Sustained in Sickness, Feb. 21, 2024

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sustains us in every trouble, every injury and every illness.

Our Lenten series is based on Psalm 41, and our series theme is: Lord, Be Gracious to Me, as verse 10 says: But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up.

Our message tonight is Sustained in Sickness, taken from verse 3: The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

We’re blessed to live in a time and place where there have been many significant advances in medical knowledge, and technology, and treatments. 

When I had surgery in 2020, it was done mostly by robot… anybody had robotic surgery?

The surgeon was in an adjoining room, controlling things on a computer, and intervening, if need be, if something went wrong, which I’m thankful to say didn’t happen.

We give thanks to God for all the medical advancements that have been made, and that we and people we love have benefited from.

Yet in this fallen world, with us sinful, fallen creatures, there’s still illness and injury and disease for us to contend with. Some more than others, but in the end, we all face a final illness, even if just old age, and our body gives out.

We all get to that place in life where our body can no longer be healed, and we must be laid in our grave.

That’s universal for all people, no matter what we do or don’t believe about life and the world to come. This life ends for us all… we all have that in common.

What the faithful, baptized children of God have in common, is seen in our series theme verse, Psalm 41:10, But you, O Lord, be gracious to me… and raise me up.

We share the grace of God to live by in this life, and to be raised by, for the life to come. But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up.

There will come a day when all will be raised, the day of our Lord’s return. 

On that day all will be raised, again, no matter what they do or don’t believe… it will happen to all who have ever lived, the universal resurrection.

But on that day, the faithful in Christ will be raised in glory, and our body and mind will be eternally and perfectly healed. 

Which is why Isaiah 35 says: He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

And Revelation 21:5, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

We’ll leave behind all injury, sickness and disease. 

Thanks be to God, no more COVID, or cancer, or Alzheimer’s, or anything that would attack and wear down this body and mind.

This life is short, but when we suffer and hurt, time can stretch out, and seem to last forever.

King David said in Psalm 31:10, For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

Such is the plight of sinful man and woman. 

But God does not leave us to have to endure these hurts and heartaches alone: He sustains and strengthens our soul, even as our body grows weak.

As the body grows weak, in Christ, by the power of His Spirit, and the comfort of the Gospel, the soul grows strong, and so we are sustained through this life for the better life to come.

We’re sustained in sickness, because the very, almighty, all-glorious Son of God, took on this frail, human body, to redeem this body and soul. 

Disease came into the world as a result of sin. Jesus had no sin of His own, but He bore our sin and suffered our punishment in our place, that our sin might be entirely forgiven, and our soul fully restored, and our body raised in full health and glory.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

That we might become, blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, Philippians 2:15 says.  

Without any spiritual blemish even now, in the eyes of God, regarding our justification and salvation, because God sees us through the righteousness of His Son, which we’re given in Holy Baptism, to count as our own through faith in Christ.

And after we’re raised from our graves, sinless, holy and glorified, our bodies will be also without blemish, with no illness, or disability, or injury of any kind.

All this because of what Jesus did for us and took on for us.

Isaiah 53:5 says, By His wounds, we are healed.

A German artist named Matthias Grünewald, painted a picture Jesus’  crucified body, not just disfigured and swollen from the beating and flogging He received…

… and not just pierced with the nails through His hands and feet, and His side pierced by the spear…

… but also his body blistered and pockmarked and discolored with a disease called the bubonic plague. 

He wanted to portray our Lord’s cross as a sort of sickbed, where Jesus suffered everything for us and for our salvation, bearing both our sin, and the effects and consequences it has on our body and mind, as well as on our soul.

While Jesus never had the plague or any serious illness as far as we know, He did suffer the full consequences for our sins, and bore all our punishment on the cross.

And He has won eternal life and forgiveness for our souls, and eternal health and healing for our bodies. 

We may not be a picture of health as we navigate our way through this life… we may even suffer severely at times, but Jesus, who suffered severely for our sake and our redemption, is beside us, helping and sustaining us in both health, and in illness. 

We imagine Jesus walking beside us in life, even though we don’t see Him… and in a sense He does, as He promised, Lo I am with you always.

Even when we can no longer walk, and we get from place to place in a wheelchair, I imagine Jesus pushing it for us. He would do that for you.

So let us do that for each other; let us sustain one another in our hurts and our heartaches… as we can, let us come along side those needing our help… 

… let us think of and pray for our brothers and sisters and our neighbor in any need or trouble… 

… let us offer a kind word, an encouraging card, a comforting visit, a gift of support, and many more ways we can help and sustain each other.

All healing of body, mind and soul, comes from the One who created and redeemed us, and His Spirit who sustains us. 

Whatever challenge or illness you may face, your gracious God is with you, to sustain you with His love, and uphold you in faith, until your soul becomes eternally pure in everlasting glory, and your body is raised in perfect health to walk and run and live and serve and rejoice forever.

And as the Lord sustains you in sickness by His grace, His peace, which passes understanding, will comfort you, and will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, in whom we have eternal joy and healing. Amen.