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The authority of Christ and the power of His Word

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Sermon for Epiphany 3

Romans 12:6-16  +  Matthew 8:1-13

What do we learn about Jesus in today’s Gospel? Let’s consider His two encounters, with the leper and with the centurion, and see what the Holy Spirit has to teach us.

Jesus has just finished preaching the famous Sermon on the Mount. He’s coming down from the mountain, and as He’s coming down, a man is waiting for Him there, a man suffering from leprosy.

I think you know what leprosy was, but just in case, let me explain it briefly. Leprosy was a skin disease, one that the Law of Moses specifically addressed. If someone in Israel was found to have leprosy and was officially diagnosed with it by the priests, according to the descriptions given in the Law of Moses, that person had to live apart from the rest of Israel. According to the Law, they were to be considered perpetually unclean, ceremonially contaminated, until such time as their skin cleared up, and the priest certified their healing, and they performed the rituals prescribed by the Law to be declared “clean” again. Leprosy was not a spiritual problem. It was a physical, social, and ceremonial problem. But God used that particular outward uncleanness in some to reveal the spiritual uncleanness and contamination that’s present in all.

Well, this man with leprosy has heard the word about Jesus, how good and kind He is, that He has been preaching the good news of God’s promise to restore sinners through faith alone in Christ Jesus, and that He has been healing people’s diseases, one after another. And now the leprous man has, incredibly, become convinced that, Jesus has the power to cleanse him of his leprosy. And, just as incredibly, he believes so strongly in Jesus’ compassion and mercy that He is willing to approach Jesus, which was a bold move for a leper, because it was forbidden for an unclean leper to approach a clean person. Not only that, but he is completely humble before Jesus, not demanding, not even asking to be healed, but leaving the matter entirely up to Jesus. Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.

And Jesus was willing. I am willing. Be cleansed! He spoke a word, and the man’s leprosy disappeared. But before healing him, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. That seems like a small thing. But there’s something to it that we should note. Normally, if a person who was ceremonially clean touched a person or a thing that was unclean, the clean person became unclean for a time. The Jews tried very hard to avoid becoming unclean, because it kept them away from the temple and the worship of God. But ceremonial uncleanness was only there in the first place to teach the people of Israel that you have to be sinless and holy in order to approach God, according to the Law, and it was impossible for anyone to remain clean, because it was impossible for them—for any of us—to be sinless, according to the Law. So Jesus, the Holy One, the sinless One, cannot be made unclean. Instead, when Jesus, the sinless One, comes into contact with an unclean person, that person becomes clean in God’s sight! That’s what the Gospel is all about.

We need to remember that, just as the physical uncleanness of leprosy pointed to the spiritual uncleanness of sin, so Jesus’ willingness and ability to cleanse outward uncleanness is really intended to reveal His willingness and ability to make us clean on the inside, through the forgiveness of our sins, through our “contact” with Him, which happens by Baptism and by faith. So learn from this account of the healing of the leper. Learn to approach God through Jesus, to approach Him humbly but boldly, acknowledging your sins and your sinfulness and your need for His healing, and then trusting in Him to make you clean before God. He is willing! And He will do it. And if you’re clean before God through the forgiveness of sins, then you can worship Him rightly. Then you can trust in His promises to help you through all the troubles of this life, because His willingness to help never goes away.

In the second part of our Gospel, we see Jesus’ interaction with the Roman centurion, where we see Jesus perform another healing miracle. But this time, He doesn’t do it by touching the sick man. He does it from afar. Because Jesus’ healing isn’t a matter of proximity. It’s a matter of authority.

The centurion came to Jesus, asking Him to heal his servant, who was suffering terribly. And immediately Jesus, knowing the centurion’s faith, says, “I’ll come and heal him!” Notice how different this is from another time, when a Jewish nobleman came to Jesus and begged Him to come heal his son. On that occasion, Jesus, knowing the nobleman’s weak faith, refused to go, in spite of the nobleman begging Him repeatedly. In that case, Jesus wanted to stretch the nobleman’s faith, so that he would be content with only a word from Jesus, with a healing from afar. And, eventually, the Jewish nobleman got to that point and believed the word Jesus spoke.

But in this case, the Roman centurion’s faith is already right where it needs to be. It doesn’t need any stretching or testing. Jesus offers to go to his house and heal his servant, and this time, it’s the centurion who “refuses.” He says, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Just like the man with leprosy, the centurion shows great humility before Jesus. But unlike the leper, the centurion has many fewer earthly reasons to be humble! The leper was sick and seen by everyone as lowly and despised. But a Roman officer was a man with power, prestige, a man who was used to giving orders and being obeyed. The Romans generally considered themselves far superior to the Jewish people. But not in this case. The centurion doesn’t consider himself worthy to have the Lord Jesus enter his house. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

Then he goes on to explain why he believes this. As a military officer, the centurion understands very well how authority works. The one with greater authority gives commands to those who are under him, and they must obey. They have no choice. Once a commander has given a command to those under him, he doesn’t have to go and do the job himself. He speaks, and what he has spoken is done, because he speaks with authority.

It’s absolutely incredible that a Roman army officer, stationed in the land of Israel, would just matter-of-factly believe that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, had such authority over humanity that He could simply give a command to a sick body, anywhere on earth, to be healed, and have that command obeyed. But he does believe it. And he acts on his faith. Incredible!

Even Jesus thought it was incredible. It says that He “marveled” and said to those who followed, “Truly I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel.” Now, if the Lord Jesus, who has all knowledge at His disposal, marvels at something, then you and I should certainly also marvel at it. How could a centurion have such a solid faith in Jesus? That’s the power of God’s Word. It was God’s Word about Jesus that the centurion had heard and that had broken through all his inborn skepticism and hostility to God to turn the centurion into a marvelous believer in the authority of Jesus, who looked like just an ordinary man, but whom the centurion recognized to be the Commander in Chief of all things.

Note the contrast here between the unquestioning faith of the Roman centurion and most of the Jews whom Jesus encountered during His ministry. The Holy Spirit wants us to see that contrast. He wants us to see that, it’s not necessarily the people you would expect who end up coming to faith in Jesus and clinging to His Word. Often those who should have a strong faith—lifelong Christians, religious leaders, pastors, theologians, those who have no excuse for doubting God or His Word—are the very ones who doubt it the most. While children, or grown-ups with a childlike, simple faith, are the ones who so readily say, “I believe it, because God says so.” That’s the faith that Jesus praises here in the Gospel.

And He informs His Jewish followers, even now, early on in His ministry, that their place in heaven wasn’t secure just because of who their ancestors were or because they belonged to the “right” race. No, He says, 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. A place in heaven, a place in God’s favor, isn’t achieved by being a member of the right race, or by being born into a religion. It’s given as a gift to those who believe in the Lord Jesus.

We see in today’s Gospel, God is working, even now, to create a faith in you like the faith of the leper, like the faith of the centurion, a faith that seeks deliverance from no other but Christ, a faith that demands nothing, and knows that it deserves nothing, but that is bold to seek help from the Lord Jesus, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, and to trust in His power, in His authority, and in His willingness to help, because God the Father has actually given Him all authority in heaven and on earth. And He wants to use that authority, above all, to speak to you the word of cleansing, that is, the word of forgiveness, and eventually, the word that will heal all your ills and raise your body from the dead, and bring you safely and forever into the presence of the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the saints in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

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Salvation by faith in Christ, salvation by faith for all

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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.

Source: Sermons