Jesus Bridges That Gap
Text: Luke 17:11-19 (Thanksgiving Matins Sermon for Zion Lutheran Church)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
During this time of year
millions of people are making trips to gather together with family and friends.
This great gathering of people is to celebrate thankfulness. Yes, with Thanksgiving we gather together
with the intent and purpose to express gratitude. More specifically, we express appreciation
for our health, our material blessings, our good fortune, our families, and so
forth.
Keep in mind though that most
of the things that we are grateful for, are a result of a combination of things. Things like: good family genetics, a little
bit of luck, hard work, being in the right place at the right time, and the
blessings of other people. Therefore, it
could be technically stated that we express this gratitude with a tip of the
hat to the luck of the draw, as well as a tip of the hat to ourselves. Otherwise stated, each and every Thanksgiving
we honor the feeling and character of ‘gratitude;’ with a very superficial
understanding of gratitude. Indeed, our
gratitude—to a certain extent—is not totally dependent on the gifts that we
receive, but relies heavily upon our luck, our work, and our doings.
Now, I am certainly not
attempting to sabotage your Thanksgiving holiday. I am surely not attempting to be the
Grinch who stole
Thanksgiving. No, my friends, what I am
merely attempting to do is to show you that as
baptized-forgiven-blood-bought-saints you have so much more to be thankful for. As people in Christ you have something to be
thankful for, something that is given to you as pure gift, something that brings
ultimate gratitude.
While it would be easy to
exhort you now to be more thankful or to simply urge you to express more
gratitude as a Christian, I am afraid that merely telling you to be grateful
without showing you what you have to be grateful for is futile at best. To state this in a different way consider our
Gospel reading.
In our Gospel reading we are
faced with a contagious and hereditary disease.
We see a disease that is easily transmitted and can be conveyed to the
third and fourth generations of a family.
It was a disease that produced sores on the skin; it impacted a person’s
joints. It has been said,
“Life still lingers amid the desolation of this
disease. The joints, hands, and feet
lose their power; and the body collapses or falls together in a form hideous
and awful-ness.”
What am I talking
about? I am talking about the disease of
leprosy. I am talking about leprosy that
existed during the first century, a disease that there was no curable treatment
for.
Not only did leprosy
dramatically impact individuals, but it had sociological implications as well. By Law, lepers were not able to come near
people who were healthy. The Laws
separated them into camps outside the cities.
In fact lepers would be beaten if they came into cities like
Jerusalem. Indeed, lepers were cut off
from society. They could not associate
with people and had to yell out the word “UNCLEAN,” so as to warn others that
they were passing by. Many perceived
that these lepers were sick due to some mistake that they had made; they were
viewed as cursed by God.
But what does leprosy have
to do with Thanksgiving and what does it have to do with the idea of gratitude
and thankfulness? Are we to be thankful
that we don’t have leprosy? Well, yes,
but there is more to consider in our text.
In our Gospel reading we
encounter lepers being healed by Jesus.
After the healing, one of the lepers returns to Jesus with a thankful
response. In story we have a simple and
plain picture of the Christian life.
Permit me to explain.
Tragically lepers were
ostracized from society and family as they stood at a distance, while rotting
away in utter and complete hopelessness.
Leprosy made the individuals stand afar
off. Their defilement distanced them
from everyone and everything. Yet, in
our Gospel reading there is one that bridges that gap. Yes, we even see in the Gospel of Matthew
chapter eight that when Jesus encountered another leper that he reached out His
hand and touched the man.
Now, did you hear that?
Jesus reached out and
touched a leper; He bridges that gap. He acknowledges the lepers who stand afar
off. He, who is perfectly clean,
perfectly righteous, and perfectly holy, reaches
out and touches the man with leprosy saying, “Be Clean!” In our Gospel text for today, He cleanses
lepers, as well.
Consider how Jesus crosses
the great leper divide. In the New
Testament Christ touches and interacts with sinners, tax collectors, lepers,
and the dead, while often times becoming ceremonially unclean Himself from
touching those who were sick or dead.
Otherwise stated, the Lord
Jesus Christ gives everything freely to these lepers and does not take nor
seeks anything for it. Furthermore, the
lepers receive Christ’s work freely and pay nothing for it.
Dear friends, like the
lepers, mankind is set far off from God because of sin. We too are unworthy and unable to do anything
about our predicament of sin. We have
inherited it, it is contagious, it spreads to our children, and it wreaks havoc
on our relationships, and leads to destruction.
We cannot cure our sin problem.
We cannot cleanse our body and souls.
We cannot prevent the rotting.
Thus, mankind hides in the shadows or attempts to cover sin with
spiritual cosmetics.
The Lord Jesus Christ though
bridges this gap. He reached out and not
only touched sin, but bore it upon Himself at the cross. Like a person who becomes unclean due to
touching a leper, Jesus, for our sake, was made to be sin, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God.
Ponder for a moment the
great event of Mount Calvary. While on
the cross, our mighty Lord took the leprosy of sin upon Himself. More specifically,
“When he took the sins of the whole world upon himself,
Christ was no longer an innocent person. He was a sinner burdened with the sins
of a Paul who was a blasphemer; burdened with the sins of a Peter who denied
Christ; burdened with the sins of a David who committed adultery and murder,
and gave the heathen occasion to laugh at the Lord. In short, Christ was
charged with the sins of all men, that he should pay for them with his own
blood. The curse struck him. The Law found him among sinners. He was not only
in the company of sinners. He had gone so far as to invest himself with the
flesh and blood of sinners. So the Law judged and hanged him for a sinner.”[1]
Yes, Christ Jesus not only
reached out and touched leprosy; He ultimately took the sin-leprosy of the entire
world upon Himself, while hanging on the cross, thus making Himself ostracized
for a time. Due to sin, the Father
distanced Himself from Jesus as Christ bore hideous sin and while this sin
collapsed in on Him. Indeed, “the Father
compelled by His own holiness, distanced Himself from His Son—a distancing more
commonly called damnation.”[2]
In due course, this leprosy of
sin crushed Jesus.
What does this mean though?
Whenever you feel remorse
for your sin or see sores of sin-leprosy, look to Christ on the cross. Yes, the faith that has been given to you by
the Holy Spirit through the Word goes to meet Jesus, “for it knows itself in
the reality of truth to be unworthy of [the Lord’s] goodness, and has nothing
on which to depend, except [the Lord’s] highly renowned and loudly praised
goodness.”[3] Faith cries out, “Lord Jesus, Master, have
mercy on me!”
And what meets this cry of
faith?
Pure grace and mercy are
there, for Christ Jesus not only reached out and touched leapers but went into
the domain of sinners; died; and through this death devoured sin so that the
God the Father will never stand afar from you again. Faith receives the Word of God that cleanses
you.
The leper’s word of
‘unclean’ is met with the Lord’s Word ‘clean.’
Now, this is all good news.
However, we have yet to talk about gratitude and thankfulness. Ah, but wait?
Have we not been talking about thankfulness and gratitude? Yes we have.
Thankfulness and gratitude
are rooted and dependent on something outside of you and me, they are dependent
on what has been given or bestowed upon you and me. And what has been given and bestowed? You have been given Christ; the Savior who is
for you. Truly, Jesus healed the leper;
He reached out and touched lepers; He reached out and touched sinners. Today, we hear that Jesus does the same—for
you! You are not at a distance. The Word declares you clean. Jesus bridged the gap for you. All of this is done for you.
Baptized Saints, you have a
better reason to give thanks than any other group of people. You have Christ, which means you have
forgiveness, life, and salvation.
You have eternal life. You have peace with God. “We Christians have all this, not because of
any special merit or worthiness on our part, but because of the Father’s grace
for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. We
have this because Jesus finished the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross.”[4]
This blessed Thanksgiving
Day, “Enjoy all the riches of God. Enjoy
both the earthly riches and the heavenly treasure. They are all gifts from our dear Father in
Heaven who loves us and sent His Son to save us. We have good reason to give thanks … not just
tomorrow … but every day. In fact, we
look forward to giving thanks for eternity.”
The peace of God, which
passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Martin Luther, Galatians Commentary.
[2] Francis Rossow, Gospel
Handles: Finding New Connections in Biblical Texts (St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House, 2001), 241.
[3] Martin Luther, Complete
Sermons of Martin Luther: Volume 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1905), 67.
[4] James T. Batchelor, “Thanksgiving Eve Sermon”
http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3944
(11 November 2014).
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