Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

Yes and No. Paul is making an object lesson out of a situation he was now in wit the church in Corinth. Paul had promised that he would visit them on another missionary journey but now has had to go back on that promise. I am sure the people of Corinth were disappointed and upset with Paul. They wanted to learn more form him and were probably feeling cheated out of a promise made to them. Out of this frustration Paul uses the opportunity to assure the church that just because he went back on a promise God never does. God’s Yes is always Yes in Christ.

Yes and No. When thinking about what Paul was saying here I thought about a young child. What is usually the first word a child learns? “No” Other than being an easy word to say I think there are two other reasons a child learns no early. First, at about the time a child is learning how to talk they are also learning how to walk and have been crawling for a while. They have been mobile. And any parent knows all to well the word most spoken by a parent to a wayward child is no. “Don’t touch that!” “No, you can’t go in there.” No you can’t climb that.” “No, you can’t pull the dog’s tail.” And on and on. So of course a child is going to learn no because those were the words his/her parents spoke often to help direct the mobile child.

But there is another reason I think a child learns no early. At the point that a child is learning how to walk they are also learning how to do things on their own. The terrible twos are really a time of a child asserting his/her independence. And “No” is an easy way to do it, and usually quite effective (Why do you think parents use it so often). A child uses “No” not only to be defiant but also to assert some independence. While this is a natural part of the process of growing up it also can illustrate, on a negative side, how sin has affected us.

The first sin in the Garden of Eden was really a sin of “No.” God told Adam and Eve that they could have anything in the Garden except for one tree. Instead of trusting God they said, “No” to Him and did their own thing – eating the fruit of the tree God forbid them to touch. And from that point on we have been saying “No” to God in our sin. We want to go it by ourselves. We don’t want God’s help and usually not from our neighbor either. We stick out our defiant tongue at God and say “No” in our sinful nature.

Back to the Yes and No. A child may learn “No” first but they do eventually learn “Yes”. I think it takes longer to learn “Yes” because it requires a commitment. If you say, “Yes” to someone you are usually agreeing to do something or at the very least agreeing to their point of view. “Yes” requires a promise. So “Yes” is a harder concept for us to keep.

And we know all to well that we as sinful humans break our promises all the time. Too often, like Paul, we may say Yes to something and then end up not doing it, or breaking our promise to someone else. We tend to be wishy-washy with our commitment to God and to our neighbor. Sometimes it is just easier to say “No” and walk away. But we know, deep down, that broken promises are horrible. Either there is guilt that we have failed or anger that someone else has failed us. We may deny it at times but God’s Law always steps in to show us where we have failed.

The people in Corinth and Paul were probably feeling some of this as well. The church was probably upset and disappointed that Paul wouldn’t be visiting them and Paul was probably feeling some guilt that he had to break a promise. But Paul also used this disappointment, this weakness on his part, to point to the strength of the Gospel message from God. We as humans break our promises but God never does. God’s Yes is a firm Yes in Jesus. God promised back in the Garden, after that first defiant No, that He would send a Savior, One who would crush Satan, Sin and Death. And God continued to make this promise known to His people and He fulfilled it in Christ Jesus. God sent His Son into this world and said Yes to those who recognize they are sinful and broken and need a Savior. God’s Yes isn’t a maybe, or even conditional on our behavior but is always a Yes to those who run to Him for salvation.

Jesus illustrated this “Yes” in the last couple of weeks Gospel reading. We have seen Jesus healing many people and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God, fulfilling His promise of salvation, is being fulfilled in Him. Last week we have the man with leprosy coming to Jesus and simply stating, “If you will, make me clean.” And Jesus replies, “I will, be clean.” How wonderfully simple and yet profound those words are. God promises to make things better and He fulfills them in Jesus. God’s Yes is always Yes.

Today’s miracle has a new twist to it. In the miracles up to this point we usually saw the individual come of his/her own accord to be healed. But in this story we see four friends bringing the paralytic to Jesus. Again, Jesus simple states His Yes in the forgiveness of sins and in the healing of the man’s body. But Jesus said it was because of His friends’ faith. That has important implications for we as the body of Christ. God calls us to bring His “Yes” message of the Gospel to the world. We are to bring those who are hurting, broken, in despair to Jesus. And the faith we have, the promise we hold out to the world isn’t based on our wishy-washy promise but on the emphatic “Yes” promise of God in Christ Jesus. It is what drove these friends to get this paralytic man to Jesus no matter how they had to do it.

What a witness to us. We can bring God’s Yes to the world. In Jesus we find fulfillment, purpose, meaning, salvation. In Him we find our Yes answer to freeing us from our sin. And in this wonderful message of Yes to the world we are called to bring the hurting, the broken, and the lost to Jesus. Let them see that the Lord does fulfill His promises. When the world breaks its promises, when things fall apart, when we feel betrayed by others – we can turn to Jesus and find a true Yes – Yes, I love you! Yes, I died for you! Yes, I rose again and will come back to take you to be with Me! Amen.