The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – October 10, 2021
Psalm 78; Genesis 28:10-17; Ephesians 4:22-28
St.
Matthew 9:1-8
In
the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The simplest definition of prayer is a
conversation with God. This conversation always begins with God. He speaks in
his Word, and we respond. This is true in the grand theological sense and ought
to be true in the daily sense. What I mean by the grand theological sense is
that God calls us to faith by his Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God.[1] The conversation of faith always
begins with God calling us to faith, but we then respond by singing God’s
praises back to him. The response of the same faith which God bestows is to
worship the Creator of that faith.
It is also true that the daily
conversation of prayer ought to begin with God’s Word. In the morning and in
the evening, as you rise and as you lie down, the Word of God should first be
on your lips. Read a psalm. Read a chapter of the Bible. Read them out loud.
Read them with your family or by yourself. After reading the Word of God, then
pray. Pray for yourself. Pray for your family. Pray for your friends, this
congregation, your pastor, your country. By first reading the Word of God you
are giving God the first word in the conversation of prayer and conforming your
own prayers to that Word. It would even be a worthwhile exercise to pray a
psalm and then pray it again in your own words. Then, the word of God will not
only form the words on your lips but in your mind and on your heart.
Giving God the first word in prayer will
restrain your flesh and teach you what to pray for. “Nothing is so necessary as
to call upon God incessantly and to drum into his ears our prayer that he may
give, preserve, and increase in us faith and the fulfillment of the Ten
Commandments and remove all that stands in our way and hinders us in this
regard.”[2] The most vital prayer is, “Lord, have
mercy!” which is to say, “Grant me faith and sustain me until the end that I
may receive the promise of paradise and glorify your Name forever and ever!”
God has promised to answer this prayer
for every Christian. This is to pray in Jesus’ Name. A prayer for spiritual
things, that is, life and salvation, has already been answered by God when he
sacrificed his Son upon the cross. The benefits of that sacrifice (the
forgiveness of sin, a clean conscience, life, salvation) are delivered to you
in Word and Sacrament. A prayer for these things is certain to be answered.
Yet Christ also cares for our temporal needs. We are called to pray for our daily bread, not just the Bread of Life but also every we need to support this body and life. We pray for food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, money, land, animals, a pious spouse, pious children, pious workers, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.[3] God is the only source of these temporal goods. He bestows these things on the good and the wicked alike. We, who know where they come from, ought to pray to God that he would bless us with such temporal gifts.
But while God has promised to care for
us, and he loves our physical bodies, he has not promised specific temporal
blessings. One of the signs of the Messiah is that he would proclaim the Gospel
to the poor. He did not raise them out of poverty but preached the Gospel to
them. That doesn’t mean Christ cares nothing for their wellbeing. It means
Christ prioritizes their eternal fate. In the Resurrection, they will receive
an imperishable body. By healing the souls of the poor, he is restoring their
bodies for eternity. This promise is certain.
Our
impatience with God’s eternal promise of the Resurrection leads us to think God
does not care or cannot effect temporal miracles. If God does not answer our
temporal prayers when, where, and how we want them answered, we become
discouraged. Worse, we somehow think it was our lack of faith or poorly worded
prayers which did not persuade God. Convincing speech and effect based on your
power are the definition of pagan prayer. It has no place in the life of a
Christian.
To place the efficacy of prayer upon
your faith, your effort, or your words is itself blasphemy. Blasphemy is speech
that denigrates, defames, disrespects, or maligns God, His Word, or the one who
bears that Word.[4] Believing you can convince God by your
words or actions denigrates his authority over heaven and earth for it says you
have power over his authority. Believing the power of your faith to cause God
to answer your prayer disrespects his mercy for it says your strength deserves
what God has given to you. Believing God does not care about your temporal
prayers maligns the loving God for it says his love is insincere.
In claiming Christ had blasphemed by
forgiving the sins of the paralytic, the scribes committed the greatest
blasphemy. They claimed that the primary action of God, the salvation of
sinners, was contrary to the Will of God. How often do we follow in their
wicked footsteps? Notice, the scribes don’t even say it out loud. They speak
only within themselves. Jesus knows their thoughts and calls them “evil.” How
easy it is to forget to pray until after your wishes are fulfilled. How easy it
is to rely on Tylenol and not God. How easy it is to find fulfilment in your
work, your retirement, your family and not in the Word of God. This is blasphemy.
As proof that prayer begins with the
Word of God and that God fills both spiritual and temporal needs, Jesus tells
the scribes, tells you, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’
or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has
power on earth to forgive sins, Arise, take up your bed and go to your house.”[5]
The Son of God descended into our flesh
that he might make whole all our ills of flesh and soul.[6] He sees the faith of the paralytic’s
friends and hears the prayer of their hearts. Bringing their friend to Christ
in prayer and in location, our Lord answers their prayer by forgiving his sins.
Through the Holy Absolution, through
the bestowing of faith upon the paralytic, Christ has restored his body for
eternity, if not at this exact moment. But his sins are forgiven! This is the
greatest miracle! To confirm this great miracle and to confirm that he is
working by the Word of God and not blaspheming, Jesus performs the minor
miracle of healing him in body. This body, instantly free from paralysis will
once again return to dust. The healing miracle has a time limit. The
forgiveness of sins lasts forever.
The man arose, took up his bedroll, and
immediately departed to his house. Like everyone who receives faith, the man
arose from the death into which all mankind is born. The instant the Word of
God washed over him, as it did for you in your Holy Baptism, the man is
revivified, rejuvenated, made alive.
Then he takes up his bedroll. He
gathers up the carriage of his sins and bears it to his home. For you and for
me, this is the life of suffering, the crosses which we must all bear. Our
bedrolls are born upon our shoulders for seventy years, or by reason of
strength, eighty or more.[7] We endure the effects of sin in the
world and the sin still clinging to our members. Yet immediately, the Word of
God has called us home. We arise from the font, bear our cross, and depart
toward our heavenly Jerusalem, our eternal home.
With the paralytic and Jacob, we look
to the one on whom angels ascend and descend for our salvation. The Son of God
descended into our flesh that he might be raised up upon the cross. This cross
is the ladder which connects heaven and earth and by which we may depart toward
home. The cross of Christ’s atonement is the way of salvation. We pray that he
would sustain us as we each bear our bedroll until the day when we ascend that
ladder to our eternal home.
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