14TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY-1

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

In this same Savior, dear hearers.

True, the Holy Scriptures report that after the .world had stood for 2,000 years God from that time on chose a certain nation to whom he especially revealed himself and through whom he intended to preserve and transmit the pure, true religion; nonetheless, Holy Writ also reports that outside of the nation chosen by God there always were people who likewise recognized the true God, believed in him, served him faithfully, and received eternal life. Yes, Scripture even reports that often then most faithful confessors were outside the visible, orthodox Church of God.

If we scan the whole Bible we will find this confirmed. Genesis 12 tells us that God chose Abraham and his descendants to be his people and his Church; one would, therefore, suppose that at that time outside of Abraham and his family there must have been no other true believers on earth. But that is not so. Two chapters later we are told that one time when Abraham returned from a war, Melchizedek, a king of Salem, met him, of whom we read, "He was a priest of the

most high God." Gen 14:18. Hence, outside of Abraham1 s family and the visible church there still.were true servants of the true God. Yes, Melchizedek was even placed over Abraham, for we are told that he blessed Abraham and he, in turn, gave him one tenth of all his goods.

Moreover, when the nation of Israel had gone out of Egypt as God's chosen nation, had seen God's most wonderful revelations and deeds, and experienced the most miraculous divine deliverances, and yet murmured against the Lord and wished they were back in heathen Egypt, behold! while they were on the way through the wilderness, a heathen named Jethro came to them; when he heard what God had done to Israel, he was immediately converted from his heart to the true God, burst into loud praise of this God, brought his sacrifice, and said, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods." Ex 18:11.

Again, when the preaching of the Prophet Jonah in the kingdom Of Israel among the nation of the true visible church had been almost entirely fruitless, God sent this prophet to the great heathenish and godless city of Nineveh to preach repentance to it. And behold! as fruitless as Jonah's penitential sermons were among God's own people, just so glorious were the results iri that city. All of the inhabitants of the city, from the king down to the lowliest beggar, repented in sackcloth and ashes.

If we proceed into the writings of the New Testament, we again find the very same thing. We are told that Christ came unto his own, unto his chosen Church, and they received him not; only a few believed in him; whereas often it was the heathen or those who came from, the heterodox sects, who revealed the strongest faith of all. Who was it, for example, of whom the Lord exclaimed, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel"? Mt 8:10. It was not an orthodox Jew, but the heathen centurion of Capernaum. And who was the woman over whose faith the Lord himself was so amazed that he exclaimed, "O woman, great is thy faith! be it unto thee even as thou wilt"? Mt 15:28. She was not an Israelite but a heathen, a Canaanite. And finally, who was that merciful man, of whom the Gospel of a previous Sunday speaks, who so mercifully assisted him who had fallen among murderers, whilst with a hard heart the priest and Levite from the orthodox Church passed by the wretched man? He was a Samaritan, a person from a heterodox communion.

Is it not noteworthy that even Holy Scripture so repeatedly expressly reports that often those who were not in outward communion with the true visible, church showed the strongest faith and the most ardent love? Why would God hold them up to us in his Word? That we should be indifferent as to which religion and church one joins? That we should think that every faith, even a false faith, saves? Far be it! Now since we hear in our today's Gospel that a Samaritan was firm in the faith, whilst his nine Jewish companions fell from faith, let us now seek the answer to the question: What does the fact teach us that of the ten it was a Samaritan who remained firm in the faith?

The text. Luke 17:11-19.

After the evangelist has related that of the ten lepers whom Christ,had healed, only one remained firm in the faith, returned, gave glory to God, and humbly thanked Christ, he adds with great impressiveness, "And he was a Samaritan." By these words the evangelist clearly intends to direct our attention above all to this circumstance as being especially noteworthy in this story. And indeed why, my dear hearers? Undoubtedly because this circumstance offers the readers a most important and necessary lesson. Therefore, let us now answer the question,

WHAT DOES THE FACT THAT OF THE TEN LEPERS IT WAS THE SAMARITAN

WHO REMAINED FIRM IN THE FAITH TEACH US?

I answer, it teaches us:

I. That Even Among the Heterodox there are Those who will be Saved, and

II. But that Even They will be Saved Only Through the True Faith.

Lord Jesus, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by you. You are the Door; if anyone enters through you, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. In you rests all our salvation. Nothing can condemn us, no sin, no error, if we believe in you from our whole heart, but nothing can save us, no work nor knowledge be they ever so great, if we do not seize you in true faith. Oh help us then that all of us place our hope alone in faith in you. Guard us, therefore, from the deceit of an imagined faith and work this true faith itself in all our hearts. And since you hav3 given us the. grace of being in your pure orthodox church and partaking of your, pure Word and sacraments, grant that we may faithfully use this great grace, so that heterodox Samaritans may never arise against us and shame us, but that we fight the good fight here, keep the faith, and finally receive the crown. Hear us, Lord Jesus! Amen.

I.

In our days not only do the Roman priests still teach that outside their church there is no salvation but even in the midst of Protestantism, yes, in the midst of the Lutheran Church more and more teachers arise who claim the same for their church.

Now if this were true, if true children of God .and true Christians were to be found only in the visible orthodox church, if only there there were those who could be saved, Christ's kingdom and work would really be in an inexpressibly tragic state. For example, now small is the number of Lutheran Christians in comparison to the many millions of other Christians! And again how few true, living, believing Christians there are even amongst those who call themselves Lutherans! What a poor King of Truth and Grace would our dear Lord Jesus Christ then be!

Yes, if only those who are in the visible orthodox church could be saved, then millions would have to be lost merely because they were born of parents who instilled in them many errors early in youth; then salvation would depend not only upon faith in Jesus Christ but also upon a good, pure, complete knowledge; then, if one wanted to be certain of his salvation, it would not be enough to know that one has a Savior and take comfort in him; then at the risk of losing his salvation everyone would of necessity have to know whether he is in the true visible church and of necessity, therefore, the church would be a second savior for a Christian.

Of course, it is true, if God himself would say this in his Word, we would have to believe it and.be silent. But where is it written that no one can be saved who is still caught by this or that error? Where is it written that something else is absolutely necessary for salvation in addition to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? We find nothing of that either in the writings of the Old or the New Testaments, neither in the writings of the apostles nor the prophets. On the contrary, all such thoughts are refuted in our today's Gospel with the brief phrase, "And he was a Samaritan."

This was true of the Samaritans. When the Assyrian king Shalmaneser had led the ten tribes, who had separated from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, into the Assyrian captivity, only a few were permitted to remain behind; when thereafter the king of Assyria colonized the country of Samaria with heathen, there also arose through this mixture of Jews and heathen a mixing and falsification of religion. Whilst according to God's command the true Jews held their services at Jerusalem, the Samaritans in their own devotions, on the other hand, without God's command built a temple on Mt. Gerizim; and whilst the true Jews accepted all the writings of the Old Testament from Moses to the Prophet Malachi as God's Word, the Samaritans, on the other hand, accepted only the Five Books of Moses. Therefore, the Samaritans were almost universally condemned and avoided by the Jews as godless, heterodox heretics, so that the Jews supposed they could accuse Christ the most severely if they called him a Samaritan; thus they intended to say that Christ was a hardened heretic.

Now let us go back to our text and see how Christ acted toward such a Samaritan who was a leper. We hear that the Samaritan joined the other nine lepers, who perhaps were Jews, in crying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And what did the Lord answer? Did he perhaps say, You nine who are members of the orthodox Jewish Church I will and can help, but among you is a member of a heterodox sect, a Samaritan; him I will and cannot help; first let him renounce all his errors, forsake his erring congregation, and become a member of the true visible church; then, and only then I will take pity on him? Do we hear something like that from Christ? No, not a single word; but scarcely had the whole group besought him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," when Christ also helped all without exception in body and soul, the Samaritan as well as the Jews.

So tell me, what is the first thing which this miracle teaches us? First of all, it teaches most clearly that even among the heterodox there are those who have experienced Christ's help and will be saved; for this is certain: Christ does not change; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever; as once he was minded and as once he acted, so is he minded and so he acts today as well.

Christ is not here and there with his grace, but wherever his Word is. Therefore, heaven is open to man everywhere. As once Christ did not travel only through Judea but, as we hear in our Gospel, went also through Samaria and Galilee which is inhabited by heterodox, so even now Christ goes through those congregations, cities, and countries where false preachers twist and falsify his Word, provided they confess his Word as his Word before men. Yes, Christ is such a Good Shepherd, that he takes pity especially upon those poor souls who are as sheep having no shepherd. The less such lost souls hear of the true way to heaven in their churches, the more mightily Christ works in them in secret through his Holy Spirit, if they seek light and comfort in his Word. And even if in the midst of hosts of deceivers and heretics they cry to him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," Christ does not look at the person, he helps them all in body and soul without making a distinction and saves them. Änd if because of a weakness a person is still in the grasp of great errors, if he is earnestly trying to be saved, Christ nevertheless helps him if he turns to him, just as he helped Lot in the midst of Sodom, just as he helped the three men in the midst of the fiery furnace, and just as he helped Daniel in the midst of ravening, roaring lions.

Therefore, my friends, let us free ourselves from that dangerous error of our times, according to which one denies grace and salvation to all who do not enjoy the grace of being born, baptized, trained, and instructed in a visible, orthodox church. Let us not foolishly and wickedly want to bind the helping

hands of the Savior which he stretches out to all sinners, nor set limits to his grace. Let us confess with Christ, "The wind bloweth where it listeth," and praise him that he so gladly grants salvation to all sinners and, therefore, also to us and, therefore, has subjects of his blessed kingdom of grace even in the midst of his foes.

II.

My friends, the fact that of the 10 lepers it was the Samaritan who remained firm in the faith teaches us a second important truth; permit me to present that to you briefly.

As in our days there are Christians who cherish the error that no one outside the visible, orthodox church can be saved, so there are also such so-called Christians who cherish the opposite error, who think that nothing depends upon what a person believes, provided that he lives correctly. They say: What do you want with faith; just be a good person and you will be saved. They think that one religion is as good as the next; and just as long as a person is earnest about his religion and acts as his conscience directs, he will be saved. A heathen who zealously serves his gods, a Mohammedan who lives strictly by the Koran, and a Jew who clings scrupulously to his Jewish laws will enter heaven just as well as a Christian. There are many ways to heaven and every religion is one such way.

Is this to be confirmed by the fact that Christ had mercy on the heterodox Samaritan as on the orthodox Jews? Is this actually to follow that one can be saved through every faith? Absolutely not!

Let us consider the example of the Samaritan somewhat more closely. It is true, my friends, that because he was trained in his heterodox sect, this man may have cherished very many errors, and since he as a Samaritan considered only the Five Books of Moses as God's Word, he may have known much less of the promised Messiah than the orthodox Jews. But what had happened to him? He was visited with a great affliction; God had permitted him to contract the most fearful and loathsome of all sicknesses, leprosy, which even in the writings of Moses was called God's punishment on account of sin. This had reminded the poor Samaritan of his sins and deeply humbled him. He might well have thought that because he was such a great sinner, God would never again take pity on him.

Yet behold! he heard that a certain Jesus traveled throughout the country; he was most gracious and friendly toward the greatest sinner, helped all the wretched who called to him, and did great miracles; without a doubt he was the promised Messiah. How often the poor Samaritan must have thought and sighed: Oh that this Jesus would come once into this region! And lo! his wish was fulfilled; Jesus came. With the other nine Jewish lepers he immediately raised his voice and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on me!" And when Jesus said to the lepers, "Go show yourselves unto the priests." what did the Samaritan do? He not only did not refuse to go to the Jewish priests because Jesus had said that to him, but in a wonderful way he alone, when he saw that he was healed, quickly turned around again, praised God with a loud voice, fell on his face at Jesus' feet, and thanked him.

Why indeed did and could Christ help the Samaritan even though he was a member of a heterodox sect? Perhaps because in spite of all his errors he was a pious, virtuous man? No, the Lord himself states the reason when he finally cried, "Arise, go thy way; thy FAITH hath made thee whole." V. 19.

So, what does the example of the Samaritan teach us? Clearly this: that

among the heterodox there are indeed those who have experienced Christ's help and will be saved, but that even they receive salvation only through true faith.

Yes my friends, that even among the heterodox there are those who will be saved is not due to the fact that a person can even be saved by unbelief or a false faith, but to the fact that though a person has many errors he can nevertheless have a true, living faith in Jesus Christ in his heart worked by the Holy Ghost.

It is true: the person who is in an orthodox church and, therefore, has a good pure literal knowledge of all Christian teaching enjoys a great advantage, yet he can in spite of all his good literal knowledge be without the true faith and be lost. Then if a person is not poor in spirit, if he does not have a humble, broken, and crushed heart, if he does not live in fear and trembling of every sin, even the very least, to him his good knowledge becomes only a poison and his ruin; of him we read, "Knowledge puffeth up." On the other hand, it is also true: the person who is in a heterodox sect and, therefore, cherishes many errors is in great danger of being killed by the poison of errors; yet if an erring Christian is upright, if he lets himself be brought to the knowledge of his great sinful misery by God's Word, so that he casts away all trust in himself, hungers and thirsts after Christ's righteousness, places his only hope in God's free grace in Christ, and perseveres in this faith until the end, then that person will be saved as truly as Jesus Christ died on the cross a Savior of all sinners and for the reconciliation of the entire world.

Now then, my dear hearers, let us also take the warning to heart which is in the story of the thankful Samaritan who remained firm in the faith. The heterodox Samaritan came to the true faith, remained firm in it, and was saved; the orthodox Jews also came to the faith but again fell away and were lost. That can happen also to us. Many a member of a sect even now honestly and earnestly seeks his Savior with true tears of regret and the heartfelt sighs of an inner longing, forsakes the world and sin, never again looks back, and Christ, graciously covets his sins and errors and saves him. Of what profit is it to us that we, on the other hand, are members of the orthodox church if we do not earnestly seek Christ nor faithfully hold fast to him, but along with the glory of our faith and pure doctrine again become proud, secure, worldly, greedy, and the like?

Oh that Christ will not someday have to say: Were not all who were baptized cleansed, but where are my Lutheran Christians? For this is the way Christ expressly speaks, "Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom," that is, the external members of the true visible church, "shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mt 8:11,12. Oh that at that time none of us Lutherans may be in this group!

Amen.

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