"Jesus Is at the Center of Your Salvation" Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist September 21, 2014 Luke 17:11–19
Imagine having a disease that covers your skin. In Jesus’ time those with this condition were cut off from the community. Even today if someone has a disease that is contagious they are quarantined. Today many infectious diseases can be treated and a person can still be in society. These ten lepers who cried out to Jesus weren’t able to. They were outcasts. They cried out to Jesus for mercy. What were they hoping for? Were they requesting a miracle? Were they just looking for compassion since they got very little of that? They pleaded for mercy and mercy is what they received. They were cleansed. No doubt they all were grateful. One of them, a Samaritan, came back praising God. He believed in God and so it’s expected that he praised God. When he returned to Jesus he fell on his face and gave thanks to Jesus. When he praised God, who was he directing his praise to? When he fell on his face before Jesus, who was he thinking Jesus was? When he gave thanks to Jesus, were his thanks to Jesus for performing a miracle or because he believed that Jesus was in fact the God he was praising? Luke doesn’t tell us this. The way it reads, the Samaritan gave thanks to God and then he went back to Jesus and with humility was thankful to Jesus. The way it reads, though, is through the lens we so often put on when we approach the Bible. What do we think the Bible is? It’s a book. It’s not just a book, it’s a book given to us directly by God. It recounts historical events that are not only historical, but sacred history. It’s a book that teaches us not just about life on this earth but life eternally. All of these beliefs about the Bible are true. They are godly ways by which we view the Bible and are rejected by so many people. The problem with us, though, is that we tend to not see the fullness of what God has given us in the Bible. It’s history, but it’s not only history. It’s sacred history, but it’s not only sacred history. It’s recounting what happened back then not just so that we can learn what it means for us today. It’s recounting what happened back then so that we can see what is actually being delivered to us today. In today’s Gospel reading ten men were cleansed of leprosy. It’s pretty easy to see what was delivered to them. But there’s more to it. One of those ten it seems received more. What is it that you and I receive today that is the very same work of Jesus back then? To see this, we must see beyond just the recounting of a historical event. The Samaritan clearly was praising God when he realized he was healed. What seems less clear is what he really thought or believed about Jesus. A miracle worker? An agent God worked through to cleanse him of his leprosy? Could it be that this Samaritan actually believed Jesus was God in the flesh? I’m not sure from the words on the pages of the Scriptures themselves we can really know the answers to these questions. But could it be that this is by design by Luke, who wrote this, and by the Holy Spirit who inspired Luke to write it? There are times in the Bible where it says straightforwardly that some believed in Jesus. There are times like this where it’s not clear what the Samaritan thought of Jesus. In the case where it says someone believes in Jesus we can learn from that in our own situation that we too ought to believe in Him. What about from today’s Gospel reading? If all we’re getting out of this episode is that Jesus is in fact God and that He helps us in our need just as He did with the lepers, then Luke might very well have just stated that point. But he didn’t. He told the story in the way he did so that we can see that Jesus doesn’t just help us, He is God in the flesh. And He’s not just God in the flesh, He’s God in the flesh for you. He’s God in the flesh who came to suffer on the cross for all of your sin. And even more, He’s God in the flesh in the way He comes to you when you cry to Him for mercy, in His Gospel and in His Sacraments. The way Luke has structured this story shows us that we are to see in it not just one more instance where Jesus healed someone, but one more instance where we are shown that Jesus is at the center of salvation. He is God in the flesh and therefore His flesh is clean, without spot or blemish. His life is holy, without sin. It is Jesus in the flesh, God in the flesh, who gives cleansing to the lepers. Right in the middle of the story the one leper who saw that he was healed does these two things, he praises God and he bows before Jesus while giving Him thanks. Jesus is at the center. That is what Luke is showing us. Jesus ends up telling the man to go on his way. Jesus was, Himself, on His way, as we see from the beginning of the Gospel reading. It was the way leading to Jerusalem, where the cross would be waiting for Him. If He would cleanse lepers of their uncleanness, it would not be without taking on His pure flesh the decaying flesh of our sinful nature in His death on the cross. We don’t know what that Samaritan thought of Jesus. We don’t need to know. What we need to know is what Luke, having been inspired by the Holy Spirit, is showing us who Jesus is and what He does for us. He is centering that leper’s salvation and our salvation in Jesus. He is showing us that the God who was praised by the Samaritan was standing there in the flesh and who Himself died on the cross. He is showing us that this very same God, this very same Jesus, comes to us in the flesh to us, today, to cleanse us, heal us, give us new life. Paul shows us in the Epistle reading how this looks in our own life. As a horrible skin disease ravaged the bodies of those ten men in the Gospel reading, a horrible disease called sin ravages us in body and soul. This manifests itself in what Paul calls the works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. You think we need to be cleansed? Is there a need for us also to cry out to God for mercy? The one who cleansed the lepers cleanses you. Jesus had directed those men to go to the priests. Only when the priests had declared them clean would they be clean. In Baptism this is what Jesus does. In the same way a soothing bath would work its cleansing healing for someone who is recovering from a skin disease, Baptism is a washing away of your sin. The washing was not done by the water but by the very person who took all your sin upon Himself. The cleansing of your sin in Baptism was done by Jesus, who is at the center of your salvation, joining Himself to you in those very waters. One of the ways the New Testament describes Baptism, as it does in the Epistle reading, is that we have crucified the sinful flesh. When the leper had returned to Jesus Jesus showed him what we need to see for ourselves. He said to the man, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” This is wellness as in wholeness. He was made well in body and soul. The one who had healed him, cleansing him of his skin disease, was the very one who cleanses in body and soul in taking our sin on Himself. This life in which we are cleansed from our sin is described in the Epistle reading as manifesting itself in the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Jesus is at the center of your salvation, He has crucified your ravaged sinful flesh in Baptism. He cleanses you with His forgiveness in giving you His holy and pure body and blood in His Supper. You may go on your way, now, living life that you know is in His eternal care, for He has made you whole. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
