Healed Soul and Body

The Gospel Reading from Matthew 9

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to.

St. Matthew, the ninth chapter. Getting into a boat,.

Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven.

And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

He then said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose and went home. And when the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. The wages of sin is death. This is absolutely true. This is what we deserve. In fact, we deserve even far worse. That being the case, when we recognize this, that the wages of sin is death, we can look in the mirror confidently and note that the, well, the bad condition of our bodies, which always seems to get worse, is the early payments of those wages, right?

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Prayer for Healing

As we head toward the grave. And you'll note then, every single illness, every single one of them, the core problem is not biological. The core problem is spiritual. And that's really what our gospel text is getting at the heart of.

In fact, I really like our gospel text. It's one of the most, well, amazing strategic moves that we have ever seen Jesus accomplish. It's brilliant when you think about it. If it were a chess move, Kasparov would have stood there in awe because of just what Jesus pulled off in it.

But before we get to our gospel text, I'm going to go back into the Old Testament because it's Hezekiah, something that Hezekiah wrote that is recorded for us in Isaiah's prophecy that helps us make the connection between the soul and the body when it comes to healing.

In fact, if you know the story, Hezekiah had gotten deathly sick. And when you read the details of his illness, now I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on YouTube, but growing up in a medical family, it legitimately sounds like Hezekiah had a boil or some kind of a cyst that had gone septic.

And this is the days before antibiotics. And so as a result of it, he was literally at the point of death. And so those details are not given in Isaiah's prophecies. You can find them instead in the books of the kings.

But here's what it says in Isaiah 38. In those days, King Hezekiah, Hezekiah, the king of Judah, he became sick and he was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, set your house in order for you shall die, you shall not recover.

Now, if Isaiah were to show up at my house, probably unlikely that he would. We should leave a table setting for him maybe, right? But if he should show up at my home and tell me this, I would go yes!

Thank you, finally I get to get off this miserable suffering planet, right? And I can finally be done with sin and see Jesus face to face. Well, Hezekiah is notably younger than I am. He's kind of in the middle of his years and he still has younger kids and this idea of dying kind of in the middle of your run is not the best thing for him.

And so Hezekiah, he turns his face to the wall and he prayed to Yahweh. And he said, and listen to this wonderful wonderful plea. Please, O Yahweh, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and I have done what is good in your sight.

And then Hezekiah wept bitterly. And you'll note that the experience of getting this close to death I'm sure was not a lot of fun. He was not in much of a state. But he had enough mind about him to basically ask God, dare I say it, plead with God, that God would change his mind.

And you'll note that over and again God hears our prayers. Let our prayers rise before you as incense, the psalmist says. The lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifices. And there are certain things that I have noted in scripture that God as He is planning and ordering our steps and ordering the way the universe is to be run, certain things are written in stone.

Some things seem to be written in pencil. And this is one of them. And so God hears Hezekiah's prayer. And you're going to note this. Hezekiah was not like today's NAR charismatic wingnut wackerdoodles, right?

When Isaiah showed up and told him that he was going to die Hezekiah didn't say, I rebuke you Isaiah and I decree and declare death shall not touch me. No positive confessions from him. Just humble, humble, almost pathetic pleas that God would have mercy on him.

And God heard him. God saw his weeping. God saw the bitterness of his soul. And God had mercy. Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah. You go and you say to Hezekiah, thus says Yahweh, the God of David, your father.

I always love how God, those faithful kings, God always calls them the son of David. And it really stands out when you get into the book of Matthew. We're getting close to Advent. I know we haven't quite done Reformation day yet, but have you noticed that we're only like a month or so away before everything changes colors here and we start heading into the Advent season.

But in the readings that you get right before the nativity of Christ with Joseph, when the angel Gabriel appears to Joseph, he says to him, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. God remembers all of this stuff.

And what a blessing here. So we can say Hezekiah, he wept bitterly and he is truly the son of David and God remembers that as he responds to his prayer. He says, I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears.

Behold, I will add 15 years to your life and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the kings of Assyria and I will defend this city. This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do this thing that he has promised.

Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz, turn back 10 steps. So the sun turned back on the dial, the 10 steps by which it had declined. Now if you think about this, there's some notable sun miracles in scripture, S-U-N.

In Joshua chapter 10, you have God promising Joshua and the armies of Israel that in the battle that they faced, that they would win the battle. But the battle went on and on and on and on and they were nowhere near completing the battle nor winning it and what did Joshua do?

He spoke to the sun. He said, sun, stand still. Now we're not talking Stephen Furtick's weird way of looking at this, but the idea then is that God made good his promise that they would win the battle that day, listened to what Joshua said and caused the sun to stand still.

But here Hezekiah prays to God that God would heal him and the sign that God gives Hezekiah is not only would the sun stand still, it's going to go backwards. And you're going to note, everybody on planet earth is going to see this and he's the only one and maybe Isaiah and a few other people in his palace around the globe who know anything about what this means.

You think about some poor guy, this day was a hot day, it was a hot summer day for him and the thing he was really looking forward to was the evening and the cooler temperatures coming at night time and there he is sweltering in his hut and he looks up at the sun and sees it going backwards and he's going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, go the other way.

That poor fella. And then you think of some chicken in China that sits there and is ready for to make his glorious cock-a-doodle-doo when the sun comes up and the sun doesn't show up and this poor rooster doesn't know what to do with himself.

This is the kind of thing that really would get everyone's attention around the globe and yet it was a merciful sign to King Hezekiah of God's mercy. And then I would note there is one other really major sun miracle that happened in human history.

It happened while Jesus was bleeding and dying for your sins on the cross. At noon, three hours after Christ had been crucified, as he was writhing in pain and struggling to breathe and bleeding so that you and I can be forgiven, the sun could no longer look at what was happening and it stopped giving its light.

Night came in the middle of the day just as the prophet Amos had said it would. And so you'll note these sun miracles are important but alas, that's probably for another sermon. And so God answered Hezekiah's prayer and Hezekiah then reflecting on the miracle that he had experienced.

Having been brought to the point of death, God had mercy on him and made him recover and Hezekiah sat down and wrote out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what it all means theologically. And Hezekiah becomes one of the smaller authors of scripture.

What he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is recorded for us by the prophet Isaiah. And here's what King Hezekiah wrote regarding his sickness and his recovery. I said in the middle of my days, I must depart.

I'm consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. I said I shall not see Yahweh. Yahweh in the land of the living. I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent.

Like a weaver I have rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom. And from day to night you bring me to an end. I calmed myself until morning. Like a lion, he, God, breaks all of my bones. From day to night you bring me to an end.

And here we must take this into consideration. That Hezekiah rightly is identifying that his suffering that he has experienced was not some deception of the devil. But it was God himself who was breaking his bones.

It was God himself who ordered his days. It was God himself who was allowing him to suffer so horribly as he approached death. And we must take that into consideration. We as Christians do not do as well as we ought when it comes to suffering.

In fact, here's a good distinction historically that Lutherans have made. And Luther very early after discovering the gospel made this distinction. He makes the distinction between theologians of glory and theologians of the cross.

Theologians of glory, they are theologians of self-glory. It's all about them being glorified here and now. And it's, well, the logical result and the end game and goal of self-righteousness. And you'll note that your old Adam, my old Adam, is a theologian of glory par excellence.

And so when you hear in Christian churches God doesn't want you to suffer, you should say to yourself balagna. And that's how you pronounce it. I know how to read. I've seen that on the Oscar Mayer packages.

Balagna. Just look at how it sounded out. I was hooked on phonics one time, right? It is not true that God doesn't want you to suffer nor that God is not the one who sends suffering. He does. And Hezekiah knew full well that the suffering that he had gone through was from God.

He says that God was like a lion breaking all of his bones and from night to day he was bringing him, Hezekiah, to an end. And the response, what did he respond in this? Like a swallow or a crane. I chirp.

I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. Oh Lord, I'm oppressed. Be my pledge of safety, Hezekiah prays. For what shall I say? For he has spoken to me and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

And brothers and sisters, Hezekiah here is a theologian of the cross. He recognizes that as sinners, suffering is something that God brings on us in order to teach us a few things. You should welcome these crosses.

Jesus says all who would follow after him must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. What do you think crosses are for? Right? They're not for glorifying yourself. They're for killing you.

And you'll note crosses are painful. We get the word excruciating from the word crucifixion. They're meant to hurt. And this pain is vital for us because it says in scripture you are children of God and God scourges all of his children for their good.

You've heard the phrase spare the rod, spoil the child. Why do you only think about this in a physical way? Do you not recognize that when God gives you the rod and it hurts and it's meant to hurt it's so that you will not be spoiled.

We should praise God for our scourgings because he knows as our heavenly father what we need. And rather than say I have no need to have suffering. I want all my suffering and bitterness to be removed from me.

You better start figuring out what it all means and what it is that God is working through it. Oh Lord by these things men live and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh please Lord restore me to health and make me live.

That was part of Hezekiah's prayer recorded for us here in Isaiah. Oh restore me Lord to health and make me live. And you'll note Hezekiah then says this. Behold it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness.

But in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction. For you have cast all my sins behind your back. And here Hezekiah then sees that the healing that he received from God, the answer to his prayers, the restoration of his soul and health, that it resulted in his salvation not merely his healing.

You see my stepdad, my stepdad he spent his career as an emergency room physician. And when I was growing up I heard stories of his exploits in the emergency room. And they are exploits indeed. I remember one time him coming home and him still having blood splattered on his shirt.

Telling of how some young man had been brought in, had been shot in a drive-by shooting. He was brought in and he was dead. Stone cold dead. And they were able to resuscitate him and bring him back to life.

I was the only kid in the 7th grade who could pronounce cricoid thorotomy. I knew medical terms, right? But all of that being said, you'll note that God isn't merely a good ER doc. A physician who heals our bodies.

God is one who heals our souls. And so we recognize with Hezekiah that the bitterness that we experience in our suffering, and believe me there's nothing easy about going through it. Have you ever been in a hospital and the doctor hasn't quite come in yet to give you the pain meds and you've been suffering and debating as to whether or not you should go to the hospital in the first place?

And then when you get there the remedy doesn't come immediately. They've got to run your vitals. They've got to run the test. The doctor has to make some decisions. And finally, finally, finally after all these agonizing hours then they finally give you the morphine, right?

It's all for your welfare. All of this. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character. Character, hope. God doesn't only send you blessings. He sends you scourges. It was for your welfare that you've suffered.

It was for Hezekiah's welfare that he suffered. But he says this, but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction. Hezekiah sees that his healing is not only a pledge or a sign of his healing, but his healing is a pledge and a sign of his eternal salvation.

Yeah, God told him, I'm giving you 15 years. But really, is that all that God gave him? Where is Hezekiah today? Hezekiah is worshiping God before the throne of Christ at this very moment. He's with the angels and the archangels and all the company of heaven.

And like all who trust in the son of David who would come and rescue us from sin, death, and the grave, Hezekiah had faith in that son of David as well. He has the promise of eternal life in a world without end.

A world without suffering, bitterness, and pain. Is it any wonder then that he says, you have cast all my sins behind your back? I love the phrase. Because when God chastises somebody for sinning against Him, He says, why have you despised my words?

Why have you cast my words behind your back? Note that. What does God do? God takes our sins and He casts them all behind His back. He despises them so much He just says, I don't even want to see these things anymore, and He gets rid of them.

How is that just? We'll talk about that. Hezekiah continues, for Sheol does not thank you, death does not praise you. Those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. The living, He thanks you as I do this day.

The Father makes known to the children your faithfulness. And then he gives this great proclamation, Yahweh will save me. And we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of Yahweh.

That is most certainly true. And that's where Hezekiah is today. And you'll note Hezekiah here helps us to recognize that God is not just a good doctor. He's the physician of our souls themselves. And so here's what happens then in our Gospel text.

And I'm going to add a few little details from the Gospel of Mark because Mark gives us just a little bit more information. Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to His own city. Now if you're thinking, well Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth.

Yeah, that's where He grew up. Jesus is from Nazareth. But after Jesus graduated from college, He got a job in Capernaum. Okay, that's kind of the right way to think about it. And He bought a house there.

Okay, we learn from the Gospel of Mark that Jesus bought a house. He owned a house in Capernaum. And where this healing takes place is in Jesus' house. Connect the dots. It's really kind of fascinating.

Oh, and by the way, it's kind of anachronistic to say Jesus graduated from college. I'm just trying to help you out here. Okay. I don't want anyone to say that. I can just see the internet going, gee, Chris Roseboro thinks that Jesus went to college.

No, He doesn't. It was an analogy, right? So getting into a boat, He crossed over, came to His city. And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.

Jesus Forgives the Paralytic Before Healing His Body

And here we have to consider this. In Jesus' day, paralytic, they don't have much of a good prognosis. You'll know in our day, it's still it takes some heroic efforts. When somebody experiences a spinal injury that results in them being paralyzed, it takes heroic efforts in order to stabilize them in order for them to even have something of a life after that fact, right?

And I remember when I was a kid, when I was in junior high or high school, watching the movie about Johnny Erickson Tata and how she as a young lady, she was at a lake with her friends and she dove into the water and hit a sandbar and broke her neck.

And all the efforts that were shown in the movie of what it took to stabilize her with a halo around her neck and everything and to get her to the point where, well, she could now get around in a mobile wheelchair, but she couldn't use her hands, she couldn't use her feet, she learned how to paint using her mouth.

And that's her life for decades. But that was not possible in Jesus' time. They didn't have the medical care that we have. And somebody who is a paralytic, somebody who's had a neck injury of this type, in the days before antibiotics and this kind of medicine, their prognosis is bleak.

This is a death sentence. Because they can't feed themselves. Somebody has to take care of all of the bodily fluids that have to be tended to, they have to be fed. And they don't have wheelchairs. They don't have things like this.

It's a really, really dire situation. This guy is as good as dead at this point. And it says in the text, when Jesus saw their faith. And here we need to pull in a little bit more information. How does one see their faith?

We see our faith based on our actions, right? Just as the body that is breathing, not breathing, is dead, so faith without works is dead. And we'll note here, we don't really know much about what these fellows said or did, but you know that there had to be a conversation.

The conversation going something along the lines of, Jesus is our hope. What do you think if we take you to Jesus? Or maybe the paralytic was the one who says, take me to Jesus. And they all thought that this was a good idea.

But when they arrived at Jesus' house, you learn from the Gospel of Mark, the crowd was so big in front of Jesus' front door, there was no way for them to get to Jesus. And so what do they decide to do?

They head up onto the roof. And this is not an A-frame roof, this is a flat roof. And this is Jesus' house. They dug a hole in his roof. And one has to wonder, how long did this take place? Was Jesus just preaching and teaching while the dust and the dirt was falling from his ceiling?

What was going on here? So as soon as they had a hole big enough, they lower the fellow down to Jesus, and here's the important bit. There was no demand. There wasn't even a request spoken. They just knew that if Jesus saw this situation that he would do something.

And they trusted him. In Jesus' first words, don't let these go by you. Take heart, my son. When God in human flesh calls you son or daughter, pay attention. Because each and every one of us, we have been baptized into Christ, into his death and to his resurrection.

And the book of Galatians makes it clear that we are all now children of God, adopted into the family. Christ says to this fellow who has faith in him, take heart, my son. And then he gets to the core problem.

This man's core problem is not that he's a paralytic. This man's core problem is that he's a sinner. And he needs to be reconciled to God. And so Jesus begins with the most dire of the needs. The core root itself.

My son, your sins, they are forgiven. Now, I don't know if that's what he expected. In fact, you can tell by how the scribes and the Pharisees responded, they didn't see this one coming at all. And this is that brilliant chess move that even Kasparov would just sit there slack-jawed.

Jesus hearing and knowing the thoughts that they were thinking. Some were saying that Jesus is blaspheming and we learn from the Gospel of Mark. Others were saying, who can forgive sins except for God alone?

Of course, my favorite answer to that question is, duh. Okay, who do you think Jesus is, right? So Jesus, knowing their thoughts, he asks the question, why do you think evil in your hearts? It was evil of them to question Jesus' authority to forgive sins.

Which is easier to say, Jesus said, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk? Now, we all know the answer to the question. The answer is, well, it's a lot easier to say your sins are forgiven because there is no visible evidence that your sins have been removed from you.

You'll note that after I pronounce the absolution today, during the beginning of our divine service, that your skin didn't start to sparkle like the vampires of twilight, right? There was no visible manifestation that your sins were forgiven.

So how does one then know that their sins are forgiven? By faith. By faith. But Jesus here now gives a visual aid, and what he does is brilliant. Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk?

But that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. Now, there had to have been just a momentary pause, from when the words left Jesus' mouth to when the man stood up.

And in that pause, in that silence, you had to wonder what people were thinking. Is this really going to happen? And while they're looking on, wondering what's going to happen next, the paralytic, for the first time since becoming a paralytic, he can feel.

He can feel his fingers. He can wiggle his toes. And God had taken his muscles and made them strong again. He had been healed completely, soul and body. And where there was no feeling just moments ago, the feeling had come back.

One has to wonder, was there a buzz of electricity in his body? Was there a feeling of warmth where he can now again feel the blood in his own body? Rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And you know what?

He did. He did. He rose and he picked up his bed and he went home. Now, in reading this, I'm not a paralytic. Neither are you. There's no guarantee tomorrow any of us will not be. We don't know what tomorrow the sufferings that we will experience are.

But today, I don't need Jesus to heal me from paralysis. I need Jesus to forgive me of my sins. I'm surprised that the text doesn't end with people saying, and there was a line, a queue that immediately was set up, people standing there waiting to have their sins forgiven next.

Right? Because that's what we all need. And the reason why Jesus is able to cast our sins behind his back and say to this man so authoritatively that your sins are forgiven is because Jesus is about to do something for him and for all of us.

Jesus, who is perfectly healthy. Jesus, who in the middle of his years, you'll note Hezekiah was a young man. So was Jesus. And Hezekiah didn't want to die in the middle of his life. Jesus willingly laid down his life right in the middle of it.

Where Hezekiah was healed, Jesus instead allowed his body to be broken. And he submitted himself to the Roman authorities who beat him, punched him in the face, scourged him, pressed a crown of thorns into his head, made him carry his cross to Golgotha, and then nailed him to the cross.

Jesus' perfect body became so derelict that even Isaiah says that we weren't able to recognize him after the fact. He was broken so that you and I can be healed. And by his stripes we are truly healed, soul and body.

And you'll note the words that Christ said to this fellow Rise, pick up your bed, and go home. These are words that we're going to hear a derivation of when we hear the voice of Jesus when he returns in glory.

Though your body be in the grave, moldering, though you have gone far beyond being paralyzed, and your body is now dead, you're not able to feel or say or do anything, let alone breathe. Christ will say to you when he returns Rise!

Rise from the grave, and you will. And you will rise from the grave with a perfect body, one that will never die, that does not have sickness or pain or suffering or any ailment. And Jesus will lead you to your home that he has created for you, and he will show you your new bed and your new home, and you will be there with him forever and ever.

You see, when Jesus heals us, it's soul and body. So brothers and sisters, take heart. Take heart. The suffering that we are going through, it's real. It hurts, it's difficult, and at times you are desperate for God to give you just an ounce of remedy, some easing from the pain that you are going through.

Your pain is not without meaning, and God loves you and is scourging you and working your welfare through what you are suffering. But note then, you will rise from the dead. Your sins are forgiven. You will spend eternity with Christ in the home that he has prepared for you.

There is a day coming when the night will finally be over, and the dawning of the new day will be upon us when Christ returns. I know it's dark right now, but just take a look out at the horizon. The first colors of pink can barely be seen.

He's not that far off. So rise. Rise. You are alive in Christ. Trust in him, and he will save you soul and body. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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