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His Healing, Our Thanks

NKJV Luke 17:11 1 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Our text for this morning finds Jesus near the beginning of the last trip of his earthly ministry to Jerusalem. He started in Galilee and was headed south – through the land of Samaria, which wasn’t entirely friendly to Jews.

Samaria was the land directly between Galilee and Judea. Long before, it had been populated by the Jews of the Northern Kingdom, the 10 tribes that broke away in a revolt when King Solomon’s son inherited the kingdom of Israel. This began the divided kingdom, with a separate kingdom of Judah. Relations between north and south were tense, and sometimes they even fought. Meanwhile, the northern kingdom drifted further away from God’s commands and laws and was eventually overrun by the Assyrians after about 300 years, or about 700 years before Jesus was born, and about 140 years before the Jews of Judah and Benjamin were carried off to Babylon.

When the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes, they carried many of the people off, and they brought in many others – the idea was to destroy the sense of nation and identity that the people they conquered had. In this case, it was successful – the tribes lost their sense of identity and those who were left mingled with those who were brought in. These people became known in time as Samaritans.

Jesus has several interactions with Samaritans, and occasionally uses them in illustrations, and he does in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The woman at the well freely admits that Jews do not associate with (eat with or socialize with) Samaritans. This was because the Samaritans had some very peculiar religious beliefs – they had the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but that’s all. They didn’t use the rest of the Old Testament. They did not worship in Jerusalem and weren’t particularly welcome there.

The Jews did not like the Samaritans, and it seems safe to think that the Samaritans didn’t like the Jews very much either. But shared suffering can make for some strange friendships, and it seems that it did in the case of our text.

Jesus and his disciples pass by a group of lepers. The term “leprosy”, as Scripture uses it, refers to a number of disfiguring diseases, including the disease we call leprosy today, but also including some conditions that weren’t necessarily as destructive or as contagious. But it didn’t really matter – anyone with any of the conditions that counted as “leprosy” (which are laid out in detail in Leviticus chapter 13) were considered permanently unclean and had to live apart from the rest of the people. Furthermore, sufferers of leprosy in the narrow sense (which is the disease we call Hansen’s Disease today) suffered nerve damage that could destroy their hands and feet, and make them go blind. In those days, leprosy was a death sentence.

These men must have heard something about Jesus because they address him by name (they don’t use the term “Lord” to refer to him, the use the term “master” instead, which doesn’t necessarily have the same divine overtones). They must have thought he could do something for them; and so they plead for his mercy. They show their obedience to the law by standing a ways off.

And so Jesus tells them all to go show themselves to the priests, who have the responsibility (according to Leviticus 13) of diagnosing leprosy and declaring when people are clean again – meaning that they can rejoin society and live with their families again, do work, and so on.

And so while they are on the way to the priests, they are cleansed. Just one of them realizes, turns around, and gives thanks. He knew that he was healed, so he fell at Jesus’ feet, showing that he understood the importance of what had happened to him.

And possibly the most surprising thing of all? This man was a Samaritan! We don’t know how many of the other nine might have been Samaritans, maybe none of them, but probably not all of them, since Jesus singles him out as a “foreigner.” But foreigner or not, he showed proper thanks for his healing, and he gets a special blessing from Jesus: “Your faith has saved you.”

What does this teach us today? Surely, we have much better medicine today; leprosy is still a problem, it can be readily cured. But perhaps in seeing the things that our medicine can help now that perhaps it hasn’t been able to, we see the things that it still can’t cure and think of them.

Maybe we hear about this and think, “What a bunch of jerks! What were those nine men thinking? I know I would have been thankful! I would have marched right back there and fallen at Jesus’ feet along with that Samaritan guy!” Scripture says no more about the other nine.

It’s easy for us to look down on these nine men. But when we examine ourselves, are we any better? Have we been as thankful as we could have been for all the blessings God gives us, each and every day? I know I don’t. The blessings we have in this area, in this country, are almost countless. Even in this midst of the great tragedy of this pandemic we are living through, this area has not been as badly affected as others. Many of the shortages we experienced at the beginning of the crisis have now been addressed. And are we thankful for it? Maybe we are, but even if we are, we can never be thankful enough.

We always want to make deals with God, to have God grade us on a curve, as it were, when it comes to our standing with him. We like to compare ourselves not to his perfect law, but to other people, or even to ourselves. We like to think God will be pleased with us if we act better than our neighbors, or at least if we improve on ourselves from yesterday.

But that kind of thinking is like a leprosy in our souls – it will devour our spirits and will only lead to death. Why did Jesus heal those men? Was it because they deserved healing? Were they better than their neighbors? Was it because they cried for mercy?

Jesus did not have to heal them, but he chose to. He doesn’t reveal his reasons for doing so, but he showed mercy and compassion on many such people who were suffering physically during his public ministry. And he also follows the same pattern in dealing with us spiritually today.

We like to think that we deserve God’s mercy. But we do not. We are all born with a kind of leprosy of the soul; we are born hating God and his Word. We start out blind, dead, and enemies of God. The sin we are born with corrupts our souls much as leprosy corrupts the body, and leads to spiritual death.

And yet, Jesus finds us and shows mercy on us. The lepers asked for his mercy and he showed it to them; spiritually, he shows us mercy before we can even ask for it. In most cases, he calls us to faith in Baptism, cleanses us, and creates a new and right spirit within us. It is only that spirit, which cries out in faith, that can properly thank him because it is only with that spirit that we can see how blind and dead we are without him.

But even with this new spirit, we must still carry around our old man, the old sinful nature, until Jesus takes us home to him or comes back in glory. This old man can make it really hard, when we receive something we recognize as a great blessing from God, to fall down and thank him. At least we are in good company – Saint Paul himself was in agony over the conflict he suffered because of his own sinful nature:

NKJV Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

And yet it was the same Paul who said:

NKJV Phil 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith.

And if we are tempted to think that our faith is the reason God has chosen to be gracious to us, Paul reminds us:

NKJV Eph 2:8 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The thankfulness that Jesus praised the Samaritan leper for, was one of the good works that God had prepared beforehand for him to walk in. Just as he did, we too have thanks that we can show – and many other works besides – to thank our God in Christ Jesus for the great love he has shown us in cleansing us from our spiritual leprosy.

In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Galatians 5:16-18

We are not saved by our works under the Law of God but through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again on the third day. Through the preaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit has brought us to trust in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of all and thus has justified us and given us forgiveness for all our sins and eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote, earlier in his epistle to the Galatians (2:16): “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

But, as those justified by faith and regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit, we continue to walk by faith and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit and not in the power of our own sin-corrupted flesh; for, until we die and are raised up again on the Last Day, our sinful flesh continues in its rebellion against God and His Word. It does not submit to God’s will and would lead us into all sorts of sin and error.

In fact, there is a struggle going on within us right now. On the one hand, God’s Spirit, working through the Word and Sacraments, strengthens and keeps us in the faith and moves us to walk in accord with God’s perfect will which is revealed to us in His Word. But, on the other hand, the desires of our sinful flesh are contrary to God’s Word and His commandments. Our sinful flesh would lead us back into sin and disobedience to God and bring about our eternal ruin (cf. Gal. 5:17ff.; Rom. 6:23).

And look at God’s warning: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). Indeed, to walk according to the desires of the flesh takes us right back into sin and the condemnation of God’s holy Law.

Rather, we who have come to faith in Christ by the Spirit’s gracious working through Word and Sacrament cannot continue in the power of our flesh but need to continue in the Spirit, making use of God’s Word and the Sacraments that the Holy Spirit might move us to continue in daily contrition and repentance and then preserve and strengthen our faith in the redemption accomplished for us by Christ Jesus when He fulfilled all righteousness for us and suffered and died on the cross to atone for our sins and failures to keep God’s commandments.

And, when we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law and its condemnation. We have been redeemed from its curse and have God’s pardon, forgiveness and eternal life (Gal. 3:10,13).

And the Holy Spirit, working through God’s means, produces in us the fruits of faith — “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:24-25).

O gracious and merciful God, by Your Holy Spirit, grant that we hold fast to the promises of the Gospel and receive Your pardon and forgiveness for the sake of Your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And grant that we do not walk in accord with our old sinful flesh but in the power of Your Spirit’s working in us through Word and Sacrament. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Hebrews 11:7 (Read Genesis 6-9)

When the number of people grew upon the earth, so also did the wickedness and rebellion against the LORD God. The believers (sons of God) intermarried with unbelievers (daughters of men) and the result was more and more people who did not walk in the ways of the LORD but followed after the imaginations of their own hearts – after their own evil thoughts and desires.

Genesis 6 says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me than I have made them” (v. 5ff.).

The account continues, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD … Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (v. 8ff.).

God told Noah, in days when the earth was yet watered by a mist (Gen. 2:6), that He would send rains and a flood upon the earth to destroy man and beast. And God commanded Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and two of every kind of animal from the coming flood (Gen. 6:14ff.).

Even though a flood like that of which God warned was unheard of in Noah’s day, Noah believed the LORD and prepared an ark, warning others around him to repent of their wickedness and turn back to the LORD. By so doing, Noah forsook the present world and became an heir of the righteousness of God which is by faith.

Similarly, God calls upon all mankind today to repent and return to Him, warning that “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7). God will once again judge this world and all mankind. As He was, at the time of the flood, forced to destroy those who would not repent and turn to Him for mercy, so He will soon condemn all who reject Him and the salvation He offers in the cross of Jesus. This present world and all of man’s evil works will be burned up on that day when Jesus Christ returns.

Those who heed God’s warning and repent, trusting in Christ Jesus and His shed blood for forgiveness and life, forsake this present world and look forward to another in which there will be everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. They are forgiven and accounted righteous by faith in Jesus and walk in fellowship with the Almighty God by that faith and confidence in Jesus and His sacrifice for the sins of the world.

God’s judgment is coming. He is being patient with us, not desiring that any perish, “but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). He calls us to turn from our evil ways, trusting that in Jesus we have forgiveness and in Jesus we have life everlasting.

O dearest Jesus, Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us, forgive us and grant us a place in your everlasting kingdom. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5 (Read Genesis 5:21-24)

The Bible tells us of Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, that he “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24).

At the relatively young age of 365, Enoch was taken directly, without seeing death, to be with the LORD God in heaven. Enoch was translated; that is, changed from a temporal, earthly existence to an eternal, heavenly one. His body and soul were taken from this earth into his eternal and heavenly home. Such a translation is hard for us to understand.

In all of human history, Elijah the prophet is the only other human being to escape death and be taken directly to his heavenly home (cf. 2 Kings 2:11). Even the Lord Jesus Christ first died for the sins of the world before He rose again on the third day and then 40 days later ascended into heaven.

Enoch walked with God by faith, trusting that God’s ways are right and that God would send the promised Seed of the woman to redeem him from sin and eternal death. In the book of Jude, we learn that Enoch also testified in his time of God’s coming judgment upon all who continued in their ungodly and rebellious ways (v. 14f.).

To walk with God by faith is no different today. Believers know and believe that God’s ways are true and right and trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for the sins of the whole world and rose again on the third day. Believers walk in fellowship with God the Father, agreeing with Him about their sinfulness but trusting in Him to graciously forgive their sins and accept them as His own dear children for the sake of Jesus Christ, who lived a righteous and holy life in mankind’s stead and made full atonement for the sins of the whole world when He suffered and died upon the cross (cf. 1 John 1:7 – 2:2).

Like Enoch, believers are pleasing to God and righteous in his eyes because all their sins have been washed away in Jesus’ blood. Their works, too, are pleasing in His eyes because they flow from faith in Him and are made pure through the blood of Jesus.

Believers have already been translated. The Bible says of believers in Jesus that the Father “hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:12-14). God has graciously translated His children from the kingdom and rule of darkness and sin into the kingdom of grace and forgiveness – the kingdom of His own dear Son.

Believers will be translated into God’s eternal and heavenly kingdom when Jesus returns. The Bible says to all who believe: “Our conversation [way of life] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

And so, Enoch walked with God by faith and was translated directly into heaven. All who today walk by faith in the Son of God, trusting in Him for mercy and forgiveness, have been translated from the kingdom of darkness and spiritual death into God’s kingdom of grace and life. On the last day, they too will be translated – their earthly body will be changed into a glorious and heavenly body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, let me ever walk with You by faith so that, as Enoch was translated from this world into your heavenly kingdom, so I may arise and live with You forever in Your eternal and glorious kingdom. Amen.

[Scripture quoted from the King James Version of the Bible]

“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” Hebrews 11:4 (Read Genesis 4)

Both Cain and Abel offered gifts to the LORD God, Abel from his flocks and herds, and Cain from the fruits of the ground. Why was it that God accepted Abel and his sacrifice but rejected Cain?

Hebrews 11:4 tells us the answer: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”

Abel offered his sacrifice in faith. He trusted in the LORD God to accept him and his sacrifice for the sake of the promised Seed of the woman, that promised Messiah and Savior who would redeem him and all mankind from sin and the just condemnation of God’s law.

Cain, on the other hand, though he too offered up a sacrifice to the LORD, did not offer it up in the confidence of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Rather, he went through the outward motions of serving his Maker, but his heart was far from the LORD (cf. Matt. 15:8; Isa. 29:13). Cain’s works are described as evil in 1 John 3:12 and Jude 11. Even though he brought an offering to the LORD, he was not walking with the LORD by faith; and his gift was unacceptable since the LORD looks upon the heart.

Of course, when we read Genesis 4, we learn not only that Cain’s sacrifice was unacceptable, but that he hated his brother Abel and killed him because Abel was counted righteous. Those who do not follow after the LORD continue to this day to hate those who walk by faith in the LORD because the witness of the righteous pricks the guilt-ridden consciences of those who go their own way.

Does this mean that Abel was of himself without sin? Not at all! Rather he was counted righteous in God’s eyes through faith in God’s promise to send a Savior to bear his punishment and redeem him from sin’s condemnation (Cf. Gen. 3:15). The lambs sacrificed pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world (cf. John 1:29).

What about you? Do you walk with the LORD God by faith in His Son as did Abel, trusting that God accepts and forgives you for the sake of that Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world? Or do you walk as Cain walked, serving the Lord outwardly with gifts and lip-service while inwardly you are far from the Lord and going another way?

Dear Lord Jesus, Lamb of God who has atoned for my sin and the sin of the whole world by Your innocent sufferings and death upon the cross, forgive me, cleanse me and lead me. By Your Spirit, move me to walk with You by faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible]