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Sermon for Trinity 21
Hosea 13:14 + Ephesians 6:10-17 + John 4:46-54
Driving back from Ruidoso on Friday, we saw a billboard along Hwy. 70. It had nothing on it but a single word in big bold letters: BELIEVE. Amy and I both commented on it, what a huge waste of money it was to put up that billboard. Believe what? Believe whom? Believe in whom? Our emotions-based, me-centered culture seems to think that there is something noble or useful in the act of “believing,” holding a sincere belief, whatever that belief might be. It’s supposedly sacred. It’s supposedly life-changing. Bah.
It matters what you believe. It matters whom you believe. It matters in whom you believe, in whom you trust and for what.
God sets before us in the Gospel an exercise in believing, an exercise in faith, and it’s vitally urgent that we learn this lesson, because, of all the pieces of the armor of God that St. Paul described in today’s Epistle, he says, above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. If faith is to serve as a shield, as a protection against the deadly darts of the devil, then it had better be more than a generic believing in something. See how Jesus forms our faith in today’s Gospel, how He molds it and strengthens it and gives it focus.
The nobleman from Capernaum came to Jesus in faith. He believed that Jesus could and would heal his dying son, if only Jesus would come close enough to where his son was. That much faith he had, and it’s a lot more faith than many other people had. It was good that he believed in Jesus that far. Already his faith had a solid object. He didn’t just believe in something, or in some god of his own making. He believed in Jesus for the healing of his son, if Jesus could get close enough to his son.
So why does Jesus rebuke his faith? “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.” Didn’t he already believe? Yes, but not yet as he should and as he needed to. His faith was feeble and weak. And, what’s more, Jesus’ words weren’t only directed at the nobleman. “You people,” he says. His words were meant for all those who heard Him that day, and also for us who hear Him in this Gospel today. It’s a common fault among us sinful human beings, that we tend to tie our faith to miracles and to signs and to feelings and to experiences.
What was the problem with the nobleman’s faith? There were two problems, actually, two weaknesses. First, faith—the faith that serves as a reliable shield against the darts of the devil—cannot cling to signs or to sight or to anything on the inside of you. Faith must cling only and entirely to the Word of God. Not what you think God would do or should do, not what you want God to do, but what God says He will do, that you must believe, no matter what your eyes tell you, no matter what your reason tells you.
Jesus addressed that flaw in the nobleman’s faith very directly. The nobleman pleaded with Jesus, Sir, come down before my child dies! Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” Jesus refused to do what the man specifically requested—to go down with him to his house, and yet at the same time He gave the man all that he ever wanted, the promise of healing for his son. He gave him nothing to see, nothing to experience or feel. Only a word, a spoken promise. Your son lives.
And against all logic and human reason, it says that the nobleman believed Jesus. He took Him at His Word, without having to see a single thing, without having to feel anything or experience anything.
This is how God deals with faith. He exercises it. He works it. He stretches it, sometimes so thin you would think it had to break. But God knows what He’s doing. Faith is His Spirit’s creation, after all. So He knows what it can take and what it can’t. He knows what it needs to grow. Because faith has to grow. It has to increase so that it clings only to God’s Word. Otherwise, it will fail as a shield against the devil’s darts, because the devil is crafty. His lies are convincing. And only the Word of God can defeat him.
The second problem with the nobleman’s faith was this: he believed in Jesus to heal his son on this occasion. He believed in Jesus for earthly healing. But that’s all. Faith needs to go beyond trusting in God to fix an earthly problem for you. Yes, your earthly problems matter to God. Yes, He is concerned about your body and your life on earth, and He has promised to provide for you here on earth, until your days on earth come to an end. But if Jesus is your Helper only for this life, or even primarily for this life, then, as St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, you are to be pitied above all men. If you think your biggest, most urgent, most pressing problem in this life is sickness or pain or poverty, then you are living under an illusion. If you think that Jesus’ greatest work for you would be to extend your life or your family member’s life on this earth for a few more years, then you’re missing the whole point of His coming.
Jesus didn’t come to give you a fairytale life on earth, or to make your life on earth happier or longer. He came because you’re a sinner, born under God’s wrath and doomed to die. He came to succeed at keeping God’s Law where you have failed. He came to bear your sin and suffer the consequences of your sin. He came to reconcile you with God, to give you peace and hope and life after death.
As God promised through the prophet Hosea, I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! That! That is the Word of God to which faith must cling, God’s promise to forgive you your sins for the sake of Christ and to give you victory over death.
The nobleman finally got it. He believed Jesus’ word that his son would live, and so he went home, and his servants met him and told him that his son had recovered at the very time that Jesus said, “Your son lives.” Then it says, he himself believed, and his whole household. Believed what? He already believed Jesus’ word that his son would be healed. So what does he now believe? What does his whole household now believe? Now they believe in Jesus to be their Helper in every need, in every future crisis, in the face of sin, death, and the devil. They know Jesus to be their Savior, who will never disappoint them, who will never let them down, who will be their Advocate before the throne of God and a strong Refuge in every time of trouble.
In a world that is constantly changing and changing for the worse, where the people around you are floundering like drowning men at sea, searching for anything to hold onto, anything to believe, you have been thrown a lifeline, the one certain thing that will hold you up for time and for eternity: the living and enduring word of God, whose promises are all “yes” in Christ Jesus. You have His Word to you in your Baptism, promising you remission of sins. You have His Word to you in Holy Absolution, promising you continual remission of sins. You have His Word to you in the Sacrament of the Altar, promising you forgiveness and strength, communion with the Son of God, and a share in His resurrection and eternal life. Believe! And in believing, you have a reliable shield with which you will be able to quench all the deadly darts of the devil, a shield built by God’s Holy Spirit, a shield of faith that will never fail. Amen.
