Epiphany 3, 2023

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. Matthew 8:1-13

Epiphany 3

January 22, 2023

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus has just finished His Sermon on the Mount. He expanded and opened up the Law to us in a way that shows we cannot keep the Law. Not only does the Law forbid murder and adultery, the Law also tells us that we should not even hate or despise our neighbor; that we should curb our flesh and leave our sacrifice before the altar and go be reconciled to our brother. The Law also tells us that we should not even lust after someone who is not our spouse in our heart and mind.

After our Lord finished His sermon, after He came down from the mountain with great multitudes following Him, behold, a leper came and appeared before Him, worshiping Him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing You can make me clean.” That little word, behold, is interesting. It’s important. It’s often overlooked. But generally, in the Gospels, when the word, behold, appears, something important is about to follow and we must take notice. A leper comes before our Lord and says, “If you are willing, You can make me clean. No one else. Only You,” he says. “You are the new prophet like unto Moses; the shoot from the stump of Jesse; the bright Morning Star; David’s Son, yet David’s Lord. You are my Lord. Only You, if you are willing, You can cleanse me.”

Now the ESV translation of the Bible renders Jesus saying, “I will; be clean.” But what Jesus is saying here is not, “Yeah, that sounds nice. I will heal you in the future,” as if He has better things to do now, but He’ll get around to it later, if He remembers, if He can find the time.” In fact, the verb here is “to will, to desire, to command something into being” It is a verb in the present tense, “I am willing; it is My will that you be cleansed.” “I am willing. Be healed. Be cleansed. Be forgiven of your sins.” Therefore, because it is His will that the leper be cleansed of his leprosy, it must happen. It is a command stemming from the love that God in Christ Jesus has for sinners and from His desire to right all the wrongs and to take upon Himself and into Himself all the perils and ills we suffer here on earth. He desires the leper be cleansed. He wills it. And because He is resolved and determined for such an event to happen, it happens. He is cleansed. The leper is healed. He is forgiven. No doubt his flesh was also restored like the flesh of a little child.

The will of God is an eternal will. It does not change. It is His desire, from eternity, that we be holy as He is holy. He gives us the Law, the Ten Commandments, which is His will and standard that He desires that we live by. It is His will that we fear, love, and trust no one but Him. It is His holy will that we do not blaspheme His name but call upon it in every trouble, that we pray, praise, and give thanks; that we come to worship every Sunday; that we honor parents and other authority; don’t hurt or harm our neighbor in his body; commit adultery, steal, slander, or covet. That is what God expects of us. It’s pretty simple. This how we are meant to live. But of course, we do not live this way. We cannot abide by God’s will or fulfill His will by ourselves. We are born with in sin—in sin did our mothers conceive us. We have sinned against God and against our neighbors daily in thought, word, and deed—by what we have done and by what we have left undone. But because of this and in spite of this, the Father willed—literally, He desired and commanded His Son out of perfect love for us—that the Son come to us; that He become one of us; that the Son keep the Father’s will since we could not; that He die for us in our place, precisely because of our many sins. That is love.

In so doing, after He became a man, He revealed Himself through His miracles and teachings to His creation as Emmanuel. He is God with us. He comes to us, not only to Jews—the sons of Abraham according to the flesh. He comes to us as well, to sons of Abraham according to faith. This is the mystery that was revealed to St. Paul: Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. This means that we, foreigners, non-Israelites, those who were never part of the old covenant of circumcision, now receive the blessings and benefits being called “sons of God” through faith.

This is further shown and demonstrated in the healing of the Centurion’s servant. Jesus does not heal Jewish lepers simply because they’re of the lineage of Abraham. He heals cleanses the leper because the leper has faith. So it is with the Centurion. The Centurion comes to Jesus, in faith, begging Him to heal His servant. But not to come into his house to heal the servant, rather, to heal him with a word because the Centurion knows that Jesus has power, divine authority to do so and the Centurion knows he is not worthy of Jesus. Thus the response of our Lord, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

Jesus is not only the God of the Jews. He is also the God of Gentiles. This statement: Jews and Gentiles, includes all people who walk the earth. It includes everyone who comes to the Christ in faith. Except in Christ there is no Jew or Greek. Instead, there is a new creation, born from the waters of Baptism. He welcomes into His presence and forgives anyone who has faith in Him—that He is the Christ, that He is both God and Man in the one person and loves us to the end though we don’t love Him.

Still, He has no favorites. It does not matter what someone looks like—what eye shape you have, how much melanin is in your skin. It does not matter where you come from, what language or dialect you speak. It does not matter how grievous your sins are. If you repent and desire to change and amend your life, He forgives even those. For the same Lord is Lord of all.

And He does not heal us, He does not forgive us because we have done anything for Him or have done anything to earn it, as though we must be smart enough or cunning enough, worthy or nice enough. He does not approach the leper or the centurion, and with the same breath say, “I will do this for you if­­­____ or if you do something for me; if you do this____, like a sleazy car salesman. He says, “It is my will that you be healed and forgiven for free because I love you, because I desire you. You are mine and no one else. You must be cleansed and forgiven, and for that reason I have come. I want to be with you, I want you to be with me forever in paradise. So come, be baptized. Be washed clean of your sins. And as a further testament and proof of my love, come, to this holy meal that I prepare for you. Receive the benefits of My cross and passion.”

Even though we have not kept the His will; even though we have not sought after and kept His perfect Law, it’s by love alone, by grace alone that He comes to us. It can only be that way. Our sin has stained and corrupted us, much like leprosy does to the body. Our sin paralyzes us and torments us so that we cannot do what is right and true. But it is by grace we are loved. By grace we are cleansed. By grace—by our Lord’s own blood and toil—we are forgiven. By this grace we are saved, for our God wills it. Just like unto the leper and the Centurion.

In +Jesus’ name.