Jesu Juva
“Asking Too Much or Asking Too Little?”
Text: Luke 4:31-44; 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Nothing is greater than Jesus. Not demon, not illness, not physical ailment or disease. Nothing. Jesus overcomes them all. In Capernaum that day, He is the rescuer of the captive, the healer of the sick, the fixer of the broken. Whoever, wherever, whenever. Where Jesus is, things happen. Good things. Great things.
But what about today? When we see so much evil in our world. In the midst of a pandemic. With so much sickness and disease . . . and death. If only there was a Capernaum we could go to. Where Jesus is for US. To heal us. To fix us. To help us. Is that asking too much?
Or . . . is it quite the opposite - that asking too little?
I think there are a couple of interesting things in this reading we heard today from Saint Luke to help us answer that question. First is that Jesus doesn’t go to Capernaum to expel demons and heal people. That happens. But Jesus doesn’t go there for that purpose, looking for people to set free from demons and to heal and show His power and awe people. He goes to the synagogue to teach. Just as we heard He did last week, in Nazareth. And that’s what Jesus says at the end of the reading, too. When the sabbath was over and the sun comes up the next day, He says to the people, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Jesus is first and foremost a preacher. He preaches the Word of God - the Word of God that preaches Him! All the Old Testament, all the teachings and stories, about God preserving and protecting and providing and preparing for this - the sending of the Son into the world to save it. To fulfill every word, every promise. The Old Testament is a spotlight that over time, little by little, focuses down on this one man who is more than just a man but the very Son of God in human flesh and given the name Jesus. It’s all about Him.
And that Jesus preaches. And when He expels demons, when He heals the sick, when He fixes the broken, when He raises the dead - all those things preach Him, too. They’re not what He came to do, but they point to it; they preach it. His mission not just to make our life better for a time, but to give us life eternal. To not just free us from sickness until the next one comes along, but a life where there is no sickness. To not just deliver us from trouble until the next one comes along, but to provide life where there is no sin. Not just rescue our life from pain and sadness and grief until the next one comes along, but to give us a life where there is nothing to cause those things anymore. So if we want Jesus to heal and fix and help us now, is that asking too much? No. It’s asking too little.
Now, it’s not wrong to ask Jesus for those things. We should. We should turn to Him in every need. He tells us to. And just as in Capernaum, when the people brought to Him any who were sick with various diseases, Jesus does heal and fix and help. I think all of you could probably testify to that. But we can’t stop there. We can’t stop at Capernaum. We can’t stop with Jesus playing whack-a-mole with all the problems that pop-up in our lives. There’s more. Much more.
So when the sabbath was over and the sun came up the next day, Jesus went on. To preach. To preach with His words, to preach with His deeds, to preach with His presence - His very presence testifying to God’s faithfulness and love. God’s faithfulness to His Word, and His love for all people. For He wants all to hear and know. And so He also before sent the prophets like Jeremiah to preach, and later sends His disciples out into all the world to preach. To confess. To say and do the same things as He.
Now Luke tells us that morning when the sabbath was over and the sun came up, Jesus went out to a desolate place. The truth is . . . He actually already was. For the whole earth is a desolate place, really. It was not so in the beginning. It became so because of sin. Sin which desolates the world, and desolates lives. Sin which causes sickness and poverty and loneliness and death. God didn’t just see this happening from afar - from His throne, watching His perfect world infected and being eaten away by sin. He was born into it as a baby. He grew up in it as a boy. He lived in it as a man. And He died in it. Died for it. That His blood make the desolate live again.
And that’s what happened on the third day, when from the desolation of the tomb life rose again. For the sin which brought desolation into the world, the sin that causes sickness and poverty and loneliness and death, the sin that brings sadness and pain, was atoned for. Not so that we now live a life untouched by the desolation of sin - as long as we live here in this world of sin and death that is impossible. But that we now live a life which overcomes the desolation of sin. Life where the desolation of sin is overcome by the forgiveness of Jesus.
And the first way that happens is when we repent. When we repent of the desolation we have brought into the lives of others. The hurt and pain, the poverty and loneliness we have inflicted. Our words that have lacked compassion, our deeds which have lacked love, and our love that has failed. To repent and not try to justify ourselves; to repent and not blame others; for to repent and ask forgiveness desolates sin and strips it of its power over us! It will not rule me. It is ruled by the one greater than it. The one who overcame it through His cross and resurrection. So we repent.
And the second way that happens is when we forgive. We forgive those who have brought the desolation of sin into our lives. Whether they ask for it or not. Whether they deserve it or not. If we don’t, we keep the desolation of their sin inside us and it will rule us; it will overcome us. But if we forgive, as we have been forgiven, sin is desolated and stripped of its power. It will not rule me. It is ruled by the one greater than it. The one who overcame our sin through His cross and resurrection. So we forgive.
And then, third, we live. Not because we’re living in a Capernaum, where Jesus did lots of great things and gave life, but because we’re living at the cross, where Jesus did the great thing and desolated the desolater! Where Jesus died to overcome sin and death and give us life. Not a life untouched by the desolation of sin and death, but a life that rises from it. The life that you rose into when you were baptized. The life that is renewed in you when you are forgiven. And the life that is fed and strengthened in you by His Body and Blood. The life you now have.
That’s the life Jesus proclaimed in Capernaum that day in word and deed, the life He entered this world to give through His death and resurrection, and the life He is giving still in a desolate world, to desolate people, in desolate times. The life He lived and the life He described in the reading we heard today from Corinthians. The life of love. For all that Saint Paul is describing there comes together and flows from the cross. These verses are often read at weddings, but if you want to see that love, there’s only one wedding you’ll find it at, and that’s the marriage of the heavenly Bridegroom and His Bride the Church. The love He not only spoke to her, to us, but showed us on the cross, and gives to us from the cross. Love that is patient with us. Love that did not rejoice in wrongdoing, but bore all our sins on the cross. Love that endured it all for us. Love that in a world that is passing away will not pass away, but gives us who are passing away the life we need. And this love given to us we, then, begin to give to others.
So Jesus didn’t stay in Capernaum, He had to preach the good news of the kingdom of God - the good of Himself and this love - to the other towns as well. He had to go to the cross and preach from it as His pulpit. The good news of the kingdom of God from the cross as the throne of the King. You want to know love, you want to see love? There’s love.
So Jesus didn’t stay in Capernaum, and we don’t have a Capernaum to go to when the desolation of sin and death seeks to crush us. But we do have a cross to go to. And that’s better. It is the cross Jesus has planted here. In the Font, in the Pulpit, and on the Altar. And in every Font, Pulpit, and Altar where He and His death and resurrection are proclaimed. For in these places He is healing your brokenness, casting out your demons, raising you from being in our trespasses and sins, forgiving your sins, and giving you hope. Not just for this life - that is asking too little. But for a greater life. An eternal life. Which really is, as Saint Paul said, the more excellent way.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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