Epiphany
3 – January 21st and 22nd, 2017 – Matthew
8:1-13
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
So,
who do you fear, and who do you hate? Yes, yes, I know, we aren't
suppose to fear or hate anyone, labeling people is bad, prejudice is
bad, yaddy yaddy ya. So, who do you fear, and who do you hate? Who
are the people that you can think about and get a bit worried, a bit
nervous? Who are the people you look at and have nothing but disdain
for them, don't want to end up like them at all? We all have them –
and don't try blowing smoke up my alb about how you don't; I deal
with sin for a living. We shouldn't, but we do. Well, if you were a
Jew living in Jesus' day, there'd be a fairly standard list.
Samaritans, Romans, Tax Collectors, other Roman sympathizers, and
Lepers (oh, they'd give you the willies). Well, we get to check off
two off of that list in today's Gospel lesson. As we go through this
text, I want you to appreciate just the utter disdain and fear and
the crowd following Jesus would have felt at this leper and this
Centurion – have that in the back of your mind as we look at Christ
Jesus and see what sort of God He reveals Himself to be.
“When
He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And
behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him, saying, 'Lord, if
You will, You can make me clean.'”
Now, this is immediately following the sermon on the Mount – this
is a big crowd following Jesus... and then, someone elbows his way
through. A Leper. Now, understand what the crowd would see. A
Leper was to be banished, sent away from society, away from people,
because leprosy was contagious. One leper could infect dozens,
hundred, an entire town if he stayed in their midst. And what just
happened – a leper came pushing through the crowd up to Jesus. Is
he trying to kill us all? This is not a nice polite Leper – this
one isn't like the ten lepers who cry out to Jesus from a distance.
Do you get what the crowd would see? It would be like someone with
Hepatitis with bleeding, open sores running around and flinging blood
everywhere – it would be like the toddler coughing gunk right into
you face (not that I know anything about that). There'd be horror
and revulsion and fear.
That's
not what Jesus sees though. Jesus hears this fellow, and this
leper's words are great. He doesn't ask Jesus to heal him, he
doesn't beg. The leper simply says, “If You
will, You can make me clean.”
If You want to Jesus, You are totally able to heal me. You don't
have to, You don't owe it to me, I'm not even going to beg – I'm
just going to put the ball in Your. If you want to heal me, Jesus,
You'll heal me. If you want to send me away and use me as an object
lesson, an object of disgust and disdain, a warning to others – so
be it. But You are the Messiah, and if You will it, if You want to,
You can heal me. Do you hear the great confession of faith there?
And then Jesus does the unthinkable. And Jesus
stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.”
Jesus touches the guy! If you feared leprosy the way they did in
the first century, your skin would be crawling up your back right now
– but Jesus touches Him, and says, Yes, I do will this, I do want
you to be clean. And Jesus speaks the word, and the guy is clean.
How's that for a healing – Jesus just going boldly touching the
worst, the most fearful, and then it's gone, then it's clean, then
it's healed. It is astonishing.
Of course, then Jesus tells the guy not to go brag
about what Jesus has done – Jesus likes to preach and teach about
spiritual things, and if everyone and their brother wants healing He
won't be able to do that. Just be quiet, go show yourself to the
priests, offer up the lawful sacrifice and then get back to your
life. I have willed that you be healed – not so that I get a new
flattery crowd, but I have healed you for your benefit so that you
can go back to your own life, to your own family and friends and
enjoy them. God gave these gifts to you; you're healed now – go
enjoy God's gifts again.
So
– fair enough – preached the Sermon on the Mount, healed a leper,
that's a full day's work for anybody, so Jesus heads on back to
Capernaum where He was staying, and we hear this. “When
He entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to
Him, 'Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering
terribly.'”
So, what would the crowd see? Ugh, a Centurion. A commander of a
troop of 80 Roman soldiers. The major Roman thug and enforcer for
Capernaum. This is Roman villain number 1 for the town. Moreover,
his “servant” is ill. The word there is the word for a child
slave. Probably bought off of the auction block – poor thing, it'd
be better to be dead than to be a “servant” to a Roman dog.
Fear, revulsion, oppression. These are all the things that would
come swirling up in the crowd.
That's
not what Jesus sees though. This Centurion has come up, and once
again, there's no request – just a statement. Here's the
situation, Jesus – I'm not going to tell You how You should handle
it, I'll just put the ball in Your court. So Jesus says, “I
will come and heal him.”
What does Jesus see – someone who needs healing. So He's going to
do some healing – but then the Centurion jumps back in. But
the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come
under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I
say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes,
and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.”
Oh, this Centurion! There is a reason why Jesus marvels at him!
First of all – there is humility there, he is not worthy to have
Jesus enter his house. But more than that – there is concern for
Jesus. Good, pious Jews don't enter a gentile's house – remember,
on Good Friday Pilate has to come out to talk to the Chief Priests
because they wouldn't defile themselves by entering Pilate's house.
No, Jesus – don't come into my house, You'll just tick off all
these folks in the crowd. And then the great part – besides, You
don't need to come. I know how authority, I know how power works. I
speak to my servants, and they hop to it. Well, You are the Lord –
simply speak the Word, and there will be healing. The Centurion gets
it! And Jesus gushes, “Truly, I tell you, with
no one in Israel have I found such a faith!”
And then with joy, Jesus demonstrates His authority. You speak to
your servants and they act, do they Centurion? Well, listen then to
Me, and I will use My authority! And to the
Centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have
believed.”
Oh, folks, this is beautiful. Jesus tells the Centurion to head
back, and then he says, “let it be.” Now, can you think of other
times when God says “Let it be” or as we often put it in English,
“Let there be”? It's creation – in fact, the word “let it be
done” in Greek is Genetheto – Genesis-ized. This is Christ
Jesus, the Word of God by whom all things were made speaking a Word
of creation, and there is healing. This is awesome.
So, what do we make of this text? It's frustrating for
me as a Pastor, because so often people will simply turn this into a
social justice text – see all the people you hate and oppress –
you shouldn't hate and oppress them. Stop that. But then, all too
often the preacher will give you a new villain that you really ought
to fight. Liberals and Conservatives both do it, just with different
new villains to focus on – defend the poor from the 1 percent,
defend the workers from the illegal immigrants, defend the women from
the patriarchy, defend your family from liberal social policy –
blah blah blah. This text becomes a political bait and switch –
don't hate this person – hate the people I want you to hate. Not
the point.
Consider
whom Jesus deals with here. A Leper and a Centurion. The feared and
the hated. The disgusting and the reviled. The scum of the land and
the oppressor of the nation. And yet, immediately, without
hesitation, without worrying what people might think – Jesus shows
love to them. Now, of course, this is to be instructional to us –
yes, you are to show love to your neighbor, even if you don't like
them. Even if you fear them. Even if they are nasty and mean and
tools of oppression. Love your neighbor. But it's more than just
what you should
do. This text is an epiphany text, it reveals to us who Jesus Christ
is. You want to know what sort of God this Jesus of Nazareth is?
The people that you hate, that you despise, that you fear, even
though you know you shouldn't – those very same people Jesus loves
and cares for. Those are the people for whom Jesus dies and rises to
win forgiveness and salvation. Those are the people to whom Christ
would have His Gospel preached.
This
is an awesome and wondrous thing – it is heavy, it is a lot to
contemplate. But this isn't just a Gospel text about prejudice and
how you need to fight against that. Yeah, you hate and fear other
people – that happens. But my friends, there is a wonder in this
text, because there are times, there will be days when the person
that you hate is you yourself. There will be days when the person
you fear is you yourself. There will be days when the guilt will
come, and you will see yourself with disgust and disdain and you will
be utterly sick of yourself. There will be days when you hate what
has happened in your life, what you've become, what you've lost. And
Satan will cackle was those walls come crashing in around you, and
you will see yourself and you will see nothing but shame. But that's
not what Jesus sees, though. What sort of God do you have? A God
who knows that He can make you clean, and He wills it to be so, and
He in fact, he has taken water and His Word and said, “I baptize
you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Even on your worst day, that Word of Christ says – I will, be
clean, you are baptized. What sort of God do you have? He will come
and heal you – when faced with sin and death, He will come to you
with His own Body and Blood and say take, eat, given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of all your sin. What sort of God do you have?
One that will tell you “Go, for you will live. Even if you die, so
what? I am risen, and so you too will rise, and all this dross that
messes with you will be gone. Go – let it be.”
This is our God, Christ Jesus our Lord, Christ the
Crucified who takes away the sins of the world, even the sins of the
bad people... even our sins. And you belong to Him, and you are
forgiven by Him, and even when the world looks at you with disdain –
even when you yourself look at yourself with disdain – His
steadfast love and mercy for you endures forever. His light will
always shine upon you, even unto life everlasting. In the Name of
Christ Jesus, the Light of the world +
No comments:
Post a Comment