RELIEF

The realization that sparked the Reformation today on the Lutheran Hour. I'm Mark Eisher. Your continued gifts and prayers help in bringing Christ to the nations and the nations to the Church. For more on that, here's Lutheran Hour speaker, Dr. Michael Ziegler. Each week, the Lutheran Hour proclaims the gospel with help from faithful friends. If this broadcast has encouraged you, would you help offer that same encouragement to someone else? During our Fall Giving Campaign, your gift of any amount, whether it's your first or your first in a while, can help carry Jesus' love to listeners nationwide. And the show or gratitude will send you a copy of my new book, "Tidal Begin Again." Give today at lutheranhour.org or call us at 800-876-9880, Monday through Friday. The website again is lutheranhour.org and the number is 800-876-9880. Thank you for listening and for praying and for helping others hear the good news. Now here is today's message. Something was holding my hand, palm side down on a block of wood. A mallet was hammering on the wooden block where my thumb was, each blow landing in the middle of my thumbnail. I couldn't see who was holding the hammer, but it was rising and falling in sync with the beat of my heart. I wake up from this fever dream and remember what's really going on, which in some ways was worse than the dream. I stumble down the dark hall into the bathroom. Somehow I had gotten a small splinter of wood lodged under my thumbnail. And for three days I'd been trying to handle it on my own. Just then I squeeze my thumb over the bathroom sink, a jet of pus and blood shot out. The next day in the exam room, the doctor explained that the worst part would be the three shots of local anesthetic it would take to deaden the nerves in my hand. After that I wouldn't feel the pain, just pressure, as he used his surgical pliers to dig under my thumbnail and extract every bit of that splinter. And even with it, still in there, just hearing that he had a plan. The first wave of relief washed over me, and there would be more to come when it was all said and done. An hour later, when I step outside with my bandaged thumb, minus one splinter, I was floating. And the mountains and the hills before me broke into song and all the trees of the field clapped their hands. I was reborn, washed clean, floating on a river of relief. You know the feeling, the long awaited help finally arrived.

A tight spot became a broad plane. All the puzzle pieces fell into place. You know it, because you've breathed a sigh of relief. Or maybe you've been to a baseball game in the ninth inning and they called in the reliever. Or after a storm you were part of, or were blessed by, the relief efforts. Relief can come from removal, the removal of a pain or a pressure point, or it can come from reunion. Reunion with something or someone needed. It can come suddenly, hearing a doctor's plan of action, or gradually through weeks of visits with a physical therapist. However it comes, we all welcome it, we all need it, and sometimes search for it. We search because we sense that we live in a good world, but also that we're in a tight spot. Some foreign object has been lodged under the world's thumbnail, or maybe it's lodged in us. And now we are the cause of the infection. Or maybe it's both. We all seek relief, but we do not seek it in the same way. Two common ways people seek relief are through knowledge and through action. That is more accurate knowledge of how the world is put together and how we ourselves are put together and potentially improved upon. These are supposed to give us relief, but they have yet to deliver because the more you know, the more you realize, you don't know. And the more you do, the more you see how much there is still to be done. So is there another way to find relief? This weekend, many followers of Jesus will celebrate what's been called the Reformation. The Reformation was a movement in the history of Christianity that started about 500 years ago. It was led by, among others, a German pastor named Martin Luther, after whom this program is named. Until he was in his 30s, Luther had known the Christian faith primarily to be about right knowledge and right action. Correct knowledge of God and correct religious action. Luther had been a Roman Catholic all his life. For eight years, he had been a monk and a priest. He had devoted his life 24/7 to right knowledge and right action, but he found no relief. Later, Luther admitted that though he was outwardly religious, he had hated God. This God who had become for him the invisible hand, dropping the hammer on his aching and infected consciousness. The more he did for God, the more he saw he had left undone.

The more he knew about God, the more he realized just how ignorant he was. And when he finally found relief, we're better when relief found him. It wasn't in right knowledge or right action. Instead, he found relief in a right relationship, that is through faith. A right relationship with God through childlike trust in Jesus, God's son. What changed things for Luther was reading and studying and teaching the Bible. Specifically, it was a letter recorded in the Bible, written by one of the earliest followers of Jesus Christ, a man named Paul, who wrote to Christ followers living in the ancient city of Rome. Paul was writing as a Jew to a mixed multicultural group of Jesus followers. Some of them were ethnically Jewish and some Gentile, uncircumcised, non-Jewish. And as with most human attempts to make a multicultural community, there were arguments and rivalries, infected egos and plain old pettiness over who knew more or who did better. So Paul writes the letter to bring them together. But he doesn't just make togetherness another thing to do or another idea to argue about. Paul writes to wake them up to what was really going on, which was both worse and better than their dreams. The reality was, and is, that they were already together. All together, infected by the same splinter of sin. All together under the same relief in Jesus. So why don't you listen to it with me? Listen in on this relief that once found Paul. And Luther, listen, and maybe it'll find us. Listen to these excerpts from the letter to the Romans, chapter 3. Paul starts with questions. Is there any advantage to being a Jew? Was there any value in circumcision? In other words, speaking for his fellow Jews, Paul says, what about us? We knew all the right things and did all the proper religious stuff. Was there any value in that? Yes, he says.

Much in every way. Primarily, the Jewish people, the people chosen to be God's representatives, they were entrusted with the words of God. So what follows from that? What if some of them proved unfaithful to their calling? Does their unfaithfulness cancel out God's faithfulness? No, not at all. Let God be true even if every human being speaks lies. As Scripture says, that you, O God, may be proved right when you speak, that you may win the victory when you come to court. But if our being in the wrong proves that God is in the right, then what do we say? Is God unjust in bringing his wrath against us? I'm making a human argument here. No, how then could God judge the world? But if my falsehood magnifies God's truthfulness and brings him glory, then why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil so that good may come? Such a person deserves the judgment that they get. So then, are we any better? Are we Jews any better? Are we churchgoers any better? Are any of us any better because of the things we know and the stuff we do? No. We have already made the charge that Jew and Gentile are alike, all under the power of sin. As it is written, there is no one in the right, not even one. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All together they have turned away, all together they have become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throat is an opened grave, they use their tongues to deceive.

The poison of snakes is on their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Their ways are marked by ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law speaks, it speaks to those under the law so that every mouth would be shut and the whole world held accountable to God. So no human being will be declared right in the sight of God through the works of the law rather through the law we come to know sin. But now a righteousness, a right standing with God has been revealed apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, this right standing with God comes through the trustworthiness of Jesus Christ, the anointed King for everyone, everyone who trusts. Because there is no difference, there is no distinction, all sinned and are falling short of the glory of God, while yet being declared right with God as a gift by God's favor through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God put Jesus forward as an atoning sacrifice in the place of mercy, through faith, in his blood. God did it to prove that he is in the right on account of him passing over sins from beforehand in God's patience. God did it to prove that he is in the right now, in the present time and for him to be in the right and to declare to be right with him the one who trusts in the trustworthiness of Jesus. What then becomes of our boasting, boasting in all the things we know and the stuff we've done. It is excluded on what grounds by what sort of law, by the law of works? No, by the law of faith, of trust, because we hold that a person is declared right with God by trust, by faith, apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles as well? Yes, of the Gentiles as well, because God is one, the one who will declare the circumcised,

the Jew, right with him by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. So then, do we abolish the law by faith? No. By faith, by trusting, we uphold the law. That's from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 3. When I meditate on these words, I can hear the relief in Paul's voice. His relief, my relief, your relief, comes from the gospel. The good news of Jesus, who puts us in a right relationship with God when we trust Him, trust that He gives us by being so completely trustworthy, as He demonstrated in His death and His resurrection from the dead. This Reformation weekend, whether you feel close to Jesus or far from Him, welcome His relief into your life, let it lodge in you as you lodge in Him. Now to help us know what to expect from Him. Reflect a little on what we heard from Romans to understand how his relief comes. It comes all at once, and it comes little by little. First, relief in Jesus comes all at once. Paul has this beautiful phrase in Romans chapter 3, verse 24, that everyone who trusts in Jesus is put in a right relationship with God as a gift by God's grace, or right with God without deserving it. Only by God's favor, God's grace, God's favor, this is the relief that comes all at once. You don't have to earn God's favor. It's the gift he gives without our deserving it, without limit, God's favor is God's love for us. It's what motivated the Father to send the Son. God's favor is what moved Jesus to die and to rise for us. God's favor is the relief waiting to find us before we even knew we had a problem. When I showed up at that doctor's office with my A-King splinter-infected thumb, the doctor was already ready to help me. Long before I arrived, he had taken all the steps, done all the things, knew the facts, had taken an oath to use his skill and knowledge to help and not to harm and just trusting

that he was willing and able and had a plan and I had his favor. That was a relief that came all at once, and even more so with God, not only does God have the will and the means to heal you, he also promises to bring you into his lodgings, to adopt you into his family, to graft you into the body of his Son because God favors you. Even as he favors Jesus, his one and only Son, God favors you. So relax. You're in good hands. It's a relief that comes all at once, being rightly related to God. It's also a relief that comes little by little because that splinter still has to come out. The infection is still dangerous and can kill you if untreated. The doctor still has to take hold of his pliers and go on with the surgery. So also Paul goes on with his letter to the Romans. He exposes the ongoing infection, the internal battle raging within every Christian because there are still bits of all-consuming sin inside of us, each of us, that old creature, the old rebellious Adam still infects us with the delusion that we can give ourselves relief through the things we know and the stuff we do. But under God's diagnosis, there's no difference. There's no place for boasting or smugness. We're all the same, still infected and still on the way to healing. And step by step, in God's favor, we're on the way together. And we grow. We grow in knowledge and action. The things we do and the stuff we know, these were never meant to offer relief. These were also gifts God shared with us so that we could represent Him. And resting in God's hands, returned under God's favor because of Jesus, we use our knowledge and our action little by little to represent God to a world, aching for relief. When I was meditating on Romans chapter 3 to prepare for this message, I saw myself again in the story, Paul tells, "See, I had been in an argument. With my wife Amy, a silly argument as most of them go.

We were arguing about how long it takes to get somewhere in town. And I knew it would serve my point to win the argument if I could establish that the time it took to drive from our house to this place was minimal. So I declared with absolute certainty, it only takes seven minutes to drive there. But the moment I said it, I knew it was a lie. As I had looked up this very drive multiple times, and I knew for a fact that it takes nine minutes to drive there. Even if you're speeding, no matter the time of day, because of the traffic lights and the stops and the turns you have to take, it always takes nine minutes. Now I'm not saying that every little exaggeration that you make or I make is a sin. I'm only saying that in this case, this wasn't an exaggeration. It was pure fabrication because I knew it took nine minutes to drive there and I purposely said seven and I don't In all this with Romans chapter 3 hammering in my thoughts, they use their tongues to deceive. The poison of snakes is on their lips. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Recently, a woman who had come across some of my sermons told me, "Your stories are so mild. She wanted me to know that she and I were different. She said that I was a good person, but she'd been a real sinner." And maybe with this current story, I'm telling you you're thinking the same thing. Two responses. First, look, there are worse things I could tell you about myself. Plenty worse things, but I'm not convinced that we should be having a contest over whose sin is worse. Would that help anyone? And second, who's to say that my tiny splinter of a sin is any better? Because the dangerous thing and the potentially damnable thing about it was that I didn't want to admit it. I did not want to turn away from it. I wanted to invite it in and give it safe lodging and let it stay and incubate and fester and infect my bloodstream and kill me. I didn't want to admit such an embarrassingly stupid sin to anyone. I didn't want to lose the argument. I did not want to say out loud before God and to another human being that I am after all these years of striving to know more and do better. Then I'm still telling lies when it serves my ego. For about three days it festered. And after a restless night of God's law hammering away, the next morning I confess

to Amy the whole humiliating truth. And without a hint of smugness, she says, "I forgive you." Also she kindly let me know that she knew it was untrue, that it only took seven minutes to drive there. So I guess I hadn't even won the argument. But in that little confession and in those simple words Jesus had sent her to say, "All at once God took me by the hand. The world was reborn earth and heaven reunited and there it found me once more." Relief. In the name of Jesus. Amen. You're listening to the Lutheran Hour. For free online resources, archived audio, our mobile app, and more go to lutheranhour.org. Lord, keep us steadfast in your world. Curth laws to mighty seed, or sword. Would dress the kingdom from your son and bring to not all he has done. O Comforter of priceless world, send me send unity on earth. Soft for dust in our final strife, and we thus out of death to life. Build on the rock the church, I'll stand. Even when sea walls are falling, you will utter, you will utter, you will utter, from moon clouds stars in every land, there'll still our timing and calling. You will utter, you will utter, you will utter. ♪ Calling the young and close to rest ♪ ♪ But all the love of those horses stand ♪ ♪ Blowing for us everlasting ♪ ♪ You belong death, you belong death, ♪ ♪ You belong death, dare ♪ ♪ Surely in tempo's name we fast ♪ ♪ All of us, I hear's not well-e-e-e-e ♪ ♪ High up over these tempo's stand ♪ ♪ Over the ten-pose-e-e-e-e ♪ ♪ The ten-pose-e-e-e-e-e ♪ ♪ Two-se-se-se-e-e-e ♪ ♪ Re-voss-e-e-e-e ♪ ♪ Re-dee-dee-dee-e-e-e ♪

♪ He's his tempo ♪ - Talk by Jesus. We are bold to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Our thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with His favor, and give you peace. Amen. - The Lutheran hour is made possible through the support of faithful listeners like you. To learn how your prayers and gifts can extend the worldwide outreach of the Lutheran hour, go to lutheranhour.org. I'm Mark Eicher. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries. (upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)

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