Luke 17,11-19. Trinity 19

In the Name of Jesus

Luke 17,11-19

19. Sunday after Trinity, Proper 23C

Gideon, Judges 6-8

10. October 2010

O Lord Jesus Christ, we know that true Christian faith and hearty confidence in Your Name is the pure and noble gift of the Holy Spirit unto those who are obedient to Your Word. We thank You that You have also kindled this light in our souls, and granted that even we, though yet in great weakness, with such weak faith, may rest all our trust in You alone. Dear Savior, maintain and increase our faith within us. We do believe: O help our unbelief at all times. Let not the bruised reed be broken nor the smoking flax be quenched so long as we live; so that we may always embrace You in a believing heart, trust You without our whole hearts’ confidence, delighting always in the heavenly treasure of Your grace, unto our own peace and comfort, and daily find our joy in You, even unto the end (Löhe 242-3). Amen.

Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to Luke where the holy evangelist writes: ¹¹On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³and lifted up their voices, saying, ,,Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.“ ¹⁴When He saw them He said to them, ,,Go and show yourselves to the priests.“ And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus answered, ,,Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?“ ¹⁹And He said to him, ,,Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.“ This is our text.

Ten are healed, but only one is saved. Ten are restored to life, but only one receives eternal life. Ten were in the midst of the reign of God, but only one has realized this truth.

These statements should not surprise us, for among every crowd only a few will truly comprehend Jesus’ miracle and teaching. First century Judaism longed for the reign of God to dwell in their midst like it had in the days of Moses, the prophets, and the kings. These nine Jewish lepers and the solitary Samaritan leper all longed for the reign of God to arrive and set things right. Nine did not realize the eschatological significance of what had happened to them, namely that the reign of God had arrived in Jesus, but one did, and that one was a Samaritan foreigner (Just 654).

Luke has emphasized in the previous sixteen chapters of his Gospel that the presence of Jesus is the manifestation of the reign of God. ,,Eschatology“ means ,,the study of last things or the last days.“ There are then three questions of eschatological significance in the Gospel according to St. Luke. Q: What is history’s goal? A: The coming day of universal judgment. Q: Who is in control of history? A: Jesus is in control of history. Q: How does the present time relate to the final goal of history? A: This present sinful age will be overtaken and supplanted by the new age to come. This new age will come with effects for the entire cosmos; the whole creation will be affected (Gibbs 29).

Particularly in the healing of the lepers, the eschatological significance for the lepers is that Jesus the Christ, the Eschaton in our midst and in the flesh, has transformed the lepers from the old created order into the realm of the new created order. The old created order is the nature of this fallen and cursed world with sin, sickness, and death. The new created order is the nature of the reign of God with health, healing, and everlasting life.

Part and parcel of Yahweh’s eschatology is the Great Reversal where the last will be first, and the first will be last (Luke 13,30). Q: Was ist das? What is this? A: Lepers will be cleansed. Samaritans and other foreigners will be brought into the reign of God. Both Jews and all the other nations will comprise the Church and be saved. The outcasts receive Jesus by faith and the religious establishment rejects Him (Just 654). The last will be first, and the first will be last (Luke 13,30).

Here then is the law which confronts all people: what do you make of Jesus? He performed miracles. He taught and preached God’s Word. He forgave sins. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He creates faith and gives eternal life. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and many Jewish men and women heard and witnessed the glorious ministry of Jesus, and yet they rejected Him. Their eyes saw the miracles, but they did not comprehend. Their ears heard His sermons, but they did not understand.

The Pharisees then asked Jesus, ,,When would the reign of God arrive?“ Jesus answered them, ,,The reign of God does not arrive with close observation, nor will they say, ‘Behold, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ for behold the reign of God is in your midst!“ (17,20-21). The Pharisees wanted to know what celestial signs and fantastic earthly events would herald how near and where the reign of God would be. Tell, us Jesus, will an alignment of planets in conjunction indicate the arrival of Yahweh’s reign? Teach us, Jesus, what natural disaster will usher in the arrival of the heavenly reign?

Those with blind eyes and deaf ears seek out of this world signs as proof of the reign of God’s imminent arrival. The alignment of planets on 21. December 2012 will not be a sign of the arrival of the reign of God. An earthquake or hurricane that devastates a major city also will not be an indicator that the reign of God is just around the corner. Unbelievers seek breathtaking signs, but those with faith in Jesus know that the arrival of God’s reign occurs in the person and the ministry of Jesus.

John the Baptizer sent his disciples to inquire whether Jesus was the reign of God in our midst. Jesus told them, ,,Go and tell John what you saw and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them“ (7,22). Those whose eyes are opened by faith have already seen the reign of God arrive in Jesus (Just 661) and that this reign was manifested by His miracles and teachings that overturned the old, cursed order of this world.

For the ten lepers, the reign of God arrived in their midst with Jesus, and that reign was manifested in Divine glory when Jesus healed them of their disease. However (Dennoch) the reign of God became an eternal reality for the Samaritan leper who had faith in Christ. He not only believed that Jesus could (and did) heal him, but he furthermore trusted in Jesus for his eternal reward. This is why Jesus told him, ,,Your faith has saved you.“

 

At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is journeying up to Jerusalem where He will suffer His Passion which culminated with His suffering and death on the cross. Jesus’ crucifixion ushers in the eschatological last day with it’s Divine justice.

Temporally, the last day is some time in the future, but Jesus’ advent warps and folds (visual) that day and it’s implications into His own time. The last day is ruled over by the judgment seat of Christ where the wicked are punished and the righteous are rewarded, where the unbelievers are condemned to eternal torment in hell and the believers are welcomed into the eternal life of Paradise. On the cross, our Heavenly Father’s wrath and judgment is poured out. The wicked sinner is punished by the demanding and unrelenting precepts of the law. The last day is manifested on the cross where Jesus bears upon Himself the guilt and sin of all people. Sin is condemned, the sinner is punished, and death results upon the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ act of sacrifice ransoms us back to God because sin and death are accounted for. The last day’s reward for the righteous is now credited to us.

This eschatology finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus and His death and resurrection. Heilseschatologie (salvation eschatology) is the future age of bliss when paradise is restored, and this future age has been ushered in by Jesus. On the cross, Jesus told the insurrectionist crucified at His side, ,,Today you will be Me in Paradise“ (ref). The Samaritan leper had this promise of Paradise by faith, and each one of us also has that same promise of Paradise by faith solo Christo (through Christ alone). Amen.

Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Great Physician of our bodies and souls, as the report about You went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear You and to be saved from their iniquities, so may Your report spread from this house of worship and send the Holy Spirit to draw unto us men and women seeking and desiring salvation so that the gospel that is proclaimed here may be to them a message of healing and security. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

   All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
   Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Jerusalem and Parousia: Jesus’ Eschatological Discourse in Matthew’s Gospel. Copyright © 2000 Jeffrey A. Gibbs.
   Hummel, Horace. The Word Becoming Flesh. Copyright © 1979 Concordia Publishing House.
   Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 9:51– 24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.
   Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.