Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany
Romans 12:16-21 + Matthew 8:1-13
Our Gospel is a simple lesson—a beautiful lesson! — about the power, the goodwill and the kindness of Jesus, and about the faith that relies on His power, His goodwill, His kindness, and especially, on His Word.
At the same time, it’s a lesson about healing, a lesson about salvation, taught through the leper who was cleansed and through the centurion whose servant was healed. Very simply, salvation is by faith in Jesus. Salvation by faith is for all.
First, we’re confronted with the leper in the Gospel, the man who was infected with that terrible, ugly skin disease that forced him to live in pain and in isolation. Now, God uses outward, physical things to teach us about inner, spiritual things. (We see that here and we’ll see it again when we come to the Roman centurion.) Leprosy portrays on the outside what is true for all men by nature on the inside. We are all born with ugly, rotting, diseased souls. The sores that this man wore on the outside are symbolic of the sores we all bear on the inside. Not the kind of sores that come from injuries—that come from other people hurting us. No, these sores come from our own spiritual disease, from hearts that are turned inward as we look out for ourselves, chasing after whatever we can get for ourselves, clinging to whatever we can keep for ourselves, getting angry about any injury that we see others committing against ourselves, turning our own reason into divine truth, turning ourselves into our own gods.
Leprosy was an object lesson in sin, especially original sin. The leper’s leprosy called out to him 24/7/365, you are unclean. Your imperfections are not just skin deep. You are diseased from within. You are not worthy to enter God’s presence or to dwell with God’s people. And what his leprosy called out to him, it also called out to everyone who encountered him: what I am on the outside, you are, too, on the inside.
But the kindness and goodness of Jesus, and the signs and wonders He had done in Israel, even the great Sermon on the Mount that He had just finished preaching, also called out to that leper, and to everyone in Israel, “There is One who can help! There is One who can heal, both inside and out. There is One whose Word can make you clean! His name is Jesus of Nazareth.”
That Gospel, that good report about Jesus, worked faith in the leper’s heart, faith so solid, so steady, that he knew without a doubt that Jesus could heal him, could make him clean. And faith so simple and childlike that he could phrase his request so humbly, “If you are willing, You can make me clean.” He yielded himself entirely to the goodwill of Jesus. And he rested all his hope on the Word of Jesus, waiting expectantly on that Word of healing. And, of course, he wasn’t disappointed. “I am willing. Be cleansed.”
This is why Jesus had come, to show the goodwill of God in His own Person, to teach men that they are lost, but that He had been sent to find them, to save them. During those brief years of His life on earth, really, just the brief three years of His ministry, He gave men a taste of His goodness, a sign of His goodwill, and He refused no one, because the whole point was to show mankind that faith in Jesus is what heals. Faith in Jesus is what saves. Physical healing pointed to all the healing—both physical and spiritual—that Jesus does now and will do at the resurrection of the dead.
Tell no one, Jesus told the leper. But go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. Why tell no one? Because, while the testimony of the leper would be good, the testimony of Moses would be even better. It was the Law of Moses that condemned the leper as unclean, that forced him to live in isolation. But now the Law of Moses could no longer condemn him as unclean. Because the Law of Moses has been satisfied. The leper has been cleansed of his leprosy; the sinner has been cleansed of his sins by faith in Christ Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to preach that the Law of Moses was bad, or that it had no right to condemn, but that, since He Himself has fulfilled the Law, He has the right to forgive sins, to cleanse and to justify the ungodly by faith in His blood. The unclean are no longer unclean when they believe in Jesus. Salvation is by faith in Jesus.
The kindness and the goodwill of Jesus and the Word of His promise of salvation by faith have brought you here, to the Holy Christian Church. You who have been baptized in the name of Jesus have received cleansing. Baptism hasn’t removed the disease of original sin, but it has removed sin’s power to condemn you who believe in Jesus. And one day, when Jesus comes again, you will have that uncleanness removed from your flesh, too, as the leper did. First the spiritual healing, now, through the forgiveness of sins, then the complete healing, both spiritual and physical.
Now you, God’s baptized children, may ask Him for help, too, like the leper did. Certain things God has already told you He is willing to do, like hear your prayers, like forgive you your sins, like give you the fruits of the Spirit. In other things, He hasn’t told you what He is willing to do. What then? Don’t try to bargain with God. “If You do this for me, then I’ll…” Instead, entrust all to His goodness, to His power, to His good and gracious will. And pray that humble prayer of the leper, “If You are willing, You can…” And then really and truly leave it to His goodness and to His wisdom whether or not to grant your request. “If You are willing, You can… But if not, so be it. Thy will be done.”
Now, the leper was a son of Israel, and he demonstrated faith in Jesus and was saved by that faith. Next, we come to the Gentile, the Roman centurion. Outwardly, he was not a son of Israel, a son of Abraham. He hadn’t grown up in the church, didn’t have lifelong access to the Word of God. And there’s a lesson in that, too.
Even that outward separation between Jew and Gentile was God’s way of teaching an important spiritual truth: There is a difference, a separation between God’s people and the rest of the world, between the righteous and the wicked, between those who live on the inside of God’s kingdom and those who live on the outside of it, between the saved and the unsaved.
So, who gets to be included in God’s people among the saved? See what happens in our Gospel!
During his period of service in the Roman army, serving in Israel, the Roman centurion had heard the Gospel, the good report about Jesus. And it gave him such confidence in the power and greatness of Jesus that he already knew for a fact that whatever Jesus spoke carried with it the full power and authority of God. He knew that Jesus could grant any request, with no trouble at all. And he knew that, even though he wasn’t worthy to have Jesus come under his roof, he could approach Jesus for help without fear. Speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith. Most of “God’s people” Israel hadn’t believed in Jesus at all. Some in Israel had shown faith in Jesus, like the leper. But no one had shown such complete trust in Jesus’ Word and authority as this Roman centurion had, even though he was not part of “God’s people” by birth. As Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
And then what lesson does Jesus go on to teach? 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.
Here Jesus opens wide the kingdom of God to the Roman centurion, to the Ethiopian eunuch, even to us Americans—to all who will believe in Him as the Son of God, to all who will trust in Him for healing and salvation. And He describes the blessedness of being in His kingdom as “sitting down” (at the banquet table) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, where everyone is equal, everyone is happy, everyone is blessed. At the same time, He excludes from His kingdom all who will not believe, including those who were physically born to Israel, and He describes the sorrow and the raging anger of all those who will be forever cast out into the darkness.
In short, salvation is by faith in Christ. Salvation by faith is for all. You were right to come to Jesus for the cleansing of Holy Baptism. You’re right to keep coming to Him for help, for mercy, for forgiveness, and for strength. Trust in Him. Trust in His Word.
And as long as you continue to live in this fallen world, with all its ugliness and wickedness—which we witnessed again on display in the protests on Friday at the inauguration, yesterday in those disgusting women’s demonstrations promoting the murder of infants, and the ugliness that is continually on display on social media—remember that, as those who have been saved by faith in Christ and included in God’s people, you have a responsibility to the people of this world who are not God’s people, because God would have them saved by faith, too. His Word is powerful to convert sinners from their unbelief. But as we preach the Word of Christ, let us also be careful to live according to the Word of Christ. Take the Apostle’s words in today’s Epistle to heart: Repay no one evil for evil…If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. May God give you wisdom and strength to put those words into practice. Amen.
