This is the sermon I prepared for Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., for a Service of the Word for Healing on Thursday, April 22, 2010.

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Readings

Isaiah 35:1–10
Psalm 103
Acts 3:1–10
Matthew 9:2–8

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Prayer

Send your Holy Spirit upon us, Father in heaven, so that we may know the healing and forgiveness that come to us in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Message

It doesn’t take much to remind us
that there are really no walls separating
our bodies and souls from one another.

Just remember the last time
you found yourself close to bursting
with anticipation at telling a loved one
about a surprise you just knew would bring
joy and happiness.

Or recall the nauseating churning
in the pit of your stomach
when you realized that you’d just done something
so incredibly insensitive,
some act so thoughtless
that brought pointless heartache
to a loved one undeserving of that pain.

It doesn’t take much to remind us
that we are embodied spirits
or enspirited bodies,
depending upon how you look at it.

So it makes all the sense in the world
to hear Jesus’ seemingly out-of-left-field
comment to a paralyzed man
being borne on a bed carried by friends.
He says, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

The paralyzed man suffers from a debilitating condition;
he cannot get around on his own;
he must depend upon the kindness of others;
he is not free to go where he wants.

It looks like what he really needs
is to be healed of his paralysis,
to be liberated so he can depend upon himself
rather than rely upon others.

But Jesus’ first word to him is not,
“Rise and walk.”
Instead, Jesus recognizes the faith of the man’s companions,
and in response says to the man,
“Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus sees that the real, deep, true debility
in this man’s life is not his paralysis,
his inability to move,
but the man’s personal brokenness,
his inability to live a life whole and pleasing to God.

And so he forgives the man his sins.
This creates a controversy within the crowd
over healing and forgiveness.
People see Jesus as presumptious,
as one who overreaches in his bold action to pronounce forgiveness.
But Jesus responds by healing the man as well.

The blessing for us is to know and to trust
that our Lord comes into our lives
both to heal and to forgive.
In fact, just as body and soul
are two aspects of the one person
God has made each of us to be,
the gifts of healing and forgiveness
are expressions of one reality:
Jesus comes to us to make us whole.

When we find our lives in turmoil,
our days filled with pain, both physical and spiritual,
it helps to remember that Jesus desires
for us to be whole—to be healed and forgiven.
He has the desire and the power
to take away the paralysis in our hearts,
the debilities in our minds,
the aches in our souls,
the dis-ease in our spirits,
just as much as he longs
for us to know his healing from whatever ails us.
And beyond that,
he promises to make us share
in the redeemed and restored life
that awaits us in heaven.

And so we have a gift to share together.
We have this tradition of gathering
to hear God’s Word,
his message that diagnoses our pain
and prescribes the medicine of his grace.

And in this tradition,
we turn to the age-old practice of healing.
Here, in the touching of hands on heads,
the anointing with oil,
the offering of prayers,
we express our trust
that Jesus Christ is present
here and now both to forgive sins and to heal our brokenness.

And when we see this grace,
we, too, can be filled with awe,
and respond to God with thanks,
giving him glory for his precious gifts,
poured out and impressed upon us
in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.