Sermon #1,243: St. Matthew 8:1-13 (Historic Gospel) 1-22-17, Epiphany 3, Bethany-Princeton MN (Hymns: #170.1.4.5, 491, 191; comm. 167.1-4, 194) THE MIRACLE OF FAITH The Text, St. Matthew 8:1-13 (v. 3). Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed. Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen. Dear gracious Triune God: You promise that the Holy Spirit creates faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel. Bring us to understand this, so we never think we can live without hearing Your Word, but rather be brought where God s Word is preached purely and truly, and listen attentively and seriously, and meditate on it. No matter how hard preachers work at planting and watering effectively, or how hard the hearers of the Word work at coming and hearing the Word, it would all be in vain, no conversion would happen, without the power of the Holy Spirit. So we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, give what no person can accept by His own powers, that we and all who do not yet believe in Christ will by grace be seated with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast of salvation. Let neither preacher nor hearer doubt this grace and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. Amen! (adapted: Augsburg Confession V, Formula of Concord SD II:55-56) Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, the Savior of the nations: Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! This Bible story is about the miracle of faith. This is the epiphany that we are seeing today: the miracle of faith, in which people who are considered to be far off, living in outer darkness, in spiritual blindness and death, are brought inside Christ s kingdom by the gift of faith, the miracle of faith, they are saved. Today we are being shown the mission to the Gentiles, how this early in His ministry Jesus pictures a long stream of people from east and west, sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. This is an Epiphany them: missions. The gift of faith is a miracle. To show us this we meet two people of whom the Israelites thought it was impossible for them to be included in God s family, brought in from the outer darkness. 1
First we should get the context. The Jewish people at the time of Christ were a restless, unhappy people. Once they had been a glorious kingdom in the days of David and Solomon. But now someone else ruled them. Their land belonged to Rome. The sinful Gentiles, as every Israelite was brought up to think of them, had hemmed them in, put intolerable limits on them, and in may ways this constantly would remind them that they might have a Sovereign LORD but they were not a sovereign nation. But the Jews thought they had one consolation: that they were sons of the kingdom a truly glorious kingdom, more glorious than Rome, in which the Messiah King one day would feast with them in the kingdom of heaven [with] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And one thing they knew: no Gentiles would ever be there, they would be kept on the outside, in outer darkness. So much for them. So now consider, in our Bible story, such a person who was far off, outside, in this way: the centurion. He was a Gentile. However, this man was on good terms with the Jews of Capernaum. St. Luke tells us he provided funds for building their synagogue. He took time to know their law, specifically that it would be against Jewish law for Jesus to come into his house. We know from Luke s version that the Jewish city elders liked this man. They came to Jesus urging Him to do something for him. But it s still a little patronizing. They would think something along these lines: Poor guy, he ll never be one of the sons of the kingdom. We won t be happy that he s cast out into outer darkness, he s a good guy, but what can we do? He s a sinful Gentile. At least maybe Jesus can do something nice for him. That s as far as their concern will go. He s still an outsider, to them. There s more to this picture of being on the outside. One of the saddest pictures of an outsider from the Old Testament time was the predicament of people afflicted with the disease of leprosy. It started undetected on the inside, showed up first with white spots on the skin and turned to abnormally white shiny skin, and finally ate away the skin all over the body. The Law in the Old Testament declared such people unclean. They couldn t worship in the sanctuary or participate in the life of the community, thus afflicting them further with severe loneliness. God did provide a way for them to be pronounced clean again, come back into His presence and again share in life with their people. But buy the time of Christ, the Jews specifically the teaching of the rabbis of the time 2
had added a great deal of humiliation to the picture. They made it illegal to greet a leper. They made it a rule to keep a certain distance from lepers. They even encouraged throwing stones at them to keep them away! These two men represent such absolute misery! Being on the outside, lonely, yearning for friendship. But the point of this is to show us what it is like to be eternally on the outside. Nothing sadder than that! So in line with this it is necessary just for a moment to picture yourself, left outside the kingdom of heaven, hearing the sound of rejoicing on the other side, eternally separated from Jesus, the angels, and all the saints including those you love most and best in this life. Picture your husband or wife left on the outside. Picture your children left on the outside, your friends and family, the people you work with and are used to seeing every day, the person next to you. One day they will not be there, which is sad enough. But the question is whether you will be reunited in eternity. This earthly picture of being on the outside which was real in its time will yield to the picture of being on the outside in the life to come. Now this is a sad picture, I know. It is alarming. But too many times we are just not that concerned. Before skipping to the happy part of this story, the miracle of faith, instead of just saying faith is a gift from God and isn t that great, we have to see the very real possibility that by what we do with our lives we can throw it away and lose it, and with it lose everything. If we picture our children left out and eternally separated, maybe we ll care a little more about their faith, protecting it by bringing them to church and supporting it at home, and the example we set for them. We need this sad picture. It shows how important faith is. So now perhaps we are ready for the encouraging message Jesus has for us in Matthew 8. It is significant what Jesus does about all this. See how He takes away the separateness, the loneliness, the sadness and misery and instead creates joy. He does this for the leper and for the centurion. Taken together, this is a clear message about the miracle of faith, the gift of faith. It is also a promise that He does this and will do this for you. Christ does not like the parting that death brings either. He did something about it. It s why He came down from heaven. He is the only one who can make it so that you are not left out, nor your loved ones, so that the partings we experience are only temporary and we will be together 3
forever in the life to come. He redeemed us from death. He comes to give you eternal life. He sends His Spirit to do the miracle of faith for you, and for your spouse, your children and all your dear ones, so that you will be together in heaven forever. And more: to keep you in this faith. First Jesus responds to the leper saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. They must have been shocked to see Jesus not back-pedaling away from the leper to keep from being touched, but instead He put out His hand and touched him. We hear, immediately his leprosy was cleansed. No longer an outsider. Even before Jesus healed him he was no longer an outsider; for Jesus said: I am willing; be cleansed. This is so great. It says such great things to you about your fears concerning your faith and salvation, and that of others. With these words, I am willing, Christ opens up God s heart for you to see that His desire is for all people for you -- -to receive it. How do you receive it? By faith. By His touch, Christ shows that He is going to do something, He is going to come close to you, and enter into your world, into your suffering, into your loneliness, into your sadness, but especially into your inability to save yourself or come to faith or keep your faith, and He is going to do it. This touch of Jesus corresponds to God giving you faith. If you are afraid you might lose your faith or that a loved one, even your spouse or child will, then return to these words of Jesus I am willing, that He wills and wants your salvation! you leave all the burden of it with Him. What He wants to do, He will do! The other thing is what He does for the centurion. Jesus intentionally says to him, I will come and heal the servant, because He knows the man will tell Jesus not to come into the house. Jesus is prompting this man to say, Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. Jesus is showing everyone that it s not at all like they think; this man is not on the outside, but by faith he is already on the inside of Christ s kingdom. Jesus says to him, You have believed, not just in that instant but for some time now. How? He believed what he had heard about Jesus. This is the Bible s classic definition of faith: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Ro 10:17). Where does faith come from, the faith that heals us from our sins? From the Word. Only speak a word. 4
Put these things together: that God wants you to believe and be saved, and that He creates faith through His Word. But now there is one final part. Jesus says, Many will come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. This is a promise. We emphasize that many shall come, because this Gentile centurion is a sign that Jesus is the Savior of people from all nations. But put the emphasis on another word. Notice that He says many shall come. This is the comfort we bruised sinners need today. We resist Him. How hard it must be to save us! But Jesus makes a promise that we will make it in the end. We will come and be seated by Him at the feast of salvation, because our gracious God will bring us there. He will keep us in the faith by means of His Word. This is not because I m such a great preacher or you re such a great listener. It s because our God is personally present in His Word to do this miracle. I think the key thing here is Jesus touching the leper. He touches you. He shares your flesh. In the person of Christ, who shares your nature, He shares your emotions, He shares your experiences, so He has everything you need, He meets you where you are, He touches your heart, He makes a connection with you whatever you are feeling, whatever you are thinking, where you are hurt and even where you are numb to Him. He does this in His Word. He is connected to you, He keeps the connection that He first made with you in baptism, by means of His Word. He will not let you or your loved one be separate from Him or from each other. He will not let anything separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But He will bring you in and keep you in and bring you home. Amen! 5