“God Will Be Whatever You Want Him to Be”
Luke 17:11-19
Thanksgiving 2018
God will be whatever kind of God you want Him to be for you on Thanksgiving. Now that may sound like a strange post-modern assertion, where everyone gets to self-identify their own god and whatever god you dream up will be god for you. But that’s not what I mean. The 10 lepers got exactly the kind of God they were looking for back in the days of Jesus.
They had heard the word. It had come down the leprosy grapevine along the Gunflint trail, in far northern Galilee. That little congregation of men could not believe the good news. This Jesus fellow, from Nazareth, had willingly touched a contagious leper, but instead of the Jesus contracting leprosy, the leper contracted healing. With Jesus, everything seemed upside down. People feared demons, but when Jesus came it was the demons who were afraid. When the dancers from Sugar Daddy’s came to town to eat, everyone left the café, but Jesus sat down with them. The unclean didn’t infect Jesus, He made them clean. Everyone else buried the dead, Jesus raised a few.
These men joined this little congregation because they had no choice. When the priest declared you unclean because of leprosy you were gone, cut off. You lost your job at New Flyer. No more bowling in your weekly league. No snuggling with your wife on a cold winter night. No holding your newborn son. If you had leprosy you left the land of the living to join the Church of the Cursed and Cut Off.
That is why they kept their distance from Jesus. But instead of yelling “Unclean, unclean” and warning Jesus to stay away, they begged Him to draw near with healing, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
That word “mercy” is a forgiveness word. That word is used in the Old Testament to show God’s faithfulness to His bride Israel. He loves her when she isn’t lovely and is faithful to her when she is faithless. Mercy means that you don’t treat a person as she deserves. That is also what forgiveness means – God does not treat you as you deserve. Saint Paul writes of God’s mercy in His letter to Titus, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5, ESV).
When the lepers prayed they only wanted Jesus to save them from leprosy. Their faith believed Jesus could heal them. Their faith caused them to cry to Him for mercy, but Jesus didn’t touch them. He didn’t say, “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” He gave them another word for their faith. “Go, show yourselves to the priest.”
There was only one reason for the lepers to go the priests. The priests declared you clean. If your leprosy wasn’t gone, no need to go to the priest. They believed Jesus’ Word. They acted like they were clean, even though they were still leprous. They lived by faith, not by sight. For when they left Jesus their hands were still all bunched up. Their limbs were twisted. Their feet were numb. Some of them were likely blind. Imagine the transformation as they went. All of a sudden Simon feels his feet and Jonah’s legs straighten out and Michael’s vision becomes clear. Joshua can flex his fingers and use his hands. They leave Jesus looking like a casting parting for the “Walking Dead” and a few miles down the road they are running like young men.
This is where I make my assertion that God will be for you the God you want Him to be. Nine lepers didn’t return to give thanks to Jesus. Why? Their faith was satisfied with eyes, ears, reason and all their senses. It’s all they wanted from Jesus. They rushed to the priest in the hopes of getting home for some leftover Turkey and stuffing, and perhaps to find a place on the couch to watch the last NFL game.
One leper returned. He was the least likely leper to return because he was a Samaritan. He had been told his whole life that he was a worthless dog. The only reason he could congregate with Jews is because they all drank from the common cup of that cursed leprosy. By the Word of God, the Samaritan looked to Jesus for more. His faith separated him from the majority, caused him to praise God loudly all the way back to Jesus (that probably earned him a few stares), and finally he fell down before Jesus and gave Jesus the reverence reserved for God alone. God was, for this Samaritan, everything his faith believed. Jesus said so, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” “Made you well” is the same word as “saved you.” Your faith has saved you. Jesus was for this man more than a leprosy healed, He was His Savior – giving the Samaritan forgiveness of his sins, granting him everlasting life, guaranteeing for him more than a one day resurrection, but a resurrection of the body forever.
Many people have faith in God like the nine lepers. They are content to thank God for healing and family and a good job and turkey and pumpkin pie with fresh whipping cream, and relaxing at mom and dad’s house and having a day of football when we don’t have to see the Vikings lose. And God will be that for you – He always has been. He richly and daily provides all that we need for this body and life, even to people who once a year say “thank you.”
But in Jesus God is far more than that. Jesus is going to Jerusalem to die on the cross for the sin of the world. His road will be exactly the opposite of the lepers. He will enter Jerusalem a young, living, a popular man, welcomed by the crowds and praised. By the end of the week He would be the walking dead, skin torn by the whips, lugging His cross, the crowds keeping their distance, and hurling their insults. While two criminals hang with Him He is a congregation of One. For in the flesh of Jesus all the sin of all the world is placed and He is cut off, declared unclean, banished to hell for eternity, in the moment when God the Father turns away from God the Son. Jesus is God-forsaken on the cross – the Leper to end all leprosy, the Sinner to end all sin.
That is who God is – the God of mercy and forgiveness and salvation for sinners. He is the God who does not treat you as you deserve. But He will not force you to believe. He will not make you go against the majority or return to Him in repentance or praise His name in the public square or live a holy life. If your faith is content with turkey and stuffing that is what He will do for you, but that is all He will do. He won’t force you to take Jesus, or life, or the resurrection. If you want to attempt facing death on your own – He’ll let you. However, if His Word creates a greater faith, a faith which needs more than daily bread, He is the only God who can deliver and He will, for He delivered Jesus to Jerusalem, so He could deliver forgiveness to you. That is the God He is and the God He desires to be for you. That is something for which to return and give thanks in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
November 22, 2018