PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS

Tag: Healing

  • Notes and Useful Applications for John 4:47–54 from Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877)

    The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications for the Holy Gospel for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, John 4:47–54, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.

    II. How Jesus was received in Nazareth and in other places, and also how the royal official’s son was freed from the fever. (v. 43–54)

    Annotated Text

    47. And there was a royal official (a distinguished servant in the house of Herod the tetrarch, who nevertheless was considered a king by the common man and thus was called a king, Matthew 14:1, 9; Mark 6:14), whose son lay sick in Capernaum. This one heard that Jesus came (He had learned that Jesus had come) from Judea in Galilee, and he went to Him (to Cana, about five miles’ way), and he asked Him that He come down (go with him to Capernaum) and help his son, for he was sick unto death (therefore, he also supposed that Christ would have to be present himself for so dangerous an illness, and that he could not perform this work of healing if he were absent, much less raise him from the dead if he should die).

    48. And Jesus said to him: * “If you do not see signs and wonders, ** then you will not believe (“You Jews believe no more than you see. If I go with you, you suppose that I could help your son; but what kind of faith is that?” To believe rightly means not to doubt at all about that which one does not see, Hebrews 11:1, and to ground oneself in the omnipotence and goodness of God insomuch that he can and will help, even above and against all sense and reason).”

    * John 2:18; 1 Corinthians 1:22

    ** behold presently with your own eyes. The answer is aimed at the request to come down in v. 47 and agrees with Matthew 9:18.

    49. The royal official said (further, in the weakness of his faith) to Him, “Lord, come down, before my child dies (otherwise, Your presence will be in vain).”

    50.  Jesus said to him, “Go (at this My Word, to which you shall attach firm faith), * your son (has not died as you think, but) lives (through the divine power of this My Word, and when you come home, you will find him alive and well).” The man believed the Word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went (in certain confidence that the Lord’s Word would come to pass; therefore, he also did not hurry home all at once, to which he could have come that same evening if he had wanted, but rather remained overnight on the way).

    * 1 Kings 17:23

    51. And while he was going (further, on the next day), his servants met him, proclaimed it to him and said, “Your son lives (and is completely alive, healthy, and strong).”

    52. Then he investigated from them the hour in which it had become better with him. And they said to him, “Yesterday, around the seventh hour (according to our time, around 1 PM in the afternoon) the fever left him.”

    53. Then the Father realized (and heard precisely) that it was (exactly) around the hour in which Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives (v. 50).” And he (as now he had been fully convinced of the divine miraculous power of Christ) believed along with his entire household (his wife, children, and household servants were brought through to true faith in Christ. And some hold that this royal official’s wife was Joanna, who is mentioned in Luke 8:3, and that she is called the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod, who followed the Lord and ministered to Him from her own possessions).

    (Acts 16:32, 18:8)

    54. This is now the second sign that Jesus did when He came from Judea into Galilee. (The first is described in John 2:7ff.)

    Useful Applications

    II. DOCTRINE: What faith or heartfelt confidence in Christ’s Word and promise has for power and might is testified by the royal official (v. 50–53). DOCTRINE: But how the Lord Jesus often uses many wondrous preparations and arrangements to awaken and to strengthen faith is seen from both stories (v. 16–54).

  • Notes and Useful Applications for Matthew 9:1–8 from Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877)

    The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications for the Holy Gospel for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 9:1–8, as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.

    Notes

    I. The History of the Paralyzed Man (v. 1–8)

    1. Then He (the Lord Christ) entered into the boat (in which He had come from Capernaum into the regions of the Gergesenes, Matthew 8:18, 28) and crossed over again and came into His own city (Luther: “Capernaum,” where He had rented a house, and stayed there during the Passover, Matthew 4:13, 11:23, 17:24; John 2:12).

    2. And behold, there * they (four of them) brought to him a paralyzed man (Luther: “whom had been afflicted by paralysis, the small or half stroke”) who was laying on a bed (He could neither move nor stir on account of his sickness. They sought a way how they might bring him in and lay him before Him; and when they could not come to Christ in any other way on account of the great multitude of people, and also could not find a place in which they could bring him in, they climbed onto the roof, where He was, and uncovered it, and let him down through the tiles with the little amongst their midst before Jesus, Mark 2:4, Luke 5:19). Now when Jesus saw their faith (understand not only the faith of the bearers, ** but also of the paralytic man himself; for if he had not believed in a saving way and at the same time with trust in Christ’s mediating office, Christ would not have forgiven his sins, nor called him son), He said to the paralyzed man, “Be comforted (and be of good courage), My son, your sins (which make you anxious in your heart) are forgiven you (Thus Christ begins His cure with the soul, because all bodily illnesses come from sin, and because the health of the body without the health of the soul is of little usefulness).”

    * Mark 2:1ff. Luke 5:18 (Luke 7:50; Acts 9:33)

    ** Their faith came to the aid of the sick man, to promote the healing of his body in love, as far as it was possible.

    3. And behold, some among the scribes (and the Pharisees, those who were sitting there and heard such) said amongst themselves (thought in their hearts), “This one (Jesus from Nazareth) blasphemes God (in that He ascribes to Himself such authority, which belongs only to God; for who can forgive sins except God alone? Luke 5:21).”

    (Luke 7:49)

    4. But when Jesus saw their thoughts (He knew immediate in His spirit that they thought thus within themselves, therefore), He said, “Why do you think such wicked things in your hearts (in that you falsely accuse me of blasphemy of God within yourselves, when that which I do nevertheless is my office)?

    (Zechariah 8:17)

    5. Which is easier (according to outward appearance and the judgement of reason), to say (to the paralyzed man), “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Stand up (take up your bed) and walk?” (You think in your hearts: If I truly could forgiven this paralytic his sins in fact and truth, then I would also have been able to make him whole as well; but because this had not happened, so that is also lacking [i.e., I have not actually forgiven his sins].)

    6. But so that you know (and see in fact) that the Son of Man has the authority (and indeed from His own power) to forgive sins (and that the forgiveness of sins is powerful, which I have declared to this paralytic man, and in truth has come upon him; well then I will thus make this man well before your eyes, therefore),” He then said to the paralytic, “ (I say to you,) Stand up, take up your bed (upon which you have had to lie ill and sick for very long time), and go home.”

    (John 5:8; Acts 9:34)

    7. And (immediately) he stood up (so that all who those present saw, and he lifted up the little bed upon which he had lain) and went home (and praised God).

    8. And the people that saw (this miracle) marveled and praised God, who had given such authority to men (they praised God, that He had sent them such a prophet who forgives sins and who could heal diseases which by nature are incurable. “All those were astonished who heard and saw this, and they  were filled with fear and said, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today, and we have never seen such before,” Mark 2:12, Luke 5:26).

    (Luke 7:16ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:18)

    Useful Applications

    I. DOCTRINE: Christ’s true and eternal divinity shines forth from the fact that He searches out men’s hearts, forgives sins (which belongs to God alone), and heals incurable diseases (v. 2–7).