There's a New Temple in Town

The Gospel Reading and the Healing of the Ten Lepers

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

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

When he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

He fell on his face at Jesus's feet giving him thanks. Now, he was a Samaritan. When Jesus answered, we're not ten cleansed. Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except for this foreigner?

And he said to them, rise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. In the name of Jesus. All right, I told you last week that this text today and last week's text and I'll even throw in next week's text as well.

So last week today and next week. These are easy texts to mess up. In fact, so easy to mess up. It's it's kind of frightening. And you know, you've messed it up. If the conclusion is if you don't give thanks to Jesus for his gifts, then you're not truly a Christian.

It's kind of like when I was growing up, a little bit of a confession. My parents took me trick-or-treating at Halloween time. Now, I know that in church circles that could be like, well, understand I was a kid.

So here's what would happen. We'd go trick-or-treating, go door to door and I'd knock on a door and there I am in my Jimmy Carter costume and people think, oh, that's scary. You know, anyway, so there I was and with my little pillowcase held out and somebody would throw a Snickers bar in or maybe, you know, Reese's.

Always loved the Reese's. Gotta love the Reese's. All right. So they throw the Reese's in and then I would walk away and my mom would say, you young man, you march back there and you say, thank you. Thank you.

And so here's the idea. You messed this text up when the emphasis is on you had better start giving thanks or else. It's not really what's going on in this text and to demonstrate this, we're going to have to do a little bit of work.

The idea here is is that thanksgiving and praise springs from the fact that we are forgiven, that we are healed. We don't praise in order to be forgiven and if you flip everything, you've missed the whole point altogether.

In fact, there's something else going on in this text that is worth noting that will actually help us, that will build our faith and magnify Christ and our automatic response will be praise and thanksgiving.

In order to do this, we're going to have to pick up a little bit of data from other stories in the Bible. I know that can be a little bit tedious, but work with me here. So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through a couple of texts, some in the Old Testament, some in the New Testament, pick up a little bit of data, go back into our old, into our gospel text and then read it with what we've learned from what scripture says and then by doing so, all of a sudden the story is going to pop and you're going to see what's really going on here.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well

So we're going to look first at the Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 1 through 26. And yeah, I'm going to read this out. If you'd like to follow along in your pew Bible, that would be great. Here's the story of Jesus traveling through Samaria, which for a Jew in Jesus' time is like unheard of.

So here's the story. When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

He had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour. Think of it this way. It's the heat of the day. This is not the normal time when people go to gather water. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? And note what it says here. For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. You want to talk about racial segregation?

It was alive and well in Jesus's day. Jews and Samaritans did not go to grade school together. They didn't go to synagogue together. They were totally separate. In fact, if they had drinking fountains, I'm pretty sure there would be fountains for Samaritans and fountains for Jews.

Keep that in mind. So Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with.

The well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. Notice she's kind of boasting about the patriarchs in her neck of the woods in the ancient past, right?

That's all kind of playing into this. As does his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

Jesus said to her, go call your husband and have him come here. The woman answered, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you're right. You're right when you say I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.

He's your shack up, honey. So you have said, what you have said is true. And the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. And now note what happens next. Our fathers, talking about the Samaritans, worshipped on this mountain pointing to Mount Gerizim.

But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. So by the appeal to our fathers, the woman is expressing the Samaritan conviction at that time that Mount Gerizim in Samaria had a priority and a legitimacy over Jerusalem and Mount Zion as the place of worship.

According to Josephus, the Samaritans had built a temple in the 4th century BC on Mount Gerizim. And so here's what you need to know. Samaria is old northern kingdom. The Jews there had intermarried with pagans and their worship had become corrupted.

And so they didn't go to Jerusalem to the temple to offer sacrifices and worship there as they were instructed by the Mosaic Covenant. Instead, they came up with a great idea. Let's build our own temple.

They built one on Mount Gerizim. And so this woman is kind of telling us what's going on here. This actually will play into our gospel text. So Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You will worship, you worship what you do not know. So Jesus is saying, listen, your theology is not good. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and note these words, the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

Now,.

Note. 400 year long debate between Samaritans and Jews. Which mountain do you worship on? Do you go to Jerusalem, or do you go to Mount Gerizim? Which do you go to? And so the Samaritans always say here, the Jews always say there.

Jesus's solution is neither. Neither, and there's a very specific reason for that. But let's return to our gospel text and see how this information from the other portions of the Bible help us understand what is going on.

Leviticus, Cleansing, and the Typology of Baptism

Luke 17 verse 11, I'll be reading through my translation, and here's what it says. It came about during Jesus's proceeding to Jerusalem. Remember, Jesus is on his way to bleed and die for our sins. That he was going through, and I'm gonna kind of paraphrase this a little bit, no man's land between Samaria and Galilee.

So Jesus is literally riding the border between Samaria and Galilee, and that little geographical reference helps us get what's going on. He's neither there nor there. He's right in the middle between the two, no man's land.

He's in like neither place. That plays into this. Next text, next verse, and while he was entering a certain village, ten leprous men met him who stood at a distance. Why are they standing at a distance?

Well, they have leprosy, and here's what Leviticus 13 verses 45 and 46 tell us is required regarding those who have leprosy. The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes, let the hair of his head hang loose, he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, watch how this works,.

Unclean, unclean,.

And he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. So according to the Mosaic law, those who have leprosy are not just excommunicated from the synagogue.

They're excommunicated from society. Having leprosy then is more than a death sentence. You know, we've all seen those movies about zombies, you know, the walking dead. That's not quite strong enough.

Having leprosy is seen as having a curse from God, and so those with leprosy, they're not the walking dead. They are the walking damned. You have to think about it in that sense. So they are lifting up their voice and listen to their prayer.

Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Have mercy. Now, they're not asking for healing. They're asking for mercy. This is much, much more than just physical healing that they are asking for. These are the walking damned and they're asking for mercy.

Now, those of you familiar with the historic liturgy, know that in the historic liturgy, there's a portion of the liturgy called the Kyrie. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise, Lord, have mercy on us.

The Kyrie goes all the way, way, way back, and what the Kyrie has done is taken this prayer of these ten lepers and incorporated into the liturgy. It's a wonderful piece of the liturgy. I should reintroduce us to that at some time.

Next verse. So having seen them, Jesus said to them,.

Go.

Show yourselves to the priests. Now, notice Jesus doesn't say be healed. He says go show yourselves to the priests. Now, let's spend a little bit of time in the Old Testament here because this little bit of data is so vital.

Leviticus chapter 14. I'm going to start in verse 1. We're going to take a look at the opening portion of Leviticus 14, and then we'll note what's in the rest of the chapter. Here's what it says starting in verse 1 in Leviticus 14.

Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, this shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. So there's a specific set of laws. If someone's got leprosy and the Lord heals them and they're cleansed, here's what has to happen.

He shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of the leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed, watch this, two live clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.

This is interesting. So as we walk through this, the birds, one of them is going to become a sacrifice and its blood is going to be mixed with water. And we'll see that. But notice, wood, scarlet yarn, hyssop.

All of these things are pointing to Christ and his work for us. Christ crucified on the wood of the cross. The scarlet yarn harkens back. In fact, here it's prophetically looking forward to that scarlet thread in Rahab the prostitute's window.

And then the hyssop, hyssop pointing back to the day when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt when he sent the destroyer to destroy the first, to kill the firstborn in all of Egypt. What did the children of Israel do?

They took the blood of the Passover lamb and used hyssop to spread the blood over the door. So note what's going on here and watch its parallel to baptism. So the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.

He shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water and then he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease.

Does that sound like some kind of forerunner for baptism?

It should.

Because we are made clean through the washing of water and the word and you can even say the water and the blood of Christ mixed together makes us clean before God. And so he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who's to be cleansed of the leprous disease.

Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. It's fascinating this kind of parallels the day of atonement where the scapegoat and the sacrificial animal one sacrifice the other is let go.

Fascinating how this all works. And then he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all of his hair and bathe himself in water. So the next time you see a bald person here at church, just think maybe he was once a leper.

I'm joking. I'm joking. All right, so you get the idea of what's going on here. There is a.

Real.

Sacrifice and real blood is mixed in real water and there's wood and the scarlet yarn and hyssop. All of this harkens typologically to what Christ has done for us. Now, it's important to note also that there is an atoning sacrifice that has to also be given.

And the rest of the chapter in Leviticus 14 gives us the explanation as to how that sacrifice, what it's supposed to be, and it even gives an alternative sacrifice to the leprous one who is poverty stricken and cannot afford, cannot afford a more expensive animal for a sacrifice of atonement.

So note here, this is exactly now what Jesus is pointing these ten lepers to do. He says to them, go present yourself to the priests. So you got to go to Jerusalem and this is what needs to be done. But keep this in mind.

The.

Temple in Jerusalem isn't the important thing. The temple in Jerusalem, always in type and shadow, points to the real thing. The real thing is Jesus. So keep this in mind. So here's the rub. Go present yourself to the priests.

One of these leprous fellows is a Samaritan. Okay, off he goes. Now there's a little bit of a conflict. And the conflict is this. Knowing everything we know, which temple is this Samaritan supposed to go and present himself in?

The one in Jerusalem? Or is he supposed to go and present himself at Mount Gerizim? If he goes to Jerusalem, that will cause an international incident. And that is not an overstatement or hyperbole. He would not be welcome there.

So should he go and present himself at the temple in Mount Gerizim? Well, that's like asking, you know, whether or not you should pay for your groceries with counterfeit $20 bills. That ain't gonna work either.

So which temple should this Samaritan present himself in? Let's leave that unanswered for a moment. Let's go back to our text. So it came about during their going that they were cleansed. They're cleansed.

All ten of these men head out to the temple without being healed and in faith trusting Jesus without any actual promise on his part that he would heal them. Kind of a tacit one, right? And you know, they've asked for mercy.

Now Christ's cleansing and saving power miraculously cleanses all of them. Now, here's kind of an important next piece of this. We know that the Samaritan comes back. Did the other nine who actually went to the temple to present themselves to the priest, were they disobeying Jesus or obeying him?

They're obeying him. So Jesus can't be faulting them for, well, their obedience to his command. Go and present yourself to the priests. So keep that in mind. We then continue. One of them, having seen that he was healed, returned glorifying God with a loud voice.

He fell on his face at Jesus's feet while giving thanks to him and he was a Samaritan. Wonderful. On his face means that he is actually worshiping Christ. That's what's going on here. He's on his face worshiping Jesus.

Now, to help us understand the significance of what is going on here, let's take a look at another cross-reference and get a data point. John chapter 2, starting at verse 13. Here's what it says. The Passover of the Jews was at hand.

Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there making a whip of cords. He drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen.

That had to be quite the sight. He poured out all the coins on the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold pigeons, take these away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade.

His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. So immediately the Jews come up with, you know, it's like, who is this guy and how dare you do this? By what authority are you doing this?

So here's what they do. The Jews said to Jesus, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you're going to raise it up in three days?

But the temple he was speaking about was the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Now the story gets interesting. This despised and outcast Samaritan and now former leper by his actions is letting the cat out of the bag. He did not present himself in the temple in Jerusalem, nor did he present himself in the temple on Mount Gerizim.

Instead he presents himself to the true temple of God. The temple to whom the one in Jerusalem always pointed. You see, he's obeying Jesus. Go present yourself to the priests in the temple. But then you sit there and go, but wait a second.

Jesus said to go present himself to the priests. Well, Hebrews 9 comes into play then here. Hebrews 9 verse 11. When Christ appeared as the high priest of good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

And so keep in mind, Jesus is not only the temple, he is our great high priest. But you sit there and go, but Leviticus 14 requires an atoning sacrifice, does it not? Well, indeed it does. And Hebrews 10 helps us with that.

Starting at verse 1. For since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, they would not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers have been, have once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure.

So then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. So notice here, the law requires,.

Well,.

Requires he presents himself to the priests in the temple, and that there's an atoning sacrifice. And here's the best part of it. Jesus is all three of those things. He is all three.

Hmm.

Christ as Temple, Priest, and Sacrifice

So then the story continues. So Jesus responded and said, we're not ten cleansed. Where are the other nine? They are doing exactly what Jesus said to do. Weren't they? Well, none having found returned to give glory to God except for this foreigner.

So here's where the scandalous part of this comes in. The Samaritan, by going to the true temple, and the true temple is Jesus, gave glory to God for the great cleansing and salvation, and the Samaritan ends up worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

And he ends up worshiping at the true temple, where he had presented himself, not to any ordinary priest, but to Jesus, who is our great high priest. Jesus accepts his worship in front of all who are standing there, including the Pharisees.

Just read one verse later, after our pericope, and you'll see the Pharisees were there. And by doing this, Jesus signals, through the faith and worship of the Samaritan, that there is now a new temple in town.

And he is that temple. And I want you to think about it this way. For the first time in more than 400 years, a Samaritan worshiped God in exactly the right place, while the Jews worshiped Jesus in the wrong place.

And see, Jesus's chastisement is really kind of along these lines. I told you guys to go present yourself to the priest in the temple. I'm the priest. I'm the temple. The Samaritan gets it right. The other guys miss it.

You see, type and shadow has now given way to reality. Unless we think that the Samaritan earned or maintained his salvation by his worship, which was never the point, Jesus sends him away with these words.

Arise and go. Your faith has saved you. That's what the Greek says. Your faith has saved you. And remember, faith always has an object. The object of his faith is Christ. It's Jesus. And it's scandalous now when you think about this.

There's Jesus in no man's land between Samaria and Israel. Which is it going to be? Answer, neither. It's not Jerusalem. It's not Mount Gerizim. It's Jesus. That's the answer. And remember that the cleansing that is required for the leper is blood and water with the scarlet thread and the wood.

All of that points to our baptism. And so you can think of it this way. Leprosy in the Old Testament and here in this story typologically points to the condition we find ourselves in. Remember, it's the walking damned.

You and I were all born dead in trespasses and sins. Leprous with sin. Absolutely vile and unclean. And we were cleansed by Christ there or wherever you were baptized with the washing of water and the Word and the blood of Christ.

He has made you clean. And what is our response to such an amazing mercy shown to us by God?

You.

Cannot help but thank and praise Him that He has forgiven somebody as vile and damnable as yourself and as myself.

You see,.

That leper, the object of his faith was Jesus. And we can say absolutely that Jesus saved him, healed him, restored him. No longer was he required to be alone outside the camp shouting unclean. No longer was he part of the walking damned.

Instead, just like Naaman in the Old Testament, his skin was made new like a newborn baby's and he no longer had to stand at a distance and cry out for Jesus to have mercy on him. Instead, he now worships Jesus on his face at Jesus's feet as close as you can get.

And we too, born dead in trespasses and sins alone in the world, outside the kingdom of God and languishing under the symptoms of our vile uncleanness, in our wickedness, Christ now comes to us and He comes near and He has heard our pleas for mercy.

We too have been cleansed and now we too worship Jesus, our great High Priest, our temple, our priest, our sacrifice. And we don't worship Him in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim. We worship Him wherever we are here today at Kongsvinger in spirit and in truth.

So when you leave here today, leave with these words of Jesus ringing in your ears. Arise, go in peace. Your Jesus has saved you. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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And again, that address is Kongsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota.

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