A God of goodness, mercy, and love

Sermon for Epiphany 3

Romans 12:16-21  +  Matthew 8:1-13

As I work through the Psalms in the original Hebrew, there’s a word that comes up again and again as one of God’s chief traits or attributes. The word is hesed. It’s often translated as “mercy.” Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Mercy is a fine translation, but it doesn’t capture the whole thought of the word. No English word really does. Some translate it with the word love. Others with the phrase steadfast love. Luther chose a word in German that means goodness or kindness. “His goodness endures forever.” Mercy. Love. Goodness. These are characteristics of God. And in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus revealing those characteristics in Himself as the Man who is God, yet another epiphany, a revelation of His divinity and of what that divinity is like. He is a God a goodness, mercy, and love.

Jesus had just finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7. Now, coming down from the mountain, Jesus would put into practice the things He had preached, first in His encounter with the man with leprosy, and then in His encounter with the centurion.

As he was coming down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Somehow, somewhere, this man whose skin was mottled with sores had heard of Jesus, had heard of His goodness, mercy, and love, and also of His power and authority over sickness and disease. And what he had heard had already sparked faith in his heart, faith so confident in Jesus’ goodness, that he simply lays his case before Jesus. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. A much better way of approaching Jesus than we heard from St. Mary in last week’s Gospel. “They have no more wine,” with the implication, “You’re going to do something about it, right?” Whereas this leper starts with the perfectly submissive, “If you are willing,” leaving everything to Jesus to decide in His perfect goodness, mercy, and love.

And goodness, mercy, and love are exactly what we see from Jesus in His response. He touched the leprous man, which in itself was an act of great compassion, because the Jews were not to touch anything unclean unnecessarily, and lepers were ceremonially unclean. But as a caring physician touches his patient in order to diagnose and heal him, so Jesus wasn’t ashamed to come into contact with this man. He touched him and said, I am willing. Be cleansed!

Notice, He demanded nothing of the man. The man had already been humbled before God by his disease and the ceremonial restrictions that went along with it. If he had been clinging to sin or exalting himself before, then Jesus would have rebuked him. But since he came in humility and faith, Jesus was quick to comfort him and heal him, for free! Such is the goodness, mercy, and love of God for us poor sinners. And by that healing, so simple, so authoritative, Jesus revealed His divinity: to those who witnessed it, and to us who have read about it.

Jesus did give the man one instruction after healing him, though. See that you tell no one; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. Here’s Jesus, again, practicing what He had just gotten done preaching in the Sermon on the Mount. In that sermon, He had said this: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. The Law of Moses commanded lepers who had been healed to show themselves to the priest, who would examine him and declare him to be clean. This man’s miraculous cleansing would be a testimony to the whole priesthood that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Then, the Law of Moses also required the cleansed leper to offer a special offering. Jesus’ instruction to the man to do what the Law commanded would also be a testimony to the whole priesthood, that Jesus wasn’t some rogue preacher, trying to start a new religion. No, He was the very Christ whom the Law and the Prophets had been pointing to all along. His ministry would not be in opposition to the Law. He would fulfill it, to the letter. And only after everything was fulfilled, after everything was “finished,” only then would the ceremonial commands of the Law give way to the freedom of the New Testament, and the office of the Old Testament priests would be replaced with the High Priesthood of Jesus the Christ, sitting at the right hand of God.

Then we come to the second part of today’s Gospel as Jesus dealt with the centurion. This Roman centurion, as we’re informed by St. Luke, was a friend of the Jews. He had even built them a synagogue for their worship. So he had been paying attention to word about Jesus that was going around Capernaum. He came to Jesus and presented his case before Him. Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” Again, we see the Lord’s readiness to help, even to help this Gentile soldier. And we see how Jesus dealt differently with each one, giving him exactly what he needed. He offers right away to go with the centurion to his house, to heal the man’s servant. At around the same time in Jesus’ ministry, in roughly the same place in Galilee, a Jewish nobleman had come to Jesus begging Him to come and heal his son. Come! Come quickly! You have to come with me to my house! And in that case, Jesus refused to go with the man, teaching him the importance of believing in Jesus’ word alone, without having to see anything.

But in this case, Jesus was the one offering to go to the centurion’s house, and the centurion was the one telling Jesus it wasn’t necessary. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. And then he compared his authority over other soldiers with Jesus’ authority over—over what? Over the bodily functions of everyone on earth. He confessed Jesus’ power to speak a word, commanding a body to be healed, and the body would simply obey, as a soldier obeys his commanding officer.

It’s astonishing faith, and Jesus was astonished. The Jews had been hounding Him for signs to prove His authority to them. They were slow to believe His word, and most never did. But here is a Gentile, a Roman soldier, who has simply believed the report about Jesus, that He was full of goodness, mercy, and love, that He was both willing and able to help in any need.

When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Truly I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel. And I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and will sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go now. And as you have believed, so let it be done to you.”

St. Matthew is especially the writer to the Hebrews, to the Jews. And the Holy Spirit used Matthew to reach out to them more than any other Evangelist did. Look, people of Israel! You were slow to believe in Jesus as the Christ, and the Gentiles were quick! God’s judgment against the Jews is just, and so is His inclusion of the Gentiles in His kingdom. So wake up! You are the original children of the kingdom! Repent before you are cast out for your unbelief, even as the Gentiles are welcomed at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! You were the original recipients of God’s goodness, mercy, and love! Don’t forfeit all that you’ve been given! If you do, it won’t be God’s goodness, mercy, and love that fail. It will be your impenitence and unbelief that get you thrown out into the darkness.

And so today’s Gospel is yet another appeal on God’s part to all who hear. Our God is a God of goodness, mercy, and love. He has proven it time and time again, most notably in giving His Son into death on the cross for the sins of the world. We are sinners who don’t deserve to be in His kingdom at all, and the moment you start thinking you deserve a place in God’s kingdom, that your sins aren’t that bad, or that Jesus isn’t good, merciful, and loving enough to help, that’s when you’re on the brink of perishing eternally.

So you who have come into God’s kingdom from the West, just as others have come into His kingdom from the East, through Baptism and faith in Christ Jesus, see again Jesus’ goodness, mercy, and love in today’s Gospel. See how He helps those who come to Him in humility and faith, who trust in His will, who trust in His word. And be one of those who approach Him in such humility and faith. Trust in His goodness, mercy, and love toward you, and then show that same goodness, mercy, and love toward everyone you encounter today and throughout the week. May God grant it by His Holy Spirit! Amen.