Sermon manuscript:
At Mt. Sinai God gave Moses and the Israelites laws about
cleanness and uncleanness. Things that are clean are available for use and
consumption. Unclean things are to be avoided if at all possible. Unclean
things make the person who comes into contact with them also unclean. Those who
are unclean need to be made clean before they can participate in worship or be exposed
in any way to God’s presence.
Generally speaking, practically all things in this world
were clean. What was unclean was specifically laid out in the laws given to
Moses. One common denominator among many of these laws was that contact with
what was dead, and especially contact with putrid things, would render that
person unclean. Dead and dying things were to be avoided.
Leprosy is a disease where a person’s skin gets covered with
bumpy, disfiguring rashes. The flesh deteriorates until there is a loss of
feeling. Eventually fingers and toes and other body parts can simply fall off.
As far as cleanness is concerned, here we have death within a person’s own
body. Obviously it made the person unclean. Anybody with leprosy was removed
from common society lest their uncleanness be communicated to those who were
clean. If a person recovered from the disease, he or she would have to go to
the priest, so that they could be examined for any signs of the disease. Then,
after rendering a sacrifice, they could return to society.
In our Gospel reading Jesus came into contact with ten men
who had been excluded from society because of their leprosy. They cried out to
him, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!” Jesus responded, “Go, show
yourselves to the priests.” It was as though Jesus already regarded them as
healed and clean. All they needed to do now was to go to the priests to make it
official. Fortunately, they believed Jesus’s promise of being healed. They
followed his instructions, and as they were on their way they all saw that
their leprosy had gone away.
The focus of Luke’s account of this miracle, however, is not
so much on this removal of leprosy. It is on what follows afterwards. One from
the ten did not continue his journey to the priests. He turned back. He
glorified God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’s feet, thanking
him. And he was a Samaritan.
The Samaritans believed and taught many things that were
wrong about God and God’s Word. The Jews understandably looked down on them.
But here was somebody from outside the orthodox camp who was worshipping God in
spirit and in truth. Although the theology of the other nine presumably was in
better shape than this foreigner’s, they were nowhere to be found.
This is a breaking of the second commandment. The second
commandment requires us to use God’s name rightly. Using God’s Name rightly
means that we should call upon him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give
thanks. The nine did not give thanks. This commandment condemns them.
So what might be done with these nine or with others who,
like them, are ungrateful? Perhaps we could go after them with a birch branch
and start smacking them. We could punish them by beating them until they fall
on their knees with folded hands and start to say their prayers. “Let that be a
lesson to you!”
So long as we have been put in a proper position of
authority, according to the Law we would be entirely within our rights to carry
out something like that. God threatens to punish all who break his
commandments. They broke the second commandment. They are liable to punishment.
Parents and other authorities have the right to compel those under their charge
to do outward things like getting on their knees and folding their hands. And
yet, we can tell that this won’t exactly work.
Requiring a certain posture is one thing. Bringing about a
change of heart is another. All of God’s commandments can compel outward
compliance if the punishments are severe enough. But those commandments and
punishments do not have the power to bring about any inward change. Outwardly
we might comply with any number of rules and laws. That doesn’t mean that we
agree with them. It doesn’t mean that we have any special love for the one who
has made those decrees. We all know intuitively that the person who is brought
to their knees with a gun to their head will not be worshipping God in spirit
and in truth. As soon as the threat of punishment is removed, that person will
get up off their knees, because they were being compelled against their will.
The Samaritan who was praising God and giving thanks to
Jesus was not doing this according to the letter of the Law. That is to say, regulations
were not going through his mind such as: Step 1: Lift up your voice so it is
loud. Check. Step 2: Say nice things about God. Check. Step 3: Fall on your
face. He also was not doing what he was doing out of fear of being punished for
breaking the second commandment. He did what he did because he wanted to. His
heart was in it. This was nothing other than a whole ‘nother miracle.
This second miracle was worked by the Holy Spirit. It is
only by the power of the Holy Spirit that anybody can truly call on the Name of
the Lord, pray, praise, and give thanks. All true and God-pleasing prayer and praise
has to be worked by the Holy Spirit. If it doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit it
is necessarily going to be merely outward, mechanical, compelled, or done with
some ulterior motives. Whatever the case, the praise cannot be genuine and
honest. Only the Holy Spirit working miracles in our heart is capable of
overcoming what otherwise lies within us.
This has immediate practical implications for us. The order
of service that we follow, the liturgy, has words that praise God. But it is
not, in itself, capable of bringing about genuine praise. We have all sensed
this to one extent or another. Some from our circles have gone in search of
something better. If only we said things in a different way, with different
clothes, and with different instruments, then we would truly be praising God!
I will not deny that there are Christians in other churches
that look very different from the way things are in our congregation who are
genuinely praising God in their worship service. I have no doubt that there is
genuine praise in mega-churches as well as in churches that are filled with
incense and all kinds of ancient ceremonies. But the genuine praise is not
because some clever people have come up with something that produces results.
The only reason why there will be genuine praise in any place is because the
Gospel is there, and thus the Holy Spirit is there. The Holy Spirit alone is
capable of bringing about a change of heart.
Many people who do not like the way that we worship with our
liturgy, hymns, and so on, might disagree with me here. They might recall their
own experiences as proof for their argument. They might say that they didn’t
feel anything while they were at a service like ours, whereas they did feel
something at a different kind of service.
This is a common trap. I mentioned before that we can design
our worship services with ulterior motives. One of the ulterior motives our
flesh might have is that we would like to believe that we are believers. That
is to say, we possess something called faith, instead of not possessing faith. The
primary way that we usually believe that we are believers is by the feelings that
we might have. One way that feelings can be changed is by the use of stirring
music, smoke machines, and lasers on the one hand, or by chanting, incense,
silk, and bowing and kneeling on the other. So long as we are not bored we
assume that we must be in good shape. We believe that we are believers. The
more stirred we might be, the better the believer we believe ourselves to be.
This is a dreadful poisoned apple, straight from the devil’s
kitchen. The devil’s specialty is messing around in spiritual things.
Convincing us to believe in our own believing is a very subtle trick. It works
very well because it feels good to believe that we are believers. Feeling that
way must mean that we are one of the good ones. We are like the Samaritan
instead of the nine. We must be well on our way to heaven.
Genuine worship, however, does not come from a focus on our
own feelings. Genuine worship is only brought about by the Gospel. No
regulations or rituals, rewards or punishments can bring it about. At the time
of the Samaritan’s giving thanks, insofar as his worship was genuine, his whole
world was dominated by his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. His faith and praise,
in so far as it was genuine, was not looking at himself or at his feelings. He
was paying attention to Jesus. This was brought about by the Holy Spirit. It was not brought about by any outward
techniques.
You should not go in search of the perfect worship service
in order to give praise to God. You do not need a guitar to worship God, just
as you don’t need an organ to worship God. You need the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is not given through the Law or the manipulation of various outward
techniques. The Holy Spirit comes through the preaching of Christ.
So instead of thinking about where a worship service does or
does not measure up, perhaps you can turn that critical eye on yourself. Maybe
the reason why a worship service is not fulfilling is not the worship service’s
fault, but my own fault. Perhaps I care nothing for the absolution or for the
Lord’s Supper. The healing and health that is offered in these things is of a
much higher caliber than the healing of any disease like leprosy. So why is my
heart so cold?
It is, indeed, mysterious how cold Christians can be. This
is not fixed, however, by guitars or incense. It is fixed by the gift of the
Holy Spirit. Whether he comes or not is not dependent upon our own feelings or
emotions. Jesus promises that the Father will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask
him. This is the thing that we are praying for when we say, “Thy kingdom
come.”
But we should not become obsessed over whether or not we
have the Holy Spirit either. That can be just another way of wondering if we
are a believer or not. That’s usually not a helpful thing to wonder about
because we end up looking in the wrong place. Instead of looking within
ourselves we should put Christ, with all his acceptance of us and his promises
to us before our eyes. What caused the Samaritan to give thanks was the
goodness of Jesus. Jesus is also good to you. He has had mercy on you. He has
died for you. He has been raised for you. He gives you his body to eat and
blood to drink. He gives you everlasting life.
And if you should still feel that you have some leprosy in
your soul, if you still feel as though there is altogether too much deadness
and the loss of feeling in you, do not despair. You are not saved by believing
that you are a believer. You are saved through faith in the Savior, Jesus
Christ. Though you are weak, he is strong. Believing in the Savior whom God has
sent is the highest worship there is. That might or might not be accompanied by
feelings.
When the sun gets covered over by clouds so that you cannot
see it, do you despair and think that the sun is no longer present? Of course
you don’t. You know it is there, even though you cannot see it. So also, if
your faith in Christ gets covered over by some gloominess, does this mean that
Christ has gone away? No. Our feelings might be absent for a time—even for our
own good. He might be training us to rely on him instead of relying on how we
feel. Don’t you think that might be a good lesson for him to teach us? That we
should rely on him instead of on how we feel?
Feelings, though, are good, and one day the cloud will go
away. That is something that we can all look forward to, even if we already
feel as though the sun is fully shining down on us. Our calling on God’s Name,
praying, praising, and giving thanks is so terribly hampered in this life
because of our flesh, the devil, and the world. It’s so hampered that even when
our heart is filled with joy there is still some limping along—some leprosy
that clings to our soul. Not least among the joys of heaven will be the
tremendous use of God’s Name that we will make at that time. So be patient, and
keep your eyes on Jesus.
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