Matth. 8, 1-13.
And when he was come down from the mountain, much people followed him. And, behold, a leper came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, and said: I will do it; be cleansed. And straightway he was cleansed from his leprosy. And Jesus said unto him, See thou tell no man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded, for a testimony against them. And when Jesus was come into Capernaum, a certain centurion came unto him, and besought him, saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, and in great affliction. Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man, and subject to the authorities, and have under me soldiers: but if I say to one, Go, he goeth; and to another, Come, he cometh: Come hither, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him: Verily I say unto you, I have not found such faith in Israel. But I say unto you, That many shall come from the morning and from the evening, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and it shall be done unto thee according to thy faith. And his servant was healed at that very hour.
In today's Gospel, we are given two stories: the first about the leper whom the Lord made clean, and the second about a centurion who had a sick servant. The evangelist reports that Christ performed such miraculous signs soon after his long sermon on the mountain. For this is how it was to happen, that he first preached and then testified to his sermon with miracles, so that everyone could judge that the sermon was true and not false, and would believe sooner.
(2) We do not need miraculous signs, praise God, for the doctrine has already been testified to with miraculous signs, so that no one should doubt it. Nevertheless, it is especially necessary for those who speak the word not only to be able to speak as Christians, but also to live as Christians, and to bear witness with the work of doctrine and let their faith be seen. For the kingdom of God does not stand, as St. Paul says, in mere words, but in power. Where doctrine and work are in harmony, there it produces fruit. Since, on the other hand, everyone
*This sermon is taken from the interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew.
must fret when life is evil and does not rhyme with doctrine.
Now these two miraculous works are not only to be regarded as a testimony of doctrine (for because they are such works, which are beyond all human power and ability, reason must conclude for itself, as we hear in Nicodemo, John 3:2, that no one can do such signs, except God be with him), but are also to be regarded as examples of faith and love. For who does not see what a kind heart our dear Lord Christ has, that he allows himself to be raised up and helped with a word, when otherwise all the world cannot help? This is an indication that he does not mean any harm to the poor, afflicted, miserable people; otherwise he would do as we do, when we are unkind and angry, if someone comes and wants or desires something from us, we do not give anyone a good word. Christ does not do that. The leper has not yet opened his mouth, but soon Christ is there, touches him, and says that he will gladly help him; and he helps him.
4 Such goodwill should not only provoke us to seek help from him in our needs and hope that he will not abandon us, but should also make it clear to us that we can
We have also shown such love and kindness to our neighbor, and in such work, like Christ, see nothing but obedience to God and the neighbor's need and improvement. For Christ seeks neither honor nor good with such help; he only sees that the poor man needs such help, and that God's honor is thereby promoted and obedience is thus rendered to him.
(5) But by doing this, you do not serve God by doing something good for someone, so that he may serve you again and you may enjoy such good again, but you serve yourself with it. But he who wants to serve God and his neighbor rightly does not look at his benefit, but only at the need that exists, and that God wants it and has thus commanded that one should not leave one's neighbor in need, even if one should never enjoy it for a straw, nor even earn all ingratitude with it. As we see in another story, where Christ cleanses ten lepers, and only one comes back and thanks him for the benefit, the other nine would not have looked at him. It is not possible that Christ did not know of such ingratitude beforehand. But regardless of such ingratitude, since they ask him, he helps them and commands God to do the rest.
6 Likewise, one may say of love in the other miraculous sign with the centurion. Christ reckons all these things together so that God's grace and goodness may be praised and the poor people may be helped in their need. This means a true love that looks at nothing but God's word and command.
7 The example of faith is also exceedingly beautiful, that the leprous man, who otherwise by reason of the law may not go among the people, nor speak to them in their presence, nor do otherwise, comes to the Lord Christ without all fear, falls down before him, and asks, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me. There one sees both: he believes firmly and undoubtedly that Christ is so kind and so all-powerful that he can help him in his illness, since otherwise it was impossible for all men to help him; yet he, the Lord Christ, like other men, walked along without any special pomp or appearance; nevertheless, whether he had been able to help him or not, he was able to help him.
If he firmly believes this, he sends such a request home to the Lord Christ, if he does not want to help him, that is, if it would be against God's honor and his blessedness, he will gladly tolerate and bear such misery.
(8) This means not only to believe rightly, but also to pray rightly; as it is always the case with one another: he who believes rightly prays rightly; he who does not believe rightly cannot pray rightly. For with prayer it must first be so that the heart is certain that God is so gracious and merciful that he will gladly turn our distress around and help us.
9. but especially such trust should be firm and certain in the things that concern God's glory and our salvation, such as forgiveness of sins, salvation against the devil and death, that God will give His Holy Spirit into our hearts, keep us in His word, not let us fall into any temptation, and increase in faith and love all the days etc. Such things serve primarily for the glory of God and our salvation. For this reason, the heart should never doubt when we ask God that He will gladly give it and not deny us such a request. For this we need God's help, and God has promised it to us in His Word.
10 But whoever would ask in such matters, as the leper does here: "Lord, if you are willing," forgive my sin, make me blessed etc., prays wrongly. For we cannot doubt God's will that he will do this, since he has already revealed his will to us in his word, that he wants everyone to be saved, and for this reason he let his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, pay for all the sin of the world on the cross, and commanded that everyone should hear him, accept him and believe in him.
(11) Why does the leper make his request by adding this word, "If you are willing, you can cleanse me"? Here one must look at the trade, what it is about. Earlier I said that as far as our blessedness is concerned, and God's glory without means, prayer must not be put in doubt. For God's will is evidently that He wants His glory and our blessedness unhindered. But such an opinion has nothing to do with the temporal. One can
be poor, sick, miserable and despised, and yet be saved, as is the case with all Christians. Since happiness does not lie in such temporal lack, but such lack can often lead to something good, whoever asks for salvation and help should believe that God can and will help; but he should still put his will in God's will: if it does not serve God's glory, or if it is detrimental to our salvation, we would gladly bear such a cross longer.
(12) That is, to pray rightly in such matters, namely, to believe that God can help; and yet to set God neither time, measure, nor goal as to how and when He should help us. For it is common with us that we do not always know what and how we should ask, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:26. On the other hand, we must confess that God knows what is best for His glory and our salvation. Therefore, we should put our will in His and not doubt that if such a request is for His glory and our salvation, He will surely hear us.
(13) Therefore, we should keep this example in mind, so that we also learn to pray in this way, and have no doubt in our hearts that God is gracious to us, that He knows our needs and troubles, and that He wants our needs and troubles to be taken care of. We should firmly believe this, and yet throw ourselves down and say: Lord, you know the time and the hour, therefore do what is good for me and honest to your name. Just as the leper does here: that Christ can help him, he doubts nothing; that he will help him, he doubts nothing; for otherwise he would not have cried out to him, where he would have had a doubt about his will. But besides this, he must confess that it is not his place, hour, manner and way to determine when and how he is to be helped. Such faith and obedience are especially pleasing to the Lord Christ; therefore he helps the poor man at the hour, in the place and in the way he should not have desired.
14 Hence the beautiful sayings from the prophets, Ps. 27, 14: "Wait for the
My soul waits for the Lord, and I hope in his word; my soul waits for the Lord from dawn to dawn. My soul waiteth for the Lord from morning to morning"; Hab. 2:3: "Whether the promise be consumed, wait for it; it shall surely come, and not be pardoned." For this can be seen in all histories, that the help finally does not remain outside, even if it is delayed for a long time. God also has his special reckoning on this. For that is why He does not hear so soon, and delays the help, so that He may have cause to give more and more abundantly than we can pray for or understand, as St. Paul says Eph. 3:20.
(15) What does the Lord mean by this, that after he has cleansed the leper, he directs him to the priest, and commands him to offer the sacrifice, as Moses commanded? It is not wrong to say that in this case the Lord Christ has presented us with an example of love, because he, who had the power, does not want to deprive the priests of what was given and granted to them by God; that we should also let everyone retain his rights and not deprive anyone of what is due to him.
16 But the most important reason for this command is that the Lord wants his miraculous work to be publicly witnessed, even by his enemies. For the priest to accept the sacrifice from him, and to give him the testimony that he is pure, serves to show that he and all men should have accepted Christ and believed in him as the true Messiah. For there were prophecies that Christ would do such miraculous works when he came into the world. Therefore the Lord spoke these words, saying, "Offer the gifts which Moses commanded for a testimony against them. As if to say, "They will have to confess that you are pure and that you have been helped; but that they still do not believe in me and do not want to accept me as the Messiah, that is a pure and stubborn will, which must be smelled. Nevertheless such a testimony against them shall serve others, that they accept me and believe in me.
17 The pope wanted to establish the confession from this command, because the sin is not
Leprosy can be compared to showing oneself to the priest and thus being cleansed of sins. But it is a very lazy reason. For what do we care what God commanded the Jews for leprosy? We have no such priests. And if we did, it is certain that the priests did not make the lepers clean; but if they were clean, they gave them the testimony that they were clean. But how does this rhyme with confession, since it was thought to be for the forgiveness of sins? For the lepers did not show the priests the leprosy, but a beautiful clean body, when they came before the priest with the sacrifice.
18 But it is useless to refute such lazy jokes. Whoever wants to confess, let him do so. But we know of a right and necessary confession only when the heart rises up against God and confesses its sin. This is a confession of the heart, which does not lie, like the confession of the ears or mouth. Nevertheless, such confession made against God does not make one pure or pious; how could ear confession do so? But this makes one pure and pious, that one with faith clings to the Lord Jesus and his word, and believes in the name of Jesus forgiveness of sins, as the same is promised to us in the word. That is enough of the first example.
The other miracle with the sick servant is also a testimony of the teaching of Christ, that one must confess, because God holds thus with him with miracles, that his teaching is pure, right and good, and that he is the right Messiah or Christ.
20 But besides this, here is a fine example of a special, high and great faith in the centurion; as the Lord himself praises such faith to such an extent that he has not found anything like it in Israel or among the holy people.
21 Such faith is first seen in the fact that this centurion, though not a Jew but a Gentile, nevertheless sends to the Lord Christ with full confidence that he will not pay him anything, but as he is able, so will he help him. For where this confidence is not firmly established in his heart
If he had not been to JEsu, he would not, as Lucas writes, have bothered the elders of the Jews and sent them to JEsu. But that he sent them to him is an indication that he hopes to obtain something from him.
(22) With such trust and faith there is a peculiarly high and great humility that he does not consider himself worthy to go to Christ himself and ask him, but first sends the elders of the schools, and then, when he hears that the Lord is coming, he sends his friends to meet him, as St. Lucas says, and asks him not to bother, because he considers himself unworthy that the Lord should go after him. So he, the Lord, could do the thing for which he was asked with one word, even though he was not there personally. This centurion believes this so surely that he sets his own example, saying, "I am a man subject to the authorities, and I have soldiers under me, and I say to one, 'Go, and he will go;' and to the other, 'Come, and he will come: Come hither, and he shall come; and to my servant, Do this, and he shall do it." If then my word be so strong, who am a man; how much more must it be strong, saith he to Christ, when thou speakest a word! This means not only believing, but also preaching and teaching about faith and its nature in the best and most glorious way. Therefore it would be desirable that we could also believe in Christ, who dwells so richly with us through his word, even though we do not see his person.
(23) It is a very good example that this man can rest so surely and truly on the word of Christ. First of all, he makes sure of everything that is good for Christ; then he does not ask any more, because he is only supposed to say one word. He waits for this word with the highest confidence and joy, as for the only treasure, so that his servant will no longer lack anything, but will be fresh and healthy.
(24) Learn to follow him, you who already have the word. For there are the comforting promises that God will be gracious through Christ, and that through faith in Christ we shall have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But we lack the heart that this centurion has here, who thinks, "If I have the word, I have it.
everything, then what the word promises will follow immediately. We cannot do this; therefore it follows that we pay no attention to the word, and in the meantime gape at other things; although the word is all-powerful and, as this centurion here believes, cannot lie. What he promises will certainly happen and be done to us.
Now such faith is to be praised all the more because this centurion is a Gentile, who has no promise like the Jews, and therefore must not presume or boast of the honor that the Jews, as God's people, had. For this is the nature of faith, that it makes humble hearts, which do not think much of themselves, nor are hopeful, and therefore cling to the mere grace and mercy of God.
(26) We should also take comfort in this, so that when this thought comes into our hearts, that we must confess how we are poor, miserable sinners, and can boast of neither worthiness nor merit, we will not nevertheless despair, but cling to the promise of God and desire His grace. Such things are pleasing to God, and He wants them from us. Otherwise it would not be called grace if we did not come to the promise unworthily and undeservedly. Like this centurion: he cannot boast, like the Jews, that God owes him something; therefore he himself may not come before the Lord Christ, but thinks: "It is lost with me, I must enjoy other people; nevertheless he holds fast to this: The man is so kind and friendly, he will not let me.
(27) This is called and is right faith and right humility, to fear because of unworthiness, and yet not to despair. For God wants both from us: first, that we should not be proud; and second, that we should not despair, but wait for grace; as the 147th Psalm v. 11. says: "The Lord is well pleased with
To those who fear him and wait for his goodness."
28 The Jews did not do this, for they thought that God would be favorable to them and do all good, which He would do; for they kept His will, and deserved it for Him; they became proud and sure, and despised grace. Therefore the Lord passed such a heavy judgment on them, saying, "Many shall come from the morning and from the evening, and shall sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This is what shameful unbelief does, that they are so hopeful and despise grace. Therefore, as little as it helps them that they are Abraham's seed, so little shall it hurt the Gentiles that they are not Abraham's children, if they only hold to Christ with firm faith and sigh for grace and mercy. For this is God's pleasure, that He may let those who are full go hungry, but He will satisfy those who are hungry, regardless of whether they are Gentiles or Jews. For neither Gentile nor Jew, neither circumcision nor foreskin is valid before God, but only faith in Christ, that one may throw oneself down in all humility and desire nothing but mercy.
(29) So this gospel, in addition to love, teaches very finely about faith, what kind it is, how it keeps to the word and waits for the grace of God in all humility. Whoever does this, it will be granted to him, as it was to the leper and afterwards to this fine centurion, that it will be done to him as he believes; that is, just as he alone has God's goodness and grace in his heart, desires it and relies on it, so God alone will deal with him according to grace, accept him and help him. May God grant us His Holy Spirit, who will also awaken such confidence in grace through Christ in our hearts and thus lead us to salvation, amen.