https://app.dropwave.io/episode/b872e364-477e-42e5-95e7-000122ac1d8d/exaudi-domine-sunday-within-the-octave-of-the-ascension-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Would you rather be comfortable or uncomfortable? Would you rather have comfort or discomfort? Comfort seems better, doesn’t it?

But what is comfort? Usually we think it means to be at ease, to relax — to not be too hot or too cold, to be without pain or irritation. We think especially in terms of physical comfort. It’s a bed that’s appropriately soft, lights at the proper brightness, sounds that do not jar the ears, a belly that is adequately full.

But maybe you also think about the need for mental comfort. It’s like when Jesus goes to the home of Mary and Martha. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, content and at peace. But Martha, says Jesus, is worried about many things. Her mind is driven in every direction with all the things that call for her attention. Or what about emotional comfort when you are sad? Or simply the feeling of being in need? The truth is that we spend a good deal of our lives seeking comfort. And more often than we wish, it seems this search is futile. The comfort we seek is elusive, just out of reach.

In this life, you often find your neighbor in need of comfort. Maybe she is uncertain of her appearance or sad at the death of a loved one. Perhaps he is distraught about providing for his family or troubled by his children’s behavior. So you want to comfort your neighbor. You say that her dirty and tangled hair doesn’t look bad. You say the dead loved one who has died is “in a better place” — even if he cursed God with his dying breath. You tell the distraught parents that it will be ok — even though you don’t know that.

You speak little fibs because you think they will help. You try to cheer someone up with what is false. But can a lie bring true comfort? Is it ultimately helpful to bid your neighbor to hold onto what is false? No matter how well-intentioned, lies do not and cannot give true comfort. The truth is necessary.

One of the titles given for the Holy Spirit in the Bible is that of Comforter. It’s an attempt to translate the Greek word, Paraclete. (Our bulletin has it as “Helper.”) Paraclete means ‘advocate,’ — one sent to help or comfort — a counselor and guardian. It’s courtroom language meaning a defense attorney. It’s one who comes alongside you to defend you before the judge. Especially in church we think of the judgment of God according to His Word. That is the judgment that no one likes to hear. This judgment declares that you are a sinner. So we think of the Holy Spirit as the bringer of the soothing comfort of the Gospel.

Jesus says, when the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth… The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. This is the way by which He comforts: He speaks the truth. True comfort does not have its source in your heart or mind. True comfort comes from the Holy Spirit. He brings such true comfort only because He speaks truthfully.

With what truth will He help? He will help by “testify[ing] of [Jesus].” The Holy Spirit will speak of what Jesus has done: how He was crucified, dead, and raised; how He has ascended to His Father and your Father, and there, before the throne of God, Jesus intercedes for you. This is true Comfort. This is real Help. The Holy Spirit delivers true comfort because He first makes the true diagnosis of your sin and its effects. Like we heard a couple weeks ago: the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment.

Yet so very many people decline to seek such Help and Comfort. They ignore it. They neglect it. They often despise it. Many people do not want the Help of the Holy Spirit. They do not find His comfort comforting. This is not because they think it’s better to be without comfort. They believe that lies are more helpful and more comforting. They would rather believe a lie than the truth.

There is only way for the Holy Spirit’s preaching to be comforting. You must first believe in the reality of your own sin. You must see that your sin earns death. This includes also the sin of seeking comfort apart from this Divine Comforter. When we seek comfort apart from the Holy Spirit, His help seems unhelpful. His comfort feels irritating.

But people still need comfort. They have trouble. They have distress. They have the pain that comes from sin. So they seek comfort apart from the Comforter God gives. They seek the comfort of fulfilling their selfish desires. They seek comfort in addiction. They seek spiritual fulfillment apart from God’s Word and promise.

They also seek or give comfort in ways that appear good. They give to those in need. They make sacrifices to help their loved ones. And we Christians, too — we often seek comfort and help apart from God’s Word and promise. We think we know our needs better than God does. And we think that we know better than God how to fulfill those needs. We get this backward because our sense of comfort is backwards.

We sinners think that comfort comes by fulfilling our desires. We think that fulfilling our desire for sin will remove it. We think that if we play out our lusts and disordered desires that then we will be free from them. If I go and take what God has not given, then I will become content, and I won’t need to grasp after those things anymore.

But the truth is that fulfilling sinful desires doesn’t result in satisfaction or comfort; it merely increases and emboldens the desire. When I have fulfilled my urges, it may, for a time, give me peace and comfort, but then the desire returns. Then it comes and grabs me even more strongly. At that point, I must satisfy my desires to a greater degree in order to feel content. In this way, I become a slave of my desires.

You see, sin kills. It doesn’t just kill the body, but the soul. And sin is not just trying to kill in the future. Sin is trying to kill right now. Sin works to kill your relationships, to separate and drive you away from your loved ones. Ultimately, sin wants to kill faith. It wants to kill faith before it kills the body. In this way, it wants to kill the soul.

So we Christians want to avoid sin. We want to put to death the sin that lives in us before that sin kills us. But then we fall into the idea that such mortification of the flesh depends only on us. It’s easy for us to follow the way of Martha — to reduce our Christian piety and the work of the church to programs or policies. We think that it’s up to our planning and promotion for the Word of God to work.