The Church Season of Trinity
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (September 9, 2012)
Galatians 5:16-24
Luke 17:11-19
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen
The text for today’s message is
as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 17th chapter of St. Luke, the
following verses,
Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)
11
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along
between Samaria and Galilee .
12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,
who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices,
saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw
them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they
went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16
and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a
Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed?
Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give
praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him,
“Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
In
the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
Leprosy is an excellent metaphor for
sin. Sin is a contagious, incurable, and fatal disease from which you cannot
save yourself. Sin, like leprosy, requires healing from outside you. No one has
ever cured themselves from leprosy. No one, not even you, can cure you from
sin.
You can’t ignore leprosy. If you
ignore it, then it will get worse. The same can be said for sin, although we
all try to give ignorance of sin a good try. We think, if only I don’t think
about sin. Then, maybe, it will go away. I won’t sin anymore. When I do sin, it
won’t be sin. It will be doing something wrong that I know better to do. God
will wink at it. He understands. Or
maybe we understand that a little bit better in non-theological terms, maybe
better said as, hedging our bets.
God certainly does understand sin.
He can’t stand sin. All sin is repulsive before God. Nothing unclean is able to
stand before Him and live. Perhaps that is why we sometimes wink at sin. We
can’t do a thing about it, so we go on about our business. We figure we are
going to die anyway, so why bother worrying about our lost condition. Another bet hedged.
We are worse than a leper is if we
think this way. Our reading from Luke
tells us that at least the ten lepers were smart enough to cry out, Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us! At best, it is possible these lepers believed
that Jesus could help them. But they don’t ask for healing, they ask for mercy.
Perhaps these lepers know a little more about Christ than what Luke says.
Perhaps these lepers know a little
more about Christ than you or I do. Or perhaps not, as after our blessed Lord
tells them to go and show themselves to the priests, nine of them keep running
to the priests even after they discover they are healed. You must admit this
sounds familiar, maybe just maybe we have done the same. We have bowed our head
in prayer to God for something. And once God is merciful and has granted our
request, we run away and go on about our business, never stopping to thank God
for His mercy. We’ve gotten what we have have requested. That’s all we need. Gee
thanks, God, no time to say hello goodbye, I’m busy and late, talk to you
later…When I need you, maybe.
Blessed Martin Luther writes We
can do no greater nor better work toward God, nor show nobler divine service,
than thank Him…. On the other hand, just as praise and gratitude is to be the
highest divine service, both here on earth and there in eternity: thus
ingratitude is also the vilest vice. Whoever thanks God gives Him honor.
Whoever does not thank God robs Him of honor and makes himself god. The First
Commandment says You shall have no other gods. The prophet Isaiah writes
I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor
My praise to carved images.
It is indeed sad to note that most
people who call themselves Christians only call upon the Lord when they need
Him. And once they receive what they ask, they never bother to thank Him. They
never bother to show any sort of gratitude. They’ve gotten their desired handout
and keep on running. It is as if you have total control over God’s hand.
Do not be deceived. God and His Word
is not mocked. What happens when God removes His gracious Hand from you if you
believe that you can control His mercy? Will you wither and die. What happens
when God does not respond as you wish, when you wish, exactly the way you
wish? Will you remember that God is a
gracious God, and that He knows what is best for you. Or will you sulk, because your prayer is not
answered to your satisfaction? Oh I did
pray, I prayed and prayed, I pleaded with God, but He did not do as I asked.
We are driven downward to despair
and when we do it is time to repent. We are to believe once again what God’s
Word says about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Saint Paul tells Saint Timothy: This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You can’t argue with Saint
Paul, he was a filthy, rotten sinner, just like you and me. There’s no need of
ranking who is chief. You are chief alongside Saint Paul.
But, thank God instead, when the
perceived result of your prayers are not as you wish. Prayer is not wishing, prayer is conversation
with God. Our petitions to God are like
speaking into a tin cup with string attached.
But just the same God hears every word, every feeling, every
disappointment, every heartfelt plea.
And God’s answer does not ring us back with the tin cup, His answer is
laser precise, He gives us exactly everything we need. For, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Jesus did not come into the world to save only grateful
sinners. Thank God for that.
Rather recall from St. John’s
Gospel: He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. He suffered
pain and scorn from the same people He came to save from their sin. Jesus could
have removed His gracious Hand from His beloved children. He could have paid
for the sin of Gentiles only, or Jews only. But, Jesus suffered unbelief and
ingratitude, just as He does today. Jesus suffers unbelief and ingratitude, but
still He does not cease to offer His deliverance from the distress of our sins.
Jesus laments that only one out of
the ten lepers returned to give Him honor and praise. St. Luke adds a stingy
comment, and [that one]was a Samaritan. The bad has finally won, the
Samaritan does what’s right. He says
thank you Lord. The Leper has been
healed for today. Isn’t it amazing how
the Samaritans upstage the Jews in the Gospels. Last week in the Holy Gospel the
Samaritan did something he shouldn’t do either. Jesus tells the Samaritan, Arise,
go your way. Your faith has made you well.
Have you ever asked, the
question…Okay, I’m standing Lord, but which way should I be going? In this case
the Leper turns and goes away, yet is drawn back. The true temple is not a
building on a temple mount, the true priest is not gathered with others trying
to decide the rules. The true priest and
the true temple are one and the same, one person Jesus Christ our Lord.
And the leper cured for a day, will
one day die to this world. Yet he goes
in the way of the Lord, walking with Him to Jerusalem for the consummation of
forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus takes the Samaritan’s greatest infirmity,
sin, puts sin on His back, walks to Golgotha, and dies for it. Jesus does the
same with your sin, too. Jesus takes your infirmities and diseases, especially
the infirmity of unbelief and the disease of ingratitude, and dies for them on
the cross. You are healed. You are forgiven.
You are made well and absolved from
sin, you journey with Jesus through this life, washed clean in Baptism, fed
with His True Body and Blood in the Supper, pronounced clean from the leprosy
of sin in Absolution, dying in His Name in order to rise from the dead when He
calls you forth on the Last Day.
In the meantime, Jesus’ healing Word
powered by the Holy Spirit speaks through you when you show gratitude to your
neighbor. This gratitude shown to your neighbor is a fruit of faith. It shows
that the healing medicine of Christ is at work in you.
The Lord keeps His Church in
perpetual mercy. He takes away your infirmities and makes you whole. No longer
are you a leper, an outcast. You are part of the family of God. You are clean.
Your faith, a gift from a loving and gracious God, not something you earned on
your own, has saved you. Now you go on your way, or rather the Way that has
been given to you…the way of Jesus…and that is the way of forgiveness and eternal
life for you.
In the Name of
the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
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