Month: February 2025

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

Today’s Gospel lesson is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke 6. Last Sunday we heard some of Jesus’ beatitudes or blessings, followed by a series of woes. This is very similar to His Sermon on the Mount that is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel – except that we are told that this sermon took place on a level place, so it’s called the Sermon on the Plain.

Here Jesus is speaking to His disciples – both then and now – about what we refer to as the third use of the Law. If you remember your Catechism instruction, you were taught that God’s Law functions in 3 ways: First, as a curb to restrain lawlessness; second, as a mirror to show us our sinfulness and our need for a Savior; and third, as a rule or guide for the Christian life in this world,

Jesus Himself speaking to us… And what a message it is! Jesus tells us what it means to be a Christian, a child of God, how we should lead our lives. And these are not some sort of vague suggestions. This is how He expects us to live.

But before we begin reflecting of what demands Jesus places of His followers, we need to step back so that we can see these demands in their proper light and place. We need to remember that our God never demands us to act first.

God’s abundant blessings come before His demands. And even more so in our lives. He is our Creator. He bestows upon us and sustains the gift of live.

And even before we are born, He prepares a place for us, this wonderful planet Earth. Even before we know the need for Savior, He sends His Son to become one of us, to take upon Him all our sins and death, and in exchange to give us forgiveness and life with Him forever.

The Holy Spirit comes to us and does what we can’t do ourselves. He changes our wicked hearts, He creates in us the trust in true God and He gently and patently leads us to Jesus, so that we can know the loving heart of our God.

All of this happens by sheer grace of our Heavenly Father. He makes us members of His own family. And only then, only then does He teache us how to live as His children. It makes sense, when we think about it.

Whatever we do, whichever way we behave, none of that could make us members of, let’s say, the royal family. But, if by God’s grace we are made members of such family, then that inevitably puts new responsibilities on us – responsibility to live in such a way that would reflect the nature of the family that we represent. In today’s reading we hear Jesus’ teaching exactly that. How to live out our identity as God’s children so that we truthfully represent what our divine family is about. Let’s hear what Jesus says.

And what He says first is “but I say to you who hear…”. What is going on? He is not addressing those who listen to Him, but those who actually hear Him. That is, those who take His words to their hearts, who continue to think about them and most importantly, who try to live them out in their lives.

The same is true for us. Many listen to the readings we read. Many listen to what pastors preach. But how many actually hear what God Himself speaks to us in His Word and how many take it to the heart and strive to live accordingly?

Perhaps it is not the easiest thing to lead a decent life even in the eyes of this world. But probably it isn’t the hardest thing either. Jesus reflects on it as well. He says what we all know and have experienced.

That people tend to love those who love them, and that they tend to do good to those who do good to them, and that they often lend to those who will pay them back. Or we can say that we love and do good to people who respond to us in like manner. Jesus puts it in these words: “Even sinners do the same.”

At the same time, we can treat with contempt and distain those whom we don’t consider our people. I am sure that most of you would have seen and perhaps also experienced this in your lives.

It happens in schools, it happens in workplaces, it happens in society. And unfortunately, it happens also in the Church. When we are nice and welcoming to our people… but at the same time can show a very different attitude, or no attitude at all, to those who are not our people.

The bottom line is – it is not a big deal to be nice to your own people. That is just a common sense, something necessary for our survival in this world and life in society. We all need a support network. Even sinners do the same.

This is where Jesus’ demands to His people, to Christians kick in. This is where we can see how radical Jesus’ demands are. In fact, we could say how unreasonable in the eyes of this world and how humanly impossible they are.

Just listen once more. To those who hear: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. […] But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return…”.

What Jesus expects from His followers, from us, is neither reasonable nor doable. It is impossible for us in our own power, living in this world and daily fighting for our survival. Why would anyone live that way?
But… we know the answer. What Jesus demands is impossible for mere man. But nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is impossible for those who are united with the true God. For those who have received the Holy Spirit.
For when our Creator and Redeemer comes to us and speaks to us, He also unites us with Himself by means of the indwelling of His Spirit. And the Holy Spirit turns our little and “reasonable” worlds upside down.

He brings us in this infinitely greater divine reality where we are not alone anymore. Where the Triune God is the source of every good gift, where Jesus Christ has received all authority in heavens and on earth, and reigns victorious.

The Holy Spirit expands our little world that we inhabit and brings us to the reality where this age is just a ‘prelude to the age to come. Where the true life, eternal life in God’s presence, adventurous and joyful, is what matters the most.

Where this life and this world, as important as they are, will perish giving place to the imperishable, the New Heavens, New Earth and new bodies. Once we begin to inhabit that much larger world, our God Himself enables us to live out our identity as God’s children. We are enabled to love our enemies.

It doesn’t mean that we would somehow like those people who hate us, or curse us, or abuse us. Of course, not. But as God’s children, we are able to see that they too are created in God’s Image and Likeness.

That they are enslaved to their sins. That Jesus has died to free them from their sins and that by God’s grace one day they may become our brothers and sisters in Christ. And if that is so, then it really isn’t that hard to care about our brothers and sisters in Christ, is it?

Once we see everyone this way, not only our people, but everyone, we are enabled to love them, to care for them, to pray for them. This is what we do as congregation and as individual Christians, when we pray for those who persecute us, for those who are hostile to us, for those abuse us. For we hope that one day we will rejoice together with them in God’s Kingdom.

We may still wonder what the purpose of living such life is, where you are patient when injustice is done to you, when you don’t fight when something is unfairly taken from you, when you don’t scream from the bottom of your lungs that “my rights are being violated!”

For one, everything that we have in this world is … yes, given to us by our gracious Father. Whatever we have we have received it as underserved gifts. And if we can use these gifts, that belong to God, to witness about our Father and our Lord Jesus, that’s great. But the main point is this, that we already belong to a world much greater than this, and that is God’s promise to us that as we live as Jesus Himself did and as He instructs us, our reward will be great in heavens, in the life to comes.

And by living so we will be children of our Father, for He, too “is kind to the ungrateful and the evil”. “Be, therefore, merciful, even as your Father is merciful”. See, this is our opportunity to show that this age will pass, and that something much greater is to come. And that is where our hearts belong.

We are not afraid to suffer injustice, or lose some of our materials possession in this age, for we know that so much more is to come, especially if we remain faithful to our Lord. Thus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can live as Jesus’ disciples, which may seem weak and foolish to the world. But for us it is the very opposite, God’s wisdom and true manifestation of God’s power in us.

Jesus also mentions what people often call “The Golden Rule”. “As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” This is so often misunderstood as pleasing the desires of our sinful flesh. Just do for people what they want.

Jesus doesn’t say this to everybody. He says this to His disciples, to those who hear Him, and who value eternal life with Jesus above everything else. And such people don’t just desire anything.

They desire everything that brings them closer to Jesus, that helps them to fight the good fight and to keep the faith. Therefore, we could say that the proper meaning of this phrase is – do to others whatever you can to bring them closer to Jesus and to lead them to eternal life.

A few more words on “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you”. Again this is one of these misused sayings of Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t prohibit us from speaking the truth, or proclaiming God’s will for our lives, or calling our brothers or sisters to repentance, none of these. For by doing so we can save them. What Jesus is speaking against is our arrogant and hypocritical attitude.

When we imagine that we are better than others and therefore can look down to them. When we don’t see that we ourselves are sinners, perhaps even in much worse state, than those whom we want to judge.

This command invites us to be humble and gentle when we speak with our brothers and sisters. And when we need to speak the words of rebuke, and that happens, we do it caring for their salvation, and not to elevate ourselves.
Summarizing we could say that we need to be conscious that whatever we do as Christians, it bears witness about our God. People can’t erase the knowledge of God from their hearts. But when they don’t know Jesus, they naturally perceive God as the Judge. We should do whatever we can, so that our lives would help them to see merciful and forgiving God, the Father of our Lord Jesus and our Father. And for us, chosen by God, called by the Gospel, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, this is not as burdensome a task as it may appear.

For Jesus doesn’t instruct us to do anything that He Himself hadn’t done. Besides, He doesn’t instruct us to do it on our own, instead He Himself walks with us and His Spirit continually shapes us to be more like Jesus.
And finally, as we respond to God’s love and try to obey Him, these words should accompany us. “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” From what I can recall this is one of the most abundant illustrations of God’s blessings in the Bible.

How will God deal with you, you, faithful servant? This is how! The measure of God’s blessings will be pressed down, and shaken, for there is so much, and even then it will be running over… in abundance of God’s grace.
It is so good to be children of God. We are free to love our enemies, free to be unreasonably patient and forgiving, we are free to be extravagantly generous and humble, for we do not belong to this age, but to a much greater world. And it is coming soon. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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I. Three Gifts for Peter
It had been a long night for Peter, longer still because there was no reward for his efforts. It can’t be easy moving a boat around and hauling nets through the darkness; and now that the sun is up, there’s not a fish to be found in the boat. They won’t be biting now that day’s begun. Some nights are like that: The fish don’t always cooperate. Time to beach the boat and clean the nets.

Close by along the shoreline, a man is teaching a crowd that’s pressing upon Him. If things go the way they are, they’ll press Him right into the lake. So it only makes sense when Jesus asks to sit in a boat and teach, and Peter does the Man a favor.

We don’t know exactly what Jesus says. However, His constant message includes warnings against sin and false teaching that makes one unholy before God; and it also includes the message that grace and salvation are found in Him. As the man keeping the boat in place, Peter has the front row seat to hear every Word.

It’s after Jesus stops speaking that He issues an unusual directive in order to give an unusual gift: “Launch out into the deep and let down your down your nets for a catch.” It’s not the most sensible idea: You catch fish in the shallows during the night, not in the deep and not during the day. It sounds illogical to Peter, so he says, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” But Peter isn’t working on logic. He’s acting on faith, trusting the Word that He’s just heard.

You know what happens. They catch so many fish that the nets begin to burst and they need help to pull them to shore. It’s a miracle, and with this wonder Jesus shows how much He desires to help Peter. Fishermen need fish to make a living; Jesus gives him a boatload plus. The Lord helps out Peter with his daily bread. That’s the first gift.

One would expect Peter to be joyful at the gift, but that’s hardly the reaction. Between the teaching and the miracle, Peter’s come to realize something-something important. He’s in the presence of more than just a teacher, and more than just a man. Peter is in the presence of the Messiah, the one anointed by God to be the Savior. Peter is in the presence of His ETERNAL Lord, astonishing enough for a hard-working fisherman to comprehend. But more than that, Peter is in the presence of his HOLY Lord; and Jesus’ holiness suddenly makes Peter see how holy he is not. It is a terrifying thing for an unforgiven sinner to come face to face with God, for then he must confront how truly sinful he is and understand how righteous is his impending doom. In comparison to the purity and righteousness of God, it’s a terrible discovery.

Which is why Peter exclaims, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” No big surprise for Peter, but he’s half right. He’s also half wrong.

Peter’s right when he makes his confession that he is a sinful man. With his iniquity thrown into sharp relief by the holiness of Jesus, he acknowledges that he is in fact a poor miserable sinner who justly deserves the Lord’s temporal and eternal punishment. There is no merit or worthiness in him that deserves the Lord’s gracious gift of all those fish or anything else. No, for his sin, Peter only
deserves to have the Lord depart from Him.

But this is where Peter is wrong-when he tells Jesus to go away. He’s got the whole situation wrong. It’s not that Jesus accidentally got on the boat with Peter and didn’t realize He was helping out a sinner. It’s not that Jesus has thought that Peter was holy until Peter says otherwise.

Jesus knows all about Peter and his sin–and that’s precisely why He’s gotten on the boat. Rather than leave the man with his sin, Jesus is going to stay with him and take his sin away. And that’s exactly what He does when He says, “Do not be afraid.” The only reason that Peter need not be afraid is if he is forgiven; and so, by these words the Lord absolves him.

So, Jesus has now given him two gifts: A boatload of fish for his livelihood, and the forgiveness of sins for eternal life.

He gives one more gift that day. He says, “From now on you will catch men.” Jesus hasn’t just stopped by for the day. Now that He’s given Peter forgiveness and made him holy, He’s going to make Peter’s life holy, too. Peter will now be His disciple, later an apostle, a fisher of men. The Lord will be with him always, even to the end of his age.

As a sinful man, Peter had none of these gifts. But because Jesus came to him, he now has the kingdom of heaven. He doesn’t deserve it, but Peter doesn’t get these things because of who Peter is. He receives these gifts solely because of who Jesus is.

II. Three Gifts for You
The Lord still gives all these gifts today. The Lord delights to give all these gifts today, and He delights to give all of these gifts to all people.

Obviously, as He gave Peter that boatload of fish, the Lord still gives daily bread to all people: As the Small Catechism says, He gives “clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle and all of my goods.” Now, ponder for a moment how much the Lord delights to give these things: He does not just give all of these blessings to those who believe in Him or thank Him. He offers these gifts to all people, whether they believe in Him or not. Whether they give thanks to Him or not. Even if they give the credit to other gods, He still gives daily bread. All that we have in this life is a gift from Him, and all people seem quite happy to receive it. I know of no one who says, “Since I don’t believe in God, I will not make use of the bread and clothing that He provides.”

Now, the obvious surface sin at play here is the sin of ingratitude. God gives and we fail to thank Him properly. But I would propose to you that your old sinful nature is working hard for a far more dangerous goal than thanklessness. Old Adam is going to use these gifts, one way or another, to try to get you to say with Peter, “Depart from me!” to the Lord. His tactic is this: he wants to get you to dwell on the 1st gift, daily bread, so much that you care nothing for the 2nd gift, the forgiveness of
sins.

If the Lord blesses you with great abundance, it is reason for you to give abundant thanks. Old Adam, however, will twist things to get you to say, “I have so much, what need do I have of God?

God provides this stuff with no strings attached. I don’t have to worship or serve or thank Him or repent, so I like these gifts. And if I have them, I don’t need His other gifts.”

Or, Old Adam will seek to persuade you to reason, “God must approve of all that I do to give me so much. Therefore, I must not need that other gift-the gift of forgiveness.” Do you see the trick? Old Adam uses God’s
generosity for this life to tempt you to say, “I’m quite happy with all this daily bread, and don’t want more. Lord, You can go now-just keep sending the good stuff for this life.”

In other words, “Depart from me, Lord. I have what I want from You.”

If the Lord blesses you with not so much, you still have cause for abundant thanksgiving. He has made you, preserves you, and provides you with all that you need. Furthermore, He shields you from the temptations that always accompany wealth. But Old Adam makes use of this, too; he turns on the taps of jealousy and covetousness so that he might lead you to say, “God must not love me so much if I do not have so much as others. I’m just as well off without Him.” In other words, “Since You don’t give me as much as I want for this life, I’ve no interest in forgiveness and eternal life. Depart from me, O Lord.”

And among a few, Old Adam will pull the trick he pulled on Peter. He will lead some to understand their sinfulness and God’s holiness so that they feel too sinful to accept God’s gifts. He’ll lead some to say, “I hate myself so much that I do not want God to love me,” or “There’s no way that God could forgive or help me.” It sounds pious, but it’s unbelief: It accuses God of not having enough grace, which is contrary to His promise. This is just fine with Old Adam. It’s okay with him if he gets you to despair, as long as you don’t trust in Christ; it certainly worked on Judas.

No matter what, your old sinful nature will take God’s gifts for this life and try to get you to fixate on them — fixate on them so that you forget that the Lord has other gifts to offer. This is a real and present danger– especially in a land of prosperity like ours. An article on Foxnews.com (“Religion Gets Supersized at Megachurches”) reported on one of the biggest church in the United States, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. 52,000 people come each week to hear a sermon by Pastor Joel Osteen, who purposely omits talk of sin from his sermons. He sees his task as giving people “a boost for the week” and says, “I think for years there’s been a lot of hellfire and damnation. You go to church to figure out what you’re doing wrong and you leave feeling bad like you’re not going to make it. We believe in focusing on the goodness of God.” In keeping with theme, Osteen also notes that the front of the church auditorium contains no crosses. “We believe in focusing on the goodness of God.” It sounds good, but do you see the glaring error?

As he preaches on Christian weight loss and basketball, the pastor speaks of gifts that God gives for this life — gifts that He gives to believers and unbelievers alike. But in refusing to speak of sin and grace, he denies people the Good News of God’s greater goodness — the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ, who died on the cross in their place. Such an approach says, “We’ll talk about the
stuff God gives for this life, since we don’t have to talk about sin and repentance. But when it comes to the gift of forgiveness won by Jesus’ blood and death…well, Lord, you can go now.”

Put it another way: You don’t need Jesus to have daily bread. The Lord has provided things for this life to all people, believers or not, and always will. This also means that one can rejoice in the daily bread God gives but isn’t necessarily a Christian. So why did Jesus become flesh and go to the cross? To redeem us from our sin. To suffer God’s judgment in our place and credit us with His righteousness, so that we might be pardoned for our sin and have eternal life. Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Redeem me from sin and I live forever. This is the far better gift.

This gift is also just as free for all. Old Adam will try to convince you that God gives food for free, but forgiveness comes with all sorts of requirements like repentance. The Old Adam lies like that a lot. Think of it this way: The Lord declares, “You have a body and a soul, and both need to be alive. If you don’t eat food, your body will be dead. If you don’t receive forgiveness, your soul will be dead. I give you food for both. I give you daily bread for your body and I give forgiveness for your soul. When you eat food, you have turned from hunger to life. When you receive forgiveness, you have turned from death to life. I give both in the same way: Absolutely free to you.”

And look! Not only is the gift better, but look at how the Giver gives. Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. On the way to the cross, He did not avoid sinners. He ate with them. He spoke with them. He got on Peter’s boat to take away his fear. He hauled their burden of sin to the cross and suffered for it there. Today, likewise, He does not require that you somehow work your way to Him. He comes to you. He makes you His own precious child in Baptism, cleansing you of your sin. He speaks His Word to you as He did to Peter, saying, “Do not be afraid. Your sins are forgiven; and if your sins are forgiven, then you are My beloved child and nothing can separate you from Me.” He feeds you with His Supper, bring Himself to you for the forgiveness of sins.

The gifts of God for this life are great. These gifts of the Lord for eternal life are far, far better. He does not call you to pick one or the other, but showers both upon you. Do not stop with the gifts for this life alone, for the Lord desires to give you so much more. Daily bread is a great blessing; but to focus solely on it and reject forgiveness is to say, for whatever reason, “Depart from me, Lord.”

Those who persist in this error will stand before Him on Judgment Day only to hear Him say, “Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity” (Lk. 13:27).

No, how blessed and honored are you. The Lord honors you with His presence, coming to you-and the almighty God comes to you to give gifts to you! What joy you and I have as the people of God, who showers upon us such gifts for this life and for eternity.

Of course, dear people of God, there is one more gift that He gives you: He gives you a holy life. For Peter, it was a career change; he started the day as a catcher of fish and ended the day as a catcher of people. But what made his life holy was that, as one forgiven, his works were now good in the sight of God. As the Lord has called you by the Gospel into His family, He has also called you into various vocations — parent, child, husband, wife, grandparent, employer, employee, etc. Whatever your vocations might be, you have the assurance the Lord delights in what you do, because He has made you His own and sanctified your life.

What joy you have this day, dear friends. The Lord gives you daily bread for this life, living bread for eternal life, and sanctifies your life along the way. Where your sin once cried out to the Lord, “Depart from me!”, He now says, “Lo, I am with you always.” And if the Lord does not depart, then heaven is yours; for you are forgiven for all of your sin in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The Word of the Lord from Luke 4: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

I. Four More Puzzle Pieces
As we’ve noted before, the season of Epiphany is about Jesus making Himself known, about people discovering who He is. In our Gospel lesson for today, when Jesus visits Capernaum, we find four more important puzzle pieces that teach us much about our Savior.

The first is that He teaches, and that He teaches with authority. When Jesus taught in the synagogue of His hometown in Nazareth, He read the words from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then He began to teach about the text. But unlike the rabbis who might say, “This is a prophecy of the Messiah who will come someday,” Jesus declares, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He’s not another teacher saying that the Christ will come—He says that He is the Christ, standing before them. He claims that authority, and rightly so. In Nazareth, though, they didn’t believe it. To them, He’s just Mary and Joseph’s little boy all-grown-up, and they let their familiarity rob them of faith in Him. They didn’t see Him performing any miracles, and so they reject His authority: in fact, they try to throw Him off a cliff, so He moved on to Capernaum. Here, in today’s Gospel lesson, the people are more receptive. They’re astonished at His teaching, for His Word possesses authority. That’s the first puzzle piece. Jesus Word has authority!

So what are His Word and authority good for? Here’s the second puzzle piece to fit into place: by His Word, Jesus shows He has authority over demons. A man with the spirit of an unclean demon cries out, “Ha! What have You to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God.”

Demon-possession is a terrifying thing, but Jesus is far from frightened. What does He do? He speaks. He speaks His Word which has authority. He simply says, “Be silent and come out of him!” The demon departs. It has no choice. There’s no great battle, no back-and-forth where the outcome is in doubt. Jesus speaks. The demon departs. The man is unharmed. The people are astonished: “What is this Word?” they ask. “For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” The news spreads across the region.

The Lord isn’t done: His Word does more than cast out demons, as if that weren’t enough of a demonstration of power and authority. He leaves the synagogue and goes to the home of Peter’s mother-in-law. She is ill with a high fever—a serious condition that can still kill today, despite all of our medical technology. Jesus treats the fever the way He treated the demon: He rebukes it. We don’t have the words recorded, but He tells it to go away. Again, there’s no epic struggle, no need for Jesus to repeat Himself. He speaks. The fever is gone. Peter’s mother-in-law gets up and begins to serve them: she’s not just getting better, but she’s fully healed. This, by the way, is the third puzzle piece as to Jesus’ identity: by His Word, He shows that He has authority over sickness, too.

Meanwhile, the Word has spread like wildfire; and by sunset, people have brought any who are sick or demon-possessed to Jesus. He lays His hands on them and heals them. There isn’t virus or evil spirit that can resist this Savior. It’s no contest: He wins every time. When it comes to the demons, they can’t even speak without His permission. When they cry out, “You are the Son of God!”, He shuts them up. It’s not that they’re wrong, but that they haven’t been given permission to reveal His identity.

When it’s day, Jesus departs to a desolate place—likely to pray in solitude, as He does elsewhere in the Gospels. The people track Him down, which only makes sense: when you’ve got a miracle-working physician, you want to keep Him around. That’s their plan: they want to keep Him from leaving. But He isn’t going to stay. He speaks His authoritative Word to say, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” There’s the fourth piece that we can fit into the puzzle of who Jesus is: as astonishing as the miracles are, that isn’t why Jesus has come. He’s come to preach the good news of the kingdom of God—not just in Capernaum, but to the other towns, too. The “Good News” is the word for “Gospel.” Jesus is going to go from town to town, calling people to believe in Him for salvation—and by His authoritative Word, He’s going to give them faith to believe in Him. As He continues to preach His Word, He’s going to continue to fulfill the Word He preaches. He’s going to keep performing miracles, because the Old Testament said that the people would know the Savior in part by the miracles He performed. But most important of all is that He is going to go to the cross to die for their sins; because, from the very beginning, God declared in His Word that that was what the Messiah would do.

So our text gives us four clues, four more puzzle pieces that reveal who Jesus is. He speaks His Word with authority. He demonstrates His authority over demons. He has authority over sickness. And He has come to proclaim the Gospel.

That was then. What about now? Unlike the people who were hearing and watching and wondering who this new Teacher might be, you know the answer. But those four clues about Jesus hold wonderful comfort for you, too.

2. Four Great Comforts for You Today
First, it is still true that Jesus speaks with authority. He does so by means of His Word. He is not one more advice columnist or motivational speaker or politician who has come to tell you “somebody else” is coming who will solve all your problems. Usually, that “somebody else” that they talk about ends up being you. As long as you work hard enough or meditate seriously enough or help other people enough, then you’re on the road to reconciliation with God. But you already know you, and you don’t need any more of you. When you hear God’s Word, you discover that you’re the very problem in need of salvation. So Jesus isn’t one more eternal life-coach who says, “You have to do more to be saved.” Instead, He says, “I’ve already done it all. I’ve gone to the cross and died for your sins. I am risen again. Salvation is yours.” Jesus doesn’t point to someone else. He points to Himself and says, “I am your Savior. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Not only is this good news, but it is His Word, spoken with His authority. In other words, when Jesus declares to you in His Word that He is your Savior, He’s not just giving news for you to believe: He is, in fact, giving you the faith by which you can believe the news He speaks. His Word is like no other: He gives what He says by speaking it. That is speaking with authority.

Second, it is still true that Jesus has authority over demons. It’s rather unfashionable to speak of demons and possession these days—the world will tell you that it’s all a bunch of superstitious nonsense, that primitive people were misled to believe that illness was actually a manifestation of the devil. The Lord, however, disagrees: His authoritative Word in Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Those spiritual forces of evil haven’t gone away. They just wear disguises. After all, one of the greatest tricks the devil can play is to make you believe that he doesn’t exist at all.

So why are there so many demons in the Gospels? It sounds like Jesus is rebuking them left and right, and so He is. There’s little doubt that there are a ton of evil spirits making themselves known during the time of Jesus’ ministry. It may well be that His very presence in the flesh ticked them off so much that they felt compelled to raise a fuss; or it may be that the Lord drew them out in order to show how powerless they were against His Word. But the relative absence of such events today does not mean that demons and the devil have ceased to operate, nor does it mean that demon-possession has ended. Every temptation you encounter is hurled at you by the evil one, and he is far too powerful for you. He is no match, however, for your Savior who still sends Satan packing by means of His authoritative Word. You’ve witnessed it yourself, surely, for you have seen the Lord’s Word added to water and spoken over an infant at the font: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And with those words, Jesus takes possession of His beloved child and sends the devil packing. The evil one doesn’t put up much of a fuss like the demons in our Gospel lesson, for the last thing he’d want to do is provide evidence to you that Baptism actually does something. The Absolution does him similar damage: your sins give Satan a claw-hold by which to hang on as he whispers in your ear that you’re condemned. But Holy Absolution exposes his accusation as a lie as it declares Jesus’ authoritative Word that you’re forgiven for all of your sins. This, too, sends the devil scurrying away into the cowardly darkness away from the light of Christ.

Third, it is also true that Jesus has authority over sickness—even death. He has, after all, borne all our sins and infirmities to the cross and died with them there before rising again on the third day. Sickness and death are no match for His powerful Word. So why aren’t Christians miraculously healed left and right today? Why so many more miracles in the Gospels than now? The miracles in the Gospels took place for a specific reason—to prove that Jesus was the Savior. Old Testament prophecies, such as Isaiah 35, declared that miracles would accompany the Messiah. When Jesus came, He worked miracles—proving Himself to be the Christ. He’s made the case—there’s no more proof needed. To believe in Him, we don’t need to witness such miracles ourselves, because we hear about them in His Word—His Word that He still speaks with authority.

Nevertheless, it is true that Jesus has authority over sickness and death. The problem is that you will be tempted to believe that He must exercise that authority right now, on your schedule, to prove that He is the Savior. But the Lord often works through weakness to save—there is no better example of that than the cross; and so He will also permit sickness in your life, too—and He will permit it to stay for a while. But this does not mean He is powerless or faithless. He did not heal everyone who was sick during His ministry, yet those He healed fulfilled the prophecies. Those whom He did heal had been afflicted for a long time, some since birth; the fact that they were sick for a long time does not negate that the Lord spoke His Word to heal them. You’ll be tempted to doubt your Savior when He doesn’t work on your schedule, but do not despair: though He permit suffering and affliction in this life for a while according to His wisdom and will, He will still demonstrate His authority over sickness and even death itself. He will do so on the Last Day, when He raises you up from the dead, fully healed and never to be afflicted again.

The fourth comfort is this: the purpose of Jesus remains the preaching of the Good News of the kingdom of God. He sent out His disciples to preach, and it is true that He gave them authority to heal the sick and cast out demons like He did, at least for a while; but most of all, He sent His disciples out to preach the Good News of the kingdom of God. Those who were healed of their sicknesses would eventually grow weak and sick again, and those who had demons cast out still had to confront death and grave. But the Good News of the kingdom of God is better news than that: by the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified, it gives forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. The Church is always tempted to stray away from this message, for the Good News of the kingdom of God appears so humble and weak and useless against the temptations and afflictions of this life; but once again, so did the cross appear humble and weak and useless. The Church does well to remember this, because she will always be tempted to give up on the Gospel in favor of things that people consider more important and glorious—be it faith-healing, emotional experience or whatever.

Yet Jesus came to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God, humble though it may sound—and humble though it may appear at the font and the altar. Familiarity breeds contempt in a sinful world, so you’ll be tempted as well to look past this Good News. But you must remember, Jesus Christ became flesh to be your Savior. He has died for all of your sins. He is risen from the dead and sits at God’s right hand, interceding for you. He will deliver you from every evil of body and soul, property and honor, and He promises to you eternal life. That is why He came—to be Your Savior. And that is what He continues to proclaim in His authoritative Word.

Dear friends, this is the Good News of the kingdom of God. Your Savior is not far away. He is as near to you as His Word and His Sacraments. And by that Word which He proclaims with authority, He says this to you: “I forgive you all of your sins.” In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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