“Jesus Delivers Us from what Binds Us”
Mark 1:29-39
2/8/09
The O.T. lesson for today ends with Isaiah’s
words, “They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk and not faint.” In today’s
Gospel text we see the fulfillment of these words as Jesus healed the
sick and the demon possessed, delivering the weak, the weary and the
faint from the things that bound them, so that their strength was
renewed and their health restored. They were able to soar like
eagles, run without becoming weary, and walk without becoming faint -
at least, until the next time that they got sick, for every one of
these people that Jesus healed did succumb to some kind of disease
again, and eventually they died. Eventually there came a time
when they became weak and their wings were clipped. Not only
could they not soar like eagles anymore, but they couldn’t even
get off the ground. Not only could they not run, but they
couldn’t even get out of bed without becoming weary. And
walking?? Well, a trip to the bathroom alone was enough to make
them faint.
Such circumstances might have been enough to make
any one of these people forget about the healing that they had received
from Jesus so long ago and left them wondering whether Jesus still
cared for them or not, whether or not He had the power to permanently
deliver them from what bound them, and whether or not His ability to
heal them of certain temporal ailments meant that He had the ability to
deliver them from the permanent ailment of death. Perhaps some of
you are thinking the same kinds of things. Perhaps some of you
are suffering from some sickness or disease which has so bound you that
there’s nothing you can do nor any medicine or medical treatment
you can find that will free you from it, and you are wondering if Jesus
cares for you, if He has the power to help you, or if He can really
keep His promise of eternal life in the face of immanent death.
Maybe for some of you it’s not a physical ailment that has
enslaved you but some kind of sin that you can’t seem to
overcome. You’ve prayed and prayed about it, you’ve
confessed it, repented of it, and tried your hardest to conquer it, yet
you keep falling to it over and over again. You hear that Jesus
has freed you from your sins, and yet you don’t experience that
freedom. You feel so chained and imprisoned that it’s
impossible to soar, impossible to walk, let alone run, and you’re
weary of carrying this burden, this thorn in your flesh that the Lord
refuses to take away. He just keeps telling you that His grace is
sufficient for you and that your sins - all of them, even the really
big and stubborn ones - are forgiven.
Still, for others of you it might be something
completely different that has you feeling bound - maybe it’s the
economy, maybe it’s some oppressive, go nowhere job, maybe
it’s the humdrum, boring, monotonous routine of every day
life. Whatever it is, you feel weighted down, unable to move,
stagnant, stuck, stricken, and you long for the words of Isaiah to be
true for you. You long for Jesus to take you by the hand and lift
you up, so that your strength might be renewed and you too might soar
like an eagle, run and not be weary, walk and not grow faint.
Some people would tell you to just get over
it. Some would say you need to distract yourself with
entertainment, get together with friends, or go on a shopping
spree. Others would say that you just need to pray more and have
more faith. Jesus will heal you, too, and deliver you from your
bondage, if you just trust Him more. Still others will insist
that you’re suffering because of some sin that you’ve
committed. You just need to repent of that sin, stop committing
it, and everything will get better. But again, what happens if
this particular sin itself is what has bound you, and you cannot free
yourself from it no matter how hard you try? Too bad for you, I
guess. Jesus can’t help you unless you help yourself.
All of these remedies are, of course,
inadequate. They just add to your burdens by putting the burden
of freeing yourself from your burdens upon you. The Lord,
however, wants you to put your burdens upon Him. He knows
you’re too weak to help yourself. And so He says,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.” In Psalm 68 David writes, “Blessed be the
Lord, who daily bears our burden.” And the Apostle Peter
writes, “Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for
you.” Jesus wants your burdens, because He Himself has
already borne them for you. He who from all eternity was freer
than any eagle and never bound by anything, allowed His wings to be
clipped. He allowed Himself to be bound to the earth, bound by
your sins, bound with your infirmities, bound to the cross, bound under
God’s wrath, bound by death and the devil, in order that He might
free you from these very things. Jesus knows that you cannot bear
these burdens yourself; they’re too heavy for you. But
they’re not too heavy for Him. He carried the weight of all
your burdens upon His shoulders on the cross, where He atoned for your
sins with His blood, and with His resurrection from the dead He broke
their bonds, so that they could neither hold Him nor you who are in Him
by faith. And even though you might not yet feel or experience
this freedom, with His words of forgiveness spoken to you Jesus has
taken you by the hand and raised you up, just as He did with
Peter’s mother-in-law. The fever of sin and death has left
you, as far as God is concerned, and the promise of Jesus is
yours: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever
believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Even though it might appear, then, that you are
still bound, in fact you are free. You have been given wings to
fly like the eagles. You can run without getting weary and walk
without growing faint. God’s grace is sufficient for you,
for by that grace He holds you up, He causes you to soar, He gives you
His strength and enables you to walk and run. And He’s
doing that for you here today through His Word and His Holy
Supper. Through these means you continue to hear the freeing
words of Jesus which loose you from the things that bind you, even
while it appears that you are still bound by them. Sin, death,
and the devil may all still appear to be masters over you. It may
feel like you’ll never be able to get out of bed again, that
you’ll never be pain free again, that you’ll never be able
to overcome that stubborn sin, that you’ll never escape from
under that oppressive job that you have or from under the fatigue and
stress of everyday life. But the day is coming when what you have
now by faith in God’s promises will be seen. On that day
you will literally soar like an eagle when you and all the saints are
caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air when He
comes again, and you will be with the Lord forever in the new heavens
and the new earth, where there will be no more mourning, crying, or
pain ever again.
In the meantime, Jesus comes to you like He did to
Peter’s mother-in-law and continues to speak His loosing words to
you. Like Peter’s mother-in-law, we are ill with a fever
which no amount of Tylenol will help. It’s not an illness
that we can cure ourselves. No attempts on our part will deliver
us from the sickness of sin and its consequence - death. And no
other gods will do, as Jesus alone has the words of eternal life and
can deliver on that promise. But we are so sick that we are not
even strong enough to bring ourselves to Jesus. We must be
brought to Him. This is what He does for us through His
Word. He puts it into the mouths of pastors, parents, friends,
and neighbors, who tell us the good news that Jesus has come to deliver
us from the burdens that bind us. They bring us to church where
we are brought to the healing waters of the baptismal font. From
there we are brought into the community of saints, where we hear our
Lord’s words of forgiveness regularly proclaimed to us. And
from there we are brought to the Lord’s Table, where we are fed
with the Bread of Life, the Bread of immortality, of which if a person
eats he has eternal life, and Jesus will raise him up on the Last
Day. In all these things Christ is taking you by the hand and
lifting you up, so that the fever of sin might leave you, so that you
might soar like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.
Maybe today you’re flying high. Maybe
today is a good day for you and you’re having no trouble running
or walking. Maybe this sermon is not for you - today. But
when the day comes that the arrows of the enemy hit you hard and you
fall, don’t despair. You may not be able to run or walk or
even get out of bed, but you are free in Jesus. He’s
overcome everything that would try to bind you and keep you down - sin,
suffering, demonic oppression, death. Because they could not hold
Him they cannot hold you. You may suffer with Jesus for a while
under these things. But just as His cross was temporary, so is
yours. Because you were baptized with Him into His death, you
will die with Him. But because you were also baptized into His
resurrection, you will live with Him.
The Holy Spirit has brought you to the Lord again
today, so that you might be on the receiving end of His healing touch
and hear His words of deliverance. Your burdens, as heavy as they
might feel now and as unable as you are to loose yourself from them,
have all been placed on Jesus and carried away by Him. There is
nothing now that can keep you down. Not even the grave will be
able to hold you. So, wait for the Lord; hope in Him; trust in
His Word; look to Him, your help and your salvation. Cast all
your cares upon Him, for He cares for you, and your strength will be
renewed, you will mount up with wings like eagles, you will run and not
be weary, you will walk and not faint. Amen.