The Rhythm of God Strengthening our Faith
We live a life of rhythm.
You have a daily rhythm of waking up, doing your morning things, eating, going about your daily tasks, etc.
Today, our text has us considering our Lord’s rhythm of strengthening our faith.
It’s the rhythm of hearing the Word of Jesus,
being driven to Jesus in His Word and Sacrament and in prayer by the sufferings and struggles of this life,
struggling between faith and unbelief,
and then finally the Holy Spirit works in us the faith that takes Jesus at His Word and believes the promises of Jesus and goes on our way.
Luther called the similar rhythm of the Christian faith oratio, meditatio, and tentatio.
We hear God’s Word – oratio.
We meditate on God’s Word – meditatio – repeat God’s Word over and over again – allowing God’s Word sink deep into the heart – old Lutheran prayers prayed something like “allow Your Word to pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lips, from the lips to life.”
And then in that life, we tentatio, we struggle in this life.
We struggle in our bodies. We struggle in our souls.
We struggle in our vocations.
We struggle with faith, hope, and life as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, workers and friends.
We struggle with the devil and sin and death .
And then, God uses this exhausting struggle to invite us back into hearing God’s Word – meditating on His promises for us and His commands for us,
“from the ear to heart, from the heart to lips, from the lips to the life.”
It is the rhythm – a rhythm that often exhausts us – but in that exhaustion, we are driven back to Jesus for rest.
Our Gospel text shows a man who has heard Jesus’ Word and heard about Jesus’ signs when Christ was present in Cana in Galilee and turned water into wine.
And then, once this believed in Jesus, this man saw suffering in a very different way than he had before.
The text says his son was at the point of death.
That’s the suffering in the text. The struggle.
Quite literally it means, his son is destined to die, he is facing death, death is his child’s future – and a very, very near future at that.
Whether the official’s son was sick before the official believed the Words and signs at Cana in Galilee where Jesus turned water into wine and then got worse,
or his son got sick after Jesus turned water into wine and came to the point of death really quickly – we don’t know.
What we do know is that this great suffering and burden of his son facing death, and the great helplessness and hopelessness the official felt, drew the official to Jesus.
His struggle, tentatio, drew him back to hearing God’s Word, oratio and meditatio.
When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
Let suffering drive you to Jesus – not away from Jesus.
Jesus has come down, and is near you. You have access to God through Christ. You can go up to God in suffering filled, struggle filled prayer because God has down to you in His Son and in His Word.
The official has heard the Word, he has meditated on the Word and then the struggle, the suffering drives Him to the Word made flesh and dwelling among Him.
Prayer is not without struggle, though. For this man or for you.
Jesus’ response seems harsh – Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
While the man believes, he will need help with his unbelief.
We can’t bully Jesus around.
We can’t control Jesus.
We ought not want to. We ought trust in Jesus and His will.
The man had believed in Jesus probably should have simply prayed something like, ‘Lord, my son is dying. Heal him, please.’
The rest of the text makes clear that request for Jesus to come down was not necessary. Jesus can simply say the Word –
His Word is creative – “Let there be light. And there was light.”
His Word is strong – “Thy Strong Word did cleave the darkness, at Thy speaking, it was done.”
His Word is Go, your son will live…
And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”
Can you imagine that father’s trip to Jesus? He must have been praying and repeating again and again what he was going to say when he met Jesus, “Come down and heal my son, for he is at the point of death.”
And can you imagine the father’s trip back to his son. The text says, the man believed the Word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
He must have been walking and repeating, Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.” (repeat)
But what if he’s dead…. Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.”
But what if I didn’t do enough, I asked wrongly … Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.”
What if Jesus can’t do it … Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.”
What if Jesus is a liar … the man believed the Word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
The rhythm of hearing, believing, and struggling.
Hearing and believing and doubting.
Hearing and believing and being attacked by the sinful flesh.
Hearing and believing and being attacked by the devil.
This is what strengthens you. This is what He uses to make you stronger in the Lord.
So hear, and believe, and go on your way.
Take Jesus at His Word and go.
God has given you a word to hear and believe and depart to a tough world and tough devil and tough sinful flesh, but you depart as is said numerous times today,
you depart in peace.
Take Jesus at His Word go in peace and serve the Lord.
Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might – hear and believe and go. You are weak, but He is strong and you are in Him and are strong in the Lord and stand in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil – hear and believe and as you are going, know the devil will scheme against you. The devil is a master planner to get you to rely on your armor or your strength or
simply schemes to make you lazy in prayer and hearing the Word which put’s the whole armor of God on.
Fasten on the belt of truth – the devil is a liar.
Put on the breastplate of righteousness – you are holy in Christ, and that protects your heart.
And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace – I am departing in peace, I have seen God’s salvation,
God is at peace with me,
The Lord has looked upon with favor and given me peace,
be at peace with each other,
so here I go walking in that, taking Jesus at His Word.
In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; – I believe God is my Father,
I believe Jesus is my Lord,
I believe that I cannot by my own reason of strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him but the Holy Spirit has called my by the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one true faith.
And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Keeping alert – because the rhythm is a struggle – the rhythm is tough – the rhythm is a fight – but Christ uses the rhythm to brings us closer in faith to Him and to be more fully aware of how close He is to us.