Proverbs 4:10-23/Galatians 5:16-24/St Luke 17:11-19
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When words lose their meaning lies are accepted as truth. The word love is a perfect example. Years ago, when the apostles of the new morality promoted their doctrine of free love they used the word ‘love’ when they really meant selfish desire. They didn’t want to call a spade a spade. Before you knew it, the word love changed meaning. It became commonplace to use the word love to refer to selfish sexual desire. When sexual sins are sanctified, the works of the flesh destroy whatever is pure, holy, noble, and good. Consider the breakdown of the American family and you will see the result of the word love losing its true meaning.
Nowadays we are faced with the redefinition of another word: the word faith. According to Scripture, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith is formed and informed by the Word of God. What God says, faith grasps. Therefore, faith is dependent upon God’s Word and cannot exist apart from it.
Today faith is defined differently. Each person forms his own faith according to his own fancy and every person who has any kind of faith at all in any kind of god at all is a person of faith whose faith is as valid as anyone else’s faith. According to this view of faith, there is no such thing as idolatry. Each person fashions his own god. In this way the First Commandment is abolished, all religions are put on the same plane, and divine truth becomes whatever anybody feels or thinks.
Thanks be to God for the Holy Scriptures where we learn what true faith is! We learn three things about true faith in today’s account of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We learn that true faith is faith in Jesus. We learn that true faith is expressed in thanksgiving. We learn that true faith saves.
Truth faith is faith in Jesus. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem for the last time. He was traveling to His death. He took a roundabout way from Capernaum to Jerusalem. It took Him through an area inhabited both by Jews and Samaritans. Ten lepers, nine Jews and one Samaritan, cried out to Jesus for mercy. Normally, Jews and Samaritans wouldn’t associate with each other, but misery loves company and leprosy was a miserable condition.
It wasn’t just the pain of the disease. That was bad enough. Lepers suffer from a disease of the skin that is a source of constant pain. It disfigures and can be fatal. But to compound the suffering of the disease was the bitter fact that lepers had no right to associate with healthy people and were banned from participating in the religious life of the community. That’s why they had to stand far off from Jesus and raise their voices. They couldn’t approach. They were unclean.
They called Jesus their Master and they cried out to Him for mercy. To cry out to Jesus for mercy is where faith begins. True faith is faith in Jesus and true faith cries out for mercy. Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.
Faith doesn’t celebrate itself. It doesn’t congratulate itself. It doesn’t advertise itself. It doesn’t say, “I am a person of faith and as such I have integrity that you are bound to respect so you should admire me on account of my faith.” Just the opposite – true faith is faith in Jesus. It pleads for God’s mercy that is revealed in His Son - and its confidence is in Him.
The lepers cried to Jesus for mercy. Jesus and mercy go together. True faith receives both Jesus and mercy. All ten lepers were cleansed. Their leprosy was taken away. Jesus did it. Jesus didn’t send them to the priests so that the priests would heal them. The priests couldn’t cure anyone of leprosy. Their duty was to confirm that a leper had been cured and that the leprosy was gone. Afterward, the priest would go through the required ritual by which the cleansed leper could be reinstated back to the fellowship of the Church. This would entail the shedding of blood. As you know without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. All of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament prefigured the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross.
Consider what is happening here. Jesus is heading to the Cross where He will fulfill God’s promises to His people. On His way to suffer for the sin of the world He meets ten lepers and heals them of their leprosy. They begged him for mercy and he gave it. Going to show themselves to the priests – as the Law of Moses required of them – they saw that they were cleansed. They had their lives back. They had their health, their associations, their old life, the fellowship they previously enjoyed; they had it all and they didn’t get it from Moses, they got it from Jesus. They didn’t get it from the Law. They got it from the Gospel. They didn’t get it by their works. They got it by God’s grace. They got it from Jesus.
But only one of them returned to Jesus to thank Him. True faith is faith in Jesus and true faith is expressed in thanksgiving. These two go together. True faith remains true only as it remains focused on Jesus. Faithful thanksgiving is always focused on Christ; never on itself.
One of the words used in the Church for the Lord’s Supper is Eucharist, which comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. We hear in the familiar words of the preface, “It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We receive the Body and Blood of Jesus with thanksgiving because we receive it in faith. True faith always issues into thanksgiving directed to the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The nine Jewish lepers were content with the religious rites that were passing away. Going back to Jesus and giving Him thanks would have been a confession of faith in Him. But they didn’t trust in Jesus. True, Jesus helped them. Yes, they were willing to accept His help. But now that they were well, they didn’t need Jesus anymore.
The Samaritan needed to express thanksgiving to Jesus. St. Luke writes, Then one of them, when he saw that we was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. He glorified God. He fell down at His feet. Who’s feet? God’s feet. In falling down at Jesus’ feet he was falling down at God’s feet. In this expression of thanksgiving he was confessing Jesus to be his God and Lord.
Ingratitude indicates a lack of faith. Faith doesn’t save us by what it does. Christ saves us by what He does. True faith saves because it receives the Savior and this true faith is expressed in thanksgiving.
The nine lepers believed for a while. They got what they wanted. That was enough. But they needed more. They got health. They got healing. But they didn’t receive the Source of perfect health and healing because they let go of Jesus as soon as they got what they wanted from Him. Jesus was only a means to an end and they were in charge of the end.
That’s not true faith. Faith that trusts in Jesus keeps looking to Him. It runs to Him in every need. It wraps itself in Jesus and looks to Him as the source of every blessing God has to give. Jesus is not a means to an end. He is the end. He is the revelation of God’s grace and the answer to all of our prayers. He is the righteousness for which we hunger. He is the health we crave. Where His Blood is shed is where true fellowship with God is restored.
The nine Jewish lepers regained the fellowship they had lost due to their leprosy. The Samaritan as a Samaritan couldn’t enjoy that fellowship even after being cured of his leprosy. But he obtained a greater fellowship: fellowship with the Triune God, with the holy angels, with the faithful departed, with the Church of all times and places. His faith saved him.
Faith doesn’t save because it is so good a work. Faith saves because it receives the Savior. Without the Savior, faith is delusion, pretense, and blindness. Faith apart from the Blood of Jesus Christ shed upon the Cross to take away our sins is nothing but wishful thinking. True faith is faith in Jesus. True faith is expressed in thanksgiving. And true faith saves because it clings to the Savior.
The Samaritan did show himself to the priest, but not to an Old Testament priest who could only confirm a health he couldn’t provide. He showed himself to the High Priest who provides with eternal health and healing by His sacrifice on the Cross. Faith saves because Jesus saves and faith receives all that Jesus is and does.
That’s why we come to Church. We come to worship our God, to give Him thanks. But the highest worship of God is to not to give things to Him, but to receive from Him in faith. This is the direction of Christianity. God to man. We standing far off as beggars, pleading for mercy. Jesus drawing near, taking on our leprosy of sin, and making His final trek to Jerusalem where He suffered in our place outside the city. Alone and cut off. But His faithfulness has saved you. He is risen from the dead and continues to give good gifts of life and salvation to you. Come forward then, fall on your face in worship, and receive what Christ Jesus has to give, His Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Then rise and go your way, your faith, that is, your Jesus, has saved you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When words lose their meaning lies are accepted as truth. The word love is a perfect example. Years ago, when the apostles of the new morality promoted their doctrine of free love they used the word ‘love’ when they really meant selfish desire. They didn’t want to call a spade a spade. Before you knew it, the word love changed meaning. It became commonplace to use the word love to refer to selfish sexual desire. When sexual sins are sanctified, the works of the flesh destroy whatever is pure, holy, noble, and good. Consider the breakdown of the American family and you will see the result of the word love losing its true meaning.
Nowadays we are faced with the redefinition of another word: the word faith. According to Scripture, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith is formed and informed by the Word of God. What God says, faith grasps. Therefore, faith is dependent upon God’s Word and cannot exist apart from it.
Today faith is defined differently. Each person forms his own faith according to his own fancy and every person who has any kind of faith at all in any kind of god at all is a person of faith whose faith is as valid as anyone else’s faith. According to this view of faith, there is no such thing as idolatry. Each person fashions his own god. In this way the First Commandment is abolished, all religions are put on the same plane, and divine truth becomes whatever anybody feels or thinks.
Thanks be to God for the Holy Scriptures where we learn what true faith is! We learn three things about true faith in today’s account of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We learn that true faith is faith in Jesus. We learn that true faith is expressed in thanksgiving. We learn that true faith saves.
Truth faith is faith in Jesus. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem for the last time. He was traveling to His death. He took a roundabout way from Capernaum to Jerusalem. It took Him through an area inhabited both by Jews and Samaritans. Ten lepers, nine Jews and one Samaritan, cried out to Jesus for mercy. Normally, Jews and Samaritans wouldn’t associate with each other, but misery loves company and leprosy was a miserable condition.
It wasn’t just the pain of the disease. That was bad enough. Lepers suffer from a disease of the skin that is a source of constant pain. It disfigures and can be fatal. But to compound the suffering of the disease was the bitter fact that lepers had no right to associate with healthy people and were banned from participating in the religious life of the community. That’s why they had to stand far off from Jesus and raise their voices. They couldn’t approach. They were unclean.
They called Jesus their Master and they cried out to Him for mercy. To cry out to Jesus for mercy is where faith begins. True faith is faith in Jesus and true faith cries out for mercy. Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.
Faith doesn’t celebrate itself. It doesn’t congratulate itself. It doesn’t advertise itself. It doesn’t say, “I am a person of faith and as such I have integrity that you are bound to respect so you should admire me on account of my faith.” Just the opposite – true faith is faith in Jesus. It pleads for God’s mercy that is revealed in His Son - and its confidence is in Him.
The lepers cried to Jesus for mercy. Jesus and mercy go together. True faith receives both Jesus and mercy. All ten lepers were cleansed. Their leprosy was taken away. Jesus did it. Jesus didn’t send them to the priests so that the priests would heal them. The priests couldn’t cure anyone of leprosy. Their duty was to confirm that a leper had been cured and that the leprosy was gone. Afterward, the priest would go through the required ritual by which the cleansed leper could be reinstated back to the fellowship of the Church. This would entail the shedding of blood. As you know without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. All of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament prefigured the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross.
Consider what is happening here. Jesus is heading to the Cross where He will fulfill God’s promises to His people. On His way to suffer for the sin of the world He meets ten lepers and heals them of their leprosy. They begged him for mercy and he gave it. Going to show themselves to the priests – as the Law of Moses required of them – they saw that they were cleansed. They had their lives back. They had their health, their associations, their old life, the fellowship they previously enjoyed; they had it all and they didn’t get it from Moses, they got it from Jesus. They didn’t get it from the Law. They got it from the Gospel. They didn’t get it by their works. They got it by God’s grace. They got it from Jesus.
But only one of them returned to Jesus to thank Him. True faith is faith in Jesus and true faith is expressed in thanksgiving. These two go together. True faith remains true only as it remains focused on Jesus. Faithful thanksgiving is always focused on Christ; never on itself.
One of the words used in the Church for the Lord’s Supper is Eucharist, which comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. We hear in the familiar words of the preface, “It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We receive the Body and Blood of Jesus with thanksgiving because we receive it in faith. True faith always issues into thanksgiving directed to the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The nine Jewish lepers were content with the religious rites that were passing away. Going back to Jesus and giving Him thanks would have been a confession of faith in Him. But they didn’t trust in Jesus. True, Jesus helped them. Yes, they were willing to accept His help. But now that they were well, they didn’t need Jesus anymore.
The Samaritan needed to express thanksgiving to Jesus. St. Luke writes, Then one of them, when he saw that we was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. He glorified God. He fell down at His feet. Who’s feet? God’s feet. In falling down at Jesus’ feet he was falling down at God’s feet. In this expression of thanksgiving he was confessing Jesus to be his God and Lord.
Ingratitude indicates a lack of faith. Faith doesn’t save us by what it does. Christ saves us by what He does. True faith saves because it receives the Savior and this true faith is expressed in thanksgiving.
The nine lepers believed for a while. They got what they wanted. That was enough. But they needed more. They got health. They got healing. But they didn’t receive the Source of perfect health and healing because they let go of Jesus as soon as they got what they wanted from Him. Jesus was only a means to an end and they were in charge of the end.
That’s not true faith. Faith that trusts in Jesus keeps looking to Him. It runs to Him in every need. It wraps itself in Jesus and looks to Him as the source of every blessing God has to give. Jesus is not a means to an end. He is the end. He is the revelation of God’s grace and the answer to all of our prayers. He is the righteousness for which we hunger. He is the health we crave. Where His Blood is shed is where true fellowship with God is restored.
The nine Jewish lepers regained the fellowship they had lost due to their leprosy. The Samaritan as a Samaritan couldn’t enjoy that fellowship even after being cured of his leprosy. But he obtained a greater fellowship: fellowship with the Triune God, with the holy angels, with the faithful departed, with the Church of all times and places. His faith saved him.
Faith doesn’t save because it is so good a work. Faith saves because it receives the Savior. Without the Savior, faith is delusion, pretense, and blindness. Faith apart from the Blood of Jesus Christ shed upon the Cross to take away our sins is nothing but wishful thinking. True faith is faith in Jesus. True faith is expressed in thanksgiving. And true faith saves because it clings to the Savior.
The Samaritan did show himself to the priest, but not to an Old Testament priest who could only confirm a health he couldn’t provide. He showed himself to the High Priest who provides with eternal health and healing by His sacrifice on the Cross. Faith saves because Jesus saves and faith receives all that Jesus is and does.
That’s why we come to Church. We come to worship our God, to give Him thanks. But the highest worship of God is to not to give things to Him, but to receive from Him in faith. This is the direction of Christianity. God to man. We standing far off as beggars, pleading for mercy. Jesus drawing near, taking on our leprosy of sin, and making His final trek to Jerusalem where He suffered in our place outside the city. Alone and cut off. But His faithfulness has saved you. He is risen from the dead and continues to give good gifts of life and salvation to you. Come forward then, fall on your face in worship, and receive what Christ Jesus has to give, His Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Then rise and go your way, your faith, that is, your Jesus, has saved you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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