The donkey's bray [Trinity 21; St. John 4:46-54]

Jesus speaks to you in His Word, saying,

“The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”

Last week, we talked of the Lutheran difference. That there is something that distinguishes St. Luke from the rest of the Rensselaer churches and that is Christ alone. Now, at first that doesn’t sound all that different, but what we believe in is what Jesus says about Himself. When His Word proclaims that He is working among us, physically, faith agrees.

This physical act of forgiving sins is called “sacramental”. Many religions only have a hard claim on the “spiritual”, meaning they can’t prove their god is working, but they can just feel it, or they just know it. Jesus, while also working spiritually, does not discard His body anymore than He neglects yours, thus He continues to work in His Church physically, or sacramentally.

Where your difficulty comes in, is in trying to understand a loving God even though there is so much suffering in the world. You try to believe Jesus can do miracles, but see so many people in poverty, in fear for their lives, and dying in hospitals.

You try to give them St. Paul’s words and tell them to put on the whole armor of God, but you don’t know how that works. You imagine it is some sort of mind-set that one must be in or a kind of complete submission to God. It never crosses your mind that St. Paul is speaking of a physical armor.

St. Paul speaks of “putting on Christ”, in Romans 13. That this is the “new self” (Eph.5:24) which God creates in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

St. Paul, here, and in many other places is simply commenting upon Jesus word when Jesus said, “²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17)

If Jesus is simply being spiritual, then you have nothing to worry about. The entire Bible is just one big metaphor and you can make up how to interpret it as you go. In that thinking, you must also conclude that this son in today’s Gospel was not really raised from the dead. He may not have even been dead. He may just have been sick and, with the passing of a bit of time, got better.

It is easy then, to attribute that ‘miracle’ to Jesus, simply because He spoke about the son becoming well at the same time. Coincidence. Metaphor. Parlor Game.

But that is not what’s going on here. Jesus is healing this boy. He is bringing him back from the dead. This is not a myth. It is not a pick-me-up story and it does not mean that you just have to fall into Jesus and you too will be made well, spiritually.

We may liken this to a donkey who “put on the skin of a lion and went around frightening all the animals. The donkey saw a fox and tried to frighten her too, but she had heard his voice first, so she said to the donkey, 'You can be sure that I too would have been afraid, if I had not already heard the sound of your bray.’”

The donkey is caught in his own metaphor. Literally, he is unclothed by the fox. Even though the donkey had the right appearance and the right skin, he was not a lion. His view of things failed him, because he took “being a lion” to simply be a matter of interpretation.

Jesus says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn. 6:56). And in another place, “…believe [my] works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. (Jn. 10:38). The command from Jesus is that we be found in Him. In a real and physical body, that He has, and not just a spiritual one. Jesus demands that we be in the full armor of God; actual, physical armor.

Putting on a show of superior spirituality or of good works no more makes us “in Christ” anymore than a lion skin makes an ass a lion.  What you need is concrete, touch, smell, see, hear and taste armor of God. The spiritual stuff doesn’t help in times of need, but a true Body does.

Dear Christians, hear this true and concrete promise from your Lord and Savior who has suffered, died and risen again. He says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal.3:27)

Here is the answer to your question. What started with the creation of a real, physical world and concluded in the God-man, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is still being accomplished in your sight, even today. The way you fall into Jesus; the way you believe in Jesus; the way you have your life and being in Jesus is through baptism.

It is in this physical act of God that you are placed squarely into the true Body of Christ. Not a spiritual or metaphorical, but a real, living body. The armor of God is nothing else except the Body and Blood, given and shed for you upon the cross, of Christ.

This is the sacramental act of God. This is how God heals, preserves, and strengthens His people in our time: through His Sacraments. As God created a real world, so He creates real salvation through the real Body of Christ, that He still has!; (Remember Easter and St. Thomas!) in a real Church.

Sacramental: The combining of a promise of God to physical means. This is God’s presence in the world to forgive sins and this is Christ’s presence among us, in the Divine Service. This is the source of your comfort, your joy, and your strength, because now you do not have to manufacture the feeling of being saved or a life that has it all together.

These are now gifts that you can “fall into”. The free gift of baptism holds no requirement. You don’t have to be perfect beforehand. You don’t have to be religious or spiritual. Best of all, you don’t have to be dead or dying, in order to receive this gift. Jesus creates His Church by His blood and spirit in order that you are reminded that, the Lord Who created all things, creates free salvation in front of your face.

We know our sin actually kills us. We know our actual heart is full of actual evil. What good does a metaphorical clean heart or a spiritual right spirit do us? If this official’s son was not really raised from the dead; if the armor of God did not truly exist; if baptism and Communion were just symbols, then why did Christ need to die for a metaphor?

Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus died so that by His true Body and His True Blood, He might tear off the foul lion’s skin we have draped upon ourselves and replace it with Himself. And it is in the sacraments, that we can touch, smell, taste, see and hear this Promise, know it is for us, and return to it in times of trouble. Spiritual or otherwise.

It is easy to say to someone that the only thing you need to do to be forgiven is to return home to your heavenly father, but where is He and where is home? If all I need to do is turn to Jesus, where is that left turn? If that place is somewhere other than the sacraments, you are not dealing with the one, true God.