The Third Sunday after the
Epiphany, 2012
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Bethany Lutheran Church, 10
AM Central Time
The Hymn #44 Ye Lands 2.41
The Confession
of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The
Gospel
Glory be to
Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn # 264 Preserve
Thy Word 2.55
The Word of God Declares
Forgiveness
The Hymn # 249 Isaiah Mighty Seer 2.75
The Preface p.
24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #45 Now the Hour of Worship 2.95
KJV Romans 12:16 Be of
the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men
of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. 17 Recompense to no man evil
for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it be possible,
as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Dearly beloved, avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with
good.
KJV Matthew 8:1 When he was
come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2 And, behold,
there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. 3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying,
I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus
saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the
priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 5
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion,
beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come
under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I
am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man,
Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do
this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and
said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the
kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into
outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said
unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Third Sunday After Epiphany
O almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our
infirmities, and in all dangers and necessities stretch forth Thy mighty hand,
to defend us against our enemies; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and
reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
The Word of God Declares Forgiveness
Matthew 8. 8 The centurion
answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man
under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go,
and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this,
and he doeth it.
Luther’s sermons remind me
that the entire text should be covered. He once wrote, “If you cannot preach an
hour on the text, at least preach for 30 minutes.” The number now is 10
minutes, because it is the time between commercials on TV.
Sidebar on Lectionaries
Many times the selection
seems arbitrary and odd in the historic lectionary, but that is all the more
reason to honor it rather than pining for something with more variety.
All the Lutheran groups
followed the Vatican in using the A-B-C three-year lectionary series. I
remember all the reasons given for it, because I was in the LCA when the change
came. There is no absolute rule about the readings, but the historic readings
are among the oldest. Luther used them. There are other good series, such as
the Eisenach.
But back to the Vatican
series. The LCA produced little books on preaching from the ABC lectionary
because there was so much to cover in three years. Two results developed. One
was the “conservative” Lutherans jumping on the bandwagon and using the
three-year (not a sin by itself). The other was all the “conservative” Lutheran
pastors using the LCA books on the sermon texts. Thus the outcome was having
large numbers of “conservative” pastors repeating the Left-wing anti-Biblical
perspective of the LCA, even if it was muted and subtle in those books.
A third result was the
cross-over effect, since a bridge was built between the Lutherans and the
Catholics. “Conservative” Lutheran pastors began reading Catholic liturgical
books and praising Catholic authors. The fourth effect was jumping ship,
because these pastors discovered that the One True Indefectible and Infallible
Church was not theirs, as they imagined, but the Church of Rome (or sometimes
Eastern Orthodoxy).
The adoption of Roman
Catholic liturgical colors is similar in effect, having the added advantage of
generating new sales for church supply houses. “Those old liturgical hangings
are just hideous,” says Pastor Bruce. “We have to have a new set for the
conference meeting. I hear the ladies’ guild has five grand in the treasury.”
One “confessional” Lutheran pastor wrote, “They elected my favorite liturgical
author as the pope.” Ahem.
The Leper’s Healing – Two
Lessons
The healing of the leper has
two lessons within it. As noted often before, leprosy was a hideous disease at
that time and made the person a complete outcast, ill, in poverty, shunned, and
vulnerable. Unlike some disorders, leprosy gave itself away in the clearest
possible way. It is odd that people are not repelled by inward corruption, when
it is displayed. They seem charmed by greed, lust, and destructive power. But
missing or distorted features alarm and dismay them. So leprosy was one of the
worst disorders to have at the time of Jesus.
2 And, behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou
clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
This leper believed in
Christ before he met Him. Many astonishing miracles were already witnessed by
many people. Knowing Jesus to be God, he said, “If it is Your will, you can
make me clean again.” Jesus said, “It is my will. Be cleansed.”
At soon as Jesus said the
Word, the leprosy was gone. That is the first main lesson. God’s will and God’s
Word are the same. When God commands, there is no question about His will being
carried out.
This is called the efficacy
of the Word, and that term “efficacy” is used throughout the New Testament,
besides being taught as a concept throughout the Bible. Those who doubt the
efficacy of the Word also doubt the Creation, because there is no rational
explanation for the Creation of the universe. It is a mystery revealed by the
Scriptures – that God created through the Word. That Word was and is the Son of
God.
At the recent conference in
Ft. Wayne, UOJ was being promoted by David Scaer, as usual. Although I was not
there, someone asked how people are forgiven their sin. The answer was “By the
Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace.”
One could also say “By the
Word, through the Means of Grace,” since the Holy Spirit only works through the
Word.
As can be seen, this Gospel
selection shows two clear examples where the Word accomplishes God’s will. Of
course they are miracles. God performs miracles. The important part of the
lesson is how He does this.
4 And Jesus saith unto him,
See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the
gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
The second part of the
leper’s healing is the direction to go to the priest for the cleansing ritual.
(Note the stone war jars from the water being changed into wine. Ritual
cleansing was and is an important part of Judaism.)
This is a second part of the
Word – the testimony. The leper needed to be cleansed, so by going to the
priest he was taking the miracle to the temple, to the priest, to the teachers
of the Torah. The Word grows among believers. The Word gives unbelievers a
chance to see this miracle with their own eyes and to hear what has happened.
We can assume that people
knew he was healed miraculously, that perhaps friends or relatives went with
him to the temple to vouch for his story. A miracle so relieving could not be
kept secret.
Lenski:
The procedure as described in Lev.
14:1, etc., required that the examining priest receive the man’s offerings,
which consumed an entire week. What a priest in Nazareth might determine as to
the man’s physical condition would not be recognized by the priest officiating
in the Temple at Jerusalem. “Show thyself to the priest!” means in Jerusalem.
The first act of the priest on the
day the man presents himself consists of the physical examination plus the
offering of two live birds, etc., and the ceremonies connected with them, Lev.
14:2–8. The second act follows on the seventh and the eighth days when two
lambs, etc., or in case of poverty one was offered, plus the ceremonies stated
in v. 9–32. The first act restored the healed leper to the people, the second
to his religious prerogatives in the Temple worship. The word δῶρον, “and offer the gift,”
etc., does not refer to a thank offering, for the offerings prescribed
in Lev. 14 are first symbolic of physical cleansing (the birds, etc.), and
secondly sacrificial for the purpose of spiritual cleansing (the lambs, etc.)
as a trespass and sin offering.
Jesus thus orders this man in all
due form to carry out the ceremonial requirements “which Moses ordered” and
thus to have himself officially reinstated as being clean of leprosy. Jesus has
not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (5:17), and by his
order to the leper he had healed fulfills what the Law of Moses required in the
present case. This helps to explain that final phrase, “for a testimony unto
them.”
Lenski, R. C. H.: The
Interpretation of St. Matthew's Gospel. Minneapolis, MN. : Augsburg
Publishing House, 1961, S. 321.
[GJ – Note – I gave two rare Lenski books to a medical
missionary, a Baptist, who just loves Lenski as a Biblical scholar. He is also
our doctor, one of the best in the area. The doctor was overjoyed at getting
them, and I was glad to promote Lutheran doctrine in the Baptist circle. The opportunities
are endless.]
I understand “tell no man” to be a command to do this
immediately, because one could be delayed, stopped, and waylaid along the
journey by telling and re-telling the story. Taking it directly to the priest
means that the keepers of Judaism will know the Messiah is at work, an action
that would give hope and arouse fears. Although we often think about Jewish
opposition to Jesus, He also attracted many who believed in Him and followed Him
with sincere devotion, up to and including His death. Examples are Nicodemus
and Joseph of Aramathaea.
KJV John 19:38 And after
this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for
fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus:
and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of
Jesus.
KJV John 19:39 And there
came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
5 And when Jesus was entered
into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying,
Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And
Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
The second healing is another
emphasis upon the efficacy of the Word. Jesus’ answers were intended to provoke
a response which would be a lesson for all of us. Although Jesus often came to
people, or let them come to Him, this miracle was different. In offering to go,
Jesus received a confession of faith in the efficacy of the Word, based on the
Roman army’s concept of command.
This is especially
interesting, because so-called Lutherans fail to grasp this, even though we have
ample testimony from the Old and New Testaments. If that is not enough for the
curious and faint-hearted, here is a Roman military officer telling us what we
need to know and believe.
This officer also believed
in Christ as God. He knew Jesus could command the miracle healing of his
servant.
8 The centurion answered and
said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak
the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under
authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he
goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth
it.
Therefore, the explanation
is strictly from a military point of view. If it is true of a Roman officer, it
is even more true of God.
A Roman officer had absolute
control over his men. There was no “Please” and “If you are in the mood to do
this.” If his men refused, he had the power of life and death over them. The
decimation order is the most vivid reminder of this. Decimation meant that one
man out of ten would be beaten to death by the other soldiers. That was done to
restore a fighting attitude with a unit that performed poorly. That was all the
more reason to fight well. The Roman army never lost a war, except when it was
ambushed by Herman the German. That is why Herman became a symbol for the
Germans, earning him a statue in Germany and a clone of that statue in New Ulm,
Minnesota.
10 When Jesus heard it,
he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall
come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be
cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13
And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
This lesson applies to Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and
to justification by faith. The problems people have with each are centered in
the efficacy of the Word. What they doubt about God’s actions are answered in
these miracles. How can sins be forgiven and how do we know it?
The false teachers direct anxious sinners to works and to
feelings. Works are effective because there is an easy path to motivate people.
Make them work for it. The answer is easy and it is quickly applied. The list
of works is endless.
Feelings are harder to define, but also deceptive. Are
people forgiven because they feel forgiven? What if the feelings go away? How
can those first feelings be restored?
The forgiveness is complete and free because God has
declared it to believers. Regret may remain, but that does not mean the forgiveness
is incomplete. We should not base our forgiveness on feelings, but our feelings
on the Means of Grace. We should be as sure of the absolution as the centurion
was of Jesus’ Word, as sure as the leper – If you will…
Jesus said, “It is my will. Be cleansed.” And it was so.
