A God who is a very present help

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12:16-21  +  Matthew 8:1-13

Early in His ministry, Jesus sat on the mountain, preaching to His disciples. He looked like any preacher with a large following. He sounded like any other preacher, except for the surprising authority with which He declared the Word of God, as if He weren’t just a teacher of it, but the Author of it. But when He comes down from the mountain, Jesus revealed His hidden divinity with two particular healing miracles.

Now, all of Jesus’ miracles are epiphanies; they all reveal His hidden divinity; they’re all evidence that He is not just a great man or a great teacher, but evidence that He is God. But most miracles and miracle accounts reveal something else about this God/Man, too. We certainly see that in the two miracles in today’s Gospel. Not only do we see the divine power and authority of God walking the earth. We see also God’s willingness and readiness to help all who come to Him for help, whether poor or powerful, whether Jew or Gentile. And hearing, in turn, about that readiness and willingness of Jesus to help is what inspires and kindles faith in our hearts, which is the very thing needed in order to be helped by Jesus. Let’s see how this plays out in the Gospel.

A leper—a man “full of leprosy,” according to Luke’s account—had heard the word of Jesus’ kindness and power. So as soon as Jesus was done preaching the Sermon on the Mount, the leper approached Him, knelt down before Him, and prayed a perfect prayer: Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this miracle, and they all record it the same—with the same need, the same prayer, the same reaching out and touching the leper in compassion, and the same answer, I am willing. Be cleansed.

It’s all important. The great faith of the leper who got down on his knees and simply confessed Jesus’ power to cleanse him, without insisting that Jesus just had to heal him, because he deserved it or something. No, simply, if You are willing, You can, leaving everything up to Jesus’ will and grace. Jesus’ simple act of reaching out and touching the man is important, too. Imagine a filthy, dirty, smelly, diseased person, full of open sores, kneeling at your feet. You would probably shrink back. Jesus didn’t. He reached out and touched the man. That’s God’s compassion toward us. And it’s contagious.

I was just reading this week in Eusebius’ church history about a terrible plague that broke out in Alexandria in the third century. It affected everyone, including the Christians. But Dionysius of Alexandria tells how the Christians treated one another. They tended to their sick, cared for them, picked up their dead bodies and dressed them and buried them properly. And many got sick as they cared for their fellow Christians. But they viewed it almost as a kind of martyrdom, willingly risking getting the plague and dying if it meant helping their brothers and sisters in Christ. The pagans, on the other hand, did what I think we would be tempted to do. At the first sign of sickness, they abandoned their loved ones, stayed far away from them in order to save themselves, and shoved them out onto the street, even before they were dead. Now, where did the Christians learn such compassion and willingness to help one another? Of course, they learned it from Jesus, and specifically, from His treatment of the leper in today’s Gospel.

Jesus’ verbal response is just as important. I am willing. Be cleansed. Just this past week, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was in the news for saying this: “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell.” Mr. Rodgers thinks he’s referring to the God of the Bible, but honestly, I don’t know what Bible he’s reading. God doesn’t want to condemn anyone to a fiery hell, much less “most of the planet.” What God wants, what God wills, is our healing, is to forgive us our sins, is to give us heaven as a free gift. And He sent His Son into the world to reveal just that, His willingness that wretched sinners be cleansed, not condemned. But there can be no cleansing of the sick if the patient refuses to acknowledge his disease, and if the patient refuses to trust in the Doctor for the cure.

But the leper in the Gospel trusted and was immediately cleansed, as in, made physically whole and healthy. Still, there was another cleansing that still had to happen. Jesus told the man, See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. If you read what Moses required for the ceremonial cleansing of a leper in Leviticus 14, it was quite an involved process. In fact, one wonders just how many lepers actually had to go through this process, since there was no known cure for leprosy. But even if a leper’s skin sores went away, he still was not automatically clean before God. He still needed to wash his clothes and himself, shave off all his hair, wait 7 days. Then he needed to provide sacrifices—up to three sheep or lambs, if he could afford it, plus a pair of birds. The priest had to follow an elaborate cleansing right to make atonement for the man, even though he was now clean. Blood and oil to be sprinkled on him and smeared on him, etc. (You can read it for yourselves.) The message was clear: Even a cleansed person still needs the ongoing cleansing of Christ.

You all were made clean in Holy Baptism. Your sins were forgiven there. You were made a child of God—clean in conscience and in status. But you weren’t needing cleansing when you were baptized. You still carry around a sinful nature. You still need the ongoing cleansing that God provides in the Gospel and in the Sacrament of the Altar. And you still need the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in your life, so that your attitudes and actions become just as clean as your status before God.

The leper in our Gospel was clean, but, as a Jew who was under the Law of Moses, he still had a Law of Moses to fulfill, not only because God had commanded it, but also as a testimony to the priests—as a testimony that Jesus can cleanse what no one else can cleanse, and as a testimony to what Jesus had just said during the Sermon on the Mount, that He hadn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. So also no one can come to Jesus for the healing of forgiveness and then just go off and turn his back on the word of God. When you’re forgiven, you’re then instructed to walk according to God’s commandments.

Such was Jesus’ treatment of the leper who was a natural son of Israel. What would His treatment be of those who were not natural sons of Israel? We see that in the second part of our Gospel.

The Roman centurion living in Israel had also heard the word about Jesus and had come to trust in Him. His servant was sick, so he came to Jesus for help. Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. Notice, he doesn’t even ask Jesus to do anything. He just presents the need and then waits.

He doesn’t have to wait long. Jesus immediately offers His help: I will come and heal him. Notice, the centurion hasn’t explained to Jesus how he deserves His help. He hasn’t offered to pay. Jesus is ready and willing to help entirely for free, not on the basis of payment, not on the basis of the man’s worthiness, but just out of pure grace. But the centurion has more faith to reveal. He tells Jesus not to come! Not to come, because he, the centurion, isn’t worthy to have Jesus come. It’ll be enough if Jesus just speaks the word, because the centurion understands how authority works. A commander of an army doesn’t have to be in the room with the troops in order to give them an order. He can write it down. He can speak an order and have it passed along to the troops, and they have to obey. The thing is, the centurion is here confessing a lot about Jesus, that He is the very God who speaks, and all of nature, including the body of every person on earth, must obey.

Jesus was astonished by the faith of this Gentile who had never even met Jesus, as far as we know. His faith had simply come from hearing the word, and it was a faith so firm and so great that Jesus says He hadn’t even found such faith in Israel. And He speaks the word the centurion sought and heals the man’s servant immediately. As you have believed, so let it be done for you. He shows that He is ready and willing to help anyone who comes to Him for help, who believes in Him for help, whether poor or powerful, whether Jew or Gentile.

There’s a final lesson that Jesus teaches here, though, and the world had better listen. And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

As Jesus reveals His hidden divinity in these miracles, He reveals the awesome significance of it: If Jesus is God, then Jesus is the one who determines who will sit with Him, and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in His heavenly kingdom. If Jesus is God, then you must believe in Him. And all who do, whether Jew or Gentile, will sit at the heavenly banquet with Him. But all who don’t believe in Him will find themselves locked outside, cast out into outer darkness, even if they started out as members of God’s kingdom.

So as God reveals Himself to you again today as the One who is ready and willing to help all who come to Him, be sure you don’t foolishly stay away from Him, or doubt His word, or disbelieve His willingness and ability to help, to cleanse, to forgive, to sanctify, and to save. The truth about Jesus is exactly what you see from Him in today’s Gospel, where He shows Himself to be the very God of Psalm 46, the God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Amen.