Trinity 14 - Sermon Text

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Your faith has made you well.” 

Dear friends in Christ.  Today’s Gospel is first and foremost a Gospel about faith, after all, Jesus tells the Samaritan leper “your faith has saved you.” (seswken) Yes, the word there doesn’t only mean “Made you well,” it also means the leper is saved by his faith. 

Before we get into the meat of the Gospel lesson, we need to understand what “faith” is.  Faith is described for the Christian in the first commandment – you should fear, love and trust in God above all things.  Faith is having complete trust or confidence in something.  And Faith always has an object, meaning a person always has faith in something.  A Husker football fan has faith, that when they buy tickets to a Husker game, there will be a husker game.  A man runs a marathon with the faith that he will finish it.  We put money in the bank with the faith that someday we will be able to take our money back out of the bank.  We marry a spouse with the faith that they will be with us until death do they part.  Faith always has an object, something it trusts in, and faith is complete trust in that thing.  And that is the main point of our Gospel today. 

In our Gospel lesson, we see 10 men with leprosy.  As a result of their disease, they had painful sores all over their bodies, so that they no longer had faith in their bodies, which slowly were being consumed by disease.  They had no faith in their families or villages, for leprosy required them to live apart, and even to shout out, “Unclean, unclean” when the approached someone.  They had no faith in money, for no one would hire them to earn a wage, and even if they were hired, they couldn’t accomplish much work on account of their disease. 

But they’d heard about Jesus.  We aren’t sure how, but they had heard that this wandering preacher had healed people.  In Luke chapter 6, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand.  In chapter 5 he healed a paralytic.  In Luke 7, Jesus raised a widow’s son from the dead.  In chapter 8, Jesus cast out a demon, healed a woman from a flow of blood, and raised Jairus’s daughter.  And in chapter 5 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus had even healed a leper!  A Leper!  Such amazing miracles!  And maybe, just maybe, Jesus could do the same for these lepers.  Maybe he could heal them as well.  So, they went to find him, and standing from a far, their faith made a request of Jesus, “Jesus, master, Have mercy on us!” 

They had faith that Jesus would heal them of their leprosy.  They had faith that he could make them well, just as he had all the others.  But that’s as far as their faith goes, they call Jesus master, after all, but not “Lord” or “God”.  Their faith goes far enough to believe Jesus was a good doctor, or a worker of healing miracles, but no further.  So, their faith requests mercy from Jesus. 

And what’s Jesus’ response?  He sends them to the priests.  It may sound like a minor thing, but in fact, Jesus was sending them back to the scriptures.  Moses, in the book of Leviticus, spends 2 whole chapters (13-14) of Leviticus explaining what those with Leprosy are supposed to do to deal with their disease according to God’s Word, and chief among those things is to show themselves to the priests, who are to examine their illness and determine if they are well.  Those words of Jesus, “Show yourselves to the priests” summarizes the basics of those two whole chapters.  In fact, earlier, in chapter 5, Jesus essentially said the same thing to the other leper he cleansed.  So, when Lepers come to Jesus, he sends them back to the scriptures, to God’s Word. 

The Lepers thus begin their trip down to Jerusalem – the same place Jesus was travelling.  And on the way there, they were cleansed of leprosy!  The sores vanished.  The pus dried up.  The feeling returned to their fingers.  They were returned to health!  Their faith that Jesus could heal them was found to be true!  The leprosy was gone.  They are well. 

And it is at this time, that the difference of faith is shown between the 10 lepers.  For you see, 9 of them only see Jesus as a miracle worker who has healed them.  9 saw Jesus only as “master over disease”, and so they continue down to Jerusalem, to make the sacrifices necessary, to be declared clean by the priests, to continue to their original homes and families.  But one, one of the 10, his faith is different.  He’s seen Jesus, he’s heard his word, he’s been referred to the scriptures, and he has a different faith in Jesus.  A faith that believes he is the messiah spoken of by Moses, that he is the savior of the world.  A faith that sees Jesus not just as master of disease but as Lord God.  He has a faith that believes, “If Jesus can heal this worldly disease, he can surely also grant me forgiveness of sins and eternal life.” 

And its important that you notice what his faith does – it drives him back to Jesus to worship.  It drives him back to Jesus to give thanks.  True Christian faith always points back to Jesus.  Saving Christian faith returns people to worship. 

So, this last one returns to Jesus, giving thanks to God.  Who is God?  Jesus is God.  This one Samaritan leper falls upon his face at the feet of Jesus?  Why?  Because that is a sign of worship, something reserved only for God.  This Samaritan Leper believes that Jesus is the almighty God in human flesh, who has come to save the world from sin, death and the devil.  And its this faith that has saved him. 

Dear friends, what is your faith in?  What do you believe about Jesus?  How do you describe your faith in him?  What’s your confession of faith?  So many in our world today have an incomplete faith in Jesus.  “Jesus wants you to have your best life now” is how Joel Osteen describes his faith in Jesus. What does that say about eternity and forgiveness of sins?  Or some TV preaches declare Jesus wants to heal your illness, so long as you send them $20 in the mail, but don’t speak about how he is God, or how gives eternal life.  Or so many so-called Christians today believe that Jesus wants there to be social justice in this world – no hungry, no repressed minority groups, and no inequity!  But while they talk about all that, they forget that Jesus is the almighty God who forgives sin, they mention nothing about forgiveness of sin.  Jesus is just their master of a given cause, not their God and Lord.

But not you.  You know who Jesus is.  He’s your saving God.  He’s the one who loves you so much that suffering death upon a cross was not too steep a price to pay to forgive you your sins and to grant you eternal life.  He’s the one who has washed away your sins in the waters of Holy Baptism, taking away the leprosy of sin and instead clothing you with the robe of Christ’s righteousness.  He’s the one who feeds you with his very own body – crucified and alive forever, and his own blood – which flowed from his pierced side, all of it, for the forgiveness of sins.  He’s the one who creates true faith in you by the power of his Holy Word.  For where his Holy Word is preached and taught in its truth and purity. 

And that faith drives you back to Jesus again and again.  That faith brings you here to this church, to hear the word, to receive the supper, to remember your baptism with absolution.  Your faith drives you to Jesus. 

You see, faith always has an object, and the object of our faith is Jesus, crucified and risen to take away the sin of the world.  Jesus is your God.  He does the Father’s will by going to the cross, and he does this for you.  He sends the Holy Spirit.  He cares for us in this world, and he promises to give us eternal life, and to forgive all our sins.  You are a Christian, and the object of your faith is Jesus Christ the Lord God, who forgives you all sin and grants you eternal life.  And faith, faith in Jesus alone, this faith now saves you. 

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.