Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity - Gal 5:16-24

 

   Trinity 14

                                                                                                            Gal 5:16-24

                                                                                                            9/6/26

 

 

            During my second year as a pastor at Zion Lutheran in Lyons, IL, a man showed up for Bible class one Sunday. I was, of course, happy to have a visitor with us. But it soon became clear that this individual had come with an agenda. He was looking to contradict what I was saying, and in the conversation that ensued he asserted that as a Christian he no longer sinned.

            Now I knew all about how at the time of the Reformation, various Anabaptist groups made this claim. I knew about John Wesley’s theology of “entire sanctification” and how this had generated the Holiness movement seen in the Nazarene and Pentecostal traditions where people make the claim that they no longer sin. But never in my life had I met a person who stood before me and actually said this about himself. And he didn’t just say it. He obviously believed it.

            Now in the discussion that ensued I used various biblical texts to make the theological argument that this is just not possible. I probed his claims as I tried to show him how he was often simply redefining things in order to avoid calling them sin. Eventually Bible class ended and the man left. It was now time for the Divine Service.

            We were using what is now Setting One in the hymnal – the order of service that we use in the first half of the church year. After the invocation, I spoke the words of 1 John, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And in that moment I realized that I had been so taken aback by the man’s claim – so thrown off my game - that I had been unable to think of the most direct and obvious biblical answer – a verse that I said every Sunday morning!

            In our text this morning, the apostle Paul addresses the reality that sin presents an ongoing struggle in our life. We have not yet been completely freed from its power. And as John reminds us, we are fools to say that don’t sin.  But Paul also urges us to recognize the power of the Spirit in our lives as we live in Christ. We are not helpless against sin.  Instead, the Spirit leads and enables us to live in the ways of the Lord.

            Two verses before our text, Paul had just said, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  This language about freedom and law calls to mind what Paul had been dealing with in the first four chapters of the letter.

In fact, the apostle had just used the word freedom as he concluded that discussion with a final stark exhortation. He wrote “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

The problem at Galatia was very simple. Paul had proclaimed the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ there during his first missionary journey. The Gentiles – those who were not Jews – had believed in Christ. But then other teachers had come to Galatia. These men were Jews like Paul. They said they too proclaimed the Gospel. But they told the Galatians that Paul had not given them the whole story.

Yes, they needed to believe in Jesus Christ. But if they wanted to be part of God’s people, they needed to do what God’s people the Jews had always done. They needed to do the law of Moses – the Torah. They needed to be circumcised and keep the law. That meant observing the food laws of Leviticus, keeping the Sabbath, and the festivals of Judaism such as the Passover.

When Paul learned about what was happening, he could hardly believe it. Instead of his usual statement of thanksgiving at the beginning of a letter, he launched into the matter by saying, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

The apostle recognized that to say that salvation was by faith in Christ plus doing the law of Moses meant that Christ was not enough. This was a denial of the Gospel. As he had told Peter at Antioch, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

The law was not a means to justification before God. As Paul said in chapter two, “for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” Instead, Paul warned that all who thought doing the law was part of being saved would find themselves under God’s curse.  He said, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

The law can only bring a curse because we can’t do it. And Paul left no doubt about why this is the case. He wrote, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” As fallen people, sin is a power from which we can’t free ourselves. It prevents us from living and doing in holy ways.

But Paul announces in Galatians that God has redeemed us from sin and the curse. He has freed us through his Son, Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter the apostle described what God has done as he said, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This redemption occurred on the cross. For as Paul explained, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’”

Now, Jesus Christ who rose from the dead has called you to faith through the work of his Spirit. The Spirit has made you a new creation in Christ. Through faith in Christ you are justified before God. And the life of faith in Christ is one that sets you into motion. Paul says just before our text, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

You’ve been freed from sin in your standing before God. But this doesn’t mean you’ve been completely freed altogether from the power of sin.  This is the reality the prompts Paul to say, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

You live in the now of what God has done for you in Christ. But you also live in the not yet of the continuing presence of the fallen nature – the old Adam. Paul says in our text, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” “The flesh” in our text is not our created body. Rather when set in opposition to the Spirit, it indicates the continuing presence of sin’s power within us. As Paul told the Romans, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Paul acknowledges this reality in our text. But he does so in order to explain what he has just said: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The apostles says that when we walk by the Spirit we will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh – he employs the strongest negative possible in Greek in order to say this. Why is it necessary to walk by the Spirit? Because the flesh – the sinful nature – presents an ongoing challenge.

Now let’s be very clear on this point. Paul is no defeatist. He thinks the Spirit of Christ really does give us the ability to live according to God’s will. But he also knows that this is not something that just happens automatically. Instead, it is something that we must make our goal. It is something to which we must apply ourselves. As he says in our text, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

Being called to faith, and living in the faith are very different. You had nothing that you could contribute in coming to faith. As the Small Catechism says, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” It was God’s gracious act by his Spirit that gave you the ability to believe in Christ.

But now that you are in Christ, the life of faith is something which involves you. When speaking about this, the Lutheran Confessions have no problem using the word “cooperate.” To be sure, it is the Spirit who leads and supplies the power that makes life in Christ possible. But as new man you are able to – in fact you must – apply yourself to living in God’s ways.

The apostle states in our text that it’s not hard to tell who is running the show. He writes, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”

For the most part, these sins fall into two broad categories. Paul emphasizes the importance of sexual conduct in the Christian life. It’s not hard to understand why. The sexual union is foundational to marriage for which man and woman were created. It has the power to create life and families. And because it is central to all these things the devil seeks to use sex to pervert and destroy. The other large grouping involves how sin creates division, strife, and anger. Sin harms relationships and poisons the life we share together.

Paul tells us that these sins are a dire threat. He writes, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now he is not talking about particular instances of these sins. After all, we can all find a number of things in this list of which we have been guilty. But more literally we can translate this as “those who are doing such things.”  Paul describes a pattern of regular behavior. He refers to those who give themselves over to living in these sins. Such a life drives out the Holy Spirit and leads to damnation.

You will find things in this list that appear at times in your life. But because you are in Christ you recognize these things as being sinful. And so, you repent. You confess them as sin and return to the Means of Grace through which Christ gives you forgiveness and strengthens faith. In doing so, you are also going to the source which alone can enable you to bring forth those things in the second list in our text.

Paul goes on to say, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” The Spirit of Christ causes us to live in ways that were true of Jesus. Our life in Christ is one that acts in love toward the neighbor. It knows the joy of sins forgiven and of being a child of God. It is patient waiting for God’s timing, and patient with others. It acts in kindness and gentleness towards those in need. It is self controlled as it refuses the temptations of sin.

The metaphor of fruit describes something which is naturally produced. And this is because only the Spirit can prompt and cause these things in us. But at the same time because you are in Christ the Spirit’s work means that you are new man. You are able to recognize these things as the goal of your behavior. They become things that you are seeking to do. Or as Paul says at the end of our text, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

No, you will never completely cease to sin. Until you die or Christ returns “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Because we face this challenge Paul tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” In Christ you are a new man through the work of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ brings forth the fruits of the Spirit, and helps us as we seek to live in ways that please God.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 10:23-37

 

  Trinity 13

                                                                                                Lk 10:23-37

                                                                                                8/30/26

 

            At some point, many of us have had our house toilet papered. We have walked outside one morning and found a tree – or trees - festooned with toilet paper by pranking youth. Perhaps at some point you have been one of those youth throwing toilet paper all over a tree.

            By contrast, what the Samaritans did to the temple in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the first century A.D. was no mere prank. And they did not use toilet paper. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the Jewish custom at the Passover was to open the temple gates just after midnight. The Samaritans knew this, so they snuck in and spread human bones around the temple grounds. On the occasion of the most important festival of the Jews, the Samaritans defiled the temple.

            This event illustrates the hatred that was present between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans existed because in 721 B.C. the Assyrians has conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and had taken it into exile. In their place, the Assyrians brought in people from elsewhere in their empire.

            These people took up a form of the faith that was very similar to what would become Judaism. It was the same. But it was also very different. They had their version of the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament. They had their own temple that they built on Mt. Gerizim. The significant differences that existed in the midst of the similarities turned Jews and Samaritans into committed adversaries. In the second century B.C. the Jews destroyed the temple of the Samaritans on Mt Gerizim. Under Roman rule, the two groups were always trying to use their rulers in order to gain an advantage over each other.

            It is this background that helps to provide the surprise in out text today – the parable of the Good Samaritan. For the Jew the name by which we know this text would have been an oxymoron. The phrase “good Samaritan” was absurd. Yet in the parable we learn about how God has loved us in Christ. And at the same time we also learn how we are to love others because of what God has done for us.

            Just before our text, Jesus had commented on how the wise and understanding did not believe, and instead those considered to be little children did. Those who believed in Jesus did not have great standing in the world. But in spite of this Jesus says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” The disciples who believed in Christ were blessed because they were seeing the fulfillment of God’s end time salvation. They were seeing what the prophets and kings of Israel in the Old Testament longed to see but never did.

            We immediately then encounter one of those so called wise and understanding people who rejected Christ. Luke tells us, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” This man was an expert in the interpretation of the Law of Moses.  He had come to test Jesus – to try and catch our Lord in something that he said. It’s impossible to miss that his understanding of life with God was based on what a person did. This didn’t mean that he denied God’s grace – almost no one in first century Judaism did that. But it did indicate that the man’s actions had taken on a prominent role in the way he thought about salvation.

            Jesus’ answer was simple. He said, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man replied with the word of Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” So Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

            The lawyer was trying to test Jesus – to catch him in something. Instead, Jesus had made him look silly by revealing the simplicity of the matter. Then Luke tells us, “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

            The lawyer was trying to recover by asking what he thought was a complicated question. Yes, a Jew was to love his neighbor. However, who qualified as a neighbor that was deserving of this love? In other words, who was really a Jew who should be loved in this way? We know that this was a question that mattered to many Jews. The Pharisees didn’t consider other Jews to count in this way. The Jews at Qumran who made the Dead Sea Scrolls thought no one outside their community counted in this way.

            In response, Jesus told a parable. He replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”  The fifteen miles from Jerusalem to Jericho was known as an area where robbers often operated. The robbers attacked the man. They beat him, took away his clothes, and left him half dead.

            The man was fortunate because by chance a priest was going down that road. He was someone who offered sacrifices at the temple and was also charged with teaching the people God’s Word. However, when he saw the man he ignored him and passed by on the other side. Why did he do this? Did he fear that the robbers who had attacked the man were still around? Was he concerned that the man was in fact dead, and touching him would brings about ritual uncleanness that required time and money to remedy? We don’t know.

Later a Levite was traveling on the road and came upon the man. He was part of the group that was responsible for the operation of the temple. But like the priest when he saw the man, he ignored him. He passed by on the other side of the road.

Representatives from two of the most respected groups in Judaism had ignored the poor man. Then Jesus springs the surprise in the parable as he says, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” The one who finally stops and helps the wounded man is a hated Samaritan! The Samaritan bound up the mans wounds, and poured oil and wine on them. He put the man on his own animal and brought the man to an inn where he cared for him. Then he paid the in keeper two denarii so that he would assist the man, and promised to pay whatever more was needed when he returned.

            The lawyer had asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” When Jesus had finished the parable he asked the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” And so our Lord responded, “You go, and do likewise.”

            The great surprise in the parable this morning is that the one who stops to help is a Samaritan. So how are we supposed to understand this, and what is Jesus teaching us? The place to begin is the description of the Samaritan’s reaction. We learn that when he saw the man he had compassion. Prior to our text, this verb has occurred only one time in Luke’s Gospel. This was in chapter seven when Jesus came upon the widow and her dead son as he was being carried out of the village of Nain for burial. There we hear, “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

            After our text it only occurs one more time. In chapter fifteen our Lord tells the parable of the prodigal son. After demanding his inheritance and wasting it in profligate living, the son finally decides that he will return to his father and ask to be received as a hired hand. Then Jesus says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

            The Samaritan in the parable is God who has acted in Christ to save you. He is the One who has had compassion. And if God is the Samaritan, then you are the man who is beaten, stripped naked, and half dead along the road. You are the helpless one.

            Jerusalem was the place where the temple was located – the place associated with God’s presence. The city was built on a hill that is the high point of the surrounding area. Just as in our text, people are always described as “going down from Jerusalem.” The man descends from Jerusalem and the temple to being a helpless figure, bleeding and lying along the road. Many of the early Church fathers took this to be an illustration of our own experience.

            We were created in the image of God and lived in fellowship with him. But in the sin of Adam we were plunged into a sinful and fallen existence. We call it “the Fall” because we descended from this perfect existence with God to one which is ruled by sin and death. The man was helpless by the side of the road. We were spiritually helpless. We were not just half dead like the man. We were dead, and worse than dead, for we were under the devil’s power and hostile to God.

            But like the Samaritan, God had compassion on us. He helped the helpless. He did this by sending his Son into the world in the incarnation as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews. Jesus had come to receive the rejection that led to the cross. In the previous chapter Luke tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Even as we hear Jesus tell the parable in our text he is on his final trip to the holy city where he knows crucifixion awaits him.

Our Lord was in the world as the sinless One who had come to take the place of sinners. At his baptism he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and designated as the Servant of the Lord. He went to the cross as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words about the Servant: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The sin of Adam brought death. But Jesus Christ is the second Adam who redeemed us from sin by his death, and then began the new life of the resurrection when God raised him up on Easter. This new life is now at work in you through his Spirit. You have been born again in the water of baptism. You live in Christ as his Spirit leads and enables you.

And this leads us to recognize that the Samaritan in the parable must be understood in a second way as well. Christ is the Samaritan who had compassion on us when we were helpless and lying at the side of the road. Now as those who are in Christ, through the work of the Spirit we become Christ to those around us. We become the means by which Jesus shares his love with others. We become the Samaritan in the parable.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The Lord Jesus’ service to save us becomes now the pattern for our life.

The Samaritan helped the man who was lying helpless along the road. Christ has called you to help those in need – to help the people the Lord has placed in your life.  These needs do not have to be dramatic like the man in the parable. Instead, it may simply be taking the time to listen to those who are suffering and to encourage them. As Paul told the Romans, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” We show love and care towards others because of what Jesus has done for us.  As Paul told the Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

In our text the Samaritan came upon the man who was stripped and half dead. Because of his condition it was not possible to tell anything about his background. One could not know whether he was wealthy or poor. It wasn’t possible to know anything about his social status. And this is a reminder that the love of Christ that we share includes all people.  It knows no limitations because God’s love for us was not limited in any way. As Paul reminded the Romans, “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.”

The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us about how God has loved us in Christ. Although we were helplessly trapped in sin and death, God acted to save us through the death and resurrection of Christ. He has given us forgiveness and life in Christ – life that will be resurrection life when Jesus returns in glory on the Last Day. And because we now live in Christ through the work of the Spirit, we share God’s love with all those around us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

           

 

 

           

 

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - Mk 7:31-37

 

   Trinity 12

                                                                                                            Mk 7:31-37

                                                                                                            8/23/26

                                                                                                           

 

            The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has a long history of high expectations for the men who are going to serve as pastors in her congregations. The founders of the LCMS arrived in Perry County, Missouri. And the first thing they did was to build a log cabin and start teaching Greek and Hebrew there in order to train future pastors.

            If you are going to be a pastor in our church, you are going to have to learn Greek and Hebrew. Sometimes this is done in college before going to seminary such as with James Peterson or in my own experience. Often the languages are learned in summer Greek or Hebrew, and in an intensive class during the school year such as was the case with Josh Schiff and Joe Musolino.  Sometimes it’s a combination of these such as Chris Atlee who learned Greek at college, but did Hebrew at the seminary.

            When learning to read Greek or Hebrew there is one thing that every student dreads: the hapax legomena. This is a Greek phrase that means “being spoken once.” It is a term that is used to describe a word that occurs only once in the entire Bible. These are the hardest words to know – the ones you often have to look up – because you never see them.

            Not surprisingly, the next worst thing for the same reason is a word that only occurs twice. It turns out that we have one of those in our Gospel lesson today.  It is the word translated as “had a speech impediment.” It only occurs twice in all of the New Testament and the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. This unique word in these two places in Scripture leads us to recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promised end time salvation.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning we learn that Jesus had been in the area north of Galilee along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  He had been in the region of Tyre and Sidon – an area that had historically been pagan.  Now he had returned to the Sea of Galilee and was in the area on its east side – a region known as the Decapolis. This name is Greek for “ten cities,” and these were cities that had been founded under very strong Greek influence.

            The Lord Jesus engaged in a ministry of teaching and healing. In the previous chapter we learn about how when he had sailed across the Sea of Galilee the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.  Mark tells us, “And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.”

            Jesus had arrived in this region of the Decapolis and so once again people brought individuals in need of help to our Lord. We learn that they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. The man is described as being deaf and having difficulty speaking. We don’t know the exact relationship between these two physical issues, but being deaf and having difficulty communicating was obviously a great hardship in this man’s life.

            We note that the people had a specific request. They begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man. They asked Jesus to touch him. Jesus’ touch brought healing during his ministry. It did for the leper who knelt before Jesus and asked to be made clean. People wanted to touch Jesus in order to be healed. And they came and asked Jesus to touch those in need. Jairus had approached the Lord and said, “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.”

            In our text they asked Jesus to lay his hands on the man. The Lord did this … and more. Mark tells us that Jesus took the man aside from the crowd privately. Then he put his fingers into man’s ears. After spitting he touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said in Aramaic “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.

            Jesus charged them to tell no one. We’ll talk about that in a moment. However, the more he told them not to do so, the more they proclaimed what he had done.  Mark tells us, “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

            The crowd marveled because the deaf man heard, and the one who had been mute spoke. These concluding words point us back to the description of the man that Mark had used: he was deaf and had a speech impediment. As I mentioned earlier, the latter is the translation of a very rare Greek word – a word that only occurs twice.  It is found here in the New Testament and it is also found in Isaiah chapter 35 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament – the text that was essentially the Bible of the Greek speaking Church of the first century A.D.

            In the previous chapter Isaiah had spoken about the judgment of destruction on the nations. But in chapter 35 he speaks encouragement to Judah as he says, “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

            Isaiah described God’s end time salvation that would arrive. The Hebrew word for “mute” in this text was translated into Greek using the exact same word that is rendered “speech impediment” in our Gospel lesson. The only place it occurs is our text and Isaiah 35. And so we are being told that Jesus’ healing miracles are a fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. We learn that Jesus himself is the presence of God’s end time salvation.

            Jesus heals the man. But then he does something that seems strange. We learn that our Lord charged them to tell no one about what he had done.  In fact we get the picture that he engaged in an ongoing effort to get them to stop, but to no avail. Why doesn’t Jesus want people to hear about the miracle that he had done and the manner in which he had helped the man?  Isn’t this good news about Jesus that everyone should learn?

            The answer is to be found in the nature of the ministry Jesus was here to carry out.  Our Lord announced that he was the presence of God’s reign that was coming into the world. He began his ministry by saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus’ miracles like the one in our text today were the demonstration of this fact. It was the reign of God overcoming the ways that sin has harmed life in this world.

            But the miracles were easily misunderstood. They made people think about victory, glory, and greatness. And Jesus had not come to be that kind of Christ. He didn’t want people to be spreading a message about him that was misleading.  Instead, he wanted to define the ministry on his own terms. For Jesus had come to bring victory by going through the cross.

             In the next chapter at Caesarea Philippi Jesus will ask the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They will reply with answers that identify Jesus as some kind of prophetic figure: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. Then he will ask them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter will answer, “You are the Christ.” Immediately after this Mark says, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

            Jesus was the presence of God’s end time salvation described by Isaiah. But his great action to free us from sin did not take place through things that looked like victory, glory, and greatness. Instead, it occurred through his suffering and death on the cross. There Christ received the judgment against your sin. There he won forgiveness for you.

            In our text Jesus touches the man as he gives healing.  As Johann Gerhard commented, this action shows us that for the incarnate Son of God the assumed flesh is a life-giving flesh and an instrument of salvation. Jesus’ body was nailed to the cross as the means by which God has saved us from all sin.

            On Good Friday the dead body of Christ was taken down from the cross and buried. But God’s saving reign was present in Jesus to free us from death itself. God raised Jesus from the dead with a body transformed so that it can never die again. Now as the risen Lord he is the first fruits of our own resurrection.

            In our text Jesus gives the man ears that hear and a tongue that speaks. Now through his Spirit he has done this to you.  He has given you ears that hear the Gospel in faith, and a tongue that confesses Jesus as Lord. When he preached on this text Martin Luther commented, “Only these two organs make a difference between Christians and unbelievers, because a Christian speaks and listens differently and has a tongue which praises God’s grace and preaches that the Lord Christ is the only Savior.”

            The Spirit did this through the Word. Paul told the Romans, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” He did it through the water and the Word of baptism by which the Spirit works new life. He continues to strengthen you in faith for the Word he inspired is the Word through which the Spirit is still at work. It is through his Word that he enables you to believe, confess, and be saved.  As Paul told the Romans, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

            In our text Jesus touches the man as he brings God’s end time salvation described by Isaiah. This salvation has arrived by Christ’s death and resurrection. It is now. And it will reach its consummation when the Lord Jesus returns in glory to raise and transform our bodies to be like his own. As Paul told the Philippians, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

            The Lord Jesus continues to touch us as he brings the end time salvation described by Isaiah. He will do so in the Sacrament of the Altar this morning. In our text Jesus touches the man’s tongue. He will touch your tongue with his true body and blood. He will do so with the promise, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is his body given into death on the cross and his blood shed on the cross – the very price he paid for your forgiveness and salvation. He gives it to you – into your mouth – so that there can be no doubt that it is forgiveness and salvation for you.

            The Sacrament is for those who have been baptized into Christ. It is for those who believe in Jesus and confess that he is Lord.  It is for those who believe that his word does what it says – that he gives his true body and blood to eat and to drink. And even as it is received in faith, it is the gift that strengthens faith.  It is food for the new man by which we are sustained in faith so that we can go forth and live in Christ.

            The Sacrament is the miraculous touch of Christ. And just as Jesus’ touch in our Gospel lesson brought bodily healing to the man, so also Jesus’ touch in the Sacrament provides the guarantee that we will receive the full and complete healing of our bodies. In the Sacrament we receive the body and blood of the risen Lord.  Christ gives us this gift with the promise that that bodies which receive it will be raised on the Last Day. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

            In our Gospel lesson Jesus touches the man’s ears and tongue as he provides healing. This action demonstrates that Jesus is the presence of God’s reign which brings his end time salvation. By his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead Jesus has rescued us from sin and death. Sustained in faith by his Word and Sacraments we eagerly look for his return in glory on the Last Day. For on that day the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled completely in the resurrection: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”