2 Kings 5:1-15a; Romans 12:16-21; St Matthew 8:1-13
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, there are two marvelous works told in this Gospel: first, the healing of the leper; second, the account of the centurion whose servant Christ restored to health.
While these are certainly miraculous deeds and continue to illustrate the epiphany of our Lord Christ, His revelation as God Incarnate, come for Jew and Gentile alike, the first and foremost thing in this text, which Jesus extols and commends so highly, is the faith of the centurion. A heathen, an outsider, of whom Jesus says that with no one in Israel have I found such faith. He leaves out Annas, Caiaphas, and all the priests, the Pharisees and scribes, and makes this Gentile centurion out to be the epitome and example of faith for all the Jews.
And likewise, dear Christians, for us. For we see from this exchange what is the best and most acceptable service before God, that is, what is the highest form of worship. It is not to come before Him with ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing expecting to buy and barter for a miracle. Nor is it to come before Him because “we just wanna offer our praises and alleluias to Your awesomeness, Papa God; and just really give You thanks.”
The highest form of worship, as seen in this passage, is to come before God empty, contrite and broken, saying, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the Word and I shall be healed. For nothing pleases our Lord God more than to believe and trust in Him from the heart. To be poor in spirit.
The Lord our God does not ask for beautiful temples or splendid, shiny works, but rather the inner devotion of the heart. To receive in faith what He desires to give. In Psalm 50 our Lord sarcastically declares, For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me (Ps 50:10, 12-15).
How have your prayers betrayed your false belief? Do you seek to make a deal with God? “If You do for me, God, I’ll do for You”? Or perhaps worse, “I’ve done all these things, God, where’s Your half of the bargain? Why aren’t You doing for me?”
We do not mean it when we confess, I am not worthy. We think we are worthy. Worthy to have Jesus come under our roof and serve us. Worthy of better treatment, not only from God, but from others. This is why we are angry and resent our Lord and what He has given. We think we are worthy of faster response times, that is why we hardly pray anymore. We say, I a poor, miserable sinner, but how often do we come before God like Namaan, loaded down with giving and doing, so that God will give and do? Why else are we so easily disappointed in God?
Repentance is needed. The only thing we are worthy of is to be left out of God’s kingdom and instead thrown into the outer darkness of hell.
Repent and learn to pray like the leper: Lord, if You will. To pray as the communion hymn, “Lord, I confess my sins And mourn their wretched bands; A contrite heart is sure to find Forgiveness at Your hands” (LSB 628:2).
Repent and be glad, dear Christians, for the One who comes down the mountain today is not the unpredictable Roman god Jupiter, throwing lighting bolts. Or even Moses throwing stone tablets. Its not even justly angry Jesus, fed up with His own people’s unbelief. It is Jesus, “From God the Father, virgin born To us the only Son came down” (LSB 401:1). To do as you prayed in the collect, to “mercifully look upon our infirmities, and stretch forth the hand of His majesty to help and defend us.”
For He has! He who is the Word of the Father, “beginning from His home on high, In human flesh He came to die” (LSB 401:2). He comes down the mountain to us that the true God is a God of mercy and compassion, who comes to serve you. He comes down to to make the unworthy, worthy. To make the unacceptable, acceptable to God.
He stretches forth His hand and touches the leper whom the Law labeled “untouchable.” He touched and healed Him by His Word. He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. He strengthens and keeps you firm in His Word and faith. This is His good and gracious will.
He speaks to the centurion, whom the Law labeled an outsider to God’s promises, a heathen, and makes him an insider, a true child of Israel. He comes down from the mountain not with Ten Words of death, but to do ten miracles (Matthew 8-9) of healing. He came down to cast out demons, cast out disease, deal with the power of sin, thrown death around like its nothing, so that you might not be thrown into the outer darkness.
But first your sin and death must be cast on Him. And He must be cast out of Jerusalem and die on a garbage heap outside the city. He must be forsaken as “unworthy” for your sake.
We are not worth saving. We are not worthy of God coming under our roof and making this place a Capernaum, which means, “House of Consolation.” Yet He does. He comes like a good doctor, who doesn’t just write prescriptions, but gets to the root of the problem in all paralysis, disease, and death itself - sin. And He bears it all in His Body to the Cross and kills it. So that He might triumph over it in the resurrection and give unto His servants to speak His authoritative Word, which is spoken to you and bespeaks you righteous. It is impossible to hear it too often.
Thus do you who have been beaten and battered, broken by your sin, paralyzed by it, as the centurion’s servant. Suffering terribly from a terrified conscience, come before he who is a servant of the Word, saying, “Pastor, please hear my confession and pronounce forgiveness in order to fulfill God’s will” (LSB p292). For he is a man under authority. He has solemnly pledged never to divulge the sins confessed to him and to forgive the sins of repentant sinners in the stead and by the command of Christ. His forgiveness is God’s forgiveness. It is done for you as you believe. This is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with you Himself. “I forgive you all your sins.”
You won’t go to hell for what you’ve done because the Father said, “Go” to His beloved Son. Walk that sorrowful, brutal walk right to the Cross and into the jaws of hell for sinners, until hell’s power is emptied, and the accuser is trampled.
“Come,” the Father said to His beloved Son, “be lifted upon on that Cross I prepared for You, that sinners from east and west might stop trying to save themselves, but instead look at You on the Cross finishing the work of saving the world.” “Do My will,” He said to His Son, “have that Last Passover meal sixth those disciples I’ve given you, and then be the Passover Lamb that is sacrificed so that all unworthy sinners everywhere might have faith in My mercy and sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at My eternal banquet.”
He has consecrated the font by His death, so that through His Word with the water, it is as the Jordan to Namaan: as cleansing bath and washing of renewal. By which you are brought into the kingdom and given to live in harmony with one another; repaying no one evil for evil, but doing what is honorable, living peaceably with all.
For here, the peace of the Lord is with you always. The peace which the world cannot give. Peace which surpasses all understanding and guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who, in a moment, shall come humbly to you under bread and wine. You are not worthy that He should come under the roof of your mouth, but He speaks the Word and you are cleansed. Have faith in these words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
No weeping, or gnashing of teeth, but here, at His Supper, it is done for you as you have believed: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given you through these words. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, there are two marvelous works told in this Gospel: first, the healing of the leper; second, the account of the centurion whose servant Christ restored to health.
While these are certainly miraculous deeds and continue to illustrate the epiphany of our Lord Christ, His revelation as God Incarnate, come for Jew and Gentile alike, the first and foremost thing in this text, which Jesus extols and commends so highly, is the faith of the centurion. A heathen, an outsider, of whom Jesus says that with no one in Israel have I found such faith. He leaves out Annas, Caiaphas, and all the priests, the Pharisees and scribes, and makes this Gentile centurion out to be the epitome and example of faith for all the Jews.
And likewise, dear Christians, for us. For we see from this exchange what is the best and most acceptable service before God, that is, what is the highest form of worship. It is not to come before Him with ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing expecting to buy and barter for a miracle. Nor is it to come before Him because “we just wanna offer our praises and alleluias to Your awesomeness, Papa God; and just really give You thanks.”
The highest form of worship, as seen in this passage, is to come before God empty, contrite and broken, saying, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the Word and I shall be healed. For nothing pleases our Lord God more than to believe and trust in Him from the heart. To be poor in spirit.
The Lord our God does not ask for beautiful temples or splendid, shiny works, but rather the inner devotion of the heart. To receive in faith what He desires to give. In Psalm 50 our Lord sarcastically declares, For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me (Ps 50:10, 12-15).
How have your prayers betrayed your false belief? Do you seek to make a deal with God? “If You do for me, God, I’ll do for You”? Or perhaps worse, “I’ve done all these things, God, where’s Your half of the bargain? Why aren’t You doing for me?”
We do not mean it when we confess, I am not worthy. We think we are worthy. Worthy to have Jesus come under our roof and serve us. Worthy of better treatment, not only from God, but from others. This is why we are angry and resent our Lord and what He has given. We think we are worthy of faster response times, that is why we hardly pray anymore. We say, I a poor, miserable sinner, but how often do we come before God like Namaan, loaded down with giving and doing, so that God will give and do? Why else are we so easily disappointed in God?
Repentance is needed. The only thing we are worthy of is to be left out of God’s kingdom and instead thrown into the outer darkness of hell.
Repent and learn to pray like the leper: Lord, if You will. To pray as the communion hymn, “Lord, I confess my sins And mourn their wretched bands; A contrite heart is sure to find Forgiveness at Your hands” (LSB 628:2).
Repent and be glad, dear Christians, for the One who comes down the mountain today is not the unpredictable Roman god Jupiter, throwing lighting bolts. Or even Moses throwing stone tablets. Its not even justly angry Jesus, fed up with His own people’s unbelief. It is Jesus, “From God the Father, virgin born To us the only Son came down” (LSB 401:1). To do as you prayed in the collect, to “mercifully look upon our infirmities, and stretch forth the hand of His majesty to help and defend us.”
For He has! He who is the Word of the Father, “beginning from His home on high, In human flesh He came to die” (LSB 401:2). He comes down the mountain to us that the true God is a God of mercy and compassion, who comes to serve you. He comes down to to make the unworthy, worthy. To make the unacceptable, acceptable to God.
He stretches forth His hand and touches the leper whom the Law labeled “untouchable.” He touched and healed Him by His Word. He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. He strengthens and keeps you firm in His Word and faith. This is His good and gracious will.
He speaks to the centurion, whom the Law labeled an outsider to God’s promises, a heathen, and makes him an insider, a true child of Israel. He comes down from the mountain not with Ten Words of death, but to do ten miracles (Matthew 8-9) of healing. He came down to cast out demons, cast out disease, deal with the power of sin, thrown death around like its nothing, so that you might not be thrown into the outer darkness.
But first your sin and death must be cast on Him. And He must be cast out of Jerusalem and die on a garbage heap outside the city. He must be forsaken as “unworthy” for your sake.
We are not worth saving. We are not worthy of God coming under our roof and making this place a Capernaum, which means, “House of Consolation.” Yet He does. He comes like a good doctor, who doesn’t just write prescriptions, but gets to the root of the problem in all paralysis, disease, and death itself - sin. And He bears it all in His Body to the Cross and kills it. So that He might triumph over it in the resurrection and give unto His servants to speak His authoritative Word, which is spoken to you and bespeaks you righteous. It is impossible to hear it too often.
Thus do you who have been beaten and battered, broken by your sin, paralyzed by it, as the centurion’s servant. Suffering terribly from a terrified conscience, come before he who is a servant of the Word, saying, “Pastor, please hear my confession and pronounce forgiveness in order to fulfill God’s will” (LSB p292). For he is a man under authority. He has solemnly pledged never to divulge the sins confessed to him and to forgive the sins of repentant sinners in the stead and by the command of Christ. His forgiveness is God’s forgiveness. It is done for you as you believe. This is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with you Himself. “I forgive you all your sins.”
You won’t go to hell for what you’ve done because the Father said, “Go” to His beloved Son. Walk that sorrowful, brutal walk right to the Cross and into the jaws of hell for sinners, until hell’s power is emptied, and the accuser is trampled.
“Come,” the Father said to His beloved Son, “be lifted upon on that Cross I prepared for You, that sinners from east and west might stop trying to save themselves, but instead look at You on the Cross finishing the work of saving the world.” “Do My will,” He said to His Son, “have that Last Passover meal sixth those disciples I’ve given you, and then be the Passover Lamb that is sacrificed so that all unworthy sinners everywhere might have faith in My mercy and sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at My eternal banquet.”
He has consecrated the font by His death, so that through His Word with the water, it is as the Jordan to Namaan: as cleansing bath and washing of renewal. By which you are brought into the kingdom and given to live in harmony with one another; repaying no one evil for evil, but doing what is honorable, living peaceably with all.
For here, the peace of the Lord is with you always. The peace which the world cannot give. Peace which surpasses all understanding and guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who, in a moment, shall come humbly to you under bread and wine. You are not worthy that He should come under the roof of your mouth, but He speaks the Word and you are cleansed. Have faith in these words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
No weeping, or gnashing of teeth, but here, at His Supper, it is done for you as you have believed: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given you through these words. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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