Trinity 14
Dear friends in Christ. Last week in our Lord’s parable we heard about the merciful Samaritan, the man who showed mercy and no end of love to a person who should have been his enemy; in the Merciful Samaritan we then saw a picture of Christ and His mercy, love and care of us sinners. This week we meet another Samaritan—this time not in a parable but in the actual account of Jesus healing this man together with 9 other men suffering from leprosy. What distinguishes this man from the rest is that although all 10 came to Jesus to be healed—and He did heal all 10—only this man, this foreigner, returned to thank Jesus. To be sure all of them were certainly thankful but only this one took the time to give Jesus thanks. To him Jesus says: Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you. Not only did he have bodily healing, but he had true Spirit worked faith, faith that received Jesus’ word of healing and faith that showed itself in the thanking Jesus. Here, Jesus assures the man that his faith is true, saving faith.
In other words, this man was a Christian. What became of this healed leper we don’t know. But what we do know is that the faith that brought him to Jesus, trusted in Jesus for healing and showed itself in thanksgiving was also certainly tried and attacked by the devil, the world, and his own sinful nature in the days and years ahead—just like the faith of each Christian is tried and attacked by these same enemies.
The Christian is a battleground because by the Holy Spirit’s work in the word and sacrament working faith in Christ in our hearts, a new self, the Christian, has been created in us. The new self, the Christian in us, fights the old nature of sin that we were born with; our old sinful self works together with the devil to destroy faith in Christ and bring us back again into the devil’s kingdom of sin, death and damnation. St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. It’s not that good works save us; rather, it’s that evil works—listening to and following our old sinful nature, giving way to the temptation, not listening to the Holy Spirit as He leads us into a life of good works—destroy faith. Just like it was for this healed leper—he was thankful; his faith showed itself in the good work of thanksgiving—so too will our lives show the working/ effect of the Holy Spirit as we, walk by the Spirit.
1. Our text is one verse the Lord had spoken through Malachi, the final OT prophet for 400 years until St. John the Baptizer. As we examine our text, we will see that a life of repentance is the fountain of thanksgiving.
A life of repentance is hearing God’s holy law, taking it to heart, recognizing and being sorry for that sin, and in faith receiving the forgiveness of sin Jesus won for us on the cross and His holy, perfect righteousness. That repentance will show itself as we, rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins, follow the Holy Spirit and strengthened by Him crucif[y] the flesh with its passions and desires.
That’s precisely the problem the Lord, through Malachi, addresses with His OT people: they did not want to hear and accept God’s holy law that was pointing out to them their sin. “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’”
Notice, here, the people, in particular the priests who should have known better, did not want to hear and accept God’s pronouncement of His holy Law. That makes sense—after all God’s law is painful: it points out to us that we are not good enough, that we are sinners; that we earn nothing but God’s wrath; that by our sin we deserve nothing but God’s condemnation; that left to ourselves heaven is shut to us and hell is wide open.
No one wants to hear that. That’s why people will try to make all kinds of excuses for sin; that’s why the standard/ level for what is considered sin is always being lowered; that’s why people compare themselves not to God’s holy law but to notorious sins/ sinners and come out, they think, looking pretty good; that’s why people fill their lives with all sorts of busyness and distractions—even with all sorts of outwardly “good things”—to drown out the voice of God’s holy Law accusing them in the conscience; that’s why the Christians who in faith and love strive to live a holy life are ridiculed by those who, when they see it, feel the prick and sting of God’s holy law.
Our text serves us as a warning, dear Christian, and a call for us honestly to examine our own hearts and lives. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? Are we giving the Lord what He is rightly due—proper thanksgiving and praise, shown not by lip service, a few words that mean nothing, but truly from the heart? The Christian has to be especially on guard here. Do we think that can show up in church and give God our “obligation” and then that we are done? And can live any way we want? Do we think that because God is gracious and merciful that we can live a life of sin, serve self, show up at church or throw up what we think is a prayer and then continue on in that same sin without fighting it? Unless we hear God’s holy law and take it to heart/ apply it to ourselves we will never live a life of repentance and give God the fear, love, thanksgiving He is rightly due.
Notice the horrible condition of those in our text the Lord is addressing. “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. And then these terrible words: But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’” Either they do not recognize their sin, which is bad enough and why God preaches His law to them—or what’s worse they don’t want to stop and even defend their sin. Again, what we see here with these OT priests is a real danger for Christians—we know the Lord and His grace and mercy and so use that to excuse and defend our sin—and like they did, we can put on a false veneer of piety.
The vital thing in our lives as Christians is that we not only hear God’s holy Law but that we also accept it as true for us. We dare not say ‘How have we despised your name?’ or whatever else the sin may be. We dare not resent that God comes to us in His holy law accusing us of sin—instead, let us welcome it. For where there is true love of God, we want to do His will and are happy when we are told what we’re doing is wrong so we can stop. Let us not talk back to God when His holy law accuses us ‘How have we despised your name?’ because not all we think or do is good and perfect. Let us certainly not defend our sin in open, unabashed contempt of His holy Law. Instead, in the humility of faith, when God’s holy Law condemns us, when we feel it crushing us, when we feel His wrath over it, when we are surprised by it because we have been committing a sin in ignorance--let us hear God’s holy law, accept it, and truly from our heart sorrow over it.
2. But let us not remain here—in sorrow over sin. Let us instead in faith grab ahold firmly to the forgiveness of sin in Christ. That’s what makes our state as Christians so blessed: we have the Gospel; we have the absolution that pronounces and gives us the forgiveness of sins Jesus won for us on the cross; we have the Blessed Sacrament in which not only are the forgiveness of sins given us but Jesus’ body and blood—the very sacrifice offered for our sins; we have been baptized, where we not only are forgiven our sins, but we are connected with Jesus’ death and resurrection and we are clothed with Him, His righteousness covering us. As we recognize our sin and our damnable condition but by faith receive the forgiveness of sins in Christ, how can we not continually give our good and gracious Lord thanks and praise for His love and mercy for this, His greatest gift to us of forgiveness of sin and life, both now and forever?
The glorious humility of self that God intends to work in us by proclaiming His law—just and holy and also painful as it condemns us—is the working of the Holy Spirit. Humbled and despairing of self and our ability to save ourselves from God’s wrath and hell, we, then, in Spirit-worked faith receive the forgiveness of our sins. And what is faith doing? It is constantly receiving that forgiveness of sin; it is continually holding on to Christ. Through the holy word and sacrament our good and gracious Lord is strengthening our faith and so strengthening our hold on Him and His gifts of forgiveness and salvation. As faith becomes stronger, as faith is purified through every trial and test, all the greater becomes our thanksgiving to our Lord as we recognize that we are saved by His grace through faith in Christ; as we recognize that our salvation is certain and solid. In other words, the more we hear God’s holy Law and apply it to ourselves, the more then we recognize our sin and inability to save ourselves; and then the more we will in faith cling to Christ and His forgiveness and saving work; and then all the more will our thanks be to the Lord because we recognize that He has done everything to save us from sin, death and hell; and as we recognize this great blessing, how then we will recognize that all that we are, have, enjoy is a gift of God to us!
Our life of repentance—that is, sorrow over sin and faith in Christ for forgiveness of that sin—is the fountain of our thanksgiving, a mark/ characteristic of a Christian. Really, true thankfulness can only flow from the fountain of repentance because if we are still in our sin, under God’s wrath, with only eternal damnation in hell awaiting us—could we really be thankful to God even just for the earthly blessings we enjoy? After all, He will just judge and condemn us anyhow. But now, as His dear Christian—yes, chided and corrected by His holy Law but also comforted and given every blessing in Christ—we enjoy divine gifts and benefits from His heavenly kindness. Like the Samaritan received and enjoyed both earthly and heavenly blessing—so too do we! We cannot be ungrateful and not acknowledge the author of the kindness. We know the fullness of His grace and blessing—and in fact because of it we stand in a new and right relationship with the holy God Himself. In Christ, He is our dear loving heavenly Father and we His dear children, as Isaiah 63.13 says: You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. By His many blessings toward us—especially the blessings of forgiveness and life—He has shown Himself our dear Father and has made it personal to us as through Holy Baptism He brought us into His holy family! Now our lives as His dear children are closely connected with our lives of thanksgiving —thanksgiving not just in outward words but flowing from the heart as we live our lives of thanksgiving imitating and reflecting Him by our faithfulness to Him and by good works that by His Holy Spirit He leads and empowers us to do. We seek to do all things to the glory of Him who loves us and saved us. Our motto as Christians: A son honors his [heavenly] [F]ather, and a servant his [heavenly] [M]aster.
Our life of repentance—sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus—is the fountain from which flows our thanksgiving to Him in heart and deed. INJ Amen