Cleansed From the Leprosy of Sin

The Gospel Reading From Matthew 8

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 Saint Matthew, the eighth chapter. When Jesus.

Came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leopard came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean.

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, I will come and I will heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.

For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, Go! And he goes. To another, Come! And he comes. And to my servant, Do this! And he does it. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And to the centurion Jesus said, Let it be done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed at that very moment. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. So, I'm going to note something here.

Christ Among Us in Human Flesh

Jesus is on the ground and the whole point of epiphany are texts that manifest, that reveal that God is now among us in human flesh. That's kind of the point. But here's the thing. Jesus coming to earth is not at all like when the president of the United States visits an area that has been destroyed by a natural disaster.

I just want to make that clear. This is not like if Trump visits the Carolinas or visits the fire victims in California. Because here's the deal. What exactly can the president do? Well, he can be empathetic.

He can promise resources. He can declare a state of emergency. But you'll note that beyond that, there's not much that a president or a head of state can offer. That being the case, Jesus is not like that.

You'll note that Jesus doesn't just come to earth and go, Oh, this place is a disaster. Look at what sin has done to people. And this is not what he does. Jesus is able to do something about it. And do something about it, he does.

And in so doing, he reveals that we are being visited by God himself, which is kind of the whole point. A good way to think about it is that in Psalm 103, it talks about the benefits of Yahweh. And the benefits, as they're listed, the entirety of the list, is very holistic.

You'll note that one of the things you'll see in our text today is that often in Scripture, and I'll show you this from our Old Testament text and extra Old Testament text as well as our Gospel text, that leprosy is oftentimes kind of a spiritual metaphor for our own sinful, fallen state.

You'll note that according to the Mosaic Covenant, those who are lepers, are they allowed to go to church? Nope. Are they allowed in the presence of God? Nope. They're not allowed in the presence of God at all.

The leprosy has separated them from the community, has separated them from the presence of God, and it's a lonely, miserable existence. And I would note, all of this is because of kind of the general category of man's fall into sin.

But we read in Psalm 103 these words, Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that was within me, bless His holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity.

By the way, the Hebrew word for all here means all, not just some. All. Every single one of them. Who forgives all of your iniquity, who heals all of your diseases. Now, a little bit of a note here. Do we still get sick as Christians?

You betcha. Do Christians die from illnesses and diseases and chronic things like that? Yes, they do. So, obviously, there's an eschatological thing here, but you're going to note, forgiving our iniquity, healing our diseases, the two just get smooshed together, right?

And that's kind of the point. Because in the healing that Christ does with the leper in our Gospel text today, did Jesus just merely heal him physically? How about Naaman? You know, the famous cut-off passage here.

It's like I wanted to keep reading, right? Get to the big punchline. The big punchline was that there's Naaman, and he says, Now I know that there is no other God in all of the earth except for in Israel.

Does Naaman come out of the waters of baptism? Yes, I said that correctly. Does he come out of the waters of baptism just merely cleansed of his leprosy? No, he comes out a full believer in the one true God.

So, the benefits of God. He forgives all of your iniquity. He heals all of your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit? What pit are you talking about there, Pastor? What pit is this referring to?

Let me be blunt. It's referring to the pit of hell. Are you saying that hell's a real thing? Yes, absolutely. Hell's a real thing, and you've got to note that Jesus is the one in all of Scripture who preaches the most about it.

A little bit of a note here. I don't know if you've noticed, I've got a burr in my saddle. I'm a little angry right now, and I keep going after the lunacy that's going on within the charismatic movement because I know for a fact it's destroying people's lives.

I, on social media yesterday afternoon, decided that I was going to take a shot at Charisma Magazine. They recently published a video interviewing a lady by the name of Katie Sousa claiming, and the headline on the video and the thumbnail is that she was chased by a werewolf.

So, my response to Charisma Magazine, I linked to the video, and I said to Charisma Magazine something to this effect, that this is lunacy and is as ridiculous as somebody claiming that men can menstruate, right?

Now, you say that on an open social media forum, guess what's going to happen? So, some guy came flying out of the Twitterverse right up in my face and proclaimed to me, well, trans men menstruate, to which I basically told him, listen, Jesus said in Matthew 19, do you not know that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?

And I basically said this, when you die and are dead for three days and rise from the grave, then and only then will I consider any of the stuff that you have to say. Until then, I think you've unbuckled yourself from reality.

Right? This is nonsense. But all of that being said, you're going to know this is one of the big consequences of our sin, that we have unbuckled ourselves from reality itself. And when we hear that there is a pit and that there is a hell, there are many, many Christians today in the visible church who sit there and go, I don't really like that.

That just seems like God is so mean. I mean, what kind of gospel is it if God is saving us from himself? Right? And this is how they talk, with their kind of smarmy attitude. It reminds me of that bishop lady who preached to Trump earlier in the week.

But all that being said, here's the deal. You don't want to believe in hell? Explain why Jesus preached about it and described its fires as eternal. It's not because merely the fire is eternal, because the occupants of hell are there for that same amount of time that the fire is running.

That's the point. That's what we're being saved from. And so one of the benefits of God is he has redeemed our lives from the pit of hell. And he goes on, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Now, a little bit of a note here. I was annoyed this week. My good friend Stephen Kozar put a video out. And in that video, he dug up a video that I put out about 10 years ago. And it was weird seeing myself from 10 years ago because I had color in my beard.

And my eyes didn't have bags under them. And you're just like, ugh! Visible reminder that my youth has not yet been renewed. A good way to think about it is this way. The wages of sin is death, right?

How many of you have ever had a job where your employer didn't pay you? Didn't pay you week after week, month after month, year after year until the day that you finally retired? That's not how it works.

When you get a job, they pay you on a regular basis. Wages come sometimes every month, sometimes every two weeks, sometimes bimonthly. This is how this all works. All that being said, have you ever stopped to think the wages of sin is death, which means we're getting paid a little bit of death on a regular basis?

Just look at your photos from 10 years ago. I'm just saying. Right? But note, one of the benefits of Yahweh is that He promises to renew our youth. Like that of the eagles. There is a day coming when I will once again have the body of an 18-year-old.

Forever. Amen. Right? So will you. It's going to be a lot easier to look at you guys and for you to look at me. I'm just saying. But all that being said, note here who is the one who does these things, who forgives iniquity, who heals diseases, who redeems your life from the pit.

It is God Himself. And that's the point of our text. God is on the ground. God is among us. And He's proving it by His works. So our gospel text begins with when Jesus came down from the mountain. What mountain is this?

This is the mountain that He preached His first sermon from. The sermon on the mount. Right? And so you'll note, Jesus' inaugural sermon, the first we ever hear of Jesus really preaching and teaching is in the chapters right before this one.

And Jesus begins with, blessed are the poor in spirit, the spiritually bankrupt, the losers who have not even a spiritual penny to their names, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You sit there, how is that possible?

Because God only forgives the ungodly. Salvation is a gift given only to those who are sinners, who recognize that they have nothing to offer God in exchange for their salvation. Later in the text that we read in 2 Kings 5, Naaman, when he comes back after being cleansed, he offers money for his healing.

And you know what Elisha says? I'm not going to take even a penny from you. Nothing. Salvation is free. So Jesus comes down from the mountain. A great crowd is following Him. And I love the way the Greek is.

Idu, lepros, behold a leper. It's like, oh no. Have you ever tried to pet a cat that didn't want to be pet? It's like a visible version of the matrix in real life. Try to pet a cat that doesn't want to be pet.

They get all contorted and stuff like that, and you can't touch that cat. I would note that when a leper appears among a great crowd, people are going to go, whoa. And the reason why is because he ain't supposed to be there.

Lepers are supposed to stay away from crowds and from the community. They're supposed to cover their lips and say, unclean. Leper coming through. Unclean. This guy didn't do that. Just behold, there's a leper.

And what does he do? The text says that he knelt before Jesus. It's a little bit more than that. The better way to put it is that he was on his face. On the ground, prostrating himself before Christ. And this guy leads the conversation.

Lord, if you will it, you can make me clean. That's a pretty good statement. That's a confession of faith. Isn't Yahweh the one who.

Heals our diseases? This guy.

Is on to Jesus. It's like he's saying, I know who you are. And I don't know, it doesn't matter why you're here. I'm going to make it so you're here for me. If you will, Lord, you can make me clean. And I would note, is that not the very same appeal that you and I make every divine service when we confess our sins together?

I confess that I am by nature sinful and unclean. Sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. Are we not saying this also? Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now here's where I want to do a little bit of work before we get to the resolve of this.

And I want you to see the connection between leprosy and sin because the scriptures really draw this out. If you remember in the Old Testament, there was a faithful king by the name of King Uzziah. He started really well.

But there was a big hiccup very shortly after. And it says this regarding King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles. All the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old and they made him king instead of his father Amaziah.

So Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem. That's a long time. 52 years. Starts reigning as a 16 year old. I don't even know if he had his driver's license before he was coronated, right?

So his mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah. You know the prophet Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

A young 16 year old man who fears the Lord, who's being instructed by the prophet Zechariah. Sign me up. Right? I'll take a monarch like that over some of the people we've had. But all of that being said the story continues and it takes a very dark turn.

It says that when he was strong Uzziah grew proud to his destruction. He was unfaithful to Yahweh his God and he entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of Yahweh who were men of valor.

I want you to understand what the problem here is. God has made it very clear in the Mosaic Covenant there is one tribe and one tribe only that is allowed to serve God in his presence in the temple and it isn't Judah.

It's Levi. And Uzziah is a direct descendant of David. Jesus is a direct descendant of Uzziah. He's of the tribe of Judah. So he's decided he doesn't like the restrictions that God has put in place. God is a God for everybody.

Why are we making distinctions like this? I love God as much as the Levites do. Shouldn't I be able to offer incense in God's temple like they do? I would note this is a very dangerous way of thinking.

This smells of Korah's rebellion a little bit. You can smell it. There's a little sulfur hint to it. You'll note there's a lot of people today who engage in the same kind of thinking. What's it matter if we have women be pastors or not?

I know many women that are much more educated and are better public speakers and more engaging than some men that I know and some pastors that I've listened to who are men. Why should we be restricting them from the pulpit?

Right? Didn't a woman preach that Jesus had risen from the grave to the apostles? So we need to just open up the pastoral office to everybody. Ignoring the clear passages that say that a pastor must be the husband of one wife.

That he must not be arrogant. He must be hospitable. And the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 makes it clear that women are to remain silent in the church. And this is a command of the Lord, Paul goes on to say, and anyone who doesn't recognize that should not be recognized.

You've got to note, same things going on with Uzziah, that same impetus. So he shows up unannounced in the temple in order to burn incense before the altar of God. And Azariah the priest, along with 80 others whom the scripture described as men of valor, they all stop him and go, no!

Why are they called men of valor? Because oftentimes in the ancient world, men who opposed monarchs found themselves unalived pretty quickly. They risked their own lives in saying no. So they withstood King Uzziah.

And they said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh. It is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. You go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong.

It will bring you no honor from Yahweh your God. So then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of Yahweh by the altar of incense.

And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead. And they rushed him out quickly. And he himself hurried to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.

And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. And being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of Yahweh. Wow. Sure, he can have his sins forgiven, but you are never allowed in the presence of God.

Not in this lifetime. Note, leprosy and sin, they kind of work together. Our sin separates us from God. Our sin has caused a breach. Christ himself had to fill that breach. And he does so by bleeding and dying for your sins and mine and reconciling us to God.

So many of us, we look at sin so lightly. You ever heard somebody say, well, it was just a.

White lie? It was a lie.

Satan's the father of lies. Right? We try to excuse or justify or diminish the wrong that we've done. I think about some of the scandals that have broken in the charismatic world, and people literally saying, well, sure, he did something inappropriate with a minor, but it was 20 years.

Ago. Right? Uzziah.

Was separated, excluded from the house of Yahweh. Could not be in God's presence for the rest of his days. A leper. Again, it's a sign of our own sin. But I would note, you see it in our Old Testament texts, and you really see it in our Gospel texts, that where God cleanses, he restores fellowship.

He grants faith. He gives mercy and grace. Think of the story of Naaman that we just read. This fellow is a pagan. He worships a god named Rimmon. Who's Rimmon? I haven't heard of him lately. Any houses of worship for Rimmon here in the United States?

I shouldn't say it out loud. Somebody will.

Think that's a good idea. Right? He.

Has, as the commander of the armies of Syria, made a raid on Israel. In that raid, he has captured a girl. We don't know her name. I would note, this girl has as much faith as the centurion in our Gospel text today.

And you're going to note, no hint of this girl having self-pity or whatever. She's been separated from her family. She's been made a slave, put to work in the house of Naaman, a leper, working for his wife.

And she just goes about her business, doing her stuff. She will never attend the synagogue again, never hear the word of the Lord again the rest of her life. She's hanging on to memories of God's word.

And there, as a slave, she says, oh, if only my master would go and see the prophet in Samaria, he would.

Heal him of his leprosy. What?

What an amazing faith this little girl has. And here's the thing. You'll note that in the world we live in, when you have a chronic illness, you're willing to do almost anything. Remember that fellow, the guy who was on taxi who had cancer, right?

And he died a young death. Andy Kaufman, right? Andy Kaufman was his name. And if you've seen the movie about his life, one of the things he did is he traveled to the Philippines to undergo psychic surgery in order to be healed of his cancer.

Well, psychic surgery isn't surgery at all. It's just a magic trick. It's a scam, and he realized that, and he died. You'll note that when you are desperate, you're willing to try anything. Naaman, who's a leper, who doesn't even know he's been excluded from the presence of God, there's hints of it in the text, hears this little girl and goes, okay, let's try that.

Goes to the guy in charge of Syria, the king of Syria, and the king of Syria says go, and he goes. And forget the political part, he eventually shows up at the house of the prophet Elisha. And Elisha doesn't come out.

Naaman's excluded from the presence of God. And if Elisha comes into his presence too close, Elisha's going to be unclean. That's kind of the point. The reason why he doesn't come out, that's a visible reminder.

Dude, you are outside. You are excluded. But God sends word through Elisha, you go and you wash, dip yourself seven times in the Jordan, and you'll be clean. Now he gets mad. Part of the reason why he gets mad is he thought that he was going to go see Benny Hinn.

And that Benny Hinn was going to come out and go, I command that the Holy Spirit blow his healing breath on you and you be held! No, he gets a messenger, some guy comes out and says, yeah, go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan and you'll be clean.

And he's angry. How stupid is that? Are not the Abana and Farpar rivers in Damascus greater than the Jordan? Yes, they are. The Jordan's a mud hole. Could I not wash in them and be cleansed? Nope, you can't.

Why not? Because God's word's waiting for you in the Jordan. And here's the thing, it's a picture of baptism. Every single one of us, when we were baptized, we went into that water a leper, just like Naaman.

And the text says that his servants had to prevail upon him because he was so angry. Have you noticed that it's the people at the bottom who really know what's going on on planet Earth? That the highfalutin leaders, the ambitious people, they are clueless about how the world really operates and they think everything's all about them.

So it's the servants, again, who come to the rescue. My father, this is a good word that he has spoken. Has he not said wash and be cleaned? So he goes and washes himself seven times in the Jordan. And he comes out not merely with his skin restored like that of a child, of an infant.

He comes out a believer in the one true God. I now know that there is no God in all the Earth except for in Israel. And he's able to finally have that conversation with Elisha, even offers him money for his healing because Elisha coming to talk to him then is a visible reminder, you have been restored and you are no longer excluded.

God has forgiven you. He's given you faith. You can be in his presence, in the presence of the man of God. That's the point. Is it not? And so in our gospel text today, again, reminder, it is God who pardons our iniquity.

It is God who heals our diseases. Jesus is on the ground. A leper comes and prostrates himself before Jesus. Lord, if you will it, you can make me clean. And what do you think Jesus is going to say to him?

Who let you in here into this crowd? You rotten sinner, you're not supposed to be here. You're going to make all these people unclean and I better distance myself from you. Isn't the whole point of Christ that he's come to seek and to save the lost?

To reconcile us to God? And so the text says Jesus stretched out his hand. Now, a little bit of a side note here. You may have noticed that from time to time I recycle sermon illustrations. Get over it.

Okay? Repetition is a good way of learning. The question is, if Jesus touches this leper, who's doing what here? Is Jesus going to be made unclean? I always picture it like a movie. So there's Jesus. The sky is flat on his face.

If you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus reaches out his hands and then the shot cuts to Peter and Peter goes, and John goes, right? And Andrew goes, no, Jesus, don't. Right? All in slow motion. The drama here is thick.

But Jesus says, I will it. Be clean.

We confessed our sins today. Jesus says, I will it. Be clean. Tell that Roseboro guy to tell you that you are forgiven. And I'm giving him the authority to say that. That all of your sins are forgiven.

I, Jesus, he says, I am the one that makes you clean. It is God who heals our diseases. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Note, no theological debate afterwards. Was Jesus made unclean when he touched the leper?

Well, the guy was cleansed. I mean, he was made clean so I guess Jesus, you know, no one's having that theological discussion. But next is the most important part. And it's a detail that's easy to kind of just gloss over or to not get the impact of.

Jesus says to him first, see that you say nothing to anyone. Jesus really doesn't need all of the attention from the signs and wonders that he's doing. It'll make his ministry unmanageable. But then what follows next is the most glorious bit of all.

There is a commandment in the Mosaic Covenant. And the commandment is that if you are healed of leprosy, you have to offer a particular gift in the temple. And on top of that, you have to actually present yourself to a priest in the temple who's then going to examine your skin to determine whether or not you have leprosy or not.

And so here's what Jesus does. He sends him to the very presence of God. You go and you show yourself to the priest. I'm sending you back. You're no longer excluded. God has had mercy on you. You're in.

And he says you go and show yourself to the priest, which he's required to do. Offer the gift that Moses commanded for the proof for a proof to them. And this guy, he's all the way up in the northern part of Galilee.

Alright? Sea of Galilee. Northwest quadrant. That's where he's at. And Jesus says, I want you to go to the temple and present yourself to the priest. This is going to take him a few days. Now, here's the thing.

Have you noticed that in the gospels, we don't get a lot of responses of those who are healed. The focus is really on Christ. But I'm going to ask you this. If you have been excluded from God's presence, forbidden from living in town, relegated to a leper colony, and lepers are so much fun to hang out with, right?

And you have lived in such a way that you have tangibly felt in your life experience what it means to be excluded, to be despised, to be diminished, to be an object of ridicule and scorn, especially in light of the Pharisees who would point to lepers and say, you see what happens when you sin?

Right? Do you.

Think this guy just went, huh, that's cool that Jesus healed me. I got a lunch appointment at one. No, I bet you he was losing his mind. He's not Norwegian, so there was definitely some dancing going on here, right?

That's kind of the point. And now he's got a multi-day journey back to Jerusalem, to the very temple of God and into God's presence. And he is going with joy. I'm in. Christ has sent me here. I'm no longer excluded.

That's the point. God pardons our iniquities. He heals our diseases. He will restore our youth like that of the eagles. And our sin that has separated us from God, Christ has taken it upon himself. I would note this.

The leper didn't make Jesus unclean. That was for a later time. Because it says of Christ that God took all of our sin, your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world, and God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He suffered in your place and mine. God made him unclean with the filth of our sin so that we can be cleansed.

That's the point. So, brothers.

And sisters, let us praise the one, the God who has visited us. There is no other God than this one. The one who cleanses lepers and forgives sins and sends and restores people into the very presence of God that they have been excluded from from their leprous, sinful condition.

From your leprous, sinful condition. You'll note that today we recognize the words of Christ where two or more are gathered. Christ is present. He is present today. He is present here now. You are in his presence.

And you will be forevermore. Never excluded because Jesus has made you clean. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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