Our Help in Time of Need
"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."
LUKE 5:31
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Our Help in Time of Need
The physician is helpful and welcome to the sick, but the healthy pay no attention to him. This woman perceived her need, and for that reason she ran after the sweet fragrance (Song of Solomon 1:3; 4:11). So also Moses must come first and teach us to perceive our sins so that grace may become sweet and welcome. Therefore, all is lost, no matter how kindly and delightfully Christ is portrayed, if one is not first humbled by knowledge of himself and is not eager for Christ, as the Magnificat says: "He fills the hungry with good things, and the rich He sends away empty" [Luke 1:53]. All of this is said and written for the comfort of the miserable, poor, needy, sinful, and despised people, so that in all of their need they know to whom they should flee for comfort and help. . .. How it hurts nature and reason when, in destitution, she takes off, and leaves behind everything that she senses, and clings to the bare Word alone, even when she senses the opposite. May God help us in time of need and of death to such courage and faith!
From the Church Postil, sermon for Lent 2 on Matthew 15:21-28 (Luther's Works 76:378-79)
LUKE 5:31
+
Our Help in Time of Need
The physician is helpful and welcome to the sick, but the healthy pay no attention to him. This woman perceived her need, and for that reason she ran after the sweet fragrance (Song of Solomon 1:3; 4:11). So also Moses must come first and teach us to perceive our sins so that grace may become sweet and welcome. Therefore, all is lost, no matter how kindly and delightfully Christ is portrayed, if one is not first humbled by knowledge of himself and is not eager for Christ, as the Magnificat says: "He fills the hungry with good things, and the rich He sends away empty" [Luke 1:53]. All of this is said and written for the comfort of the miserable, poor, needy, sinful, and despised people, so that in all of their need they know to whom they should flee for comfort and help. . .. How it hurts nature and reason when, in destitution, she takes off, and leaves behind everything that she senses, and clings to the bare Word alone, even when she senses the opposite. May God help us in time of need and of death to such courage and faith!
From the Church Postil, sermon for Lent 2 on Matthew 15:21-28 (Luther's Works 76:378-79)
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