Trinity 24 is an odd duck. Unless you take the so-called “Michaelmas Skip” that is mentioned in The Lutheran Hymnal, you don’t preach on this pericope that often. The last time this pericope was used was November 18, 2007 and the next time we’ll see this pericope (Deo volente) is November 18, 2012. There is no file for Trinity 24 on this website because the site was started after the last time Trinity 24 was celebrated. As of today, there is now notes for Trinity 24!
Luther’s Church Postils has two sermons on Matthew 9. His House Postils have two sermons on the parallel in Mark 5. I have some quotes from the House Postils I’ll post now and perhaps will revisit the Church Postils later this week, D.v.
Church Fathers
This is the sum total of Christian belief: to look for our true life after death; at the end of life, to look for its return (John Chrysostom).
There is need of a Physician: He Who came to heal the sick of soul; but also willed to heal the ills of bodies, to show that He was the Savior of the soul, because He is the Creator of both…. We have need that He shall heal us within, Who for this healed without, that we might desire to be healed within (Augustine).
Like the unhappy Church of the Gentiles, seeking happiness, seeking some source of strength, some means of healing, what it has not spent on false physicians, on astrologers, on fortune tellers, on deceivers, on temple soothsayers? For they all promise health, but give it they cannot; because they do not possess it themselves. She had therefore wasted all she had, and yet was not cured. So she said: “I shall touch the hem of His garment.” She touched it and was healed (Augustine).
One who is sick does not lay down h ow he is to be cured; desiring only to be made well. But this man was a ruler of the synagogue, and versed in the Law, and had read that while God created all other things by His Word, man had been created by the Hand of God. He trusted therefore in God that his daughter would be recreated and restored to life by the same hand which, he knew, had created her. So we see what he has in mind when he says: “Come, lay Thy hand upon her”: that He Who of His own will, laid Hands upon her, to make her, might now, be sought, lay His Hand on her and remake her (Peter Chrysologos).
House Postils of Blessed Martin Luther
Our Lord Jesus Christ is a helper and rescuer from life’s worst extremity, death…. Chirst teaches us…how to be rescued from death.
The Lord intended by this means to show how greatly He is pleased when you expect all good things from Him, and turn to Him for help.
Your faith has raised you up from the dead unto life; your faith has overcome the devil, sent sin packing, and saved your soul. Such works – granted that Christ does them – are nevertheless the works of faith, for without faith they can never happen. Just as in the proclamation of the gospel and the holy sacraments, faith has to be at work if we are going to get any of the good things which are offered to us and distributed to us.
All this happened so that we might not look upon our distress according to our reason, with fleshly eyes, but with the eyes of Christ. These are eyes which can look upon death, sin, and hell and can say with certainty, “I see no death, I feel no sin, I am not damned; but I see through Christ nothing but holiness, life, and blessedness. So if I am poor, I feel no poverty; rather, I believe I have enough; for I have Christ, who can give me hour by hour everything I need, although I have nothing.”