Sermon by Vicar Kees Sturm on Mark 1:29-39.                  5/2/12

What is it that we look for in our lives?

That is a very interesting question, isn’t it?

 Recently I received an open invite in the mail. Its title read “miracles are real”, it was a leaflet advertising several healing services that are being run in our local area. On the front of the leaflet there are photos of the guest speaker with different people, with a caption reading “this guest speaker” I won’t mention names “has preached God’s healing recently in a number of different countries … He has witnessed people healed from cancer, back pain, arthritis and all manner of sicknesses. You can personally witness the power of God through miracle healings in your own life”.

 What are we looking for – the sermon text this morning gives us insight to this question. Everyone is looking for you the disciples said to Jesus. But Jesus, who had been praying in a place of solitude, replied let us go to the next towns, that I may preach there also.

 As we heard in the sermon text, during the previous night the whole city was gathered at the door of Peter’s house and Jesus healed many who were sick or oppressed by demons.

 The fact that everyone was looking for Jesus the next morning, leads us to ask the question, why? What is it that drove people to search Him out?

 Healing … the people of Capernaum were searching for a miracle. Much like today there were no easy answers for the problems that were faced in the everyday life of Capernaum. Just like in any community there was sickness, disease, disability and injuries that affected people. And the community had no place within it for these people; they were cast out and left to fend for themselves.

 If you suffered with any of these you were seen as a sinner, you must have done something wrong to be afflicted by the condition that you had.

 Think about the story in the gospel according to John (chapter 9) where Jesus heals the man born blind, which begins with Christ’s disciples asking Him Rabbi who sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

 So it’s no wonder that the people were out looking for Jesus. Unlike today, there was no going to centrelink to get your disability pension; you and your family, if you even had one, were on your own. And chances are that you would have had to beg or steal to survive. For them healing meant being able to function in a society that shunned those who were sick, diseased, disabled or injured.

 These people were grasping for something, a healing, a miracle. They were looking for what Jesus could do for them, but in doing so they missed the real reason for Christ’s being there in the first place. And that was to preach that the kingdom of God is at hand, and that they should repent and believe in the gospel.

 So let me ask you again, what are we looking for?

 We are no different today, are we? How often do we still search for the Jesus who does miracle healing for us?  Think about the invite that I found in my letterbox. People, as they suffer their afflictions become pre-occupied with miracle healing. They go about looking for Christ the miracle worker, just as the people in Capernaum did.

 And lets face it, because we are sinful human beings we are more impressed by the visible results of miraculous healing than the unseen results of the words of promise. Whether we suffer from chronic back pain or some sort of cancer or any number of other physical, mental or emotional ailments we want results. Relief is what matters, but not all of our ailments are those of health, are they? What about our broken relationships with others, our obsession with our finances or our addictions?

 We end up searching for miracle cures that will ease our burdens don’t we? Because deep down in our sinful hearts that is what we want; an easy way out, a quick fix to all our problems. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we look there is no cure for our ailment, there is no quick fix nor is there an easy way out from our sinful natures.

 More often than not when we start to place our faith in miracles we take our eyes off what is most important; Christ Himself. Just like in the text where everyone was looking for Him, we are still looking for Him too. We are looking for Him not so that we can hear His teaching but instead we are looking for that miracle cure for all our ailments. We are like the crowds that gathered at Peter’s house, we are looking for the miraculous healings that Jesus performed, because they are what we think we need in our lives.

 In our reading today we see that this is not exactly what God has in mind for us. What we actually see is Christ’s reaction to the wants of the world and we hear Christ’s reaction to our wants. Everybody wanted Jesus to hang around, so that He could heal all their ailments. But as you have heard He moves on, and tells us that His coming was for a greater purpose.

 Since its beginning Mark has emphasized a sense of urgency in Christ’s ministry. It’s a sense of immediacy, which leads to the feeling of urgency in His work. This feeling is not one of being rushed, like what so many of us are used to in our high paced work place environments today. Rather the urgency of Christ’s ministry was a constant movement in a forward direction. Christ and His ministry was ever working towards a greater goal, He looked forwards towards it, not backwards.

 When we search for miracle cures, we have stopped moving forwards. We have slipped into neutral, or worse into reverse. Our focus is all too often no longer where it needs to be … that is Christ and His death on the cross.

 From our text we can see that there was an intent and purpose behind Christ’s ministry, rather than stopping to heal all earthly ailments, He continued to move forward. Rather than staying at Simon’s house, Jesus departed from there so that He could bring miraculous healing to the whole of creation.

 He moved on so that He could continue the spread of the gospel message, the same message with which He started His ministry. The miraculous healings that He had performed were secondary in His ministry. They were there as a sign if you like, a pointer to God’s glory, not His own.

 In the story of the man born blind Jesus answers His disciples saying it was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

 Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny the existence of miracles and as Christians we need to recognize this. Miracles do happen, there should be no doubt about that. Unfortunately, as I said earlier as sinful human beings, we are more impressed by the visible results of a miracle than by the unseen words of promise and we forget that miracles are a pointer to God’s glory.

 For this reason miracles are something we should not place our faith in; rather our faith should be in the words of God’s promise, given to us in the gospel message. It is God’s promise that gives us reason for the hope that we have.

Rather than looking for Christ the miracle worker, we are to look for Christ the Saviour: The Christ that is found in the Gospel message; the Christ who died on the cross for our sin. The Christ who brought us back into a righteous relationship with God.

When we look to Christ our Saviour, we no longer need to look for miracles to relieve us of our burdens because He has already done that for us.

 The gospel according to John says that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Through His death on the cross He has paid the price for the penalties incurred by sin. He released all creation from God’s wrath, He sacrificed His life as atonement for sin so that the world might be saved through him.

 John writes, He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

 This happens for us when we are baptized, we are re-born, not physically, but spiritually; we are gifted with the Holy Spirit, who resides within us. In baptism we are joined to Christ, to His death and to His resurrection, and we become children of God.

 As we participate in the Divine Service here this morning we come into the presence of our God. As we kneel before His altar we seek His forgiveness for our wrongdoing and as we stand up, we do so knowing that we are forgiven because of what Christ has done for us.

By hearing the Word of God read and preached the Holy Spirit works faith within us so that we can believe the hope that we have been promised. And through Holy Communion our Lord’s body and precious blood strengthens and preserves our faith in Him until eternal life.

 According to St. John (chapter 3:14-15), just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert (Numbers 21:4-9), so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

 God’s grace and mercy is the miracle that we need. Christ is the one who has saved us from the eternal death that we deserve. He was sent down to us so that whoever believes in Him might live. In Him is the hope that was promised to us.

 As we go out in to the world, remember what it is that we are to look for in our lives. We need to be looking toward Christ and His death on the cross to get us through life, rather than relying on miracle cures for our burdens. And we need to be looking forward just as Christ did, to the greater things that are to come in the kingdom of heaven.

Amen