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Endless Mercy
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
How little we understand the mercy our Lord extends to us daily! Our Lord does not treat us as we treat each other. We tend to lash out at those who upset us. We ignore those who don’t please us. We want to get back at those who offend us. We are likely to take offense at the slightest comment, no matter how innocently spoken. And too often we are unwilling to forgive and make the first move toward reconciliation.
Worse than all this, we deal with our Lord the same way. We beg Him to pardon our sins, but in the same breath we demand that He live up to our expectations. We ask Him to deliver us from every evil, yet too often we grouse and complain when He doesn’t act quickly enough to suit us. We beg Him to calm us and grant us His peace, yet we blame Him for our self-made troubles. And so we go our own way. We ignore the strengthening He gives in His Supper. And we resist and fight against His forgiveness, His love, His kindness, His mercy.
Yet even when we are faithless, our Lord remains faithful. Even when we turn on Him, He does not turn against us. He comes back time and again and says, “You can’t make Me hate you. I love you. My love brought you into this world, and I am determined to love you to the end and into My kingdom. I will not force Myself upon you, but neither will you force Me away from you. And no matter how much you think you can wish me out of your world, I will never leave you nor forsake you. My mercy endures forever.” Such relentless love! Such persistent, single-minded mercy! He will not give up on us. He will always stretch out His hand, no matter how often we slap it away.
Deep down—because the Holy Spirit sealed you in the Faith when you were baptized; because the Spirit of God persistently and consistently delivers the mercy of God into your own flesh—deep down, you are not surprised to hear how determined our Lord is in His mercy. And so, deep down, you are also not surprised at the way our Lord Jesus reacts to the man who begged Him to come down and heal his son. Still, we often take the Lord and His mercy for granted. In fact, we act as if His mercy is our right, as if He owes that to us. But no matter how we treat our Lord, no matter how little we comprehend His mercy, He always responds the same: with endless mercy.
And so, when the man approaches Him, our Lord does not say, “Go away.” Instead, Jesus kindly tells him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” Do you see the mercy of Jesus? The man is not much of a believer, but our Lord answers his prayer anyway. For the sake of Jesus, our Father still gives life back to this man’s son. The Spirit stirs up in this man the faith to take Jesus at His word; He give the man confidence to walk away, trusting that what Jesus says is good and true and right.
So just how merciful is our Lord? So much so, that He can heal our souls, strengthen our bodies, and refresh our spirits using nothing more than His word. When He speaks, He brings us back to life. This is why Jesus says what He does to this man. Jesus does not rebuke the man for his dullness of faith, but rather breathes to life a true and living faith. And Jesus does not shoo the man away because he’s a bothersome pest, but rather He says, “Your son lives,” so that true faith might come alive and grow both in him and in his whole household.
And that is precisely what our Lord, in His mercy, does for us. When we are sure that He is ignoring us or crushing us, He is actually working for our good. When we are sure He has turned against us, He is actually fighting mightily for us. When we are sure He’s only doing the least, He is actually doing His utmost. Our Lord revives and heals us simply by speaking His word. But here is where our Lord’s mercy exceeds our imagination. Our Lord gives us—into our mouths, into our own flesh and blood—the very life that He is; His own death-defying body, and His own life-renewing blood so that we might be saved.
See yourself, then, as the nobleman in today’s Gospel: the doubting, barely believing man whom the Lord gently and lovingly brings to faith. Even more so, see yourself as the man’s son—a person in a losing battle with death; and then here comes Jesus in His word and Spirit to chase away death, the devil, and hell; to bring you not just back from the brink, but into the fullness of the life that He is and so earnestly desires to live in you and through you. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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