This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.
Grace, mercy and peace be to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace,
and be healed of your disease.
Prayer: May the words of my
mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our Gospel reading today, we read about how Jesus
is called to the home of a man called Jairus, whose daughter is dying, and when
they get there, they find her dead, and Jesus raises her from the dead. But
also, along the way, a woman in the crowd with a bleeding problem touches Jesus’
garments, and she is healed.
So our reading starts, where we read: Then came one
of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his
feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of
death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.”
And he went with him. This man simply brings his needs to Jesus, and Jesus
is happy to go with him. The man is particularly desperate because he has a
daughter who is dying. He doesn’t want to see his child die, and he believes
that Jesus is his only hope—or even his last hope—in preventing that
from happening.
Then we read about something that happens as Jesus is
walking along to his house. We read: And a great crowd followed him and
thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for
twelve years. Here we see another person who is very desperate. What a
devastating thing it must have been for her to have this problem for so long!
She must have despaired of life itself sometimes. And yet, like Jairus, she
comes to Jesus as her last hope.
It also says about her that she had suffered much
under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but
rather grew worse.
This little verse gives us a tremendous insight into
this woman’s life and her struggles. There are many people in our society like
this, and maybe you feel like this. Maybe you’ve suffered much under many
physicians, and spent all that you had, and you haven’t got any better but
you’ve just become worse. Anyway, in our country, where we have so many good
things, and where we are able to benefit from all kinds of advances in
technology, many people often wonder why they find it so difficult to stay
healthy and fit. After all, those who hold to the theory of evolution have said
that the human race is getting better and better, and it’s all about the
survival of the fittest. But then, people ask, “why I am sick all the time?”
There are many Christians who often only pray for themselves or for other
people when they are sick, as if it’s the most important in their life.
Physical health is a good thing, and it’s a good gift
from God, but it’s not the most important thing. Health can so easily turn into
an idol, and we fear losing our health more than we fear God himself. Even many
Christians can start to direct all their spiritual attention to their physical
health, and become obsessed with it.
But before we go on, I’d like to say something about
doctors, and the vocation of being a doctor or a medical professional. There
are some Christians who don’t like doctors, and think that instead they should
pray to God for healing. Now sometimes, we have no choice—some people who live
way out bush in the middle of “Woop-Woop” can’t get to a doctor, and so they
have to make do with their home remedies. But even if we go to a doctor, we
should always also pray for our healing too. A good doctor is a wonderful gift
from God.
In 2 Chronicles, we read: In the thirty-ninth year of
his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even
in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. Now this passage is
not saying that doctors are bad, but is accusing King Asa of never praying to
God, even when he was very sick. On the other hand, we read in the bible, that
Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts was a doctor. At the end
of Colossians, Paul writes: Luke the beloved physician greets you. We
can see from the examples of these writings how God used this doctor Luke for a
wonderful purpose in his kingdom.
Now it’s a wonderful thing to have a good doctor. And
we might go to the doctor, and get a prescription for some medicine. Now,
doctors only ever do their best, from what they know from their studies and
research. The actual task of healing belongs to God. Whether the medicine
works, whether the particular medicine works in our particular situation, and
exactly how long it takes for us to become well again—all those things are not
controlled by the doctor, but by God. So we shouldn’t neglect praying for our health
when we go to the doctor, but be ready and willing to become well or to stay
unwell according to God’s will and according to his timing. It’s in him that
we live and move and have our being. A doctor provides a treatment, but
then we look to God to make that treatment effective in his time and according
to his will.
Now the fifth commandment states: You shall not
murder. The bible teaches very clearly that human life right from its very
beginning in conception to the very last breath is exactly that—human life. And
it is sinful to take away human life, whether it is at the very beginning, by
aborting a child, or at the very end, by euthanasia. It is God who is the giver
and the taker of life, not us. Job says: The Lord gives, and the Lord has
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We need to pray for more
Christian doctors in this country, because the medical profession has changed
tremendously in recent years, because doctors are being asked more and more to take
life, rather than to help preserve it. One of the greatest evils that has
been unleashed on this country and throughout the world has been the murder of
millions of unborn children, and one of the greatest evils that is underway in
this country at the moment and throughout the world is the push to bring in
euthanasia. A mother’s womb and a hospital bed are supposed to be safe
places—and they need to stay that way.
Sometimes there are certain things for which modern
medicine simply doesn’t have the answer. We also have naturopaths in our country
too, and often they have a particular knowledge of herbs, or massage, or other
things, that might be helpful. If we make use of people like this, we should
also look to God for our healing through them.
But let’s come back to the woman in our reading for a
moment. We read about her: She had heard reports about Jesus and came up
behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even
his garments, I will be made well”. And immediately the flow of blood dried up,
and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
It’s quite an amazing thing that happens here. The
woman is hidden in the crowd, and she simply touches Jesus’ clothes, and she is
healed.
But then we read: And Jesus, perceiving in himself
that power had gone from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said,
“Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd
pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around
to see who had done it. But the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in
fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And
he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be
healed of your disease.”
Now we might ask, “Why did Jesus single this woman
out, and even maybe embarrass her a bit in front of everyone?” After all, we
might think that her problem was quite personal and she might have liked to
keep it to herself. But if Jesus hadn’t singled her out from the crowd, no-one
would ever have known what had happened to this woman, including us.
The same goes for us as Christians: we often come on
Sundays to meet Jesus as part of a crowd, sometimes a small crowd or a large
crowd. And yet, he blesses us individually—he singles us all out from the
crowd. He doesn’t simply say: I forgive you all your sins, to the crowd,
but he addresses these words to you personally, with his stamp and his seal on
the envelope. Your personal salvation is Jesus’ personal interest. None of us
were baptised as a crowd with the pastor holding a great big fire hose! No—all
of us were baptised individually, and Jesus gently and lovingly singles us out
from the crowd to apply his message of salvation and forgiveness and eternal
life to you personally, just like this woman here.
But also, we learn from this, that it wasn’t simply
the mere touching of Jesus’ clothes that healed her. Jesus says: Daughter,
your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. He
says: Your faith has made you well. We read not only that the women
touched Jesus’ clothes, but she also said in her heart: If I touch even his
garments, I will be made well. She knew, and believed, what wonderful
divine power belonged to this man, Jesus, and so when she touched his clothes in
faith, the power of Jesus to heal her went out from him.
The same goes for us in a spiritual way—when we trust
God’s word and believe the Gospel, and trust in the forgiveness of sins and the
promise of eternal life, Jesus’ power goes out to us, and he fills us with the
Holy Spirit. Now, when it comes to physical health, Jesus will heal us
according to his will and according to how it benefits his kingdom. Don’t
forget also, that eventually we will also all die, and it is a wonderful thing
to be with Jesus in Paradise. Many times in our lives, we will recover from
illnesses and all kinds of things. But in the next life, our bodies will be transformed
and purified and cleansed of every single scrap of disease and illness and
disability, because all of these things are present in the world because of
sin. And so when we receive the forgiveness of sins in this life in the church,
it points us forward to that time when we will also be given complete and
physical healing of every single problem we endure in this life. Sometimes,
even the things we have endured in this life will be transformed in such a way
that they will be signs of our victory in faith. For example, after his
resurrection, Jesus still had his wounds, but they were no longer a sign of his
shame and humiliation, but a badge of honour and victory over death. St Paul
says: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the
glory that is to be revealed to us.
Now, just one more thing I’d like to say about the
verse, where it says that Jesus perceived in him that power had gone out
from him. Here we see how our physical healing, whether in this life or the
next, comes as a result of Jesus’ power going out from him.
Sometimes, Jesus lets us stay a little longer than we might like in our
sickness and trouble, and we start to wonder why he doesn’t fix us up.
In 1 Samuel, we read about how Saul went to inquire of
the Lord, but he didn’t answer him. So instead, he went and consulted a medium
(or a witch) instead. When he didn’t receive an answer from God, he then went
and made use of the wrong spiritual powers, and made use of the occult. You
see, in our country, we have doctors and naturopaths, but then there is also a
third category, which we might call “supernatural” healers. And these people
are not always easy to spot. But as our society becomes less Christian, there
has been a rise of strange healing practices which rely on spiritual forces,
and sometimes stray into the occult. But we need to be aware of this, because
there are many, many practitioners of occult medicine that are around.
But listen to what it says
about Jesus: He perceived that power had gone out from him. It’s one
thing to go a doctor or health practitioner and get a prescription, or some
herbal remedies, or whatever, but we have to also be careful that we use the
means that God allows to us and not make use of the wrong power. So in giving a
little warning, I’ll mention a few things that you should watch out
for and avoid.
Firstly, be careful of when
people say that the “mind” can heal the “body”. Let God heal your body, but
don’t elevate your mind in the place of God. There is a whole church dedicated
to mind healing which is called “Christian Science”, which are neither
Christian nor scientific. Medicine should work whether you believe in it or
not. If a practitioner says the reason the treatment didn’t work is because you
didn’t believe in it, then it probably means that they are relying on your
mind-power more than the treatment. Also, beware of things that claim to be “holistic
healing”, if it claims to deal with your soul or spirit in some strange way, or
involves some strange prayer which has nothing to do with the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
Second, be careful of healing
practices that talks about manipulating energy or forces or magnetism, and
things like that. There are many alternative medical practices that speak in scientific
terms which are completely unscientific and are really talking about some
mystical, psychic, occult power. An example of something like this is a
practice known as Reiki.
And especially, avoid like
the plague anything that claims to be obviously occult, like a medium. I once
heard of a woman who went to a psychic medium and was healed of some condition,
only then to be diagnosed with another serious disease. And she was angry with God, and began to
blaspheme. Fortunately, a Christian
person heard her blaspheming and spoke to her and she renounced her use of the
medium. I’m saying these things because I don’t want you to suffer much under
many physicians, and spend all that you have, and instead of getting better you
just get worse.
Now, when we were baptised,
we took a vow: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. And
sometimes, during our lives, God then shows us something that we have
done—maybe in trying to make ourselves well—which was not from him, and made
use of some other spiritual power or an occult power, and sometimes when we
didn’t realise it. Don’t despair! The door of forgiveness stands wide open for
us. If only we would touch the hem of Jesus’ garments we would be made well. For
us, when we hear Jesus’ words of forgiveness and receive the Lord’s Supper,
“given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”, we touch the hem of
Jesus’ garment. And Jesus says: Your faith has saved you; go in peace.
At the end of our reading
today, we read about where Jesus raises up Jairus’ daughter from the dead. When
they arrive at the house, someone comes out and says: Your daughter is dead.
Why trouble the Teacher any further?
But what they don’t realise
is that Jesus doesn’t just have power over disease, but also over death. There
will come a time when this little girl will die again in the future, but in the
next life, when her body is raised from the grave and she is transformed and
transfigured just like Jesus himself, Jesus will make her even more beautiful
than she has ever been in this life.
And so Jesus says: The
child is not dead but sleeping. And it says: And they laughed at him. Our
world likes to mock the Christian faith, and say that when a person dies, they
die, and that’s it. But Jesus knows better than we do. When we die, it is only
a sleep. Our soul goes to be with Jesus, just as he said to the thief on the
cross: Today you will be with me in Paradise. But at the end of the
world, he will also raise our bodies, just like Paul says: Behold! I tell
you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. We also read that Jesus will
transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.
And so, he says to the girl: Little
girl, I say to you, arise. Here Jesus gives a wonderful example of just how
easy it is for him to raise someone from the dead, and gives a little foretaste
of what will happen at the end of the world. As Luther writes in the Small
Catechism: On the last day, he will raise me and all the dead, and give
eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
We also learn here that even
our faith is a gift. The woman with the bleeding had heard about Jesus’
reputation, and a living faith was created in her. The same with the girl’s
father. But when Jesus spoke the word to the girl and raised her up, she made
absolutely no contribution to this resurrection whatsoever. She was dead, but
when Jesus’ spoke his word to her, she arose. In the same way, when Jesus
speaks his words of salvation, of eternal life, of the forgiveness of sins, of
the resurrection of the body, it is his powerful word that does the thing, it
is his power that goes out from him. We simply receive in faith the gift that
he gives, and Jesus’ words create that faith.
And so, let’s place our weak
bodies into Jesus’ forgiving and transforming hands, and ask him to use us
however and wherever he sends us, and finally, to give us the gift of eternal
life, where our bodies will be transformed and purified from all disease and
death to be like his.
Amen.
Dear Jesus, we thank you for
healing this woman in our reading, and for raising this girl. Forgive us, heal
us and use us as you will. Amen.
