Trinity
14 – September 1st and 2nd, 2018 – Luke
17:11-19
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
This
lesson should be quite familiar to you, since you hear it twice a
year. You hear it right around the Labor Day (give or take a few
weeks), and then you hear it again at Thanksgiving. It is the story
of the 10 lepers. Isn’t that how we normally think of it – 10
are healed, but only 1 is thankful. And yes, on Thanksgiving Day
that will probably be the angle we look at this text from. However,
really, this text isn’t primarily about the lepers, and it isn’t
first and foremost about thankfulness or our lack thereof – it’s
about Jesus – who Jesus is, what He does. So, let’s look at this
text and watch with care our Lord and see what we learn about Him
here today.
On
the way to Jerusalem He was passing along between Samaria and
Galilee. This
is actually important – when Luke in his Gospel says that Jesus is
on the way to Jerusalem, this means Jesus is getting ready for Palm
Sunday and Holy Week, that our Lord’s passion is coming closer and
closer. This happens but days before Palm Sunday – and so Christ’s
focus would be on winning us salvation – He’s on that task, on
target and focused – He is on His way to Jerusalem. “And
as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a
distance and lifted up their voices saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us.’” So, Jesus is focused
on salvation. He’s journeying, He’s probably tired and worn out
from the road – He’s just entering a village to get some rest –
and what happens? Lepers show up – lepers. Dirty, filthy,
unclean, nasty looking lepers. And they cry out for mercy. Have
mercy on us.
Now,
consider for a moment your own life. It is the end of a long day,
and you have things to do tomorrow, you have big, important things on
your mind – and then, just as you are ready to rest, someone comes
up and wants something. What is your reaction? How quick and ready
to love the neighbor in that situation are you? The old sinful flesh
likes to rise up then and there, doesn’t it, to grumble and
complain? But, what does Christ do? These people are calling out to
Him when He most certainly is tired and has other things on His mind.
Does He brush them off? Does He say come back tomorrow? No – He
cares for them.
Now,
we learn from this. Of course, we learn that Christ’s attitude is
to be our attitude as well. We learn what we ought to do – and in
reality, we see how often we fail. Whenever we compare ourselves to
Jesus we are simply going to see how we don’t measure up. If
anything, when we compare ourselves to Christ we realize we look more
like those scrubby lepers, disgusting and wretched. So, consider
this. Have you felt worn and weary? Have you looked at your life
and been disgusted by what you see? Do you know that you are unclean
– an utter mess? You are – if you aren’t sure if you are,
compare yourself to Jesus. Are you as holy and good and righteous as
He is? Then you’re a mess – and don’t try denying it, ain’t
none of us here going to buy it. Each of those 10 lepers knew every
other one was a leper, and every one of us knows we all are sinners
right along with all the other sinners. And we know that we need
Christ, that we need His healing, His forgiveness, His mercy.
But
here is where Satan can creep in. Do you ever feel as though –
well, you know, you really shouldn’t bother Jesus with that. Well,
ought you really pray about this AGAIN, I mean, come on, Jesus has to
have other things on His mind? Are you going to bring yet another
problem and burden to God – sheesh! We can be so ashamed of our
problems, of our sin, that Satan tries to isolate us, tries to
separate us from God. The Devil is a liar and a murderer, and when
he stirs up these thoughts, he is lying to you so he can try to
murder you. In our text, does Jesus ever hesitate in helping these
lepers? Does our Lord cop an attitude? Does He throw up His arms,
make a big sigh, come on people I was just getting ready to have
dinner and wash my feet, why are you bugging me now? No. Simple as
that. There’s no bad reaction from Christ – He’s not bothered
or annoyed by this in the slightest – having mercy is what He came
to do, so He delights in getting to deal with these lepers. Learn
this, know this – Christ delights in dealing with you. Christ
Jesus delights in having you pray to Him and bring your burdens to
Him. Christ Jesus delights in having His Word proclaimed to you,
enjoys having you receive His Body and Blood in His Supper for your
forgiveness, for the strengthening of your weary faith, for your
healing. That’s why He had the Apostles and prophets write down
the Scriptures, why He has sent you a called and ordained Pastor, and
has had one here for over 100 years. This is what He delights in.
And as
our Lord delights in mercy, He heals these lepers. “When
He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the
priests.’” When you were a leper,
you were banished from the community until your disease cleared up –
and when it cleared up, you could present yourself to the priests,
who would then declare you fit for returning to the community. So
when Jesus says, “Go show yourselves to the priests”, He is
making them a promise that they will be healed. And so, they go.
And the wondrous thing is, they aren’t healed yet when they start
walking, but they start heading to the priests anyway, and then what
happens? “And as they went, they were
cleansed.” Simple as that. As they
are going, they get healed. No big production – simply Jesus says
it, promises it, and it happens.
Now,
consider how our Lord deals with you. He has promised you
forgiveness. He has washed you in Holy Baptism, so you are clean.
He has spoken life and salvation unto you in His Word, He has given
you His Body and Blood as the promise and token that you will rise
again on the last day and have eternal life. Now, note two things.
First – none of this is showy. God works through simple means.
When He healed the Lepers there was no song and dance – when He
heals you, it’s not that spectacular to look at. In baptism, you
are joined to Christ, adopted by the Father to be His own redeemed
child, made an heir of heaven and eternal life – and what do we
see? Eh, a splash of water. In the Supper, Christ Jesus gives you
His own Body and Blood, joins you together with all the saints of all
ages, we participate for a moment in the joys of heaven and are
prepared for eternal life – and what do we see? Eh, a small wafer,
a sip of wine. In preaching, in absolution, I as your pastor get to
declare to you that you sin is forgiven, that Satan’s power and
hold over you is completely broken because of Christ’s death and
resurrection, that you are now holy and blameless in God’s sight on
account of Christ, that you will rise to life everlasting – and
what do we see? Eh, a short half-bald guy with a lisp. Jesus
doesn’t make a big production of things. Why? Because that way
they are repeatable. Is there someone new to the faith, does a
baptism need to be done – we don’t need some weird, precious
substance – look, here is water, what hinders us from baptism now?
Nothing. Simple. Or do we need to be refreshed by Christ, forgiven
and prepared for life now and for all eternity, could we use His
supper? Eh, look here, Pastor’s got some bread and wine – let’s
have the Supper. I even have a portable kit for it. Or even with a
pastor preaching – God keeps raising up new ones – so that if
something happens to me, God will send you someone else – simple
things. God gives His mercy to you in simple things. He doesn’t
make stupid demands of you – He didn’t tell the lepers to do 100
pushups first, or to go travel 1000s of miles – simply go, and I
will heal you. Likewise, in your life, simply come, hear His Word,
receive His Supper, and you have God’s forgiveness in full.
Which
leads to the second thing. When those lepers started walking, they
looked down at themselves, and they saw their scabs, their sores,
their illness. Yet their Lord Christ Jesus had told them to walk,
and so they walked to go see the priest, and on the way they were
healed. Likewise, dear Christians, when you look at your life now,
when you see the problems and temptations that you face – they seem
to stick around. You know, I expect that the burdens and trials you
faced yesterday are still going to be there tomorrow. If you are
struggling against a temptation now, probably you will still be
struggling with it tomorrow. This healing of Christ’s, the
forgiveness we receive – we don’t always see it right away. We
don’t always see the life we have in Christ – and Satan wants to
have us see our sin and say, “Eh, guess it didn’t take for you –
give up, despair, curse God and die.” In contrast to Satan, I say
to you – when service is done, head on out those doors and live
your life – but live your life remembering the promises of God to
you. Christ Jesus has given you His promise of life and salvation,
and you shall have it. You have forgiveness now, and you will grow,
you will see that life creep out in part now, but you will have it in
full for all eternity. Now, you’re in your sinful flesh, and one
burden, one temptation gets licked, well, another one pops up.
That’s the burden of life in this sinful world – the problems of
a decade ago, well, they might be gone, eh, then you'll have new
ones. Or even if these old burdens linger on – yes it’s horrid,
it’s difficult, it’s annoying. And we are called to struggle
against these desires of the flesh, but Christ’s promise to you
still stands. You are forgiven. You have life in Him. He works in
you now, and He will on the last day call you forth to new life, and
then you will see yourself healed, fully clean, fully redeemed and
ready and prepared to spend eternity with Him and the family of God,
an eternity where your praises will not be lacking, where you will be
joined with all the saints of all ages in rejoicing before God and
delighting in whatever it is that you’ll be doing in the new
heavens and new earth, putting your restored and sanctified talents
to good work there.
Christ
Jesus is good. He is never too busy for you, for He is eager to
save, eager to forgive. His promise of life and salvation is yours,
and He wants you to know this always, to remember it always, to
receive it often so that you might be always confident in Him. Satan
will do his damnedest to make you forget this, but the love of Christ
for you is more powerful than Satan, and His promises hold true now
and forever more. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit+
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