Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew 8:1-13)
Jesus said to him: “I will come and heal him.”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our reading today St Matthew records the eye-witness accounts of two miracles which Jesus performs: that is, two special healings of Jesus, where he uses his divine power and works outside of the laws of nature, proving that he is truly the Son of God, true man and true God.
The first miracle is the healing of a leper, and the second miracle is the healing of a centurion’s servant.
Now if we’re going to understand these miracles, we need to be clear about something first. When Jesus heals a person, it is his work alone, and it happens through his word and his will alone. In the same way, when Jesus saves a person, he does it through his work on the cross and his resurrection alone, and through the power of his living and active word alone.
We don’t do half, and he does the other half. The entire business is in his hands, and it’s his work, and it’s his word that does it.
But also, our gospel reading today is not actually about eternal salvation first of all. Both the men who come to Jesus to ask for healing put their trust in Jesus and his power to save. And Jesus commends the centurion for his faith. He says: “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”
But the main thing that we read about in our gospel reading today is that there are two people who are healed: one man is healed from leprosy, and a centurion’s servant is healed from being paralysed. And the things that happen in our gospel reading are not done by the leper or by the centurion, but by Jesus alone. Jesus is the one who does the healing.
Often when Christians are sick, they ask questions like this: Why am I sick? Have I done anything wrong? Is God punishing me? Why doesn’t Jesus heal me? If I ask Jesus to heal me, will he listen? If he’s not going to listen, and if he probably won’t heal me, what’s the use of asking him in the first place? Is my faith strong enough? Is it genuine?
Many Christians when they find themselves sick come to the conclusion that the problem is with them, and that the reason why they are not well again is because their faith is not strong enough.
This simply isn’t true.
Before we die and before we enter eternal life, there is never a single moment in our earthly lives where we are free from the corruption of sin. Many people think sin is something that they do sometimes, or every now and then. Some people even think they don’t sin at all! But when we say in the Divine Service each Sunday that we are a “poor, helpless sinner”, we are not saying something about what we do, we are saying something about who we are. Before we die and before we go to be with Jesus in the next life, there is never a single moment when we are free of sin. Sin isn’t our actions, it’s our condition. And when we realise this, we realise what a great gift eternal life is, because when we die, we will be free of sin for the very first time. When God puts an end to our earthly life, we know that that will be the time when God puts an end to our sin! Not a moment before that time will we ever be free of it. Even the good works and the good things we do are tainted. We do good things for the wrong reasons.
And God our heavenly Father knows this, and it grieves him. He puts us on trial, and he is ready to give his sentence. He can read our thoughts and our minds – he knows that there is nothing good there. He knows that the only sentence that we deserve is the punishment of eternal death. And it is perfect within his right to give this judgment.
But Jesus Christ comes along and says to you: “I have fulfilled the law. I have done everything for you. I have died on the cross for you. I have risen again from the dead for you. And I have come to buy you with my blood, and I have come to pay for you with my blood.”
And God the heavenly Father sets us free. He knows that we are sinners, but because of Jesus, he says: “You are free to go. You are forgiven.”
And this sentence of God, this verdict, this pronouncement of forgiveness, is spoken on earth in the church. When the church baptises people, God’s voice rings out: This is my beloved, forgiven child. I am well-pleased with him. I am well-pleased with her. Each Sunday we hear the living voice of God pour out of heaven when we hear the words of the absolution: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Each Sunday we hear God’s gracious verdict: Take and eat, this is the body of Christ, given for you. This is the blood of Christ shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
God our heavenly Father treats us just like he treats Jesus. When he sees us, he sees nothing except Jesus.
But sometimes we see nothing except our sin. When we feel like this, we should remind ourselves that Jesus does not want us to trust in our feelings but in his death, and his resurrection. There is no sin too big that God cannot forgive. The blood of Jesus is powerful and it covers everything.
So it’s funny when Christians are sick, they think: “There must be something wrong with my faith.”
But there’s nothing wrong with your faith. If you trust in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to save you, if you trust that eternal salvation has been given to you and placed into your lap through holy baptism, then there’s nothing wrong with your faith.
But your sin is still with you. You are forgiven, but you are constantly disappointing yourself because you think you should be a better person. You feel like you’re letting Jesus down because you’re not in a better shape.
It’s simply not true. When Jesus forgives you, he doesn’t want you to trust in the fact that you can feel forgiven. He doesn’t want you trust in the fact that feel energetic or well or happy or better, he wants you to trust in his word. His word says that you are forgiven, and that settles it. If that’s what you believe, then there’s nothing wrong with your faith.
In our reading, two people ask for healing from Jesus.
The first man is a leper, and he comes and says to Jesus: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
This prayer of this man is not a prayer for eternal salvation. When it comes to eternal salvation, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, there is no “if”, there’s no “if you want to, if you will, you can forgive me.” There is only “yes”, there is only, “yes, you will.” Eternal salvation, eternal life, and forgiveness are certain, definite, fixed. Jesus died and rose again: you are baptised – there’s no doubting you are forgiven and saved.
What the man asks for here is a gift for this life. He wants to be healed of his disease. And so he says, “If you will”.
In the Book of Jonah, we see something similar. Jonah walks into the city of Nineveh and says: “40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” And the people actually repent. And the king says: “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Did you hear the doubt there? The king says: “Who knows?” When he says: “Who knows?” he’s not talking about the forgiveness of sins. He’s talking about whether God will destroy the city. He doesn’t mean: “Who knows if God will forgive us”, but “Who knows whether God will change his mind about destroying our city.”
And so the leper says: “If you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus says: “I will.”
Notice that the leper’s healing has nothing to do with the leper. The leper asks to be healed. But the healing only happens because Jesus says: “I will”. He does it. He wills it.
Often people think that they are not healed, because they have not “willed” it. But remember, you are not a god. You don’t heal yourself, no matter what every crack-pot new-age guru would tell you. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus, each temptation began with the words: “If you are the Son of God…” In the same way, each temptation for us begins with the word: “If you were really a true Christian…”
But in the second part of our gospel, we read about a centurion who says to Jesus: “Lord, my servant is lying paralysed at home, suffering terribly.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion is a Gentile, and Jews don’t go to the homes of Gentiles. And not only that, but his house is a place of uncleanness and suffering. Normally, a good Jew would never go to a place like the centurion’s home.
But Jesus says: “I will come and heal him”.
Jesus is not ashamed to go to a place where there is sickness, suffering, pain and death. He is not ashamed to go to the cross. And if you are sick, he is not ashamed to live with you. He doesn’t require you to be well first before he wants to come and live with you. In fact, it is his pleasure, his joy to come and be with you.
He says: “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion says: “Hang on a minute. That’s not what I meant. It’s not fitting that you should come to my house. I’m not worthy that you should come to my house. It’s not the right sort of place for you to come. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
And Jesus says: “I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.” And then he says: “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
When he says: Let it be done for you as you have believed, Jesus is not saying to us, believe whatever you want, and it will happen. If this were the case, then we’re back again, thinking that if only we believed that we would be well again, we would be. Jesus says: “You have believed rightly: I can heal your servant through speaking a word. Let it be done for you as you have believed.”
Sometime Jesus heals people in this life. If he doesn’t heal you of your diseases in this life, then you will know for certain that he will heal you in the next life. But if he chooses to give you a miraculous healing in this life, it is because of his will, and because it serves to glorify him. It is not because he doesn’t love you, and it is not because he hasn’t listened to you, and it is not because your faith isn’t strong enough.
And there is one thing we can be absolutely sure about: the fact that we might be sick does not mean that we are not forgiven. Look at St Paul and all the things he suffered! St Paul says: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me… For when I am weak then I am strong.”
The forgiveness of sins, eternal life, eternal salvation is an absolute solid rock. You can build your house on that! If before that time, Jesus allows us to be free of sickness and to be miraculously healed, then that is a great blessing. But in the meantime, we should remember all the many blessings that he has given us, and be always running and willing to be the first in line to praise and thank him, simply because he is God, and simply because he is good.
O give thanks to the Lord for he is good!
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.
Then when we have thanked God simply because his mercies are new every morning, then we can give thanks to him for the fact that he has done great miracles, and performed many wondrous things.
The devil wants it the other way around. He wants us to stop praising God, unless he does something miraculous and showy.
God has done something miraculous and showy. His Son, Jesus Christ, our true Lord and God, has risen from the dead and all our sins are forgiven, and it has all been given to us in Holy Baptism, and we can be sure than we will enter heaven itself. That’s the greatest miracle we could ever want!
In the meantime, Jesus is not ashamed to come and heal you. He will heal you in time. He does not require you to be healed, before he will come to live with you. He has promised us his free grace, and his free forgiveness and he says to us today, “Do you believe that you are saved through baptism, that the forgiveness of the pastor is my forgiveness, and that my body and blood are given to you in the Lord’s Supper?” Say: Yes. I believe it, even though I am a sinner, even though I am sick, even though I am weak. And Jesus says: “Let it be done for you as you have believed.”
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for the saving power of your Son Jesus. We thank and praise you for the forgiveness, life and salvation that we have through him, and through his word. If you will, and if it serves to your glory, heal us of the diseases and problems of our body, and give us patience, hope and trust as we wait for that time when we will be free from sickness, suffering, sadness and sin in your house where you have prepared a room for us, in Jesus name. Amen.
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