Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. In today's Gospel, Jesus gives you a new way of looking at your own
body. This Gospel does not teach you to look at your body in terms of what
you can physically see in the mirror. This Gospel teaches you to look at
your body through faith. That is so say, this Gospel teaches you to judge
the health and strength of your body, not by what you can see or feel in it,
but by what you believe.
Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told
[Jesus] about her. And He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up,
and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Dear Christian friends,
Simon's mother-in-law gives us a good picture of what God our heavenly
Father has done-and continues to do-for you, for me, and for all His dear
Christians Today's Gospel shows us that
This rule is universally true, that of himself man is nothing, is capable of
nothing, and has nothing except sin, death and damnation; but through His
mercy Almighty God brings it about that . [we are] freed from sin, death and
damnation through Christ (Luther, AE 2, 247).
In today's Gospel, this woman was totally immobilized on account of her sin.
She "lay ill with a fever" and a fever is a mark of sin just as certainly as
harmful words or loveless actions are marks of sin. Stated another way,
people learn from your words and your deeds that you are sinful, but they
also learn you are a sinner from the fact that you catch a cold, run a
fever, wear glasses, walk with a cane, or get diagnosed with a disease.
Every flaw in your health-from the smallest paper cut to the most invasive
surgery-every flaw in your health declares to the world that you have sin,
and that death will come to you on account of sin.
This woman in today's Gospel was not yet dead, but she was as good as dead.
Her fever robbed her of all strength. Even if she desired to rise and serve
her Lord, she had strength for it. She was capable of nothing. She had
nothing but sin and death.
What does Jesus do for her? The same thing He does for you! Jesus
miraculously gives this woman new health and strength by which she rises to
serve her God.
And immediately they told [Jesus] about her. And He came and took her by the
hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
It is important for you to know that St. Mark did NOT say Jesus took her by
the hand and healed her. St. Mark certainly could have said that if he
wanted (compare 1:34), but he did not want to say that. St. Mark has very
carefully written in today's Gospel, "[Jesus] took her by the hand and
lifted her up."
In His Bible, God frequently uses this word "lifted" to describe how people
recover from illnesses, but this word is also a resurrection word. God uses
this word "lifted" to describe how people come back from the dead (Mark
6:14, 14:28, 16:6, 14). Later in St. Mark's book, your Lord's own
resurrection was described using the same Word you heard in today's Gospel.
When the grieving women came to your Lord's tomb on Easter Sunday, an angel
declared to them, "He has been lifted up; He is not here" (Mark 16:6, my
translation).
"[Jesus] came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left
her." Some Bible scholars will say I am making a mountain out of a molehill
by connecting this "lifting up" of Simon's mother-in-law to the resurrection
of our Lord. I say they are dead wrong. I did not connect these two things
together; St. Mark did! This "lifting up" of Simon's mother-in-law is very
good for you precisely because it is tied to the resurrection. This "lifting
up" is important for you because it provides you with a good analogy for
thinking about your own faith and health and life, given to you by your
loving God:
1. Simon's mother-in-law was immobilized by her fever and her fever was
caused by sin. It is not unfair for us therefore to say that sin had
immobilized Simon's mother-in-law. The fever was the tool, but sin was the
cause.
Fever or no fever, you also were once totally immobilized by your sin. You
were once as powerless as this woman in today's Gospel. You were once
imprisoned by the same universal rule that likewise held her: "that of
himself man is nothing, is capable of nothing, and has nothing except sin,
death and damnation."
2. But now the story of this woman's healing has also become the story of
your own salvation. Jesus did not merely reach out His hand and heal this
woman. Acting in a way that prefigures the resurrection of all flesh, Jesus
"took her by the hand and lifted her up," snatching her away from very the
brink of death.
We dare not say anything less of you, dear saint! As Jesus did for this
woman in today's Gospel, so also He has repeatedly done also for you:
· What is your Baptism, if not a miniature resurrection from the
dead? In your Baptism, Jesus washed away all your sins. In this washing away
of your sins, Jesus removed from you those things that cause your death. We
would not be doing too much violence to today's Gospel if we said that, at
your Baptism "the fever left [you]."
· What are the absolution and the preaching of the Church, if not
your Lord's own Words of resurrection and life, in Whose presence you now
stand?
· What is your Holy Communion at the Lord's altar, if not Jesus' act
of lifting you up in the same way He lifted up Simon's mother-in-law? At
Simon and Andrew's house, the lifting happened when Jesus took this woman by
the hand. Here in your Lord's house, Jesus lifts you by lip and tongue and
jaw as He serves you His eternal meal of immortality and life.
3. Look at what an old lady now can do now: "The fever left her, and she
began to serve them." Where she was once pinned down and powerless under the
weight of fever, sin and death, Jesus raises this woman up to new health and
strength. Where once she could do no good thing for her Lord, she now rises
to serve both Him and those dear loved ones who are with Him.
Mark this well, dear saints: St. Mark does not tell us that Jesus made this
woman young or beautiful or powerful or perfectly healthy in every way.
Jesus "took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her." That
is to say, Jesus removed from this woman the thing that prevented her from
serving Him, and He allowed everything else to stay where it was. Even her
sin remained inside her, but it was no longer allowed to deter her. It is
not hard to imagine her pinning her gray hair back into place as she headed
off to the kitchen. Her hands were still knotted and bent from years of
labor. She died eventually. She could look in the mirror and see that she
was not exactly a picture of health and youth, but even so, she believed by
FAITH that she was healthy and able to serve her God. Why did she believe
this? Because Jesus "took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever
left her."
This Gospel teaches you to look at your own body in the same way. Do not
look at your body in terms of what you can see in the mirror. Look at your
body through faith, as Simon's mother-in-law did. That is to say, judge your
body and its serviceability to God, not by what you can see or feel, but by
what you believe.
Some of you might feel yourselves young and strong and healthy. Give it a
few years. You will learn your lessons soon enough. The day will come when
your strong arms do not move as powerfully as they once did. If you doubt
it, ask your father. Your creamy skin might outgrow the pimples of
adolescence, but it will not escape the wrinkles of time-even if your mother
is still trying to hide that fact under her makeup. My hair used to curl and
wave. Now it hangs in limp resignation. I used to think my body was
indestructible. Now I think I was a fool.
On the other side of the calendar, some of you no longer see yourselves as
young or strong or healthy. Grey whiskers fill the sink when you shave.
Crows have been marching the perimeter of your eyes. Some of you suffer from
chronic pains that pin you to a chair for days at a time. Some of you cannot
seem to recover your strength, no matter how hard you try. Some of you feel
uncertain and worried that you might not survive your illnesses. Some of you
have been forced to accept the fact that you will not survive.
Even if you see yourself wasting away, your Lord Jesus proclaims to you that
you are now indeed full of life and free sin, no matter how weak or aged you
might look and feel. As with Simon's mother-in-law, Jesus has already lifted
you up and He continues to lift you up, even now fitting you for service to
Him. Your Lord Jesus does not want you to lose heart in the face of your
advancing years or your illnesses. Your Lord Jesus forgives you all your
sins, and by forgiving your sins He has taken away from you everything that
leads you to your death. You will still face your impediments, to be sure.
Simon's mother-in-law did, too. Yet Jesus provided her with a way to serve
Him in exactly the way it pleased Him. So also with you: you, like this
woman, now have everything you need to serve your Lord Jesus in exactly the
way that pleases Him most. Today's Gospel is a good way for us to learn to
rejoice: "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being
renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).
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