CLICK HERE for the audio file.
CLICK HERE for the video file.
“Willing”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Both our Old Testament and Gospel readings have to do with healing that comes from God. In the Old Testament reading in particular, we have this account of Naaman, who suffered from leprosy, a disease that affected the skin and the nervous system. Certainly, his leprosy brought him physical suffering, but it also meant that he would be treated as an outcast as long as there were any signs of the disease. Naturally, he sought relief from his sickness. An Israelite servant girl told him about the prophet in Samaria who could heal him. Naaman jumped at the chance; he gathered together gifts and even a letter for the King of Israel, and then made his journey from Syria to Samaria in search of a cure.
But after he arrived and heard how he could be cured, he balked. “Wash in the Jordan seven times? Really? We have greater and cleaner rivers at home. I come all this way, and the prophet doesn’t even come out to cure me personally?” Naaman had his doubts, but he was eventually convinced that he should do as the prophet instructed. And he was, in fact, cleansed. No, the healing wasn’t glamorous. It was simple, straightforward. And it worked because it was healing from God! God worked through the word of the prophet and the earthly means of water to heal Naaman. And this is a very significant thing to learn. God works through means; He uses earthly instruments. It is not that God cannot heal directly; He can if and when He chooses to do so. But He doesn’t normally work that way. He normally uses doctors and medicines and therapies to heal our ills and ease our sufferings.
But we are often like Naaman. We doubt that these will work, and we balk at what God would have us do. We second-guess doctors; we refuse certain medicines; we avoid therapy that might help. And this is not to advocate a blind trust of doctors and medicines. We are to use our God-given wisdom in making medical decisions. But we are also called on to trust those to whom God has given such skill. Doctors and medicines are among those gifts spoken of in the First Article of the Creed, gifts through which God provides what we need to support our bodies and lives.
At its root, our lack of trust is not so much a suspicion of doctors, but a lack of trust in God to work through those things for our good. This lack of trust is nothing other than sin. When we ignore our doctors as a God-given means for healing, we are, in fact, denying God’s power to heal and mend through such earthly means. Of course, it is true that we are not always healed by the treatments prescribed by doctors. Sometimes, doctors make mistakes. Sometimes, medicines fail or don’t work as well as we would hope. And we don’t always recover from every illness or injury. We have a bottom line we all know to be true: “The wages of sin is death.” In this life, our sinful nature still stains us. We still suffer sickness, disease, and pain because our sinful nature still cries out that we cannot trust doctors, and we cannot trust God.
Our comfort is that we do not suffer alone. Christ Himself suffered for us. He suffered because He knew the suffering illness and other afflictions bring into our lives. He suffered because He knows the suffering we bring on ourselves by our sin. In His mercy, Christ carried all our suffering all the way to Calvary, and there suffered even to the point of death on the cross. As He suffered, He also took on our sickness; He took on our pain. He forgave our sinful lack of trust in God to heal and make us whole. Isaiah put it like this: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace; and with His stripes we are healed.” Jesus died, not just for sin, but also for the consequences of sin. He carried also all of our diseases to the cross. He took all of our suffering there: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And because He did, we are promised the peace of God and healing of our own.
As a seal and pledge of that promise of bodily healing, Christ has given us His word: a word that tells us He is willing, that He will cleanse us. And He has also given us His very body and blood in the Holy Sacrament for the healing and sustaining of our souls. So, do not fear your doctors: they are God’s hands of mercy for your body. And do not neglect the gift of the Holy Supper, for the body and blood of Christ is the medicine of immortality for both body and soul. Through the means of medicine, God sustains us in this life. And through His Gospel gifts of Word and Sacrament, He sustains us, body and soul, for the life to come. Through these gifts He promises that one day we will know exactly what Naaman and the leper in the Gospel felt like, for Christ has promised to look on us with compassion, stretch out His hand, and speak His word to each of us: “I am willing. Be clean.” 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.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment