B, Post Pentecost 6 Proper 8 - Mark 5:21-43 "In Touch"

In Luther’s explanation to the third petition we hear, “God's will is done when he hinders and defeats every evil scheme and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful self, which would prevent us from keeping his name holy and would oppose the coming of his kingdom.”

In the gospel reading today, two females, have the evil of the devil, the world, and their selves hindered and defeated by Jesus in a very public and personal way.

A twelve-year-old girl on her deathbed.  The daughter of Jairus, a synagogue ruler, seeks out Jesus, falls at his feet and implored him to help.  Jesus agrees and walks with Jairus to his home with a crowd pressing around.

As he walks to the twelve-year-old, a woman with a twelve-year menstrual bleed reaches out and touches Jesus.  The touch is so powerful she feels the healing within.  Jesus senses it too.  Not so much the touch but the power that’s exchanged in the touch.  Why does he feel it?  What is it that he feels?

Jesus feels and knows God’s will is being done within the woman, something the disciples ridicule Jesus over, as there are people pushing in on them from all directions.  Jesus has no reason to doubt the power of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  He completely trusts in the power of God having received the Holy Spirit in his baptism by John in the Jordan.

Jesus also knows the faith of the person who touched him, having felt power leave him.  Perfectly in touch with those around him and with our Father, who sent him, and the Spirit who led him, Jesus is the perfect conduit through which power flows.  There is no resistance to this transmission of power, no power is sinfully kept for himself, the full power that God desires, flows to the woman through Jesus.

There is no financial cost to the woman either.  All other physicians, bled her financially dry but didn’t stop the bleed, causing her more pain than she was already suffering.  But the cost for the woman was face and faith, the death of pride and faithlessness.

Jesus gives the woman opportunity to reveal herself.  Something that is hard to do.  Something had happened between her and Jesus, that only they know.  Now, the woman in fear, reveals all to Jesus and those standing around. 

This was a cause of shame to the woman.  We all know of things we have done or conditions we bear that on revelation would cause us shame, public humiliation, and embarrassment.  However, this is a spiritual shame that the devil and the law had over the woman for twelve years.  Levitical Laws put in place by God through Moses meant she could not come into the temple.  We don’t know if others knew or not, but in her confession now all knew she was unclean for twelve years.

Yet her faith in Jesus was great, it was her eleventh hour, in the eleventh year.  A last-ditch attempt to be in touch with God.  Why did her touch work?   

In the second half of the third petition Luther says, “And God‘s will is done when he strengthens our faith and keeps us firm in his Word as long as we live.  This is his gracious and good will.”

The woman had heard the promise of his word.  Perhaps she heard or saw something prior to the events that led Jesus to walk with Jairus to his house.  Perhaps she only knew of Jesus in this event.  Nevertheless, God’s will is done in her, as he strengthens her faith, and firmly leads her to the Word made flesh.

The will of God worked within the woman to keep God’s name holy and opened up the way for her to receive the work of God’s will from heaven.  Jesus says to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”  (Mark 5:34 ESV)

This woman, once unable to keep God’s name holy is named by God the Son, as a daughter of heaven.  She has been brought back in touch with God by faith.  A power separate to her, working within her, that the world of doctors of medicine and law couldn’t fix, a power that evil does want her to have!

In this time the little girl dies.  Someone comes and tells Jarius to no longer bother “the teacher” any longer.  In the rawness and reality of physical death, Jesus tells Jairus to “Do not fear, only believe.” (Mark 5:36b ESV)  He receives similar ridicule as to that of the disciples after the woman touched him, when he tells the mourners the girl is not dead. 

Yet again God’s will is done as Jesus takes the girl by the hand and hinders and defeats, the faithlessness of the mourners, the power of death, and the purpose of the devil to separate people from God’s holiness and will.  He reaches out through death and touches the girl, saying, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” (Mark 5:41 ESV)

Here again the perfect power of God flows through Jesus for the will of God to occur.  God’s will is done in heaven.

God’s will is done, Jesus puts people back in touch with God and his holiness.  The twelve-year-old girl raised to life and the woman with a bleed, ware healed and reconnected with God.  But Jesus was not finished, he now bore the burden of the bleed, and the deadly illness of the girl. 

God’s will in heaven needed to be finished at the cross.  The victory of the twelve-year-old girl and woman was completed at the cross, so through the witness of the cross to the world, all people would benefit from God’s will in heaven and on earth.

The will of God is concisely explained by Paul,   “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV)

God’s will is to put you in touch with your poverty, so that you can experience his richness and share that on earth.  When you share the richness of God, you participate in the will of God on earth, having received God’s will from heaven in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

From his grace and poverty, like the woman and the female child, God seeks to put us back in touch with the wealth of God. 

As Jesus cried out for mercy on earth but was handed over to death, we too may have to endure suffering rather than healing like the two females.  What God intends for you is that you take hold of the power of his will in Jesus’ death.  The power of God’s will in the resurrection.  The power of God’s will, worked as faith within you by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is in touch with you.  He feels everything you feel about him, even when you feel nothing and think he is not feeling anything.  The Holy Spirit constantly reaches out and touches you through his word to bring you to God’s holiness, to hinder and defeat what’s within, when it’s against him and his will.

Today many would ridicule us if we said they were dead.  But without the will of God working within a person that’s exactly what a person is, living but dead!  It’s God’s will on earth, to allow him to activate you and me to be the conduits of God’s grace, to forgive as we have been forgiven.  To tell of our forgiveness and what God has forgiven!  To not hold back the richness of God for those who live in the poverty and darkness of death.

Like watchmen in Psalm one hundred and thirty, our being waits for the rising of the Son on the last day, just as Jesus yearned for our resurrection that would come after his death.  This is why Jesus said in the garden before his arrest, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”  (Luke 22:42 ESV)  Jesus is your watchman!

Jesus hoped in the Lord, because with him there is steadfast love, and plentiful redemption.  Jesus was redeemed and raised from death.  Through him, it’s God’s will to save you from all your iniquities, to follow his way, the way of the cross. 

God’s kingdom has come.  God’s kingdom is coming.  and God’s Kingdom will come!  Let his will be done in you, on earth, so the power and the glory are God’s alone.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 15 Proper 18 - Matthew 18:15–20 "Remember & Forgive"

Matthew 18:15–20 (ESV)  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

At the beginning of most Lutheran Services on a Sunday morning, we begin the new week confessing our sins for the past week and have them forgiven. 

We are forgiven, then we are fed with the word of God and Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  Here again in the sacrament, we receive forgiveness of sins together with life and salvation.  You and I receive forgiveness for our sins while we endure here on earth, until we are taken to be with God.

God’s forgiveness of sin focuses us on the forgiving of our sin through our confession, together with his absolution, through words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor as his earthly representative.  One can view this forgiveness as God’s will being done in heaven, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.  This is the vertical will of God!

However, this is only one half of God’s will!  We pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!  What is God’s will for us on earth? 

As we also pray in the Lord’s Prayer, it is to forgive as we have been forgiven!  This is the horizontal will of God!

In the next couple of weeks as we hear the Gospel reading, we have opportunity to let God open us up so we can examine ourselves through the lens of this horizontal human to human forgiveness. 

In being forgiven we are invited to reflect on our forgiveness of others, and consider how we react within when we see others receive forgiveness.

Someone reminded me of the saying,  “We are to forgive and forget!”  At face value it sounds like a reasonable statement.  But in reality, who, ever really forgives and forgets?  Even when the most gracious person is wronged, they will not forget!  They’ll be just a little more cautious around the perpetrator next time.

However, the centrality of forgiveness is God’s will!  Forgiveness is the daily bread of our lives in Christ, as we are raised to new life, through the daily drowning of our old sinful nature.

At the cross the centrality of God’s vertical forgiveness meets the painful reality and suffering of the horizontal forgiveness we are called to share with each other.

Luke’s Gospel account of the crucifixion most clearly demonstrates the forgiveness theme of God’s will in Jesus Christ’s death!  We hear, “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” (Luke 23:33–34 ESV)

Outside of Luke’s Gospel account, both criminals writhed in agony on their crosses and railed at Jesus to save himself and them.  In Luke however, one of the criminals has a lucid moment of faith in his agony, realising Jesus as his Saviour, and the King of a kingdom greater than any earthly kingdom’s pleasure or pain.

We hear again, “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:39–43 ESV)

Put yourself in the place of pain on the cross?  Would you ask Jesus to forgive you or free you from the cross?  If you were in Jesus’ place, suffering because of society’s sin, would you be able to forgive them, knowing that their sin is the reason for your looming death?

Forgiveness of another’s sin is the hardest thing we as Christians are called to do.  But after confessing our sin and telling others about our forgiveness because we believe, forgiving others is the next most important good work we do for their benefit to the glory of God.

In fact, this is all part of the believer’s new obedience in accord with the vertical and horizontal will of God to forgive each other as God has forgiven us.

The Lutheran Confessions tell us, “we cannot love God unless we have received the forgiveness of sin”[1].  Furthermore, we show God’s love by forgiving those who sin against us!  Just as God gives, just as Jesus gives, we need the Holy Spirit to work in us the ability to forgive.

Saint Paul tells us, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  …put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  (Romans 13:8, 14 ESV)

Our old nature’s desire within, is not to put on Jesus Christ.  Rather, our flesh delights in having power over others, by not forgetting and withholding forgiveness, because of the wrong they’ve done.  In remembering their sin, the victim adds their sin to the perpetrator’s sin.

Jesus approaches our difficulty to forgive by calling us to name sin.  That’s a hard thing to do.  We can only do so by calling on God in prayer for the Holy Spirit’s help to do so.  In our fear to name sin and bring it to account, we actually leave the sin unlocked and loose.  And when we try to forgive and forget, we invariably do the opposite by remembering and adding our own sin to their sin!

However, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  (Matthew 18:18 ESV)

This is the second time Jesus has spoken about binding and loosing!  God’s church is built on binding and loosing!  It is the key to the church because it’s the key to God’s will.  Here in Matthew eighteen Jesus speaks to the disciples in the plural, when one sins against another.  This is horizontal love shown through our forgiveness of each other!

Previously Jesus spoke individually to Peter as the rock on which the church would be built, saying, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19 ESV)

This is the vertical love God shows to the church by forgiving us our sins through confession and absolution!

However, like Peter, by our own will, we bind and loose the wrong thing.  He sought to bind his sinful self to Jesus by not allowing Jesus to be bound to the cross.  In doing so he was freeing his sinful self and seeking to separate Jesus our Saviour from the will of God.

Australians for whatever reason, don’t deal well with righting wrongs!  When someone says, “Sorry!”  We usually reply, “No!  It doesn’t matter!”   But it does matter, lest the person would not have said sorry in the first place.

When we do not deal with each other’s sin appropriately, by not naming it or overlooking it, we set the sin free and bind the person!

However, when we do good works that please God, sin gets nailed to the cross.  In forgiving sin and allowing it to be confessed between each other, Christ binds our sin to the cross, and Satan and his angels are bound and sentenced for hell.  That’s why he works to lead us away from forgiving each other!

The other reason the devil works tirelessly to make us forget about forgiveness is because the forgiven person is set free from sin and death, when sin is bound to Christ on the cross for our forgiveness.

Rather than binding the person and setting sin free, when one graciously forgives and humbly receives forgiveness, sin is bound and locked up.  Therefore, we are loosed to love and loosed to be loved, we are free to forgive and free to be forgiven, knowing we are yoked to the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Forgiving sin is a hard thing to do!  It requires the sacrifice of the old nature within.  That is why the Holy Spirit works unceasingly for us, and within us, to lead us to forgive as we are forgiven!  He works tirelessly so we do not forget to forgive!  We might think we have to forgive and forget, but within us the Holy Spirit wills us to remember and forgive.

He works when we remember those who’ve sinned against us, reminding us of God’s great love for us, in the descent, death, and resurrection of his Son, so we are led and learn to love each other with forgiveness.

Rather than “forgive and forget”, let us “remember and forgive”!  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, you have forgiven our sins from heaven.  As we wait for Jesus’ return here on earth, send you Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can forgive those who sin against us, and so we can receive forgiveness from those whom we have sinned against.  Amen.

[1] Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Justification, Article IV:311 (Tappert edition)