Fourth Sunday after Epiphany,
2012
Text: Matthew 8:1-13
The Rev. Jerry Kistler
St. Stephen’s Reformed
Episcopal Church
“Have the Faith of an Outsider”
As Reformed Episcopalians, as Protestant Christians, we confess that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. But what exactly does that mean? Is it just a nice cliché we like to throw around, or is there something in that that is of the very essence of what fath is? What is faith? What does it look like? Today's Gospel reading gives us two marvelous examples of the very concrete nature of true Christian faith: first, in the healing of the leper, and second, in the healing of the centurion's servant. Let us, then, meditate for a moment on these two people, that by God's grace we may learn to be like them.
First of all a leper comes and worships Jesus. He falls down on His knees at Jesus' feet. This is the first thing about Christian faith. It recognizes that the place where divine help is to be found is where Christ makes Himself present to us. It seeks God not just in some mystic and spiritual way, but where Jesus in a concrete and tangible way makes Himself available to us. Yes it’s true: God is present everywhere. But He made Himself particularly present to us in the humanity of Jesus. “In Him all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form.” The leper could have just stayed at home to make his petition to God; but instead he kneels at the dusty, sandaled feet of Jesus.
God still comes to us in this way: through physical and tangible means. That's why we gather here each week. It's not that you can't pray to God or meditate on the Scriptures on your own. I certainly hope you do. But above all else, faith desires to be at that place where Christ has given us the means of coming into his presence in a very concrete and physical way, or in other words, sacramentally: where He speaks and preaches His words out loud in our ears, where He feeds us with His body and blood, where he ministers to us through the fellowship of His body. The leper doesn't pray to a God who is just everywhere but to the God who is intensely somewhere in particular—in His sacramental presence in the body of Christ.
And this is what he prays, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Our Christian faith recognizes that since Jesus is God in the flesh, He is able to do whatever He wills. In Christ lies all the power of God to heal and to cleanse. The leper does not doubt for a moment that Christ has the ability to make him whole and healthy again. There is no questioning that Jesus has divine authority over His bodily illness.
Nevertheless, faith does not demand anything from Christ, but humbly submits to His will. "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." It is as Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done." The Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours. The Lord has promised to work all things together for our eternal good. And there are times when our eternal good will mean our temporal suffering. For the cross must come before the resurrection. Our sinful flesh must be crucified before we can be raised anew. To have strong faith is not only to trust in Christ when all is going well, but to faithfully pray "Thy will be done" even when all is not going well, to believe, despite the current circumstances, that He is good and merciful towards you, and that, if He is willing, He can deliver you from your circumstances. "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
"Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” What tremendous words of Gospel those are, when Jesus says "I am willing"! By those words He opens up His heart and shows His great love towards us. It is as if He said, "Yes, this is exactly what I want –to help you and save you. This is the very purpose for which I was born, to rescue you and to purify you. Indeed, I am willing, so willing that I will take your disease and your suffering into myself and put it to death in my body on the cross, that your healing may not only be temporary but eternal." In the verses just after today's Gospel Matthew says that this was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses; and by His wounds we are healed."
So then, when Jesus touched the leper and spoke His Word over him, the leper was immediately cleansed. And you know, that’s true of us as well. When Jesus touches us and speaks His word of cleansing and healing over us, we are in fact cleansed and healed immediately. There’s no waiting for us to make ourselves worthy of our cleansing. There’s no getting ourselves cleaned up before Jesus wants to cleanse us. There’s no healing of our own brokenness before Jesus will be willing to minister to us as the Great Physician. And even if we don’t presently feel our cleansing and healing, Jesus has indeed touched us and spoken His cleansing and healing over us. He touched us and spoke His Word upon us initially in our baptisms. And if you receive that Word in faith you can be assured that you have indeed been cleansed and healed, and are being cleansed and healed, until the day when He will speak His Word and call us forth from our grave and our cleansing and healing will be consummated in the resurrection of our bodies. For Jesus’ Word always delivers what it says, as we receive it by faith.
We see an illustration of that in the second healing in today's Gospel and
another great example of faith. A Roman centurion comes to Jesus.
As you may know a centurion is a sort of mid-level commander in the Roman army
who has 100 soldiers under his authority. This particular centurion had
been assigned to serve in
But the centurion is about to demonstrate that His faith in Christ is much deeper and stronger than we might first expect. Having heard his request, Jesus agrees to come to the centurion's residence and heal his servant. Now you would think that this Roman officer would be delighted at Jesus' response and would escort him to his servant right away. But instead he says two things which demonstrate a magnificent faith in Christ. First of all the centurion says, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof." Here he is, an army officer with great power, one who is in a position of honor and authority and respect, and yet he humbly confesses that He is nothing in the presence of Christ, that He is not even worthy to have Jesus step foot in His house. This is also how we should come before Christ. Though we may have honor in the eyes of the world for our intelligence or our skills or our looks or our wealth or our good conduct, yet we lay all worldly honor aside in the presence of Christ and acknowledge that we are unworthy even to speak to Him, let alone to have Him come under our roof. Anything that we receive from Him is not because of our worthiness but solely because of His grace and love towards sinners. The Centurion demonstrates something of the essence of true faith: the prior confession of our unworthiness to receive anything from the Lord.
But now, not only does the centurion acknowledge his own unworthiness, he also confesses faith in Christ's authority that he’d received from His Father in heaven. The centurion says, "Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And if I say to this one, ‘Go,' he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it."
Do you see what the centurion is getting at? He is saying, “I understand the nature of authority. I say a word and things get done. But you, Jesus, have an authority much greater than mine. You are sovereign over all things. You have dominion over sickness and even death itself. Therefore, just say the word and my servant will be healed. You don't even have to be visibly present. Your Word is powerful to make things happen. Just speak and it will be done." Jesus did speak, "As you have believed, so let it be done for you." And the centurion's servant was healed that same hour.
You see, the Word of Jesus accomplishes what is says. For all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him by His heavenly Father. When Jesus speaks it is so. Faith clings to that Word, even though His presence is not visible to ordinary sight. He makes Himself present to us by His Word. Even His Word itself is His sacramental presence. So when the Scriptures say, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," you may trust in that Jesus is speaking His Word and know that it is true for you. When you hear the declaration of Christ that he pardons all those who turn to him with hearty repentance and true faith, you may have confidence in that Word and know that the Lord's forgiveness has truly been applied to you. When Jesus says through His Words of Institution, "This is My Body; this is My Blood," you may believe with certainty that He truly gives you to participate in His precious Body and Blood and to strengthen you unto eternal life.
Jesus marvels at the faith of the centurion. For remember, this Roman officer
was a Gentile, one who did not have all the blessings and privileges of being a
Jew. And yet Jesus says, "I have not found such great faith, not
even in
Let us Gentiles, then, to whom the Gospel has come, not be like
insiders, trusting in our own righteousness and lineage and connections.
Let us rather ever be outsiders like the leper and the centurion, people who
have nothing to cling to but Christ and His Word. For that is the essence
of true Christian faith. In a world which looks down upon such faith, let
us boldly and gladly confess with
This sermon is based on a sermon by The Rev. Aaron Koch, Pastor of Mt. Zion
Lutheran Church in