Your Jesus Has Healed You

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 17th chapter.

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Glory to Thee, O Lord. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.

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And as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying,

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Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When He saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priest.

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And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising

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God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks.

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Now he was a Samaritan. And then Jesus answered, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?

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Was no one found to return and give praise to God except for this foreigner? And He said to him,

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Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. This is the Gospel of the Lord.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, today's Gospel text, it's a little complicated.

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We're going to have to pull in a few other things from the Scriptures in order to understand what is going on here.

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We're going to begin with kind of an easy one to start with. The idea is something like this.

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You'll note that Jesus, in our Gospel text, has been giving sight to the blind. He's been giving hearing to the deaf.

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He has been giving, well, the ability to speak to those who are mute. And you'll note that in so doing, the

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Scriptures always kind of really strongly suggest, if not overtly tell us in some cases, that this points to a bigger problem.

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Spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness, spiritual muteness.

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You get the idea. These themes go together. And then when we get to our

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Gospel text today, then we're dealing with leprosy. Leprosy back in the day was pretty much a death sentence.

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There was no way to cure this disease back then. I think it's called Hansen's disease now.

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There are ways to treat it. But leprosy is like, if you would, the quintessential example in the physical of the corruption that we experience because of sin.

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It's a absolute, devastating, perpetually getting worse disease that results in a horrific, smelly, disgusting, long, slow, languishing death.

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No cure. It's a death sentence. And if you were to think of it this way, nobody takes issue with the fact that when you say, all right, there are two tables in God's Ten Commandments.

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You've got the first table that deals with our vertical relationship with God. You shall have no other gods.

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You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. This has to do with our vertical relationship with God.

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But the second table of the law then deals with our horizontal relationship with each other.

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You shall honor your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.

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You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And then you get all the rules regarding coveting as well.

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This all has to do with the horizontal. And so you're going to note our theologians and Christians throughout the millennia have noted that when you break one of the commandments in the second table of the law, you're always also breaking the first commandment.

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You're always breaking two when you break one of those. Does that make sense? So that being the case, you'll note then that when we look at diseases like leprosy, which are a great and horrible picture of the corruption of sin, we come to a very important realization, that all physical ailments, every single one of them, has their ultimate beginning, their genesis in sin.

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The wages of sin is death, and death comes to us all in so many various and varied ways.

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But all of that being said, we can say that sin is the actual culprit when it comes to all ailments.

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Now, I'm not saying a specific sin that you may have committed. We're talking about sin in general.

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And if you're not sure if you're symptomatic for sin, if you were to think of it in terms of disease, well, this is where our epistle text is quite helpful.

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We have a list of, well, it's not an extensive list, but it's quite a list of different, well, how shall

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I put this, ways in which it manifests. These are the symptoms of the sin sickness that we have.

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Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, you get the idea.

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This is a horrible symptom list. But that shows the absolute corruption of sin, the leprosy, if you would, the leprosy that we all suffer from.

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And so as we look at our gospel text today, note that on some level, this

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Samaritan that, well, comes back and gives praise to God, along with his nine other fellows who were cured, it shows us

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Jesus's compassion, not only towards our physical ailments, but the actual root cause itself, which is sin.

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The Samaritan comes back and he praises God. And it's here where I have to also note, we need a little bit more context as to what's going on here, because if you don't get these details right, then you end up basically scolding people for not thanking

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God enough, and that's not really the point of this text. So let me explain.

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Jesus, in the gospel of John chapter 4, remember when he has that conversation with that Samaritan woman at the well?

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It was noon when she came out, and the reason why is because she was kind of the town pariah, she was not exactly known for her moral fortitude.

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She had had five previous husbands and was currently shacking up with a fellow. So people might say she was a little loose, and so hanging out at the time when people normally draw their water in the cooler parts of the day, well, she would be subjected to scolding and ridicule and things like this.

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So you'll note that Jesus is there at the well when she comes at noon, and he asks her for a drink of water, and they get into a conversation, and he asks her to go call your husband to come here.

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And the woman said to Jesus, well, I don't have a husband. And Jesus said, yeah, you're right. That's actually true.

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When you write and say you don't have a husband, you have had five husbands. The one you have now is not actually your husband, so what you've said is true.

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And at this point, the light goes on, and the woman says, you know, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. You think? Right?

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Okay? So, and then she changes the subject altogether, and she gets to kind of like the big conflict that exists between Samaritans and Jews, and she says, our fathers, referring to her

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Samaritan fathers, they worshiped on this mountain, and the mountain that she was referring to was

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Mount Gerizim, where there was that ancient temple complex that had been set up by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, when the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom were torn apart, and they had set up a really awful, idolatrous worship center on the top of Mount Gerizim.

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So she says, our fathers, they worshiped on this mountain. But you say, you Jews say, that in Jerusalem, that is the place where people ought to worship.

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And Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the

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Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the

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Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here, Jesus said, when true worshipers will worship the

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Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship

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Him. God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

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And then the most amazing thing ever happens. Jesus actually speaks quite boldly about who

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He is. So the woman said to Jesus, well, I know that when Messiah, when He comes, He who is called the

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Christ, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

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Just straight out said it, okay, to a Samaritan woman, right? Now that's kind of a little bit of the context here.

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Now there's a little bit more to the context. And this requires us to do a little bit of rabbinic study in Torah, all right?

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And there are two chapters in the book of Leviticus that just make me break out in a rash, pun intended, in Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14.

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It is all about what the Mosaic Covenant requires regarding diagnosing leprosy.

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I am so glad that as a new covenant pastor, I do not have to look at people's skin rashes.

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I would be finding a different job, I can just tell you that right now. So 13 is all about the rules for a priest to look at and examine skin rashes to determine whether or not it's leprosy.

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And if it is leprosy, the person is declared to be unclean.

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And the Mosaic Covenant is very specific about what a leper must do.

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Once you are declared unclean, you're not welcome in town. You have to live in leper colonies, you got to live outside of the city gates.

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And if anyone is approaching your general vicinity, well, God required that you mask up.

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Yeah, long before COVID, there was social distancing. They had to mask up and they were required to put their hand over their mouth and say, unclean, unclean.

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That's what they were required to do, right? So you'll know, this is part of what our story is.

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But there's a little bit more to the story. And that is that Leviticus 14 anticipates that some lepers would actually be cleansed, that they would be healed.

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So not every leper is going to experience the death sentence of leprosy.

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And there is a whole set of rules for what somebody who is under the

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Mosaic Covenant is required to do, should they be healed of their leprosy.

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Let me read the details, Leviticus chapter 14, verse 1. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

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This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing.

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He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look.

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And if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live, clean birds, and cedar wood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.

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So one of these birds is going to die. Their blood's going to be used for something that kind of prefigures baptism.

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But cedar wood, that kind of harkens to the cross. Scarlet yarn reminds me of Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho.

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Remember, the one who hid the spies? And she wanted to live, and they told her that she had to put a scarlet cord outside of her window, and that when

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Israel sacked Jerusalem, that if all of her family members were in her house and she still had that cord out of her window, that scarlet yarn, they would all be saved, and they were.

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And then hyssop. Hmm, you know, it kind of reminds me of David's Psalm 51, where he says cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

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And hyssop shows up only a few times in Scripture, Psalm 51 being one of the places, but also the cross.

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So you'll know each of these little things kind of in our mind in some way or another connects us back to the gospel.

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So the priest then will command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.

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So fresh water, kill the bird over that, and then he shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop and then dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.

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And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease.

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I think this is a foreshadowing of baptism, right? But you're going to note something here, that when we look at rules like this in the

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Torah, these are the laws regarding the right worship of Yahweh. These are acts of faith done.

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These are done in faith, in obedience to God, and they are acts of worship. So there's a big rigmarole to go through if you are actually cleansed of your leprous disease.

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Then he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of his leprous disease. Seven times.

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You guys remember Naaman the leper, the commander of the armies of Syria in 2

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Kings 5? How many times did Elisha tell him to dip himself in the Jordan River?

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Seven times. All prefiguring baptism. Then he shall pronounce him clean, and then shall let the living bird go into the open field.

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And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent for seven days.

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And then on the seventh day he shall shave off all of his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows.

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That has got to look weird. Then he shall shave off all of his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and then he shall be clean.

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And on the eighth day, the day of the resurrection, the day of the new earth, he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb, a year old, without blemish, a grain offering of three -tenths of an ephah, a fine flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil.

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And then the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

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And the priest shall take one of the male lambs, offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh, and then he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering in the place of the sanctuary.

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For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest, it is most holy. The priest shall then take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

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And then the priest shall take some of the log of oil, pour it into the palm of his own left hand, dip his right finger in the oil that is in the left hand, sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh, and then some of the oil that remains in his hand, the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the top of the blood of the guilt offering, and the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed.

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Then the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh, the priest shall offer the sin offering to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness.

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And afterwards he shall kill the burnt offering, and the priest shall offer the burnt offering, and the grain offering on the altar, thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be cleansed.

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Now that's a lot of detail, right? This is, you'll note that the nine that didn't come back, this is what they were heading to Jerusalem to do, right?

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Keep that in mind, keep that in mind. So that's our context. Now that we have our context, let's take a look at the

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Gospel text itself. So on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.

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He's like in no man's land. He's not in Samaria, he's not in Galilee, he's kind of between the two.

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And I think that geography has something to do with kind of the big point that's going on here.

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And so Jesus entered a village, and he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance, which they were required to do.

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But rather than crying out, we are unclean, unclean, unclean, instead they lift up their voices and they cry out,

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Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. This is a version of what we prayed earlier today,

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Lord have mercy, right? That's a good prayer. And I think they're praying it to the exact right guy they should be praying this to.

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And so when Jesus saw them, he said to them, note he doesn't touch any of them, he says, go and show yourselves to the priests.

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Now one of them is a Samaritan, nine of them are Jews. Will the Samaritan be welcomed at the temple in Jerusalem?

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No, no, no, no, no, no, he will not be welcomed. He is in an awkward position at this point, right?

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Go show yourselves to the priests. And so you're gonna note here, despite the fact that he is not going to be welcomed there, he heads off with the remaining lepers who are all

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Jews. And then the miracle happens. As they went, they were cleansed.

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And you can just see what's going on here. Now, a little bit of a note. The nine who are heading to Jerusalem, they're still under the

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Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant has not been abrogated yet because Christ hasn't fulfilled it in its entirety.

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They are under the Mosaic Covenant every bit as much as Jesus is under the Mosaic Covenant. And you'll note that they are going to do exactly what

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Jesus told them to do, and they know full well from their training in the

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Torah as children that what is required of them when it relates to their worship and their thanksgiving as it comes to their healing as lepers.

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In fact, they may have spent a little time kind of rereading that section, praying about it.

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And you'll note this requires an atonement, a sin offering for their cleansing.

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This is where leprosy and sin come together, and you can see it in Scripture. But this, well, the

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Samaritan, he's stuck. He has nowhere to go. He can't continue.

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So where does he go? So one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed, he turned back.

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Praising God with a loud voice, he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

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Hmm. That's exactly where he should have gone.

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And you'll note at this point, things start to crack a little bit. And what I mean by this is that now we can see, just as Jesus had told that Samaritan woman at the well,

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God is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. And where they worship doesn't matter.

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In Jerusalem, Mount Gerizim, that doesn't matter. Where they worship, that is immaterial.

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Who they worship and who they worship and how they worship in spirit and in truth. Here a Samaritan is worshiping

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Christ in spirit and in truth, just as Christ has said.

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And that's the point. See salvation is from the Jews, for sure.

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But salvation is not limited to the Jews. And here salvation has come to the

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Samaritan. Not only did Jesus heal his physical leprosy, he also healed his spiritual leprosy.

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And this fellow now has come to his real high priest, Jesus. Because Jesus is our high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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But you'll note, it is required of him that an atonement offering be made for his sins, that he be forgiven.

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Well, it just so happens that Jesus is also his sacrifice. Jesus is also the atoning sacrifice who will go to the cross and bleed and die for this fellow's sins.

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And so you'll note, already by chapter 17, Jesus is now on his way to Jerusalem for the purpose of bleeding and dying for your sins and mine.

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So that you and I can be healed of our leprosy. And here,

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Jesus, ah, it's just absolutely beautiful. This Samaritan comes to Jesus who is truly his temple, who is also his atoning sacrifice, and his high priest.

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And so Jesus asks the question, we're not ten, cleansed, of course, that's true. Where are the nine?

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They're doing exactly what you told them to do, Jesus, and that Moses requires. But you'll note that in asking the question, this is not

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Jesus saying, well, when good things happen to you, you better be sure to give thanks and praise to God. Who wouldn't?

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Okay, that's not the point. The point is, is that you have a Samaritan giving praise to God.

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A Samaritan being the recipient of God's mercy, his grace, and his cleansing.

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And that's the big point here. And then Jesus says these words, And here again,

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I come back to the late Dr. Norman Nagel, who continued to describe faith as eyesight.

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Faith always has an object that it's looking at. And you'll note here that you can replace the object of his faith, you can replace the word faith with the object of his faith, and it doesn't change the meaning of the text at all.

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So the text says, So note, watch what it says.

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And indeed, he has. In fact, he's saved you. And that's the big point here.

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So brothers and sisters, your Jesus has healed you. He has made you well.

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He has taken your sin and your leprosy and your corruption in his own body, bled and died in your place.

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He was the one who went derelict as a result of your sin and mine in his own body on the cross, so that you and I can finally be made well.

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And he has today forgiven us and pardoned us of all of our sins. And he's promised us that when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, he will raise us again and our bodies will never again experience sin, experience the corruption of sin and its diseases and all the things that come along with our rebellion against God.

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Instead, we will be raised in perfect health, in a world without end, no suffering and no pain.

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And in the meantime, you'll note that our epistle text tells us that Christ has also given us something very important.

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He's given us his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in each of us who have been baptized into Christ.

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And the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us strength now to not gratify the desires of our corrupted, leprous, sinful flesh.

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And you'll note, your leprous, sinful flesh still desires sexual immorality and impurity and sensuality and idolatry and sorcery and enmity and strife and jealousy and fits of anger and rivalries and dissensions and divisions and envy and drunkenness and orgies.

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Yes, this is what your sinful flesh desires. But we have the Holy Spirit because Christ has sent him who gives us the power to not gratify the desires of our sinful flesh and to mortify our sinful passions so that in this life, rather than producing the symptoms of this leprous, sin disease, instead we bear the fruit of the

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Spirit, whom the Spirit now produces in us love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self -control.

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Those who belong to Christ, and you do, they have already now crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires, and you are not required to obey its desires.

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The Holy Spirit will give you the strength to say no. And so what a great thing we see here.

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We come to Jesus, leprous, crying out to him for mercy. He gives us mercy, cleanses us heart and soul, promises to cleanse us also in body when he returns.

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So rise, go your way in peace today. Your Jesus has made you well.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. We thank you for your support.

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