Prayer and Faith
St. Matthew 8:1-13
January 27, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
Today’s Epiphany mystery is twofold – the mystery of prayer and faith. What the leper does with his prayer and the centurion does with his faith make no sense. That’s the Epiphany season. Does it make sense that wise men worship a newborn baby with gifts fit for a King? Does it make sense that the sinless Son of God should be baptized with sinners? Does it make sense that Jesus makes water into wine at a wedding where people have already drank too much?
Every year on Thanksgiving we hear the appointed reading from Saint Luke about the 10 lepers. I’m not sure it is a great Thanksgiving text since only one of the 10 lepers actually returns and give thanks. 10% isn’t really much of a thanksgiving, is it? Every Thanksgiving we also rehearse the horrors of leprosy – a disease which cut you off from your wife and children. Your fingers and feet went numb. Your eyelids quit blinking and you went blind. Your dead fingers and toes fell off. Your hands became clubs and your feet became stumps.
According to God’s Word the leper who came to Jesus in the text was full of leprosy. It wasn’t just starting. It was near to finishing him off. That makes his prayer a great mystery. “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” I’ve prayed at a lot of sick beds and death beds as a pastor. I do not think families like it when I pray, “Lord, if it be your will, heal your servant.” I don’t like it either. Lord, don’t you know this family needs this man? Our congregation needs this faithful woman. Lord, our will is that you heal, restore, return what we need and want.
In some ways this text should be reversed. We should talk about faith before prayer – the centurion before the leper, because prayer follows faith. Don’t ever direct someone who is seeking God to seek God in their prayers. God isn’t found in prayer. He is found in His Word. Prayer is you talking to God. God’s Word is Him talking to you. Prayer follows faith – so consider the faith of this leper in his prayer. First, what would you conclude if you were a leper? Would you not think that God must be angry at you? It must be all that stuff I did as a teenager. God is getting me back. I knew it was too good to be true – a beautiful wife, 2.7 above average children, a great job with good benefits down at the Olive Oil factory. And then God sent me leprosy. I must have disappointed Him, got Him angry. Now He hates me. Aren’t those the conclusions toward which the Devil tempts us when a terminal illness or a life changing sickness happens?
That’s why Naaman the leper struggled so much to actually get down in the Jordan River. He was a great man, but he had leprosy and he simply couldn’t believe the gracious word of his servant girl. He went to the King with money, instead of to the prophet. What good is a preacher? Money and power that’s where healing comes. His eyes and feelings got in the way of his ears. Naaman was a snowflake. Why didn’t the prophet come out and wave his hands over me? Why would I go down in the filthy Jordan when our rivers back home are featured in all the good beer commercials? It took the Word of God, again and again and again to bring Naaman to faith that God was good and if God chose to heal leprosy with a muddy stinking bath in the Jordan so be it.
Not so the leper in the text. He had heard the Word of Jesus. God Himself has come in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth – to forgive sinners, to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind and to cleanse the leper. If God is so good, and I believe that He is, then whatever God wills that’s fine with me. Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean, but if not, I’m fine with the suffering of this lousy leprosy until I die. I trust your will.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus touches an unclean man – and that should have made Jesus unclean, but Jesus cleanses the leper. That really is a picture of our salvation, isn’t it? Jesus touches humanity. God takes on human flesh and in that human flesh Jesus also touched our sins. He soaked them up in His baptism and carried them to the cross, but our sins did not do Him in. Yes, He suffered hell for us and endured His Father’s anger over our sin, but His touching us didn’t destroy Him, instead it restores us. He still touches us. The same body and blood with which He touched the leper, touches your lips this morning, touches you with God’s cleansing. Lord, you can save me, if you will. Jesus at the cross said “I will,” and in His supper says to you, “Be clean.” And immediately, you are what Jesus says, “forgiven, righteous, clean.”
The prayer of the leper flows from faith. The faith of the centurion leads him to love and pray. Now this Centurion was a good man. We know from other references in Scripture that he had built a synagogue in Capernaum for the Jews, even though he was a Gentile, a Roman. In fact, the townspeople told Jesus this man deserved His attention. This Centurion, like the Leper believed in Jesus, and when you believe in Jesus that means you don’t believe in yourself. This man might have been one of the best Gentiles in all of Israel, but what does he say to Jesus? “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” Here is faith – faith does not come telling God what you deserve. Faith does not boast of you. Faith does not claim that you deserve better than your neighbor. Faith clings to Jesus Christ alone and knows that all good in your life comes as a gift, and the greatest good – forgiveness for your sins and faith in Christ, comes as the greatest gift of God.
The Centurion trusted in God’s Word. He did not need the Lord to come to see his servant or touch his servant like the leper. The Centurion understood authority, for he had authority from Rome. If he told some buck private to scrub the bottom of his sandals with a toothbrush – that private would do what he said. He knew Jesus had authority and he knew that authority would only be used for good and selfless purposes. Jesus, you don’t need to come to my house. I know authority. If I tell a man go he goes. Say the Word and my servant will be healed.
Jesus has said His Word to you this morning – “forgiven” and you are. He has given His Church this authority – it’s the one power we have. It is not ours. It is His, but He has authorized us to use it. “As a called and ordained servant of Christ (that means I’m under His order), and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins.” I am not worthy of this forgiveness. You are not worthy of this forgiveness. By His authority He chose to purchase your forgiveness at the cross, and to deliver it to you by His authorized servant this morning.
The last thing we note of the Centurion’s faith is that faith loves. The Centurion did not pray to Jesus for himself. He prayed for his servant. How different was Naaman in the OT reading. He captured a little servant girl, stole her from her parents in Israel, perhaps even killed them. But she, being a believer loved him, and told his wife where he could be healed. Faith loves. So the Centurion loves his servant – perhaps the least servant of his household. It doesn’t matter to faith. Faith doesn’t judge by age or power or feelings or rights. Faith loves as the Father has loved us – faith loves the unborn and the aged, the lonely and the popular, the friend and the enemy, because that is who God loved when He loved you.
Prayer and faith – the mysteries of this Third Sunday after the Epiphany. We pray against our will and for the Father’s will. We believe not in ourselves but in Christ. By faith we cling to the Word, and love our neighbor. Those are today’s mysteries revealed in the name of Jesus. Amen.