Sermon on Minneapolis 05.09.2010

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We will begin our services with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, again we thank you for this moment that we can gather together here in this holy sanctuary around your precious undying word. We ask for your service blessings. We thank you for the greatest of all gifts, that we can be a child of God, a member in your kingdom, all through the merits of your Son, Jesus Christ. In addition, we pray for those many temporal gifts that you have richly bestowed upon all of us. But we ask that you would keep us, guide us, and preserve us in this begun faith and feed us with your everlasting gospel word and bring us one day to that eternal home in heaven. All of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today is the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, and the gospel text for today is from Luke chapter 17, verses 11 through 19. And we will hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Amen.

Jesus was going on a journey and passing through the area of Samaria. And on the way, he hears people shouting out in a loud voice to him. And it turned out it was a group of people who were stricken with a fearful sickness and plague at that time called leprosy. During that period of time, it was incurable. And it was also very contagious.

During this period of time that we live, leprosy has basically been eradicated from all of the world. And that's because of antibiotics. I talked with a believing woman who lives out in Longview area who is a medical doctor and now working on her Ph.D. She's a pathologist and knows these types of sicknesses very well. And I asked her, is there anywhere in the world any longer where there is leprosy? And she says that there are a few small pockets here and there in some of the third world countries. But other than that, it's basically non-existent. Thank goodness to modern medicine and pharmacology.

But during the time of Jesus, it was a very fearful disease. In fact, it was so fearful that if someone contracted leprosy, they were actually shut out from society. They often had to live in their own communes. They lived, for example, in a cave. And if someone who was healthy would begin to approach them, they had to ring a little bell to notify them. And they shouted out in a loud voice, Defiled! Defiled! Beware! I am defiled! And it was such a terrible disease, a skin disease and a nerve disorder, that your body would actually begin to decay. Your skin would often peel away. Your digits, for example, earlobes and fingers would drop away from the body. And your body would be covered with boils, open boils, from the crown of your head to the heel of your foot.

And if a healthy person noticed, perhaps by the bell ringing or someone shouting, defiled, defiled, that a leper was coming close, I'm sure they turned the opposite direction and fled. And the other one was coming close.

Now, Jesus heard a shout, and a group of ten lepers was approaching. And probably they lifted up their voices and they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus, who was the great physician and the friend of sinners, did not run the opposite direction like everyone else did. But he directed his footsteps straight toward them, went up to them, and visited with them.

When we read the Old Testament, there is very much explained and talked about leprosy. In the book of Kings, it tells about a general in the country of Syria whose name was Naaman, who was sick with leprosy. If you think about it, how could he be a general and a leper at the same time and still be able to lead and direct his armies? But that is what the Bible says.

During wartime, he brought home captives and brought a young maid into his home. This young maid turned out to be a believing young girl. And she realized and noticed that Naaman was sick with leprosy. And so she said that, well, I have a way that you could become cured. And she said, there is a prophet in the land of Israel that go and see him.

So Naaman, with his friends and troops and donkeys loaded with goods that he would reward the person who was able to cure him with, they departed for Israel. But on the way, he began to, I'm sure, think, I'm going to go to see the king. He is the autocratic ruler. He is the almighty one. He's probably the wise one. He, if anyone, can cure me. But when he arrived to see the king, that person was troubled, that, what do you think that I can do for you? So finally, his servants begged him to go and see the prophet like he was instructed by the young maid. And they came to the house of Elisha.

Well, initially, Elisha told him simple instructions. Go wash yourself seven times in the river Jordan and you will become cleansed. Now, Naaman became infuriated that, why does he give me such a simple instruction? And he thought perhaps the prophet would come out and touch that leprous spot and perhaps go through some ritual and do some magic trick. But he told me just to wash himself seven times in the river Jordan. Aren't the rivers in my homeland much bigger, better, and cleaner?

This is very typical of people when they are in the world and perhaps with an awakened conscience. They think that their way and method in order to find peace in their troubled heart and soul is first to have deep penitence, perhaps if they would pray night and day, read the Bible, or do good works by giving alms, then this would pacify God and they would receive peace into their heart and soul.

The simple instruction from God's kingdom based on the Bible, the simple order of grace that to believe the oral proclamation of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, preached to the power of the Holy Ghost seems just too simple for a person's rational mind.

So he, Naaman, departed in anger, but then his servants again coaxed him to turn around and come back and to at least try the instruction that the prophet Elisha had told him. And finally, he did. He dipped himself, washed himself, seven times in the river Jordan, and after the seventh time he came out and his flesh was just like a newborn baby's flesh.

It's very interesting that in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, where Moses gives explicit instructions about leprosy, that they're supposed to go and show themselves to the priest. And leprosy begins in one part of the body and eventually begins to spread over the body and eventually will cover the body from head to foot.

And when they show themselves to the priest and they are not completely covered with boils head to foot, the priest would say, go away and come back a little bit later. Then the very ironic thing is finally when they come and the priest examines the leprous person and notices that the body is covered with boils, covered with leprosy, from the crown of the head to the heel of the foot and there is not one square millimeter of healthy skin any longer on the body, the priest then declares that person to be clean and cured.

Now, leprosy was a natural illness, a contagious disease during that time. And as I mentioned, there are still small pockets in the world where it exists yet today. But it's also a picture of sin.

And when we think of a person who is in the darkness of unbelief, and perhaps they have a soul that is awakened, their heart has been pricked, and they want to find peace for their undying soul. As we mentioned already with Naaman, this instruction that he received was too simple. And people in the world often think that I should do this and I should do that. If I offer some work unto God, then God will fulfill what I'm not able to completely do on my own behalf.

So that's like the leprous person who comes and shows himself to the priest, and his body isn't completely yet covered with leprosy. The priest turns that person away and says, come back later.

We remember that rich young man who came and asked Jesus, what shall I do to become saved? And they talked about the commandments of the Bible. And he was rich. He was temporally rich, but more importantly, more so, he was spiritually rich.

And Jesus said, if you want to be my true follower and acceptable unto God and heaven, go and sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, and then come and follow me. For the Bible says, love God with all your heart and love your neighbor just as much as you would love yourself.

If you were able to fulfill the demanding law of God on your own behalf, your love toward your neighbor would be so perfect that without grumbling or mumbling, you would love that neighbor in need so much, you would basically liquidate all your possessions and you would give it to that person in need and then you would have perfectly fulfilled the demanding law of God and this would make you heaven acceptable.

This was too much for the rich young man. He turned and he walked away, I'm sure, in disgust.

Then Jesus turned to his disciples who were gathered around him and he used that rich young man as an example. He said, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than it is for a rich person, spiritually rich person, filled with their own good works and deeds and merits to enter into God's kingdom.

So when a person finally finds themselves in that position before God that I am completely a sinner, I am leprous from the crown of my head to the heel of my foot, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that I can do and offer on my own behalf to God on behalf of everlasting life and salvation and to guarantee a home in heaven, but I must just offer myself as a big sinner, a bag of worms as Luther would say, and completely sick, defiled, and unworthy.

And then, as the priest would say to that leprous person, covered with leprosy from over every square inch of the body, that grace is offered then unto such a person, and that person becomes cleansed and heaven acceptable.

So, Naaman dipped himself in the river Jordan seven times, and the number seven, as we know in the Bible is the number that refers to completeness or perfection. And God's grace is perfect, complete.

And also, the kingdom of God is likewise compared to seven. When prophet Zechariah mentions that Jed fell into a slumber and prophet Haggai came to wake him up from that slumber who was an escort for Zechariah. When he woke up and matters were cared for, what did he see? He saw a seven-branch golden candlestick, which is a symbol of the kingdom of God. And seven meaning perfect.

When John, the evangelist, the apostle, was on the Isle of Patmos and he was able to see those many great visions, the first vision that he was able to witness and see was this, that Jesus Christ himself was walking through the midst of seven golden candlesticks.

Jesus Christ is in the midst of his kingdom and the kingdom of God is indestructible, a kingdom that is unshakable. But seven also refers to the perfect, complete work of Christ's redemption.

When he was on the middle cross of God and he was about to take his final breath, he cried out, all is fulfilled. I have done everything, Father, on behalf of mankind. I have paid for the price of sin. I have fulfilled the demanding law of Moses on behalf of mankind to the last jot, tittle, and letter.

And so this is what we can own, this perfect work of Christ's redemption, alone by faith, alone by grace, and alone to the merits of Christ Jesus.

But then Christ's grace, the grace of God, is infinite. And we realize that we are human beings, we are not white angels, but we carry two portions, and our old portion, our human portion, is corrupt, defiled, and often causes us to stumble and even fall into sin.

So, time and time again, we need to drag ourselves to the throne of grace, to the mercy seat, where we can hear the good speaking voice of the blood of Jesus. Son and daughter, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven unto you.

And the fountains of grace will never run dry. There is infinite depth to the fountains of grace.

As Peter once asked Jesus, if a brother or another person would offend me three times in one day, or seven times in one day, isn't that already too much to forgive him? Because the Jewish rabbis had this thought that three strikes and you're out. You have three chances and then grace runs out. Your quota is used up.

So, Peter was increasing that by two and a half times, or thereabouts, and raising it up to seven. Seven, certainly is enough. If someone offends me this many times in one day, then I can just turn the faucets off and say, no more. No more grace. You've used it all up.

But Jesus said, no. I say not seven times, but seventy times seven. And in another portion, Jesus actually takes that quota away completely, makes it limitless. As many times as someone comes to you and says, I repent, or I regret, or I need forgiveness, we preach that gospel of forgiveness onto that person.

So now, going back to our text, Jesus meets these ten lepers. And I'm sure everyone else fled in the opposite direction, because of this terrible, frightful, contagious disease that they were carrying. But Jesus turns and walks toward these ten, crying out for his help, Master, have mercy on us.

He goes to them, and simply, he tells them. When he saw them, he said unto them, go and show yourself unto the priests. That was the instruction given by Moses in the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus, in chapters 13 and 14, if you want to go home and read those chapters.

And it came to pass that as they went, apparently somehow on the way to go see the priests, they became cleansed. They became cured from their leprosy. And they were whole and healthy again.

After a period of time, then, one of the ten returned. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, he turned back, and with a loud voice, he glorified God, for he was giving praise and thanks unto God, the heavenly Father.

But first, before they were cleansed, the Bible gives instructions or tells that, cry when you are in distress, for I desire to help you, and then you should honor me, the psalmist says. And the prophet Isaiah says, seek the Lord while he is near. And that's what these ten lepers did. And they received help and they were cured.

But it's interesting now that of the ten, nine of them were Jewish, of Jewish background, and one was a Samaritan. Does this have any significance? Well, we know from the Bible that the Samaritans and Jews were bitter enemies with each other.

In fact, when Jesus with his disciples were traveling through the area called Samaria, and the sun was setting, or they hadn't made it through Samaria yet, at the end of the day, they knocked on a door of a home owned by a Samaritan. And they asked if they could perhaps spend the night in that person's house. And they received cold treatment. The door was basically shut in their face.

And the disciples became so angry at that rude treatment that they received, that they received a title, I'm sure based on this incident, and they were called the sons of thunder.

They turned to Jesus and they said, the Old Testament prophet, prophet Elijah, once called for fire to come down from heaven to destroy the enemies. Why don't you do the same to this Samaritan and all the Samaritans?

Jesus had to rebuke these disciples and say, no.

Jesus knew that many of these Samaritans, all of the Samaritans had undying soul, and many would receive the grace of repentance.

Last Sunday's text tells of the story of the Good Samaritan. And we know that there was one person who left from Jerusalem and was heading toward Jericho and was attacked by thieves and robbers and beaten up and left half dead.

And a priest came down the road and perhaps had been studying the dual commandment of love, love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. And he saw this fellow Jewish person robbed, beaten, and bleeding to death. And he passed right by.

He knew that commandment, love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, but he broke it. He didn't stop. He didn't help his neighbor, and he kept on going.

The Levite, an assistant in the temple, came by and also saw that same person, basically quickened his footstep, kept on going, and didn't help his neighbor, didn't love his neighbor as he loved himself, and he broke that commandment.

Then Jesus said, a third person came who was a Samaritan, a bitter enemy to the one who he saw lying on the ground, wounded, and bleeding to death. And the bitter enemy turned to that Jewish man in need and helped that person.

God.

So now Jesus healed these ten people. Nine of them were Jews, Jesus' fellow countrymen, and one was a Samaritan. All of them were healed. The nine Jewish people kept on going, never returned to Jesus again.

And the Samaritan, the enemy of the Jews, returned and glorified Jesus and God.

Today's theme is thankfulness. And we know from the Bible, from another portion of the word of God, a parable of Jesus tells of the good seed that is sown on many types of soil. Some falls on the hard road or the roadside. Some falls on rocky soil. Others fall in thorny soil. And some fall on the so-called good soil.

And those seeds that fell on the roadside never even germinated because the black birds compared to the devil came and plucked them out of the heart of a person.

The seeds that fell on the rocky soil sprouted and began to grow vigorously, but during the heat of the summer, then, because of lack of moisture and the depth of roots, they basically withered up and died. The time of trials and temptations caused that plant to be smothered out.

Those seeds that fell on the soil that began to grow thorns and thistles, the temptations and lusts and desires of this world, basically grew up and choked out the promising new growth that sprouted from the seed.

And finally, some seed fell on the good soil that was cultivated, that was weeded, that was watered, fertilized, and taken well care of, and that seed grew up and bore abundant fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some even one hundredfold.

So perhaps this parable of Jesus applies to this situation where these ten were cured from their sickness of leprosy, they were cured from the sickness of unbelief, they received the grace of repentance, and as time passed, it happened like the seed that fell on the four different types of soil.

In the end, of the four types of soil, only one of the types of soil produced fruit that was eventually harvested and brought to the granaries of God there in heaven.

So this Samaritan, who ironically happens to be a bitter enemy of the Jews, was the only one that returned to give praise and thanks unto Jesus and God for that grace that he had received.

So today's text, today's theme tells about the theme of thankfulness. We have many reasons for giving thanks. Many temporal blessings we have all received and been able to enjoy in this temporal life of ours. A free temporal homeland, abundant temporal possessions.

And above all, the greatest of all gifts is this, that today we can be a child of God, a member of God's kingdom, alone, through faith, of grace, through the merits of Christ Jesus.

But often we are so slow to give thanks. And it's often like a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is when the moon moves in front of the sun and causes darkness to cover the world.

So we could say that the sun is like the sun of grace, which so brightly shines in the heavens, here upon this earth. And we could say that the moon, which during our lunar eclipse, moves in front of the sun and blocks the bright sunlight from shining and causes darkness and even the feeling of cold to come in the air.

It's like that old portion, that corrupt man that we have, that we carry, many times gets in the way and is like a lunar eclipse and blocks and wishes to obstruct the bright sun rays of the sun of grace that bring light and warmth into our undying soul.

But we must, seem as it may seem, feel as it may feel, by grace, cling to the grace promises of God. And the power the gospel lifts, carries, and will bring us one day to our heavenly home.

But we promise, as we sing in one song, that we will praise him much greater when one day corruption will be taken from me. I will praise thee, my Lord Jesus. I will praise thee eternally.

So even now, this morning, when preparing ourselves for the communion table, the table of the Lord, perhaps feeling doubts, trials, temptations, feeling the weight of our sin corrupt portion upon us, we can uplift our gaze from the midst of our dark and evil heart to behold the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world.

He is our source of life, our source of strength, and our source of purity.

So believe even now, sins forgiven, in his name and precious atonement blood, and come freely to the table of the Lord to receive his body and blood for the strengthening of our weak and many times faltering faith.

In Jesus' name, Amen.