Matthew 8:1-13; Romans
12:16-21; 2 Kings 5:1-15a
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Lord,
I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but speak only Your Word,
and my servant will be healed. Do you
hear the faith of the Centurion whom Jesus praises saying, “Truly, I tell you,
with no one in Israel have I found such faith?” Jesus made a point of this
Gentile’s confession within earshot of His Jewish disciples and hearers so that
they might know that it is faith that makes one an heir of Abraham and not
Jewish descent or the works of our hands. It is faith that clings to God’s Word
of promise and trusts in Him that saves us by God’s free grace: grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone.
Indeed, this doctrinal axiom was stated
by God to Abraham when He made His covenant with Him saying, “Look toward
heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your
offspring be.” We are told that Abraham believed the LORD, and the LORD counted
Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. This is to say that Abraham was not
righteous in himself, and neither was his faith righteousness, but rather the
LORD chose to look upon Abraham’s faith in this way and to count his faith to
him as righteousness. Abraham contributed nothing in his part of the covenant –
nothing that is, except for his faith, faith that God Himself had raised up
within him.
And, so is it with you as well. You
bring nothing to the table to offer to or to negotiate with the LORD. Indeed,
spiritually, you were not even alive before God’s gracious intervention, but
you were dead in sin and unable to make any movement toward God spiritually,
mentally, or physically. You were like Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha,
Jesus’ friend, who was dead and buried in his tomb. Could Lazarus have done
anything to change his dead condition? Could he have chosen to rise up and walk
and to accept Jesus into his heart? No. The only thing Lazarus could have done was
to waste, and stink, until he was no more. So, also, you were conceived and
born in sin that leads to death. You were spiritually deaf, dumb, and blind
until the Word of God opened your ears and eyes and raised you from death to
life in Him. Your faith, like Abraham’s, is the LORD’s doing, and it is
marvelous in our eyes.
And, truly, even after faith and
conversion, you are not worthy in yourself that the Lord should enter under
your roof. However, the Lord has made you to be worthy by His grace, which you
receive through the faith He has raised up within you (just like Abraham and Lazarus!),
and therefore you are worthy! You are worthy because the Lord has made you to
be worthy, even as you believe because the Lord has called you to faith, and
therefore you live, because the Lord has given you His life.
Indeed this is true for all the Lord’s
saints from Adam and Eve to you, your children, and your children’s children,
even unto those whose life is yet to be conceived. We all inherit Adam’s sin
and the death that is sin’s due wage. And, likewise, we are all saved by God’s
grace alone through faith alone in God’s Word alone (which is to say, Jesus
Christ alone). Therefore, in terms of justification before God in Jesus Christ,
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no
male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” But, you see, this
passage from Galatians does not teach the equality and non-differentiation of
roles as is popularly thought today, but rather it teaches the universal
atonement of all humanity in Jesus’ death and resurrection which we all may receive
through faith in Him. Therefore, St. Paul continues by saying, “And if you are
Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” And, here
the Apostle is teaching to the Church what Jesus taught His disciples: “I tell
you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” But, those who come do so by
God-given faith in His gracious gift of His Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
Our First Mother Eve had this God-given
faith. The LORD made His first promise of salvation shortly after our First
Parent’s fall saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between
your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his
heel.” While this promise was made directly to the serpent, Eve took those
words to heart and believed. When she gave birth to her firstborn son, Cain,
Eve famously proclaimed, “I have begotten a Man, the LORD!” believing that the
LORD had already fulfilled His promise, delivering the Seed of Promise. While
she was mistaken about the identity of the promised seed, Eve’s faith in the
LORD’s Word of promise is extraordinarily clear. As an interesting side-note,
Jewish tradition holds that Cain’s name was a prophecy of the instrument he
would later use to murder his brother Abel, a reed cane. Further, instead of
Eve’s faith being shaken by the horrible sin of her firstborn son whom she believed
came in fulfillment of the LORD’s promise, Eve named her third son Seth, a name
that means “planted” as in “a planted seed.” Again, though she was at first
mistaken about the identity of the LORD’s promised seed, nevertheless, she
remained faithful that the LORD would keep His promise and provide.
There were many faithful men and women
between Adam and Eve and Joseph and Mary, including Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David. And then comes Mary. In many ways, Mary was a
Second Eve. If Eve was the “mother of all the living” who, by her sin, plunged
all her offspring into death, then Mary is the New “Mother of all the Living”
who, by her faith believed the Word of the LORD, as incredible and ridiculous
as it surely seemed, that she would conceive and bear the Son of God who would
save His people from their sins, and in faith replied saying, “Let it be to me
according to your Word.”
“Let it be to me according to your
Word.” “But only speak your Word, and my servant will be healed.” “Abraham
believed the Word of the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” This
is the Christian faith: Faith in the Word, and in the Word of God made flesh,
Jesus. It is this faith that God counts as righteousness, Christ’s
righteousness imputed to you by grace. You receive this faith as a gift, a gift
that lays hold of Jesus and clings to Him alone. In this faith you receive
Christ’s righteousness, righteousness that clothes you and covers you,
righteousness that you did not earn, merit, or deserve, but that was given to
you, declared of you, by God for the sake of Jesus.
This righteousness was given to God’s
chosen people first, that through them all the world might be embraced and
covered. Hence we are continually given in the Scriptures examples and stories
of Gentiles who believe and are forgiven and declared righteous through faith
in the God’s Word of promise. Indeed, this is the case with Naaman the Syrian
leper who, despite how foolish it seemed to his reason and wisdom, finally
submitted to the Word of God and permitted himself to be washed in the Jordan
River, a precursor of Holy Baptism. When he emerged, his flesh was restored as
that of a newborn child. In a similar way his sins had been forgiven. Also, as
I stated earlier, this is the case with the Roman Centurion who trusted in the
Word of God spoken by Jesus that his servant would be healed without His even
being present.
The Gospel of Christ is the power of God
to salvation for everyone who believes, but apart from faith in Christ, there
is no salvation – neither for the Jew or the Gentile – but only weeping and
gnashing of teeth. The Word of God is powerful, authoritative, and creative,
bringing about what it says. This Word creates faith where there is nothing
even as it brought forth all things in the beginning and continues to sustain
all things to this day. This Word is Truth, the only truth, and therefore it is
the only way of salvation and life. This Word became flesh and made His
dwelling amongst us that, in beholding Jesus, we behold the fullness of the
Godhead and His glory. This Word was baptized for you, obedient for you,
suffered and died for you, and was raised from the dead for you and ascended to
the Father in heaven for you. And this Word will soon return to raise your body
from death to eternal life with Him, which was His goal and purpose for you in
the beginning.
No, because of your sin you are not
worthy that the Lord should enter under your roof. However, you believe and
trust in His Word by the faith He has created in you, therefore the LORD counts
you as righteous and worthy for Jesus’ sake. You have heard His Word to you
this day: “You are forgiven.” Now, therefore, come, and receive His body and
blood shed for you, the source and seal of God’s forgiveness, trusting His
Word, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins,” and receive
the life that He gives and keeps on giving, for where there is the forgiveness
of sins, there must surely follow life and salvation.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment