And though your body will break down and cease operations, you, the essence of you – the spirit – will be with the Lord in paradise, and at rest.  And on the last day, that body will be resurrected and all of us in Christ will never see death again.  God is the giver of life, and in Jesus Christ he makes all things new.  In Jesus, who died for us all – he brings new and everlasting life.  We have a future hope, and never forget it, Christian! 

But what about today?  What about my aches and pains?  What about this disease and that – my loved one who is sick, my aging parents who won’t ever be the same?  Where is God in all of this suffering?  Where is Jesus?  Isn’t he the healer?  Let’s treat some of these questions head on. 

Jesus was a great healer, and part of the point of all that healing was as a sign that he was the Messiah.  Remember when John’s disciples came asking, “Are you the one, or shall we seek another?” Jesus told them to report to John what they saw:  His healing credentials were part of the proof that he is, in fact, the one, the Christ: 

And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. (Luke 7:22) 

Well you might say, “Well that’s good and well for them, but we already know Jesus is the Messiah.”  Ah, but see, his healings also demonstrate his heart.  Time and again the Gospels tell us he had compassion on the sick.  His heart went out to those who are suffering.  He cared deeply for them. 

And Jesus also cares about life.  He who wept at the grave of Lazarus is not indifferent to death.  He does not desire the death of the wicked.  He cares especially for the weak and the lowly, the aged and the unborn, those whose lives are precarious – the widow and the orphan – and also the humble poor.  His desire is always for life, spiritual and physical, abundant and eternal. 

And this also shows us his inclination toward you.  Jesus the healer knows your hurts.  He cares about them.  He is not indifferent to human suffering.  Nor is he a cruel God who makes us suffer for his own amusement.  He wants us to have life, and have it abundantly.  He wants us to be whole, and healed, and healthy and well. 

The truth is, he does heal.  The human body itself, God’s own creation, has an amazing ability to heal itself.  Thanks be to God.  He also provides medicines and sends and sends us healers – doctors, nurses, all manner of helpers who use their knowledge and skills to benefit us.  They are his agents for our good health. Thanks be to God.  And sometimes, yes, God even brings us miraculous healing that modern medicine and biology cannot explain.  It’s not unheard of, and it does happen.  Thanks be to God. 

It would be wrong of us, however, to put God to the test.  Faith healers of all manner have come along and done terrible damage to people’s faith with their false promises and false hopes. “You’re not being healed because your faith isn’t strong enough” is among the most pernicious of lies. 

It would also be wrong of us to doubt his goodness or his love for us if he doesn’t provide a healing of this or that sort.  He answers all our prayers, in his time, and in his way, and according to his will.  But his particular will in this is not revealed to us. 

Sometimes, God’s will is to heal us in this earthly life. But sometimes, for whatever reason that is his alone, he allows us to suffer, and eventually even to die. 

For the Christian, this is not the end of the story.  It is not a deal-breaker.  It doesn’t make us turn away from God or consider him unloving and cruel. 

For in death we see the gate to eternal life.  Death has no sting for us who are in Christ.  It has no ultimate power.  It is a temporary sleep and we will awake more surely than the sun will rise tomorrow.  And even while we wait for that day, we rest in peace knowing we are with Jesus.   

But that still leaves the question of suffering here on earth.  That still leaves us with our aches and pains and sorrows and tribulations.  What do we do with them? 

We suffer with patience and endurance.  We look for the good in all things.  We cling to the promises of God, and seek the comfort he does afford even in our suffering.  Consider: 

Sickness and disease can humble us.  They can break down our prideful tendencies to resist God’s goodness.  God can work through these things to prompt repentance.  Think of Paul’s thorn-in-the-flesh, which he prayed for God to remove, but, no.  It kept him humble.  Paul was even thankful for it.   

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  

(2 Corinthians 12:8-10) 

When I am weak, I am strong?  It sounds like nonsense to the world.  But to us who are in Christ – it rings true.  In our weakness we turn to God who is our ultimate and only strength.  We see his goodness in rich and powerful ways.  And we learn to rely on him ever more deeply and profoundly.   

And suffering and sickness also provide us with an opportunity to love our neighbor.  Fulfilling the 5th Commandment, we can help and support him in every physical need. 

Jesus Christ has suffered for us, even unto death.  And he promises us abundant life in him.  He doesn’t just treat the symptoms of death and disease, he strikes at the very cause – sin.  He obliterates sin and puts it to death at his crucifixion.  And so what is left for us, but forgiveness, life and salvation in him? 

If we are healed – thanks be to God.  If we must suffer – thanks be to God.  For even in our sufferings he works good.  And he does point us to that day, that final healing, when all sorrow is gone and every tear is wiped from our eyes.  When the perfect is revealed, when death is finally swallowed up in victory, and when life – glorious, eternal life – is revealed to us and for us and in us forever. That life which is already ours in Jesus Christ.  May God, who has begun this good work in you, bring it to completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Sermon - The Baptism of Our Lord - Matthew 3:13-17

Matthew 3:13-17 

Why is Jesus being baptized?  That’s the central question of this reading, and of this day.  It was John’s question, or at least the question behind his initial objection.  It’s the question that every child raised in the church eventually wonders:  If Baptism washes away your sins, and if Jesus has no sins, then why is he getting baptized?  It’s a good question.  But it’s also a question Jesus answers.  Why?  “to fulfill all righteousness” that’s why.  And so today let’s talk about what he means by that. 

Like so many things that happen in the pages of Holy Scripture, God not only teaches us by the words that the people in the Bible say, but also by the actions they perform.  Quite often these actions and events have very deep significance, and it takes keen insight and careful teaching to draw them out.  Consider how the flood of Noah prefigures Christian baptism – washing away the wicked, and only the faithful remain – saved through the waters by God’s grace alone.  Or take the prophet Jonah being swallowed by the great fish for three days – Jesus tells us the “sign of Jonah” is related to his own rest in the tomb, before his resurrection on the third day.  And there are so many other examples of all this. 

But Jesus’ baptism is one of these, too.  An action and event that is loaded with meaning far above and beyond the simple words describing what happened.  It is therefore one of the readings, one of the events in the life of Jesus, that we return to each and every year on this Sunday.  We ponder its meaning for us, delve into its mysteries.  And each time it seems there is more to say about why Jesus was baptized for us – to fulfill all righteousness. 

Martin Luther weighed in on what Jesus means by “to fulfill all righteousness”:  

“In other words, in order that poor sinners might come to righteousness and be saved, [Jesus says  to John you must now baptize me. For I have for the sake of sinners become a sinner and must fulfill that which God imposed upon sinners, in order that they might become righteous through me.”  (Martin Luther, House Postils: Epiphany: Third Sermon — 1534). 

St. John Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers, puts it this way: “I have come to do away the curse that is appointed for the transgression of the law. I must therefore first fulfill it all, and having delivered you from its condemnation, in this way bring it to an end. It is fitting for me therefore to fulfill the whole law, by the same rule that it is fitting for me to do away the curse that  is written against you in the law: this is the very purpose of my assuming flesh and coming here.” (Homily XII, Matt. III., 13.) 

St. Paul has a similar idea when he writes to the Corinthians:  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

And so Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit, set apart and proclaimed as the Son of the Father, with whom God is well pleased. But it also proclaims him as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. John had already said so. Now it's even more official. Jesus who has no sin, enters those waters for us, not to be washed of his own sin, but to take on our sins. 

You might even say that as Jesus, in his baptism, takes our sins upon himself – it is a sort of "Reverse-Baptism".  Part of the “Great Exchange” between The Righteous One and those he makes righteous by fulfilling all righteousness. 

Some have suggested it's as if all the sins of the people that were washing off into the Jordan with John's baptism, Jesus waded in and took upon himself, like a giant holy sponge, taking even more – taking all the sins of the world on his shoulders, or into his own body. And with his eye on the cross, where he would take all those sins to die. 

Notice also:  The whole Trinity was in action in his Baptism, the Father's voice, the Spirit's descent as a dove. And so, also, in yours – the whole Triune God places his name on you by those waters. The Spirit is at work on you and in you.  The Father's words of Jesus are spoken as much to you – you are now his beloved child. With you he is well pleased. The same Spirit has sanctified you, and continues to make you holy, continues to point you to Christ, continues the good work begun in you, bringing it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. 

You and I are baptized into Christ, who was baptized for us, to fulfill all righteousness. 

Who can say enough about the gift of Christian baptism? It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. It creates faith, drowns the Old Adam and raises the New Man in Christ. It is a daily renewal. It is a lifelong blessing. It is the seal of God's approval and the sign that you too will be part of the final resurrection. It's not just a symbol, though, it actually does what God promises. It is the means of God's grace in Christ for the making of disciples of all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike. 

But when we speak of Jesus' Baptism, we can't only mention the one in the Jordan by John. There's another baptism. Hear his words to his disciples from Luke 12: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” and Mark 10 to James and John, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 

You see for Jesus, his baptism, his greater baptism, the one that mattered even more, was the cross. For Jesus the baptism in the Jordan was part and parcel of, and led directly to the baptism of Golgotha. There the sins of the world were washed away, not in ritual water, but in the real sweat and blood of his death. There at the cross was the baptism of all baptisms, the baptism into which all who are baptized are baptized... into his death, and into life eternal. 

And now we see from Romans 6 that your baptism, dear Christian, is also part and parcel of his baptism.  You were, in your baptism, buried with Christ into death, that just as Christ has been raised from the dead, you too might walk in newness of life.  Your baptism unites you to him, even as his baptism united him to you.  And all of it leads to the cross, to death, and to victory over death in him. 

This is why baptism is such a comfort when Christians die.  Oh sure the culture wants us to say nice things about our departed loved ones, and there’s a time and a place for that.  But one of the greatest comforts in the shadow of death is the hope that baptism brings.  Buried with Christ already, raised with Christ by faith to newness of life, and one day, you who are baptized will be raised bodily to the life of the world to come.   

In the end, none of your works matter, but God’s work of baptism does not fail.  And so this sign, this seal, this water-mark upon your brow is really preparing you for life, for death, and for eternal life. 

There truly is nothing worth comparing to this life-long comfort sure. Open-eyed my grave is staring, even there I’ll sleep secure.  Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising, I am baptized into Christ.  I’m a child of paradise! 

So rejoice this day in the baptism of our Lord, at the Jordan, and in the baptism of our Lord that is the cross. Rejoice this day that in your baptism, you receive the benefits of his baptism. Rejoice this day that each and every day “baptism has the power divine to make life immortal mine”.