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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah the prophet, his book of lamentations. You may be seated.
He was 23 years old, a very talented graphic artist. He had grown up in a pastor’s home; in fact, the pastor was even a district president at one time. But when he was a teenager, he had cancer. His parents prayed fervently for him and waited. God brought the cancer to remission. He was able to finish college at one of the Concordias and go on to practice his graphic artist abilities. Then the cancer came back. They prayed again and they waited.
One of the last things that we did is we gathered around his bed, held hands, and I led them in singing, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” All of their waiting led to their son’s death. Whether the parent buries the child of but a few days old, a few years old, or in the case of this young man, a few decades old, death sometimes is the answer to our waiting and to our prayer.
There are only three accounts in all of the Gospels of a Lutheran Christian sermon. Jairus, whose daughter was demon-possessed, the Syrophoenician woman was the one who said to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Jesus commended her for her faith. The third one is only in the Gospel of Mark, and it is of the man who pleads for his son who is demon-possessed. Jesus says to him, “If you believe, anything is possible.”
This is the text where the man says to Jesus, “Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.” Now we know not from the Gospels how many other parents pleaded to Jesus to bring healing to their son or daughter, and Jesus brought healing to them because the texts are replete with examples of people bringing ill others to Jesus to have him touch them and heal them.
You know that some of them had to be parents of their children. We also know that there had to have been a lot of parents who had children who were ill. But because Jesus wasn’t in a nearby vicinity, they couldn’t bring their child to be healed by him. Like the young man at the beginning of the sermon, all of their waiting and all of their prayers ended in death rather than life.
Now we don’t know why and we cannot presume to know why, but one thing that you do know very well, and you experience this every day, is human nature. Human nature being what it is, we have to consider that the parents, like Jairus, the Syrophoenician woman, and the man with the demon-possessed son, who prayed to the Lord and waited until God answered it. You and I know human nature; it was very tempting for them, and you know it was a thought for them, “Oh, I’m so glad that I took the initiative to seek out the Lord Jesus for my son or for my daughter. I’m so thankful that I thought of that.”
Because that’s human nature, isn’t it? To consider ourselves as being the reason that something good happened to us or to our children. Well, if that is human nature, and you agree, as I do, with how Scripture describes human nature, then the complete opposite has to be a part of the conscience of all of those parents who did not bring their children to Jesus or could not bring their children to Jesus to have him heal them—that they would beat themselves. And you and I are good at that, aren’t we?
Oh, do we beat ourselves if we fail! “It’s because I wasn’t proactive enough with my child. It’s because I didn’t believe strongly in Jesus. It’s because I didn’t take him at his word and bring my child to Jesus to be healed that my child died.” It’s interesting how we do as parents, isn’t it? If it’s all good, it’s because of us; if it’s all bad, it’s because of us. Wow, who wants to live with that?
We do not know why Jairus was blessed with his daughter’s life returned, and we do not know why the young man I mentioned at the beginning, his life wasn’t returned to his father and mother. His life was taken by our Lord. But here’s what we do know, and it’s revealed to us through the prophet Jeremiah in this morning’s Old Testament reading.
Listen: “The Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”
Now this term “steadfast love” that is mentioned in our Old Testament reading comes from a Hebrew word, “chesed.” Chesed means goodness or love. A better way to understand it is that it’s not just an abstract love; it’s love or goodness in action. To say, according to the abundance of his steadfast love, it’s not as if this steadfast love is out here waiting to be expressed; it’s already being expressed. Either Jairus is already experiencing the steadfast love before he sees his daughter raised, or it’s only when his daughter is raised.
It is while he’s waiting for his daughter to be raised that he experiences, or better yet, trusts in and finds comfort in God’s declaration of his goodness and action toward him. You see, there have always been times of