Homily for Trinity 21

Homily for Trinity 21 (2005) [Hosea 13:14 / Eph 6:10-17 / John 4:46-54)

His child was dying, and he knew that he was helpless. No human being has the strength to fend off that Monster once it grabs hold. With pitiless intensity it gobbled up the very life of his child and he had zero power against it.

But then he heard that Jesus was not too far away and hope revived. His faith in Jesus was not the strongest, but Jesus would take care of that. He makes the journey from Capernaum to Cana and arrives breathlessly and finds Jesus, maybe grabs him by the arm and starts pulling: No time to waste, he thought.

And there you see the weakness of his faith. Oh, he thought Jesus could heal. But he was under the impression that Jesus had to be standing right besides the afflicted person to do the job. And healing was one thing; raising the dead another. He seemed to hope that if he could only get Jesus to his child before his little boy breathed his last, there would be hope. But who can hope in the face of death itself?

Little did he understand Whose arm he was pulling. The same Lord whose arms would spread wide upon a cross to reveals Him as the one speaking in today’s Old Testament reading from Hosea: “O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy destruction! Repentance shall be hid from my eyes.” He stood before the One who had come into our flesh precisely to plague death and destroy the grave. He stood before the One who was LIFE, the Life that was with the Father before time began and the Life that now was clothed in flesh and blood to destroy the death we had brought on ourselves with our fall into sin.

Jesus says to him: “Except ye signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it? But Jesus speaks it to strengthen this man’s faith. When the fellow answers: “Sir, come down ere my child die.” Jesus gives him neither sign nor wonder, but a promise.

“Go thy way; thy son liveth.” Study the man’s face. Can you see the conflict there? True worship is taking hold of him. For true worship is “faith wrestling with despair.” (Tractatus) Faith, born of the promise given, wins the day and he turns away from Jesus and begins hurrying back home.

But do you imagine for one moment that he went home all joyful and without any anxiety? No. I don’t think so.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Epistle) And so the battle begins in earnest as the demons begin their assault: “He wouldn’t even come with you; you see how much he cares about your child; you see how hard he answered you; sent you away with mere words; he doesn’t give a fig about you or your lad.” And that demon would no sooner shut up than the next would chime in: “Oh, he’ll heal your boy alright, but only if you believe hard enough. Why, if you doubt, you’ll lose the healing. And the boy will die. You’ll have wasted it. God will be punishing you for your unbelief.” And then another would throw in the thought: “You must have been a pretty rotten man for God to have visited your sins upon your child. Remember when you did this and that? Remember? Now you’re paying the price.”

And so on and on, all the miles back to Capernaum. What does he have to fight such a horrid battle? He has a promise from Jesus. “One little word can fell him” said Luther in “A Mighty Fortress.” Do you know what he said the little word is? LIAR! You tell the demons, “quiet you liars and hear the promise of Jesus! He does not lie. He does not deceive. What He says He delivers most certainly. My son lives!” Thus one uses the sword of the Spirit, that is the Word of God, in the battle against the principalities, the demons. In the battle of faith wrestling with despair.

“Go thy way; Thy son liveth.” That was Jesus’ promise. And is it an accident that when his servants meet him, before he even arrives at home, they speak in his hearing the very words of Jesus: “Thy son liveth!”? Jesus’ word caused it to be so. “When?” he asks. “When did the boy mend?” They tell him and he knows that it is at the exact hour that Jesus spoke the word. And the man, who had believed and yet had known the struggle of unbelief now told with great joy the story to all his household and they all believed with him. Jesus delivers what He promises.

Your Jesus will never let you down. He may indeed send you to Capernaum with nothing but a promise in your pocket, but it is only and always to teach you that having His promise, you have everything you need and more.

And His promise to you preeminently is that He has come to be the plague of death and the destruction of the grave. He has come not merely to rescue this or that person from impending death, giving a reprieve. No. That would be a gift far too small. He has come to suffer and die for you and in your place, to punch a hole right through that Monster’s stinking belly, and to bring you and all out alive – not like this little boy who was only given a bit more time before death surely munched again, but to clothe your mortality in immortality; to clothe the perishable, with the imperishable. And like the great Captain of His people, He leads the way. He goes before and blazes the path, opening the way out of death and corruption. On His cross He enters into death’s dark pit, He goes into the grave, and fills it with the dazzling splendor of His divine presence, and death He shatters and the grave He overcomes. Just like He promised through the prophet Hosea. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.”

The body and blood that accomplished this He now gives to you with His promise. His promise that they carry to you the canceling of every charge the Law could lay against you, and thus they give into you the pledge of victory over the grave. They are, after all, the Body and Blood of the Living One who will never die again and whom death cannot touch.

With them as the promise you put in your pocket, or rather, your mouth, He sends you out to wrestle with the demons who would tell you that it is all a fantasy and nothing more. You have the power to defeat their lies now. You know that His promise is more sure than anything in this world, stronger than your sin, and mightier than your death. Amen.